Newsletter for July 22, 2026

Several months ago our WMU collected items for the Georgia Baptist Children's Home in Baxley.. Due to forest fires, we were unable to make the delivery at that time.
We are now preparing to take these donated items. If you would like to add to the collection, there is still time!

Please place your donations on the round table in the fellowship hall by July 23rd.

Items Needed:
13-Gallon Tie Trash Bags, Paper Towels
Liquid Laundry Detergent, Dawn Dish Soap
Canned Chicken, Cream of Chicken Soup
 

Dear First Baptist Church Family,
Thank you so much for all the prayers, food, gifts, and kindness you have given us through the years and especially during Richard’s illness.  Words cannot express how much we treasure our relationship and how much you mean to us.

Love
Sandra Ellis and the Family of Richard Ellis

Don’t miss Brother David’s Mid-Week Devotions.
New messages are posted every Wednesday on our media page—take a midweek moment to be encouraged and refreshed in God’s Word.

Budget for 2026 . . . . . . . .  $363,528.00
Tithes Needed to Date . . . . $195,745.46
Received to Date . . . . . . .   $159,322.48   
Needed for weekly budget . . . $6,990.92
Tithes Received this week . . .  $5,941.26

As many of you know, Saskia's nephew has been visiting with us for the past couple of weeks. Since I'm such a fun uncle to be around (or at least I think so), he decided to stay with us a few nights.

One of those nights just happened to be the same night I had already told Saskia that supper was going to be whatever we could find already cooked in the freezer. But since we had company, I decided we'd just go out to eat instead.

My first logical question was, "Do you like Mexican food?" Since half the restaurants open on a weeknight in Ashburn serve Mexican food.

His answer caught me off guard. "No, I don't like Mexican food." As a fan, I had to know why. Was it too spicy? Was it the texture? Had he ordered something he didn't like?

Then he made a statement that is more of a sin than bringing grilled chicken instead of fried to covered dish lunch at church. He said, "I've tried Taco Bell a few times, and I just didn't like it."

No offense to Taco Bell fans, but judging authentic Mexican food by Taco Bell is like judging a home-cooked steak by a vending machine cheeseburger. They may share a few of the same ingredients, but they are not the same experience.

If you think about it, how often do people do the same thing spiritually? Many people reject Christianity because they've experienced an imitation rather than the real thing. Perhaps they encountered someone who called themselves a "Christian" but didn't reflect the character of Christ. Maybe they attended a church where they were hurt, or they met someone whose actions contradicted everything they claimed to believe.

The problem is that people often judge Jesus by His imperfect followers instead of by Jesus Himself. If you want to know what Christianity really is, don't start by looking at Christians; you must start with Christ.

Read the Gospels. Watch how Jesus loved those everyone else overlooked. See how He extended grace to the broken, stood for truth without compromise, forgave those who crucified Him, and willingly gave His life so that we could have eternal life.

There is no substitute for the real thing. Jesus warned that there would be false teachers, counterfeit believers, and people who would honor Him with their lips while their hearts were far from Him. Counterfeits have existed since the beginning because the enemy knows that if he can't destroy the truth, he'll try to imitate it.

But an imitation can never replace the original. As followers of Christ, this should also challenge us. For some people, we may be the only "Christian" they encounter this week. Are we giving them a distorted picture of Jesus, or are we pointing them to the One who changed our lives?

If your opinion of Christianity has been shaped by someone's failure, don't stop there. Seek to know Jesus Himself. He is still the perfect Savior, and He is nothing like the counterfeits. Don't judge Christ by the counterfeits. Judge Him by who He is. Open His Word, come to Him, and experience the real thing for yourself.