Pastor Jody Jones and his family
Dear
Church Family;
Wow,
how time flies when you’re having fun. You
know, the Bible never says you can’t have fun being a
Christian. 2009 has been a fun year in
the life of Robertson Avenue Baptist Church. We
have seen many come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior and many
more come and join our body to work and to do the will of God. Over the course of this past year God has
given us new friends, new connections and new life in our community. I am excited about all that God led us to do
in 2009 and am more excited about 2010.
Sticking
to the theme of Acts 1:8, I feel we have established an ongoing work in
our
Jerusalem (Copperas Cove) with our Mission
Cove events. These have proven to be
a blessing from God to our community and to our church and we will
continue
that effort in 2010. Now as we continue
according to that verse, we will seek to possibly go somewhere in our
own state
(our Judea) to be a part of a work of God’s Holy Spirit. God has already opened some doors for this to
happen and for the possibility of going to another country to be a part
of what
God is doing there. Its all in His
timing and that is something I want us all to pray about this New Year.
As we
have grown closer together over the past year we have had the
opportunity to
get to know each other more, which creates accountability.
Holding each other accountable is biblical
and we need this more than ever in our church and in our time. As we move forward in ministry seeking to
affectively reach out to the lost, we must remember that times are
changing and
that the makeup of our church is changing as well.
This means we may have to adjust our thoughts
and ways from the way we have always done it, to Paul’s theme in
1 Corinthians
9:22 of “becoming all things to all men.” In v. 23 Paul says, “I did
this for the Sake of the Gospel, so that I might share in its
blessing.” This by no means will
ever or should ever compromise the Message of the Gospel or the
Inerrant Word
of God. It just means we must be
flexible with what God is doing and join in the work that He is
establishing. We have shared in the
blessing of God this year and if we as a church will seek Him and Him
alone, Fully Relying on God and being
dependent solely upon Him, He will take our church body to new places,
Spiritually and Physically. That will be
our theme for 2010 (Fully Relying on God). That
being said, we will have to let go of our plans, our ways, our
thoughts and let God have His way with us. AS
your pastor I want you to hold me accountable to this and to
God’s
word and I will do the same for you. In
giving God this kind of freedom there is not telling what He will do
with us
this new year.
You
know, David in all His triumphs and trials in life, never stopped Relying on God. The bible
says that he was a man after Gods
own heart. He lived his life to please
his Heavenly Father. Will you?
Going
back to 1 Corinthians 9 beginning in vs. 24 it says, “Do
you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets
the prize? Run in such a way as to get
the prize. 25 Everyone
who competes in the games goes into
strict training. They do it to get a
crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last
forever. 26 Therefore
I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight
like a man beating the air. 27 No, I beat by body and
make it my slave so
that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified
for the
prize.” NIV
This
will be our challenge for 2010 as we seek to go beyond the standard, as
we seek
to get out of our comfort zone, as we seek to Let Go of things we like
to hand
on to most and lay it all aside for Him, we must prepare and train for
this
lifetime of service so that we will not be disqualified, focusing on
the Prize
that will last forever. Keep praying for
the leadership of our church as we seek to better serve you as the
church and
to better serve King Jesus!
May
God bless you in 2010 as we serve together for the Glory of the Lord.
All
Hail King Jesus!
Pastor
Jody Jones,
Robertson
Avenue Baptist Church