Southview Connect

Finders Keepers - Awesome Job!!

What an awesome week of ministry it was last week!  Steve Kane did a phenomenal job leading the great team of volunteers who led our Finders Keepers Day Camp (VBS) - it was awesome.  Thanks to every one of you who did so much to make it a successful ministry outreach - we planted so many seeds of God's love and His Word, and I know that God's Word will never return void.  Thanks for your faithfulness, your hard work, and your commitment to making sure the next generation hears the truth of the gospel that we have received. 

So much happening in July at Southview - ministry is taking place all summer long locally and around the world!  If you're not plugged in, talk to me or one of our staff, Elders, or Spiritual Gifts Team, and we'll help you discover how God has wired you and what He has for you to do at Southview! 

Thanks for your faithfulness to what God is calling us to do here - what a privilege to serve alongside each of you! 

--Pastor William

Purpose

In my quiet time studies these past two weeks as I’ve continued reading through the Old Testament I cannot help but go back time and again to something I read at the beginning of Jeremiah, specifically Jeremiah 1:5, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you:  Before you were born I sanctified you; And I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”  It hit me immediately that God had a purpose for Jeremiah when He created him.  What struck me even deeper is that God has a purpose for everything and everyone he creates.  And He had that purpose in mind before each of us were created.

Do you realize the impact knowing that has?  It means that none of us are here are accident – regardless of who your parents were, or weren’t.  No matter your current circumstance you were created by God for a specific purpose.  The question that has haunted me these past two weeks is what is mine?  Have I been going through life believing the reason I’m here is because my parents had a baby?  Is life simply a long series of events where chance and happenstance affect us all differently and then we die?  Or, is it that God had a purpose in mind when He created each of us and if we seek Him with all our heart and soul He’ll not only reveal that purpose but he’ll actually accomplish that purpose in us?

I’ve come to realize more this past two weeks just how precious each living human being is in God’s eyes and how greatly He wants to have a personal relationship with each of his creations.  He wants to walk with us daily as he did Adam, as he did with Jeremiah.  He wants to show us His love and the plans He has for us.  In Jeremiah 29:11 God tells us He has plans for us, plans to prosper and not for harm, plans to give us a future and a hope.  God wants us to glorify Him through our lives and He is anxious to make that happen.

As we as Elders seek God’s direction for the church at Southview we are considering this very point – that God had a purpose for each of us before we were born, and He has a purpose for the church at Southview which He has built on the shed blood of His Son Jesus.  Before we can become the New Testament Church He desires us to be we need to first consider what God’s purpose is in our lives, so that His perfect will can work in and through them.

I commend to you the book of Jeremiah this week, and I challenge each of us to seek God’s purpose for our lives and for the church so that we may be prosperous in His Kingdom.

In Christ

Wes

Finders Keepers Day Camp!

Our Finders Keepers day camp for kids in grades 1-6 is less than 2 weeks away!  Have you plugged in to this outstanding opportunity?  You can have an impact on a child's life that could change their eternity - hard to get much bigger than that!  You can contact me or Steve Kane (steve.kane@southview.org) if you're interested.  We have a great opportunity to share the message of hope in Jesus Christ with so many through this, and we need your help to make it happen with excellence.  If you haven't registered your kids yet, you can do that online at www.southview.org - spaces are filling fast, so get your registrations in today!

One of our focus areas this year at Southview is our Next Generation ministries, and this is a great way to put some feet to those words.  We have openings for teachers, assistants, recreation, sound - you name it - there is definitely a place for you! 

Don't let this opportunity pass you by - plug in today and see how God uses you to impact eternity for a child.

