Bulletin for January 26, 2025

This weekend, I and several of your elders will be in Alexandria, LA, for the Gulf South Presbytery meeting. As we go, please pray for safe travels. Please also pray for me and the two other men who are going to be examined for ordination, Ed and Jason.

Then, this Sunday, Rev. Ro Taylor will be preaching for us. Ro is in the very earliest stages of planting a new church in Hattiesburg. So be sure to give him a warm welcome!

Finally, keep in mind that next Sunday, February 2nd, at 5 PM, we’ll be having an ordination and installation service. Then, the next Sunday, February 9th, we’ll have our Soup-erbowl Sunday lunch.

Your friend in Christ,
Reid

Bulletin for January 19, 2025

Updates

1. Rev. Ro Taylor, our presbytery’s Hattiesburg church planter, will be preaching for us on January 26th.

2. A Service of Ordination & Installation for Reid Roberson is scheduled for February 2nd at 5 PM. We’ll have a reception with a meal afterward.

3. Soup-erbowl Sunday is February 9th. Bring enough of your favorite soup to feed your family plus one!

Bulletin for January 12, 2025

Bulletin for January 5, 2025

Happy New Year!

It’s the time of year again when people start thinking about getting back on top of their Bible reading, so I wanted to make a couple of suggestions if you’re looking for a plan.

One of the most popular Bible reading plans available is the Robert Murray M’Cheyne plan. M’Cheyne was a Scottish Presbyterian minister in the 19th century, and he wrote this plan for his congregation at St. Peter’s in Dundee. You can find this plan in various formats at this link.

Another option is simply to start reading! Matthew Everhard has created this document with no dates to help. This is my personal practice. As long as I read the whole thing, I don’t get caught up in doing things on particular date.

In addition, it’s a good practice to include a cycle of psalms each month. The psalms help us guide and inform our prayer. If you read five psalms per day, you’ll finish the psalter in a month. You can find a calendar for one- or two-month reading here.

Finally, if you’re looking for something more comprehensive, I’ve put together a liturgy for family and private worship. It’s essentially a simplified version of our Lord’s Day service for use in your home. At the end, you’ll find a weekly guide for reading (or even memorizing) the Westminster Shorter Catechism and a full copy of the M’Cheyne plan. If you’d like a print copy, let me know.

Psalm of the Month

This month, we’re going to learn a new psalm together. Psalm 103 is very familiar to many of us, and I often use it as our assurance of pardon during worship. The tune we’ll use is “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling.” Listen here.

Updates

There are several things coming, so pay attention to the bulletin! For those of you that are interested in joining the church (either youth or adult), let me know as soon as you can so we can start working on getting the process going!

Your friend in Christ,
Reid

Bulletin for December 29, 2024

Bulletin for December 22, 2024

Coming Up This Week

This Sunday, we’ll be meeting twice on Sunday. First, we’ll have a lessons and carols service in our normal morning worship slot. Then, we’ll gather again at 5 PM to watch the chlidren perform their Christmas pageant. Light refreshments will follow!

Your friend in Christ,
Reid

Bulletin for December 15, 2024

Gospel Hope

The past few questions, being all about sin, have been quite negative, but now, in question 20, there’s a turn to the solution to this problem.

Q. 20. Did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery?
A. God having, out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace, to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a redeemer.

God, of course, would have been perfectly just to leave us to perish in the estate of sin and misery, but God is not merely a God of justice. He is also a God of mercy. The catechism, quoting Ephesians 1, reminds us that God acted to save “according to the good pleasure of his will.” Because of the goodness of God, he saw fit to offer salvation.

Who did God see fit to save? The elect. We’ve talked about this doctrine in previous questions, but God, from all eternity, elected some to eternal life. Notice the catechism says that God elected out of his mere good pleasure. That means there was nothing in us that God considered in his election; it’s all on him. This is clearly taught in Ephesians 1:4-12.

It’s become very common in recent times for people to argue that God’s election is on the basis of foreseen faith. The idea is that God looked down through time to see who would believe in him and elected those people. But this view has no biblical evidence in support of it. Furthermore, think about what that would mean for our salvation–it would mean that our salvation is somehow dependent on us. And what a sorry state we would be in if it depended on us!

This leads us to the second question: how does God save his elect? Even though God elects some for salvation, there’s still this lingering issue. There is nothing in man that warrants salvation. We are dead in sin (Ephesians 2:5) and the thoughts of our hearts are only evil continually (Genesis 6:5). There’s an impenetrable barrier between God and the sinner, so God provided a way through the covenant of grace. In this covenant, he provides a redeemer, Jesus Christ, who paid for the sins of the elect in order that they might be justified before God. More on that in question 21!

Finally, what is the result of this covenant of grace? We are both delivered from the state of sin and misery and brought into an estate of salvation. Through our redeemer, Jesus Christ, we are freed from the sin and misery we talked about previously. Now, some of that is immediate (justification) and some is gradual (sanctification), but sin has no dominion over us (Romans 6:1-14). We are freed to stand before God and to be cleansed by the blood of Christ applied by the Holy Spirit.

Updates

On December 22, we’ll be meeting twice. On Sunday morning, our Lord’s Day service at 11 AM will be a Lessons & Carols service. Then, on Sunday evening at 5 PM, the children and youth will present a Christmas Pageant. Be sure to join us for both!

Your friend in Christ,
Reid

Bulletin for December 8, 2024

The Misery of Sin

When Adam fell, he fell into an estate of sin and misery. Question 18 focused on sin, and question 19 goes on to discuss misery. Remember that sin is about being and doing; in other words, it affects our nature and actions. When we talk about misery, we’re talking about the effects of being sinful and doing sin.

