I’ll be in Oak Harbor, Washington visiting my Grandpa Bob and Gramma Lou as well as my aunt and uncle and cousins. Grandpa Bob is very sick so please be in prayer. I’ll be back in town on Friday the 6th.

But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.

Ephesians 5:3-4 (English Standard Version)

Pastor John Stott on this passage:

But the reason why Christians should dislike and avoid vulgarity is not because we have a warped view of sex, and are either ashamed or afraid of it, but because we have a high and holy view of it as being in its right place God’s good gift, which we do not want to see cheapened. All God’s gifts, including sex, are subjects for thanksgiving, rather than for joking. To joke about them is bound to degrade them; to thank God for them is the way to preserve their worth as the blessings of a loving Creator.

quoted from God’s New Society: The Message of Ephesians (InterVarsity Press, 1979) page 193.

before Him is a devouring fire, around Him a mighty tempest.

He calls to the heavens above and to the earth, that He may judge His people:

“Gather to Me My faithful ones, who made a covenant with Me by sacrifice!”

The heavens declare His righteousness, for God Himself is judge!

Psalm 50:3-6 (English Standard Version)

Sad to say, but this mind set is all over our local churches, denominational structures, and parachurch organizations. Here in America, church has a certain culture, and many of us are experts at fitting in with that church culture. We know the right things to say. We know the right way to dress. We know the right songs and when to say “amen”. We know how to play church.

Not only do we know how to play church, we know that there is a structure of power and popularity involved in most churches. All churches are different. For some churches it’s who has the best suit. For others it’s who has the coolest “Jesus” tattoo. For some churches it’s who gives the most money, and for others it’s who can talk the most pious talk. All churches express the struggle for power and popularity differently, but it’s often there. It seems so easy to fall into such thinking. Our fellowships are constantly under attack from an enemy who enjoys inserting envy, jealousy, and strife in the midst of God’s people.

Even though most of us are way too clever to say it out loud, we often go into church with the same worldly mindset that we have in every other social organization: Who here is the greatest and where on the totem poll do I fit? Are you the janitor, or are you the deacon? Have you been a faithful member for 50 years, or have you just been baptized after spending most of your life in sin? Are you in a church that values the young at the expense of the old or vise versa? Do you chair one of the committees, or are you one of those people whose opinion never gets solicited? Are you among the important or the insignificant?

We all seek greatness, but we often don’t understand true greatness. Please join us this Sunday morning as we look at Matthew 18:1-6 and learn about true greatness in the kingdom of God.

I want to share a quote from Rev. Wright that I believe hits the nail on the head when it comes to Christians in American today. I quote the July 8, 2010 edition of the Baptist Message:

“If we’re going to be radically serious about reaching this world for Christ,” Wright said, “we as individuals and we as churches are going to have to really be prayerfully committed to fulfilling what God has called us to do with the Great Commission.”

“In America, local church members need to repent of materialism, hedonism and other idols that distract them from their first love and inhibit their love of lost people, Wright added.

“The beginning point for all of us is to renew our hearts. Jesus Christ could not be clearer, as politically incorrect as it is in our contemporary culture, that He is the only way to God,” he said.

I wholeheartedly agree. The task is not easy, but by God’s call, it is ours. We must be totally committed to spreading the Good News of Jesus to all and making disciples of Jesus through our own local efforts as well as through our gifts to our missionaries.

This is one reason why Grace gives 10% of every dollar that we receive to the mission agencies of our Southern Baptist partners. That’s right. We ask our people to tithe to the church, but Grace actually tithes too! Sometimes it’s tempting for a small, innercity church to look at the church bills and say that we need to keep more for our own ministries, but God has called all of us to sacrifice to take the gospel to those who have never heard.

This includes your part too. We need all of our members to faithfully tithe to their local church. Through your tithe you support our local ministry and missionaries on college campuses, urban centers, and countries all around the world.

I ask all of our members to do two things. Faithfully and prayerfully tithe to Grace. Secondly, continue to support the mission agencies of Southern Baptists through our church’s 10%.

Through the power of God, we cannot fail. Let’s continue to receive our all from Christ and to give our all to Christ.

Many neighborhood families came to this event last year, so I’m asking that our members make a special effort to be here this Sunday and be gracious hosts to our guests.

