New Life Baptist Church, College Station Texas

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Joy and Pain in the Christian Life

I came across this quote from Tim Hansel the other day. I trust that it will be fod­der for thought and prayer for you — espe­cially on a Friday.

Pain is inevitable, but mis­ery is optional. We can­not avoid pain, but we can avoid joy. God has given us such immense free­dom that he will allow us to be as mis­er­able as we want to be. I know some peo­ple who spend their entire lives prac­tic­ing being unhappy, dili­gently pur­su­ing joy­less­ness. They get more mileage from hav­ing peo­ple feel sorry for them than from choos­ing to live out their lives in the con­text of joy. Joy is sim­ple (not to be con­fused with easy). At any moment in life we have at least two options, and one of them is to choose an atti­tude of grat­i­tude, a pos­ture of grace, a com­mit­ment to joy” (fea­tured in Moreau, Cor­win, McGee, Intro­duc­ing World Mis­sions: A Bib­li­cal, His­tor­i­cal, and Prac­ti­cal Sur­vey, 180).

Are you a mis­er­able Chris­t­ian or a joy­ful Chris­t­ian? If you are mis­er­able, what does repen­tance look like for you know­ing that the fruit of the Spirit is joy, and Jesus died so that our joy might be com­plete? If you are joy­ful, does your joy stem from Jesus and His fin­ished work on your behalf, or from your love for the world?




Sign-up for Elements Classes — it’s not too late!

Our Fall 2011 Ele­ments Classes begin in less than one week! If you haven’t heard, we are offer­ing five 3-week courses begin­ning next Tues­day, Novem­ber 1st: Dat­ing, Mar­riage, Mis­sional Liv­ing, Gospel, and Finance. Every one of them will be pow­er­ful and help­ful for you whether you have been walk­ing with Jesus for many years, you are a new Chris­t­ian, or you are sim­ply explor­ing the claims of Jesus and the teach­ings of the Bible.

You can sign-up for the classes by click­ing here. You will find a full descrip­tion of each class as well as infor­ma­tion about books and child­care. We hope that you can join us next Tues­day, Novem­ber 1st as we kick-off our Fall 2011 Ele­ments Classes!




Reflecting on Exodus 4:1–17

For the past three weeks, we’ve been learn­ing how we are to deal with our doubts . We learned that the answer isn’t to have more self-confidence, but rather greater faith in God and His Word. We learned that the answer isn’t to be more self-aware, but to be more aware of who God is and what He has spo­ken to us. We learned that the answer isn’t to try to pro­vide a solu­tion, but to trust in God and His pro­vi­sion for us.

But today, you will still face doubts. If you’ve bought into any kind of a silver-bullet the­ory of change, this will be very upset­ting to you. Many Chris­tians think that our main prob­lem is a lack of knowl­edge, a lack of infor­ma­tion. But keep in mind that Moses didn’t lack infor­ma­tion. For exam­ple, God told him clearly, “And they [the peo­ple of Israel] will lis­ten to your voice” (Ex. 3:18a). But Moses coun­tered with, “But behold, they will not believe me or lis­ten to my voice” (Ex. 4:1a). Moses’ prob­lem wasn’t a lack of infor­ma­tion; it was his unbe­liev­ing heart. A sim­ple study, a three-week series, even an inten­sive dis­ci­ple­ship effort won’t cure you of your doubts.

Con­trary to what you’ll hear in songs and movies, it’s a bad idea to be true to your heart (per­haps espe­cially when 90s boy bands tell you that’s a good idea). Our hearts are con­tin­u­ally telling us to doubt God and His Word and to put con­fi­dence in our­selves and what we think or feel. We must fight what seems nat­ural and nor­mal and instead decide to trust God and His Word — even when that seems counter intu­itive. The bat­tle begins again today as we seek to walk by faith and not by sight. What will it look like for you to walk by faith today and in the days ahead?




Dealing with Doubt: Part III” Tonight at 5pm

Join us this evening at 5pm as we fin­ish up our first mini-series (“Deal­ing with Doubt”) in our year­long study of Exo­dus. In this third and final install­ment, we will cover Exo­dus 4:1–17 and watch Moses’ doubts grow even more pro­nounced. Thank­fully for Moses (and for us), God deals with him gra­ciously and pro­vides for him in his weak­ness. That’s exactly why we don’t have to worry when we doubt — because God gra­ciously responds to our doubt by reveal­ing Him­self and His Word and by pro­vid­ing for us in our weak­nesses. We hope to see you tonight at 5pm!