Dear church family,

We ask that you pray to our Father and Lord regarding our faithfulness in continuing to give financially as we have been given. For those of you who are continuing to give, thanks for your faithfulness in giving to your Lord while we are in this very difficult time. Would those of you who have not yet given during this time, please consider giving to the Lord’s Kingdom through your church, NABC?

God has allowed us to go through such a trying time as this with the COVID-19 virus. We have been told not to gather together physically as a body, for the health of not only our people but all those they might run into. We are trying to be considerate to all people and protective of those who are most vulnerable. Thank God and continue to pray for His guidance as we steer through these unparalleled times.

It looks like because of the President’s directive that we will not meet at least until the first of May. We are working on a special Easter service for all who will be online with us. Pray for us as we finalize all the preparations. For special encouragement, I hope you are watching the Guidepost Daily Devotions each day.

Don’t hesitate to let us know if there are any needs you have that we can meet. We love you and pray for you all.

Your shepherds of the flock at NABC

To Our Church Family at NABC,

We praise our great God of love and mercy for His enduring care over His children. Psalm 20:7, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.”

While our medical professionals and government officials do all they can to control or treat the coronavirus COVID-19, we thank them for all they are doing on our behalf and while we wait we will continue to pray and believe in the God of the Bible and trust in Him for He is sovereign over all, He is all powerful and nothing has caught Him by surprise. Let us trust in God. Proverbs 3:5-6, 5“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”

We are citizens of the USA and our President has asked that groups of more than 10 not meet together. Because of that request, the worship and activities of NABC will be suspended until Sunday, April 5. For a little over 2 weeks there will be NO activities at our church facilities. We are encouraging you to join us for the live streamed worship services each Sunday, March 22 and 29 that can be seen on NABC Facebook and on our website www.northandersonbaptist.com. Worship at home with us! We look forward to our first worship back together on April 5, when we will have our regularly scheduled Sunday School and Worship.

We have always been so thankful for your faithful giving to the Lord’s work here at NABC and around the world, that we are asking that you keep it up for these next two Sundays by giving in one of four ways:

1. Bring your offerings to the church office during office hours of M-Th. 8:30 am – 4:30 pm.

2. Drop through the mail slot on the office door 24/7.

3. Mail your contributions to North Anderson Baptist Church, PO Box 793, Anderson, SC 29622.

4. Give electronically on our website: www.northandersonbaptist.com (upper right side of web page “On-line Giving”) or just giving.nabc.church

We know that you will continue to give faithfully to the Lord’s work.

We pray that while you may not be able to physically worship together at “church,” YOU are the church and our Savior and Lord desires for us to still be His hands and feet. Because of His mercy and love to us, we should reach out at this time and care like Christ would for those who are in need. Seek out those who may need your love and help others who can’t help themselves. You may need to take someone to get food or even pay for a person’s groceries who may be having financial problems. If someone needs to go to the doctor and is afraid to get out by themself, you can lend a hand by taking them. If there are difficulties in our church family our deacons and ministers stand ready to help in any way possible. Unfortunately the hospitals are not allowing visitors and the nursing and assisted living facilities are on basic lock down and we can’t visit. But, if there is a need with any of our members you may call me and I will do what it takes to care and minister as Christ would. Please call the pastor at 933-6200 and I will respond as quickly as possible.

I want to thank you for your support. Many of our leaders here at NABC helped to make these decisions. We are a family and I am grateful to each of them for their courageous leadership. We are all concerned for the health and welfare of all our members but particularly our Senior Adults.

I leave you with this thought, let’s count our blessings and thank God for His past faithfulness and His present care to His children. He will not leave us nor forsake us. Isaiah 26:3-4 says, 3 “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. 4 Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal.”

I love and pray for God’s protection over each of you,

Pastor Bill

It looks like we will go into February with a chill! It has been so cold lately it must be because of Global Warming???

During the months to come, I have been led to preach on the “Home.” You have already heard, if you have been in the worship services, that I want to emphasize our families becoming closer to the Lord Jesus Christ by discipling our children in the Lord. That is more than bringing them to church and going on special retreats; it is where we, the parents, are the primary disciplers of our own children in our own home. God gave them to us and we are responsible to God for teaching them about who He is and what He desires in their lives that will help them to walk humbly with God. Make no mistake, we the church, will assist you the parents in doing our part here by being faithful to teach the truth from the Word of God to all of the children who attend.