Summer Camp Family Day marks the end of our seven-week Grace Summer Camp, and we thank God for all the great things that have happened. Over 80 children have come through the doors at one point or another, averaging 35 each day. Lessons were taught from Scripture and on life skills, a healthy snack was provided each day, and mentoring relationships have been established between adults at Grace and children in the neighborhood. We even had faithful teenagers from our church to come and provide leadership to the children. The camp workers say that they have seen real changes on the part of the children, using conflict resolution skills and being more respectful of others. Most of all, I’m thankful that these children know that Jesus loves them and so do the people of Grace Baptist Church. For this and for the far reaching impact that we don’t even fully see yet, we thank God.

Now I’m going to do my best to list everyone who made Grace Summer Camp so special this year.

To the neighborhood children and their families who faithfully came and made it so rewarding. Thanks to moms and dads and grandparents for trusting Grace Baptist Church with your children. We love you.

Our youth volunteers: Wesley Garrett, Brandon Garrett, Byron Joseph, Meltron Hooks, Brianne Thomas, Darrian Shelby, Juan McKnight, and Jeremy.

Our church members also stepped up and provided lunch for camp workers and any children who wanted to come: Joanne Hilton, Jaqueline Thomas, Maria Valbuena, Gregg Bandy, Pauline McKay, and Shannon Dale

Our Summer Camp Workers: Kaitlin Roden, Brandon Colburn, Jenny Savely, and Aaron Ford. Plus the guys from Baptist Campus Ministry: Basil, Jay, Corey, Ashley, Kayli, and Ernell.

And, our Bywater neighbor Bonnie Morel read to the children and kept up the encouragement. She’s really one of our biggest cheerleaders in the neighborhood. Thanks, Bonnie!

I’m especially thankful for our Camp Director Jenny Guillory. Things went very smoothly this year, and she made it look so easy.

Isn’t it great that the Holy Spirit moved on so many teenagers, young adults, and older adults to come and minister to our neighborhood? I can’t help but think back to the summer of 2006 when Jenny Savely would faithfully minister to just a handful of kids, and now look at what has happened. With God all things are possible!

Now we have to give a shout out to the people who gave the money to make this year’s camp happen: Southern Baptist churches throughout America providing a grant through the New Orleans Baptist Association and our camp workers through the North American Mission Board and Baptist Campus Ministries; Northport Baptist Church of Northport, Alabama for providing Jenny Guillory’s salary; and the Hunter Foundation and the United Way whose substantial grants provided for equipment and food.

We’re also thankful for our ongoing relationship with LINCNewOrleans and Interfaith Works for their help in grant writing and financial expertise.

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow.

The family of Ms. Bernice Marion Lewis would like to thank each person who took the time out of their schedule to come and sing, play musical selections, and praise the Lord with our loved one on Sunday, June 20, 2010.

Also a special thanks to Pastor Dale, First Lady Shannon Dale, and the church body for all the support, prayers, and the wonderful homegoing celebration.

May God continue to bless and keep each of you in His loving care.

-The Family of Ms. Bernice Marion Lewis

and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

-2 Timothy 3:16-17 (ESV)

This Sunday is Independence Day, and we’re blessed to have one of the most appropriate preachers that we could have gotten for the occasion, Dr. Joe McKeever. Service is at 11:00 a.m. Before Brother Joe earned his Masters of Divinty and Doctorate of Ministry, he got his Bacholar’s degree in history, and though he’s spent his life pastoring churches, he has remained a careful student of history, especially World War II. Most recently, Brother Joe has served as Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Kenner and as the Director of Missions for the New Orleans Baptist Association. His collumns and cartoons appear in Christian and secular media. You can see his blog at www.JoeMcKeever.com.

We’ll see you all soon.

today a friend of mine went on to meet Jesus.  her name is bernice lewis.  this is miss bernice:

 i have known miss bernice for 5 years now, and she has been an incredible friend to me.  i have learned so much from her, like how to sew a dress or let my girls show their own sense of “style”.  i have learned, most importantly, that it is essential to love people no matter what because we are all a work in progress.  people may not agree with you, or they may even tell you what you can and can not do, but you love them anyway and don’t let them make you bitter.  you just go on about your business.   miss bernice knew this and she conveyed it to me over the years.  i think my favorite line of hers was “oh, i retired 40 years ago so i could volunteer.”  what made it so funny was the fact that she really meant it.  anyway, let me close before i lose my train of thought and ramble away.  i will close with the last picture i took of her.  miss bernice, i love you and i’ll miss you until i see you again. 

-Shannon Dale

Note from Charlie: I took this off of Shannon’s blog http://butterflymusings.wordpress.com/.

Miss Bernice’s funeral will be held at Grace on Monday at 10:30 a.m. with visitation at 9:30.