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Pastor · Sunday Schedule · FBC
News
2003
From the Pastor
GREAT EFFORT
One of my favorite stories from the history of First Baptist is the one told about Deacon Solomon Johnson. He is just a footnote in our history, but the reason for his mention in our history is significant.
He was part of a Baptist group in Maumee but when our church was struggling to get started he would walk from Maumee to Toledo to offer his support and worship with them. He walked! That is what amazes me. The effort to extend Baptist work to Toledo was so important to him that it was worth that kind of time and effort.
I thought of him last Sunday evening (January 19) when the church officers met at the Holiday Inn Express in Perrysburg to organize for the year. The wind was howling, the temperature was in the teens and it was snowing but forty officers showed up for the meeting.
I have thought of him through the Sundays of worship in January. Most of the Sundays have been frigid and overcast but that has not deterred our people from attending worship. They are to me modern day Solomon
Johnsons.
Sometimes it takes great effort. We recognize this in other pursuits of life but it also applies to worship. It would be easy to stay in bed or brew a cup of coffee and leisurely read the Sunday paper. Why wake up the kids? Why go through all the hassle of getting them ready for Sunday School and worship? Why put on hats and gloves and venture outside?
It doesn’t effect God’s Love for us. God is going to love us just the same whether we ever make the effort to go to church or not. Grace can’t be used as a stick to submit us into compliance. Worship to begin with is a willful decision. In ourselves must lay the impulse. Worship above all else is a free act.
So, why the effort? I believe there are two reasons. First, it expresses our gratitude. It is a way of saying Thank you. We are blessed. Second, the effort can help us nurture a sense of God’s greatness and majesty. We make the effort because we worship a God who is so great. We do it because God is worthy of all praise.
Our effort helps us see more who God Is. Our effort helps remove the scales of lethargy and complacency in our lives. We begin to realize that God is so much more than any effort we extend to get to worship.
I don’t want people to jeopardize their safety or health to get to church. Let us who are able to make the journey bring you into the worship through our prayers. But for all others let what might seem as impediments to worship, such as lousy weather, be a spiritual exercise in getting to worship.
Think about the God who inspired Deacon Solomon Johnson who walked the eight miles to worship with the new Baptist group in Toledo.
Think about the God who inspires the Christians in third world countries to meet and give glory to God.
Think about the Christ who left His home in Heaven, came to earth, endured everything including death to be with you.
Dr. David W. Andersen
           
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