Zooming in to Focus on Jesus!

Hard to believe the summer is winding down so quickly! Here it is the end of July, school will be starting back up in just a few weeks, and before you know it, we’ll be seeing the leaves change colors and feeling the cool morning air of autumn.

But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, one big event remains at First Baptist Church: VBS!

Our Vacation Bible School starts next Monday, July 29, and we’d love to invite all children from age 4 – 6^th grade to come and join us! It’s from 6:00-8:00 each evening, Monday through Thursday, and we’ll have VBS Family Day on Sunday, Aug. 4, at 10:45 am, followed by a good old-fashioned potluck dinner.

This year’s theme verse is John 20:31, “But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

We’ll zoom in to the Scriptures to focus on four accounts which show Jesus to be the Son of God. Maybe I say this every year, but I think it’s important for you to know right up front that our desire is that as we help your children see Jesus more clearly, we pray that God will open their hearts to believe in Him as Savior and Lord.

And we want that for you, too. Listen, there’s nothing more important than knowing Jesus. It’s literally a matter of life and death – eternal life and eternal death.

“Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:12).

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3:17-18).

“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:36).

The choice could not be more clear. Do you believe in Jesus the Son of God who came to save you from sin by dying in your place on the cross, taking the full weight of God’s wrath upon himself so that we could be forgiven, cleansed, and made new?

Do you believe in Jesus who rose from the dead on the third day, showed himself alive to his followers, then ascended back into heaven where he sits at the Father’s right hand?

Do you believe in Jesus who promises that he will one day return and take his church to be with him forever in the Father’s house?

Jesus declared, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

Friend, my pray for you, your children, and your grandchildren, is that God will give you faith to believe; that you will turn from your sins, find forgiveness and freedom in Christ, and follow Him as Savior and Master and King. For by believing you will have life in his name.