The Word is faithful to guide us in not only growing as a family in Christ but to help each of us to be better disciples of Christ ourselves. Some of us need someone to disciple us and help us to grow in Christ, others of us need to disciple those who are seeking to grow in their relationship with Jesus. We will call these “Life Groups.” A group may have just a few people or they may have many depending upon the group and the leadership. Are these new “Life Groups” like our Small Groups now? No, we hope they will be more intimate and intentional in doing life together and would last longer than 6 to 12 weeks. We hope these Life Groups will begin to help one another grow into mature disciples in Christ Jesus. Please read Ephesians 4:12-16.

December brought to us the Lottie Moon Offering and an emphasis on missions. Of course, we at NABC have emphasized missions all year long, not just during December but also when Annie Armstrong Offering comes around or when Janie Chapman Offering time comes. We have talked about the mission to Baltimore and supporting Lina Fonseca and Meryl and Austin O’Donald, as well as our regular support of the mission trips to Kentucky. Plus, we have talked about helping Orrville Baptist in their street ministry. Let us now decide that it is time to prioritize in our own life, DOING missions. Jesus said in several different ways in the Scriptures to go and tell! One of the favorite ones is Matthew 28:16-20, 16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

In verses 16-17 I see something that is going on in churches all around. Eleven went to the mountain with Jesus and they worshiped Him, “but some doubted. ”What did they doubt? Could it be that they doubted that He was the Christ, the resurrected One, or that they would follow Him to do His bidding? I don’t really know what they doubted but it seems to me from the rest of the scripture that comes after the Gospels that the disciples, all of them, took seriously the command to Go and TELL! Are you doubting what Jesus said? Have you taken seriously the command of our Lord Jesus Christ to GO and TELL? If you say you have, then what are you doing about it, personally? Please don’t say that I am giving money so others can go and share, because that is not you personally going and telling! Who are you telling and where are you going? This year, 2019, will you make a really solid commitment to DO what your Savior and LORD has told you and every Christian to do? Go to those around you and to the near-est area and then to the utter most parts of the world, telling people that Jesus died on the cross and then was buried and finally He arose from the dead to live forever. Telling them He did this to save all of mankind from their sin and to give them eternal life, including the people to whom you are going. Will you make that commitment public in a worship service right away? I will wait for you at the front of the sanctuary to rejoice with you in obeying the Lord and Savior of yours and my life.

Cooperation is a special word to Southern Baptists. We have cooperated throughout the years with national, state organizations and local churches through our special offerings for missions, such as Lottie Moon, Annie Armstrong and Janie Chapman. Our churches also give to the Cooperative Program of the Southern Baptist Convention which sends thousands of missionaries throughout the world to share the Gospel, and another thing the CP does is to help educate ministers of all kinds, and missionaries too, through our seminaries.

We as believers cooperate in so many areas of ministry in our associations, state and our national organization. North Anderson would not be effective in our ministry if we were not cooperating together as believers to reach the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Cooperation is a great word and through this act of individuals and organizations and churches, God can do miraculous things for His kingdom.

I want to call your attention to one of those events whereby we as an association cooper-ate with one another. Our Annual Associational Meeting, held at Concord Baptist Church, will meet on Sunday evening, October 21, 2018.A meal will be served at 4:45 pm ($5) with precession music will be at 5:45 pm. Our meeting begins at 6 pm with worship and mission reports for the association as well as a special guest speaker. The churches of our association generally take their Sunday night service and move them to the church where the meeting is being held. NABC will cooperate with the association and move our Sunday night service on October 21st to Concord Baptist.Please make every effort to be there. Child care will be available and children and youth pro-grams are scheduled too. This is an critical time to work together for the cause of Christ.

Pastor Bill

Between August and September, we have anniversaries of serving North Anderson Baptist Church: Kiley, 2 years, Dennis, 9 years and Diana, 17 years. We are a fortunate church family to have these special folks with us as servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not many churches can claim that kind of servant leadership. I want to personally thank each of them for all they do for the Lord Jesus and for this church family. We would not be what we are today without them all. Thank you from a grateful pastor.

Since discipleship is one of the most important things in the Christian life let me remind you that there are great opportunities for each of us to grow in our Christian faith and become more like Christ. We start with our Bible Study on Sunday morning at 9:15 within the circle of friends and with teachers who love and cherish the opportunity to teach and lead others in Bible study. On Wednesday evenings at 6:30 pm we faithfully study the Scriptures during the Prayer Meeting time in the sanctuary and then the Young Adults are being led in studying relevant material to their lives by Jerry Wilson. And, starting in September and written about in Dennis’ article, our new Small Groups, at 6 pm, which draw us closer in our walk with the Lord. There is a place for each of us and many are taking the advantage of going to each one they possibly can to seek the Lord with all their hearts. Starting the first Sunday in October, the 7th and going to the end of the month, every Sunday there will be New Member and Guest Orientation classes. If you have not yet attended one of these classes, either as a guest or a member of the church, you are truly welcome to
come. It will be very informative and all are welcome. We meet during the Sunday School hour, 9:15 am in the classroom across from the Nursery.

