Dear fellow followers of Jesus,

What do you hunger for?  In other words, what do you long for?  We all have longings and desires.  We usually believe if those longings and desires are satisfied, we will be happy, we will be content, we will be blessed.  Sometimes we are, but other times the happiness is short lived.  Or the longing or desire becomes greater and remain unfulfilled.  What do you hunger for?

Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled!”   Do you hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness?  Are you hungry for more?  If you are, Grace Baptist has many placed to be connected and hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness together.  These opportunities include Sunday morning Sunday School, weekly small groups, such as Presence, Wednesday Mid-Day Bible Study, and Thursday Evening Prayer Groups,  and Sunday Morning Worship.

This Sunday we will begin a series of sermons on Jesus Beatitudes.  We’ll explore the first Beatitude found in Matthew 5.  Jesus says “Blessed are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  In his book The Beatitudes for Today James C. Howell recalls how Paul and Silas in Acts were accused of turning the world upside down.  He wonders how the Jesus who got his followers into constant trouble in the ancient world come to fit in so comfortably, and even successfully, in our world today?  He asks, “Did Jesus adapt himself to the changing times?”  Howell suggests that if we turn, listen and seek to listen to the Beatitudes of Jesus today, that perhaps onlookers will once again say, “these people who have turned the world upside down have come here also.”  So this week, we’ll begin our series of sermons on the Beatitudes.

I look forward to seeing you in Zoom worship.

Pastor David