Hello Baysiders, hope all is well in your souls! As summer is slipping away from us and the new school year begins, lets make the best of the last of warm and sunny days!
I find it interesting that every time Jesus did an incredible thing, He would say something to the people nearby. He raised a little girl from the dead, and what did He say? “Tell no one.” He met a guy with leprosy and healed him, and said, “Tell no one.” He healed two guys who were blind, and He gave them one admonition before moving on: “Say nothing to anyone.” In a world driven by self-promotion and spin, Jesus modeled something different for us. If I was being honest, I would say, “Tell everyone!” Yet Jesus was intentional and selfless, never doing anything for selfish purposes. Jesus knew God was over his life and any praise, admiration, promotion, gratitude was from his heavenly Father.
Can we as his followers do the same? We love, serve, act for the glory of God, not for the glory we might get from those things. It’s natural to expect praise or promotion when we do hard work or do something amazing. Yet Jesus shows us the best type of work is best done in obscurity, hidden, not baited for fame and popularity. Psalms 75:6 says, “For exaltation comes neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south. But God is the Judge: He puts down one, and exalts another.” God ultimately will promote us, lift us up, praises us, in his timing and his way. We know the full story, Jesus does get promoted to the highest seat in heaven by dying on the cross and resurrecting but it was all in God’s timing and way. May we have this attitude and outlook when we help and love people.
Thanks to everyone who stayed after lunch for the church cleaning day. It was a great clean inside and out. Thank you Wayne for your continued diligence for making Bayside’s facility function smoothly and making it look beautiful with your gardening skills. Please mark Saturday, September 21st on your calendar for our City Outreach as we will be going to the Tenderloin District to pass out food and offer prayer to the homeless. Please RSVP if you will be joining this outreach event. On August 25th we will be having our Family Meeting we will discuss more on the Tenderloin Outreach, and on the family meeting’s new protocol format with agenda items, door locking policy and our back up roles for our ministries. August 29th will be the last Thursday Devotion of the Summer and will be taking our Fall break and resuming October 4th. Next Family Meeting will be on September 15th at 1pm after lunch.
Grace and peace, Pastor Aaron ?;^)