--Pastor William

Baptizing the Dead

This verse was brought to my attention (and it’s not the first time), thinking that I would know the meaning of it. But in all honesty I was completely stumped (having answered it before, you’d think I’d know!). I knew of the passage but wasn’t prepared to respond to it apologetically. Here is the verse in question:

1 Corinthians 15:29
If the dead will not be raised, then what point is there in people being baptized for those who are dead? Why do it unless the dead will someday rise again?(NLT)

So how do you respond to this? It seems clear that Paul is advocating the baptism of the dead. But in reality I don’t think so. First of all, you cannot base any kind of theological reasoning on one verse alone. There are a lot of inherent dangers doing that, all verses need to be reasoned within the context of the Bible as a whole.

Ok, tackling this verse we need to understand that first and foremost we are not saved through baptism. We are saved by Grace through faith alone (Rom 4:5, Eph 2:8-9 & Titus 3:5-7). Furthermore we cannot do anything that would obtain salvation for someone else. Everyone must make their own free choice (John 1:12, Matt 23:37 & 2 Pet 3:9).

So what is Paul implying with this verse? I believe the interpretation to be that Paul is being rhetorical, that is, he saying the likes of; “What’s the point of baptism if there is no resurrection?” and then responds to it with verse 32, “if there is no baptism, lets just eat, drink and be merry cause we are all going to die tomorrow anyway”.

This problem has caused many a headache for theologians, so please understand that this is just my take on this verse, many others have differing views. Of course the implication of such a verse would demand that we be consistent with the Bible’s teaching in regards to those matters.

The Role Of The Remnant

During a recent Elders meeting the Holy Spirit led us to realize that God had brought to the new Elder ministry everyone who had been through the time of trial and testing Southview witnessed these past few years.  Diane saw it first and pointed out to the elders "we're the remnant" God is chosing to use in this new ministry and in leading the spiritual direction of the church at Southview.  As the days have passed and I've continued to pray and seek God's direction for us as Elders and for the local church the realization that we are a remnant began to penetrate all the Lord was showing me.

I've now come to realize that not only are the Elder's a remnant God is now using, but so is the majority of today's membership at Southview. Indeed we don't need to think long to be able to see and know the number of us who have belonged to this church for the last three to as many as twenty years or more.  Those of us who still remain after the very difficult of time of trial and testing God has led Southview through are the remnant that through His grace has been preserved for such a time as this.

If that's so, then what is the role of the remnant?  Is a remnant simply a scrap of leftover fabric to be used to patch garments, or is it something else?  The Bible is repleat with examples of "remnant theology", how God has protected and then used a remnant of people.  All we need consider are even a few of these in order to learn a lot about what God has in store for us.  Noah, Joseph in Egypt, Moses, the 7,000 in Elijah's time who would not worship Baal, are just a few of the examples of God's use of a remnant.  Paul even wrote in Romans 11:5 that "There is a remnant according to the election of grace."  What then does God do with each remnant, what precepts can we see from looking at these examples that may shed some light on what God now has in store for Southview?

When I consider all of these examples I see one common thread, that God used each remnant He protected as the nucleus to start a new community, to begin a new work.  Each remnant became the foundation to form a a new community devoted to God and His redemptive work. 

I also see that he used to the remnant to bring deliverance from an impending judgment or destruction.  They became a witness to God's great grace and His continuing work of world redemption.  Serving as a lighthouse in the midst of a dark and sinful world.

I can see from what God has shown me these past couple of weeks that we are a remnant - the Elders as a body, and the church at Southview.  He has led us through a great time of trial and tribulation in order to create the very remnant He required in order to begin a new work.  It's exciting and yet humbling at the same time to think that God has been working in each of our lives to accomplish His specific will.  We don't yet know what lie's ahead, but we know this - God IS leading us, now we need to pray we'll have the courage, strength and determination to follow.  Could it be that He's already told us our purpose for being a remnant; to be the nucleus of building a new community of faith, to be a lighthouse for Jesus and the Gospel, to deliver people from coming judgement, to have a role in literally proclaiming the Gospel to the whole world - all from the remnant at Southview?  Could it be...let's pray and seek God's face and see where He leads us.  Being a remnant - now that's working in the Kingdom of God - what a blessing, what an honor.

Wes