Four years! That’s right! Can you believe that I have been working with you as your minister and friend for four years? We have accomplished much together during these four years. Sometimes it seems that I’ve always been at St. Andrews Road. Then at other times it seems that our work together has just begun. We have accomplished much and yet so many opportunities and challenges stretch out before us. It is my desire and prayer that God will grant us many more happy and prosperous years of service together in His kingdom. Please keep me and my family in your prayers as we labor together with you. We pray for you, your family, and every family in the church daily that we will continue to be the salt, the light, and the city that is set on a hill that cannot be hidden.

Our VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL begins this Sunday evening at 6:30 p.m. We will have everything ready. There will be workers at the building just about all day Saturday (10th) and also on Sunday afternoon (11th) setting up our classrooms for Bible study, story time, and games. Some will be getting things ready in the fellowship hall for snack time and crafts. Others will be decorating the lobby and the auditorium. We are very excited about our VBS this year and hope that you will be a part of this very special event. Check out the front of your newsletter again for all our VBS activities. ADULTS: VBS is for you too. There will be a different guest preacher each night presenting lessons to the adults in the auditorium. Please make plans to come and learn.

Our Sunday morning sermon series “Repentance: A Command for All” continues this Sunday. Last Sunday we looked at the definition of repentance. It is true that too many of us have become desensitized to the effects of sin in our lives and in society as a whole. The prophets’ cry to the people was “Repent!” John prepared the way of Jesus by preaching “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Jesus began His ministry preaching repentance. The apostles were commanded to preach repentance and remission of sins. The church of the first century preached repentance. Today, we too must heed the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20). We must repent and then cry out to others, “Repent!”

This Sunday we will look at another aspect of “Repentance: A Command for All” with a lesson entitled “Clarifying the Motivation to Repentance.” Do you know of someone who has sinned and desperately needs to repent? You can see what sin has done and is doing to them, to their family, to their influence, to their lives. They cannot see what you can see. What can possibly motivate a person to repent? We will look into God’s word, the Bible to clarify the motivations to repentance. If you would like to read ahead; read Romans 2, 2 Corinthians 5 and 7, and 2 Peter 3. After reading these passages pray that God will give us all wisdom and greater faith in the power of the gospel (Romans 1:16-17).

On Sunday evening we will look at what some have labeled “The Prosperity Gospel.” According to many of the preachers you hear on TV, on the radio, and even from the pulpit worldly prosperity always follows righteous living while depression and loss always follows sinful living. According to those who preach this “gospel” (which is not from God) if someone is in pain, if someone suffers a loss, if someone loses job, if someone dies, if someone has to go though a divorce then that person must be sinful. This type of preaching is simply not Biblical. Don’t get me wrong. Sin is the cause of every problem in the world. However, being rich or poor, healthy or sickly, happy or unhappy, alive or in the grave, prosperous or just “surviving” according to the world’s standards is not always a matter of a person’s decision to be one or the other. Let us think on these things.