Q. 19. What is the misery of that estate whereinto man fell?
A. All mankind by their fall lost communion with God, are under his wrath and curse, and so made liable to all the miseries in this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever.

The first consequence of sin is our disfellowship with God. This happens automatically. What was the first thing Adam did after he sinned? He hid from God. Their relationship was broken. All other effects are downstream from this.

In particular, the relationship is broken because the covenant was broken. Covenant is God’s gracious way of meeting with his people, but when we turn aside from God, we lose access to his presence. This is also why Adam was under the wrath and curse of God–because under the covenant of works, there is penalty for law-breaking.

The first penalty of law-breaking is that life gets hard. This is the core of the curse on Adam in Genesis 3:

“And to Adam he said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.’” (Genesis 3:17-19)

Any difficulty in this life ultimately stems from this curse. When your joints ache, when you get the flu, and when money’s tight, you can always find the source in the curse on Adam.

Even worse, we are liable to death, “for the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Humans are not supposed to die. Death is bad; it’s a curse. Often, we try to convince ourselves that death is somehow a good thing, and certainly there are good results (like going to heaven). But death was never supposed to be a part of human life. It’s a result of sin. Finally, since we have immortal souls, we are not only liable to temporal death, but eternal death (Matthew 25:41-46). Because we owe God an infinite death, we are liable for infinite judgment.

But again, just as the nature of sin teaches us about the work of Christ, so does the nature of misery. When Jesus took on flesh, he took on this curse. In every respect, he was tempted. He was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Ultimately, he was crucified, dead, and buried, and he descended into hell. Why? Because he was suffering for us. He suffered humiliation with us, so that he could redeem us from misery.

Updates

1. Don’t forget our congregational meeting immediately following this Sunday’s worship service.

2. We’ll have a Lessons and Carols Sunday evening service on December 22 at 5 PM. We’ll hear Scripture about Christ and sing some Christmas carols together.

3. The children are preparing to give a presentation on Christmas Eve.

Your friend in Christ,
Reid

Bulletin for December 1, 2024

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone enjoys your holiday this week! If you missed our community Thanksgiving, the audio is now available on the podcast feed.

Updates

1. Make note of our special offering for Living Waters for the World. If you’d like to make a special gift in addition to the Session’s $500 dollar commitment, please indicate it on your check.

2. Our congregation meeting is scheduled for December 8th immediately following worship.

Your friend in Christ,
Reid

Bulletin for November 24, 2024

The Estate of Sin

Q. 17. Into what estate did the fall bring mankind?
A. The fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery.

Question 17 gives us two categories for understanding the consequences of the Fall. Adam’s first sin brought about an estate of both sin and misery. Question 18 deals with the first part of that: the sinfulness of man’s estate.

Q. 18. Wherein consists the sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell?
A. The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell consists in the guilt of Adam’s first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called original sin; together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it.

The estate of sin consist of both original sin and actual sin. Actual sin is what happens when we, by our own wills, violate God’s law. Actual sin are the sinful things we do. But remember that sin is both about doing and being. Original sin deals with the being part.

Original sin consists of three parts. First, original sin includes the guilt of Adam’s first sin. Romans 5:15 tells us that “many died through one man’s trespass.” The way Paul reasons in Romans 5 is to say that since all people suffer the consequence of Adam’s first sin, then all people are guilty of Adam’s first sin. This may not strike us as fair, but remember that Adam represented the whole human race in the covenant of works. Therefore, we say that Adam’s sin is imputed (accounted or credited) to us. Although none of us committed the particular of sin, it is counted to us as if we did because of his federal headship.

We think in these terms all the time. If the President of the United States decides to shoot missiles at another country, then we can rightly say that the United States did it, since he is their representative. While the order didn’t come from every individual citizen, since the President the head of state, we are responsible for his actions to a degree. And if the other country retaliates, we face the consequences.

Second, original sin includes the want (or lack) of original righteousness. When Adam was created, he was created in perfection. He was righteous, not because he did anything good, but because God only creates good things. It wasn’t a state he earned, but something he was given. But when Adam sinned, he gave up that gift of perfection and was then unable to share that gift with any of his offspring. As a result, from the moment we are conceived, we lack the righteousness that Adam had at first.

Third, original sin is not only a lack of righteousness, but a continuing corruption. After the Fall, our hearts are crooked and wicked by nature. We are by nature children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3). The thoughts and intentions of our hearts are only evil continually (Genesis 6:5). And from this natural corruption comes all actual sin (James 1:14-15).

So the estate of sin is a sorry place to be, but understanding this state helps us understand what we need. Since we have inherited the sin of Adam, we need another legal representative to take that sin. Since we have lost original righteousness, we need a new Mediator to impute his own righteousness to us and renew the gift that Adam scorned. Since our natures have been corrupted, we need a special work of God to straighten us out and root out that corruption. The gospel of Jesus Christ, of course, is the answer to all of those problems.

Updates

1. Be sure to be preparing for communion this coming Lord’s Day. A good practice is to review Larger Catechism 171:

Q. 171. How are they that receive the sacrament of the Lord’s supper to prepare themselves before they come unto it?
A. They that receive the sacrament of the Lord’s supper are, before they come, to prepare themselves thereunto, by examining themselves of their being in Christ, of their sins and wants; of the truth and measure of their knowledge, faith, repentance; love to God and the brethren, charity to all men, forgiving those that have done them wrong; of their desires after Christ, and of their new obedience; and by renewing the exercise of these graces, by serious meditation, and fervent prayer.

2. The Community Thanksgiving Service will be at 5 PM on Sunday. The choir is meeting at 4. Be sure to bring your food, and be ready to help us host!

3. Remember the congregational meeting scheduled for December 8th.

Your friend in Christ,
Reid

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