First Notes: The Last Key
Dear First Baptist Family,
I once read about a Baptist pastor named F.B. Meyer. He served Christ Church in the heart of London in the 19th century.
By all counts, Meyer had a successful life and ministry. But he confessed that something was lacking. He said that his early Christian life was impaired and his ministry paralyzed because he had held back something from the Lord.
It was like Meyer gave to the Lord all of the keys that represented all of the doors and rooms of his life, but he kept back one for himself.
Every key but one. That key was kept back for a room for his personal use, and the Lord was shut out.
The effect of the incomplete consecration was found in lack of power, assurance, joy, and peace. Fortunately, having discovered the cause of his lack of spiritual vitality, God gave him the grace to turn over the last vestige of his old self.
“The joy of the Lord begins when we hand over the last key,” Meyers later reflected. “We sit with Christ on His throne as soon as we have surrendered our crowns, and made Him sole and only ruler of our life and its possessions."
Have you yielded keys to every room in your life? When you give Him every key to every door, Jesus can come in and give your life peace and real security. The storms will come, but you’ll have a foundation for your life that can’t be shaken.
That’s true for our church as well. When we commit our all to Him, we will have a foundation that can stand through all trials. We will have access to the storehouse of his kingdom to supply all we need to fulfill God's mission through us.
With such confidence, we can dream big. We can expect God's help to discern a common vision and also keep us unified through Christ.
I'm so grateful for all those who filled out the recent survey about our church’s future. About 100 respondents gave input to help us consider areas in which we could develop future mission endeavors. I'll be sharing thoughts from that survey on Sunday, September 21.
I'm also thankful for the great turnout we had for last evening's Town Hall. The topic of discussion was the potential sale of some property that is not contiguous to our church campus, but nevertheless represents part of our downtown ministry footprint. I loved hearing the good questions and input that church members shared to help us prayerfully consider what God is leading us to do.
God has great plans for our church. But I fully believe that we won't see all that God can do through us until we get to the point of giving God the last key. This means that we put everything on the altar - all the finances God has entrusted to us, all of the assets, all of the skills and talents and spiritual gifts God has so freely given to our church - and ask God to multiply these gifts for kingdom purposes.
Would you join me in praying that God would light a new spiritual fire within the soul of our church? Would you pray for wisdom for our leaders? Would you prepare yourself to be a vessel that God can use even more fully, as together we say to the Lord, “We want you here. We need you. We adore you. We want what you want”?
Let's keep turning over the keys until the last one is in the Lord's hands.
I'm so glad to be on the journey with you. I love you and I love serving our church. I look forward to the future and the increase of the joy of the Lord among us.
In Christ,
Dr. Brent McDougal
P.S. I hope you’ll check out 2 new things that God has done over the last few weeks. First, we have launched prayerpower.com as a resource for our church as well as the community. This website is intended to be a place for resources regarding prayer, daily devotions, and videos to help you grow closer to Jesus. Second, this past Saturday I launched a radio show on Joy 620 (FM dial 102.5) called Prayer Power with Pastor Brent McDougal that airs every Saturday from 11am-12pm. This medium will allow us to reach thousands of people each week with encouragement for faith and prayer.
I once read about a Baptist pastor named F.B. Meyer. He served Christ Church in the heart of London in the 19th century.
By all counts, Meyer had a successful life and ministry. But he confessed that something was lacking. He said that his early Christian life was impaired and his ministry paralyzed because he had held back something from the Lord.
It was like Meyer gave to the Lord all of the keys that represented all of the doors and rooms of his life, but he kept back one for himself.
Every key but one. That key was kept back for a room for his personal use, and the Lord was shut out.
The effect of the incomplete consecration was found in lack of power, assurance, joy, and peace. Fortunately, having discovered the cause of his lack of spiritual vitality, God gave him the grace to turn over the last vestige of his old self.
“The joy of the Lord begins when we hand over the last key,” Meyers later reflected. “We sit with Christ on His throne as soon as we have surrendered our crowns, and made Him sole and only ruler of our life and its possessions."
Have you yielded keys to every room in your life? When you give Him every key to every door, Jesus can come in and give your life peace and real security. The storms will come, but you’ll have a foundation for your life that can’t be shaken.
That’s true for our church as well. When we commit our all to Him, we will have a foundation that can stand through all trials. We will have access to the storehouse of his kingdom to supply all we need to fulfill God's mission through us.
With such confidence, we can dream big. We can expect God's help to discern a common vision and also keep us unified through Christ.
I'm so grateful for all those who filled out the recent survey about our church’s future. About 100 respondents gave input to help us consider areas in which we could develop future mission endeavors. I'll be sharing thoughts from that survey on Sunday, September 21.
I'm also thankful for the great turnout we had for last evening's Town Hall. The topic of discussion was the potential sale of some property that is not contiguous to our church campus, but nevertheless represents part of our downtown ministry footprint. I loved hearing the good questions and input that church members shared to help us prayerfully consider what God is leading us to do.
God has great plans for our church. But I fully believe that we won't see all that God can do through us until we get to the point of giving God the last key. This means that we put everything on the altar - all the finances God has entrusted to us, all of the assets, all of the skills and talents and spiritual gifts God has so freely given to our church - and ask God to multiply these gifts for kingdom purposes.
Would you join me in praying that God would light a new spiritual fire within the soul of our church? Would you pray for wisdom for our leaders? Would you prepare yourself to be a vessel that God can use even more fully, as together we say to the Lord, “We want you here. We need you. We adore you. We want what you want”?
Let's keep turning over the keys until the last one is in the Lord's hands.
I'm so glad to be on the journey with you. I love you and I love serving our church. I look forward to the future and the increase of the joy of the Lord among us.
In Christ,
Dr. Brent McDougal
P.S. I hope you’ll check out 2 new things that God has done over the last few weeks. First, we have launched prayerpower.com as a resource for our church as well as the community. This website is intended to be a place for resources regarding prayer, daily devotions, and videos to help you grow closer to Jesus. Second, this past Saturday I launched a radio show on Joy 620 (FM dial 102.5) called Prayer Power with Pastor Brent McDougal that airs every Saturday from 11am-12pm. This medium will allow us to reach thousands of people each week with encouragement for faith and prayer.
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