You are loved by this pastor, Bill

From Your Pastor…
August is the new beginning…? What does that mean? It used to be when I was a child and many of you too, we did not start school until after Labor Day. Today that is not so. Public schools, as well as private and home schools all start in the month of August. The vacation time for the family has been cut short and school starts again. Good or Bad? I don’t know, but I know that the family needs time together and sometimes this changes things. I talked to a teenager this week who said that she was already wanting to go back to school. That wasn’t me when I was her age!!!

So, what does August mean to you? Changes come again when the schedules start to be stricter and time with the children might be a little less. How about the church, what is the difference for us? There are programs starting back up and the youth ministry have new additions of those who are coming into middle school. There is still a RA camp that is to come for boys and their fathers or just boys, if that is the case. It is a great time together and the ones who have gone to Camp McCall have truly enjoyed the time with the staff and other campers.

I am going to finish up the preaching of the Sermon on the Mount in the middle of August and start a new series called “Freedom in Christ” from the Book of Galatians. Please pray for me as I preach through this important book in the Bible.
24 “The LORD bless you and keep you; 25 the LORD make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26 the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.”
(Numbers 6:24-26)

Pastor Bill

From Your Pastor…
To Our church family,
Another year has passed since Lynda and I came here to be a part of this great church and to serve the Lord through serving each of you. 27 years seems to be a long time; really it is, I was 43 when I came and of course Lynda was just a young girl. Our time has been so sweet and we have sought to love and work with each of you while we walk together with the Lord. Thanks for these years together. Seeking to fulfill the mission of God here at NABC calls us to be involved in so many wonderful ministries. There is nothing like Sunday School when it comes to learning and fellowshipping with brothers and sisters in Christ. It is the best place to introduce friends and others to the church for there they will be introduced to Christ as Lord, find Godly teaching and friendship worth investing in. Many of the newer churches do not have these kinds of classes; I think they miss out on so much. Of course, the soul of the church is our worship services where the Lord God Almighty is worshiped and adored through prayer, music, giving of tithes and offerings, fellowship and hearing the spoken word from the Bible. This is such a loving and caring fellowship that those who have chosen to become involved know that it changes lives. We have recently seen someone from each of the following groups, children, youth or adults make significant decisions. Lives are being changed and families strengthened. Go to others around you and share what Jesus has done in your life, giving them the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, that changes lives. Then encourage them by saying, “Come with me to church and see what great things God is doing!” Share the love God has given to you with those around you.
Blessings to you all,

Bill

March 12 devotion from Oswald Chambers is entitled “Total Surrender.” He uses Mark 10:28 as his scripture, “Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!” The surrender to Christ is not for our personal gain but as Mark 10:29 says in part, “for me and the gospel.” The author would have us to understand that our surrender is for the sake of Christ and the 

Gospel not for our own purposes that might make us good people of more “righteous and holy.” Chambers says, “Genuine total surrender is a person sovereign preference for Jesus Christ Himself.” “True surrender will always go beyond natural devotion.” God desires from each of us our total complete surrender of life before Him. God is looking for that kind of gift to Him so He can do what God desires to do, meet our every need and touch us with His embrace of love. Have you completely surrendered your life to Him? Will you seek only Christ in your life and not what you can get from Him? Desire an intimate relationship with the God of the universe through knowing His Son Jesus with all your heart and God will do miraculous things in and through you. (Matthew 6:33)

In reading the devotionals found in Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for his Highest, I seek to make them very personal.  For today’s devotion Chambers writes about 2 Timothy 4:2, “Preach the Word” and entitles the devotion, “Being an Example of His Message.”  God calls us all to witness to His message but some He has called to preach the message of the Word.  When one is called he is not only to study and prepare for the preaching of the Word but his life is to be lived out in such a way that people can see the Word of God living and breathing through them.  All of us have been called to be witnesses, Acts 1:8 and Chambers calls for us to be the incarnation of what we believe and preach so that we literally make the message live.  God desires that we become that living example of the message of God in the world in which we all live.