All ladies are welcome to join our WMU  group.
Monday, June 10th
1:30 PM

Meet in Bill Hardin SS Class Room

Women on Mission (WMU) members seek to live out missions through
missions projects, ministries, prayer, giving, and Bible study.

Operation Christmas Child

To prepare for OCC, we are gathering items throughout the next several months. A box will be located outside Nikki’s office.

July Items
Small Toys, Flip-flops,
Ball caps for boys, Socks

Preparing for Homecoming on August 25, 2024

On August 25, 2024, First Baptist will celebrate 135 years of ministry in the heart of Ashburn. As we prepare for this special homecoming event, we need your help. If you have the names and addresses of past members or staff, we could send an invitation to please get them to Nikki in the church office: email nikkibrewer@fbcashburn.com or 229-567-9320.

Giving as of June 5, 2024

Niiki is out of the office this week due to surgery; we will update giving next week.

MID-WEEK DEVOTION

Don’t forget to check out Brother David’s Mid-Week Devotion in the book of Psalms. They are uploaded each Wednesday on the sermon page.

From Our Family and Music Minister

One of the first trips I drove for the church was to drop off a group of girls at Camp Pinnacle. After a long 6-hour trip, we finally arrived, and I was strongly motivated to get them checked in as fast as possible so I could start the quiet and peaceful ride home. They had been assigned their cabin, which was up a pretty steep hill along a dirt path. So, I began to help the girls get their luggage and noticed one of them had an extremely heavy and oversized suitcase. Knowing I was ready to get on the road and that there was no way she could make it up the hill with her baggage, I picked it up and started carrying it. She quickly asked me why I was carrying her bag, and I just told her I was trying to be a gentleman. Being a strong, stubborn, and independent girl, she politely told me she didn’t need a gentleman and took off up the hill with her baggage.

As Christians, how often do we insist on carrying emotional baggage that we don’t need to carry? As the summer is here, many people plan trips and pack way too much (if you are like me). I am an over-planner; so my baggage is always heavy, and I never use half of what I bring. As Christians, we need to be submissive and submit whatever unnecessary emotional baggage we are dragging around.  

While Paul was writing to the believers in Ephesus, he included “bitterness” in his list of actions that needed to be avoided. Bitterness does not begin as bitterness. It starts with unforgiven pain. In a Bible Study written on bitterness by Anne Petterson, she stated, “Our lack of forgiveness is why we choose to hold onto bitterness, letting it ripen into full-grown resentment. While it looks like we are unable to forgive, sometimes we need to face that we are unwilling.”

When someone causes us hurt or pain, we cannot be unforgiving and hold on to that anger because our bitterness for someone else will eventually affect other relationships.

Paul wrote in Ephesians, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32, ESV). We can also read in Proverbs, “Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends.” (Proverbs 17:9, ESV). We can’t deny the fact that God commands us to forgive. However, finding the courage and strength to do it is much more challenging. But if we pray for our hearts to be open and pray for the anger we hold, God will begin to heal our hearts and help us offer that true forgiveness. You can’t hold on to anger towards someone for whom you are praying.

I stayed behind the group as we walked up that long hill at Camp Pinnacle. And it wasn’t long before the young girl carrying her oversized suitcase started falling further and further behind everyone else until she finally stopped and laid on the ground. She looked at me as I walked up to her and said, “I think I need a gentleman now.” The world we live in can put enough extra baggage in our lives. Don’t carry the additional baggage of bitterness and unforgiveness; let your loving Heavenly Father carry that baggage for you.