Sunday, December 12

This past Sunday we continued our series "Advent" and we looked at the Christian virtue of Joy. Joy is contentment, rejoicing and continual happiness. Joy is not a personality trait or an emotion. The Bible calls us to be joyful always. We learned that there is no circumstance or event that should steal a Christians joy. We are able to be joyful because of the work of Christ, the character of God, the work of the Holy Spirit, the blessings God has given us, and the privilege that we have to share the Gospel. If you feel like your joy is not full in Christ it is probably because 1) you are not really saved, 2) you are being tempted by Satan and you need to give the temptation to the Lord, or 3) you have false idea of who God is. You think you deserve more than you truly deserve. You can listen to the sermon at

http://www.ocbaptist.org/media.php?pageID=21.

Just click on the sermon entitled Joy and I hope you enjoy!

Btw, don't forget that this sunday we will be meeting at our East Campus - 102 North Division Street in Ocean City. We will have a fellowship breakfast at 9:30 and then the service will start at 10:30 where the children will present the Christmas play. Hope to see you there! Have a great week.

Being a Pastor

I remember when I was in seminary I heard a professor or chapel speaker once say that if you could do anything else but be a pastor do it, but if you are called and you have to be a pastor than do it. The job of a pastor is not an easy one at all. Now to be fair I have never been a senior pastor (although in January I will be a senior pastor). But I do have a pretty good idea as to what a pastor goes through. You see I grew up in a pastor's home. Many people think that the pastor only works on Sunday. But a pastor works 7 days a week and is on call 24 hours a day. The pastor should take a day of rest and a vacation, but with the expectations placed on him they just rarely get that opportunity. Now with the emmergent church movement everybody thinks that the church should be huge and the put enormous pressure on the pastor to build the church. If the church is growing well then the pastor is great, if the church is not growing well he is a bad pastor. It has nothing to do with his Biblical teaching. But the problem with this logic is that it is God who builds the church not a pastor. The pastor is a teacher, counselor, psychiatrist, business man, doctor, janitor, carpenter and anything else that his congregation needs him to be. I grew up in a pastor's home and never realized how tough my dad's job truly was. I do remember coming home early from family vacation because there was a death and the church. I never had the nicest stuff because we just couldn't afford all those luxiories, and I had to share my dad's time with several hundred people. The reason I want to write this blog is to give people a perspective of what a pastor goes through. There will be many times when I will share thoughts from my devotion with God. But there will be other times when I will share my thoughts about what the church needs to be towards their pastor. I hope it helps and that we grow together through it.