Monday, February 2, 2015

New Beginnings

My wife and I are first time ever grandparents and are very excited to see our first one come into this world after a long weekend (for the parents) of wrestling with getting this one out! This is my wife pictured with our new granddaughter, Allysa Rose. She was born at 2:02 AM on February 2nd. It is precious to see a new birth take place and new life come into this world. We couldn't be more pleased to have an addition to the Painter family!

This new birth also reminds me of the other opportunities we have in this life to see the new birth or a new beginning take place. Of course, there is a precious baby like this one. Then there is the opportunity we have to see a soul get born again. The spiritual new birth is a precious thing to see, it is a spiritual new born babe according to the Bible. It is also a new beginning representing new life for the individual that trust Christ. Praise God for every soul that gets saved!

The new beginning also reminds me of the fresh start our church has recently enjoyed. We had gone through some much needed changes at the end of 2014 that I am sure many thought may not be for the best. However, the opposite has been true. We have enjoyed five straight weeks of some of the best offerings we have ever seen. More than meeting our church budget each week has been a very encouraging thing to me. Besides the finances the over all spirit of our church has been the best it has ever been since the beginning of our church. God has created an excitement and refreshing spirit in our Sunday school department, our music ministry, our workers meetings, our ladies meetings, etc... It has truly been refreshing.

Our theme for the year is "Christ is..." it has created excitement at every level. Our people our excited, our soul winning bus has had the best spirit I can ever remember. Truly the Lord has lifted a great burden from our church and I am excited to shout it from the mountain tops! I look forward to this year being a year of New Beginning for the Lincoln Baptist Church!