​Dear WTBC family,
As you know, I don’t talk about money very often.  However, several people have been asking me about the best way to handle our giving these days; so, I would like to share the options we have available.
 

1. Mail
   1. The fastest way to have your checks deposited will be to send them directly to Sharon, one of our treasurers.  If you need her address, feel free to contact me.
   2. You could also send checks directly to church.  Sherry is receiving our mail, and will get any checks to Sharon as soon as she can.
2. Online
   1. Our online giving is handled through ‘Easytithe.’  You can set up a one-time or recurring payment through our church website at http://www.wtbaptist.org/giving.html.  Please note, Easytithe will charge a small percentage of the donation as a processing fee … which is worth it for the convenience, in my opinion 😊

 
I have been greatly encouraged by your giving even while we are apart!  I don’t follow who gives what or how much, but Sharon has shared with me that God has once again been providing for the needs of our church through the giving of His people.  I know that God has helped our church remember that financial giving is another aspect of worship, and one that God will bless when done cheerfully and generously.  So, I thank you; and most of all, I thank the Lord!
If you have any questions about this or anything else, please feel free to let me know. 
In Christ,
Pastor Chris

Here is the link to the "2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith" that we discussed in our evening service on 3/18/18.
www.1689.com/confession.html

Wouldn’t it be nice if being sorry for something was enough to ensure that you never did it again!  My thoughts could easily go to children for examples (how many times have we parents had to repeatedly discipline our children for the exact same thing even after they genuinely said “I’m sorry”!) … but the reality is, I don’t have to.  I wish it were just children who struggled with this, but there is no doubt that I am guilty as well.  Perhaps you can relate to this discouraging pattern: sin, conviction, sorrow … and then a return to that same sin, conviction, sorrow… and on it goes. 

What’s the problem?  Why do we have to find ourselves in this maddening cycle?  Is a Christ-follower resigned to the same sin-slavery as the unbeliever, just with an added dose of conviction? 

If you have read Paul’s letters to the Corinthians, you know that he definitely didn’t propose this sad existence as an unavoidable reality.  In his first letter to Corinth he thanks God because of our “victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (15:57).  That sure doesn’t sound like someone who is resigned to failure!  So where is that victory found, and why isn’t sorrow enough to give us that victory? 

Paul’s second recorded letter to the Corinthian church describes this very issue in chapter 7 verses 9-10.
“Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing.  For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.”

The reality that the Holy Spirit used Paul to describe is this: there are two different kinds of sorrows.  There is a sorrow that produces death, and a sorrow that produces repentance.  The first is a natural feeling that comes because of many reasons (many of them selfish): lost opportunities, lost relationships, the pain of consequences…  But this sorrow has no power to do anything but make us feel pain, regret, and worthlessness.  There is no hope in this sorrow alone. 

What Paul describes as a much better option is a hopeful sorrow.  There is a godly sorrow that leads to victory over sin because it leads to repentance.  Repentance is more than feeling sorry … it is a response to the knowledge of the person and work of God.  First of all, it is a realization that my sin is a violation against a holy God.  We must realize that the gravity of our sin is not primarily found in the pain that it causes us or the ones around us, rather in the reality that it is rebellion against God.

But this realization of the person of God could still result in hopeless despondency unless we also remember the work of God.  Victory and hope requires remembering and relying on the substitutionary work of Jesus Christ on the cross and His resurrection that ensured victory.  It is in this gospel that we find the hope that our sorrow must lead to.  The gospel of a mercy that endures forever.  The gospel of a grace that knows no bounds.  Mercy in forgiveness, and grace in the power to change.  It’s no wonder that our sorrow leads to more failure when we fail to let it take us to the cross and the empty tomb.  It is only in the transformative power of Christ that we will ever find any hope.  If He can transform your soul, He can surely transform your flesh! (Col. 3:10; Eph. 4:24)

So how do we let our sorrow move us in a hopeful direction?  By responding to three things:

1. Our sin: sin is not just a mistake … it is rebellion against a just and holy God.
2. God’s mercy: forgiveness is offered even when judgment is deserved.
3. God’s grace: undeserved new life is followed by undeserved empowerment for a new lifestyle.

​So when you are made aware of your own guilt, please don’t stop at sorrow.  Let that sorrow point you to true repentance!  That repentance leads to a resting in the mercy of God and a grace-driven pursuit of Christ-likeness.  And when you are helping others become aware of their guilt, don’t think you have done your job just because they feel sorry … show them the hope that is found in the mercy and grace of a loving God!

The beginning of Matthew chapter 7 is a familiar passage to many.  Between Christ’s warning to “judge not” and the analogy of the speck and the log, these verses have a way of fairly comfortably working their way into our thoughts and perhaps even our conversations.  But along with familiarity comes the tendency to limit application.  We can become so at ease with a singular application of the truth that we often find ourselves failing to consider other results of Christ’s teaching. 

For example: the speck and the log.  Many of us who have grown up in Christian circles have probably heard a notebook full of sermons about the hypocrisy of trying to remove someone else’s splinter while a tree trunk is sticking out of your eye!  Perhaps right now we can picture a rather comical cartoon sketch of the doomed-to-fail attempt.  But I wonder if we have allowed that image to dominate our thinking so much that we have missed another aspect of the analogy. 

Have you ever understood this passage to say, “If my sin is as big as a log, then I won’t be able to help others with their splinters”? Although that understanding of Christ’s teaching is true, the application of this text is broader than that alone.  If we base our need or ability to deal with sin on the apparent size of sin, at some point we will inevitably think, “So-and-so is the one with the log in his eye, and my sin is only the splinter.”  If only that were the point, we could all rest easy … because obviously, everybody else’s sins are worse than ours!  However, if we were intended to measure our sins against someone else’s, there would be a problem … because we call that ‘judging.’  And Christ just dealt with that very thing in verses 1 and 2 of this same chapter. 

So if the motivation behind this text is not the need to compare our sin to someone else’s sin, what is it?  To answer that question, there is a reality that we must understand: the sin we have in our eye is the log, not because it’s worse than another’s, but because it’s ours.  Our first responsibility towards sin is, by God’s grace, to deal with our own.  And, by the way, if we ever find ourselves thinking of our personal sin as splinters, we have forgotten our own depravity, God’s holiness, and the terrible price that both demanded.

By continuing this train of thought, there will actually be two logs and two splinters in this illustration.  Each individual will see his own sin as the log and the other’s sin as the splinter.  Imagine the impact it would have in today’s church if each believer was willing to see his own sin as the log!  Imagine the impact you could have in today’s church if you were willing to see your own sin as the log!  But let me warn you, this application of truth is much easier agreed with in theory than in practice.  The natural response to seeing ours and others’ sin is to compare the two, and we tend to be much more lenient with ourselves. 

​So the next time you think about this passage (or you find yourself comparing yourself to someone else), remember that the only person with a log in their eye is you!  And then don’t leave it there!