a couple of important announcements

It’s an exciting time of year here at The Beach Fellowship. We are planning on moving our Sunday services to the beach again starting June 5 for what will be our fifth year! As we prepare for this transition, there are few things that we would like to make sure everyone is aware of, and has a chance to participate in.

As we have done every year, prior to going out on the beach we will be holding our annual Jericho March starting Monday evening, May 30th at 7pm. We will meet every night that week at the parking lot on Ocean View Parkway where we have our services and begin with group prayer, then pray silently as we walk around the city. We pray that God will cause the walls to come down spiritually in our community, that we can experience the freedom to proclaim the gospel in the strength that God provides as we begin our beach services. The seventh day will be our first Sunday morning service which begins at 8am. We hope that you will join us for the Jericho March every night that you can, and if you’re out of town you can still participate in spirit with us each evening.

Also, we are asking you to pray about another event we are calling “sponsor a sign”. As you may know, we utilize yard sale type of signs to get the message out about our Sunday services. In the past we have had only as many as 4 or 5 out there, and yet have seen God really multiply their effectiveness. This year we are hoping to get as many as 12 signs out in our community. And to do that we are asking for people to sponsor a sign, either by donating $25 for the cost of a sign, or by offering a location to place a sign. In spite of the growth we have seen each year, there are potentially many thousands of people that never hear about our services and as a result, may never hear the gospel fully presented in truth.

God has already been working in exciting ways during this “off season” in our church, and we look forward to sharing with you many more things that will be upcoming as we go into the summer. I would also appreciate your prayers for the next few days as I attend the East Coast Pastor’s Conference with a couple of men from our church. It’s an important time for me to get my spiritual tank refilled and I’m really looking forward to it. Thank you for working together with us in this ministry.

2 Timothy 4:2 Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

the God of restoration

There was a full moon lighting up the city of Jerusalem, where thousands upon thousands of people had swarmed into town to celebrate the Passover. It’s almost midnight, as Jesus and his 11 disciples head behind the temple mount and down into a ravine where the brook Kidron flows red with the blood of tens of thousands of lambs that were slain for the Passover meal which ran out the back of the temple into the brook beneath. And Jesus and the disciples step through this blood filled stream and start climbing the Mount of Olives to go to a place in the Garden of Gethsemane that they must have used on a regular basis to spend the night.

And as they are going, maybe there is some discussion among them as to where Judas was and what he was doing. Perhaps speculation that he had deserted Jesus. But somewhere en route up the mountain in the middle of the night, they stop for a moment to catch their breath. And there in the moonlight, Jesus has the following conversation with them.

Matthew 26:31 Then Jesus said to them, "You will all fall away because of Me this night, for it is written, I WILL STRIKE DOWN THE SHEPHERD, AND THE SHEEP OF THE FLOCK SHALL BE SCATTERED. But after I have been raised, I will go ahead of you to Galilee. But Peter said to Him, Even though all may fall away because of You, I will never fall away. Jesus said to him, Truly I say to you that this very night, before a rooster crows, you will deny Me three times. Peter said to Him, Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You. All the disciples said the same thing too.”

You see, they all affirmed what we would like to be able to affirm. But they were affirming it based on their own sense of strength, their own sense of commitment. They thought their love for Christ was greater than it was. They thought their spiritual strength was greater than it was. They thought their ability to handle Satan was greater than it was. They were leaning on their own understanding, in the terms of Proverbs 3: 5 And when it came time to take that stand when Christ was taken captive in the garden, "Then all the disciples forsook Him and fled."

But Jesus is using this situation to teach them and to teach us as well, that we are inadequate in and of ourselves to stay committed to God by virtue of our human strength, or to understand completely in our own minds the nature of spiritual warfare. And sometimes it may be easier to vow allegiance to God, even to proclaim a willingness to die for Christ in a time when there is no conflict, but when the battle isn’t waged on a battlefield but in the office, or out with the boys, or at school, then often we find ourselves retreating without a hand being lifted against us.

But In spite of everything they did to desert the Lord, in spite of all the cursing and the swearing and the denial and the fleeing and the forsaking and all of that, He was loving, He was merciful, He was restoring. And here we see the absolute classic illustration of mercy. They aren't worthy of anything but He says I'll be back for you. He says in spite of the fact that you will fall away tonight, I'll collect you and lead you to Galilee. And that is exactly what He did. After His resurrection, He went out of His way to restore Peter, and doubting Thomas and all the others. He got everybody back on board, ascended into heaven, sent the Holy Spirit and sent them out to change the world.

Now what does that say to you and me? It says God is in the business of picking up disciples who have deserted, who have fallen away and restoring them. We can take comfort in the fact that we may forsake Him, but He will never under any conditions forsake us. Listen, like he did with Peter that night, Satan is desiring to sift you like wheat today, especially if you’re trying to live for the Lord. You can’t stand without Jesus Christ. If you do try to stand in your own strength, then you’re going to fall. But Jesus is always there to restore you and pick you up again.

“I will never leave you or forsake you.” Heb. 14:5