Thanks to all who have been praying for Natalie this past month. She went into the ER again Thursday night with extremely high blood pressure, shortness of breath, and tingling in her face. We thought maybe it was an allergic reaction to sugar, but we’re honestly not sure. She’s staying off processed sugar completely until she meets with her primary care doctor tomorrow, but such a restricted diet is sometimes making her even more tired and weak.

Natalie has had two sets of blood tests so far with no significant abnormalities. Her cardiology stress test went pretty smoothly this morning. She was dizzy throughout, but the doctor said her heart looks good. Praise the Lord! However, we’re back to the drawing board on what might be wrong. We just have no idea what’s causing her dangerously high blood pressure, fatigue, dizziness, shakiness, occasional blurry vision, etc.

We are physically and emotionally exhausted, taking this one day at a time and grateful for God’s sustaining grace. Natalie has an appointment with her PCP tomorrow afternoon, so hopefully we’ll find out what our next step should be.

Thanks for your continued prayers!

Here’s a church update I shared last Sunday afternoon during our quarterly business meeting…

“Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. Who can utter the mighty deeds of the LORD, or declare all his praise?” (Psalm 106:2-3).

God is doing mighty deeds and showing us many reasons to give Him praise at First Southern Baptist Church.

Our Sunday worship has taken a giant leap forward with the addition of Ryan H, Chris P, and Annie R. assisting Janet and our choir with music ministry. I’ve heard many comments of how uplifting the music has been recently. If you have a musical gift and would like to join the team, please speak with Janet.

During our Bible Study time, I’ve been preaching on the spiritual gifts and love from 1 Corinthians 12-14. If you would like to exercise your gifts and get more involved in ministry, please let me know so we can help plug you in. Sometime after Easter, we’ll launch into chapter 15 on the resurrection and answer some common questions about heaven, hell, and the afterlife. Thank you for your hunger for God’s Word and your desire to know and obey the Lord.

We’ve been blessed to have three young ladies get baptized, and are now getting ready to start another membership class in the next couple weeks with several people who are interested. Please continue to be welcoming to visitors, and be sure to invite friends to church. These are some of the simplest ways to be a witness to those God has brought into your life. For your convenience, we have church invitation cards on the sound booth. Please take a handful and pass them out throughout the week.

By the grace of God, our Sunday attendance and giving are steadily increasing. You will notice in the stewardship report that we are almost running a balanced budget. Please continue to give generously so we can meet the rest of our financial commitments and continue to expand our ministry. We are also making progress in our capital campaign. A brand new preschool playground set has been donated to the church and will be assembled in the next few weeks. We are also researching a our new front sign and audio equipment.

Our church photo directories finally arrived and look fantastic. Thanks for your patience. If your information is incorrect, please contact the church office so we can update our records. If you have just started attending or do not have a photo, we hope to have another photo shoot sometime in the next twelve months for newcomers. Lifetouch will do another photo shoot and print a directory addendum if we have a minimum number of new families to add.

Lastly, a Membership Review Committee was formed a couple years ago by the congregation to review our membership roll and follow up on inactive members. You’ll notice in our Church Clerk report that our membership is over double our regular attendance. Many of these members have been inactive for years, so we are eager to make contact with them, let them know what has been going on at the church, and to encourage them to return. Please be in prayer for this committee.

Since I’m preaching on spiritual gifts right now, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to take one of those spiritual gift tests. Here are the results:

Much to my relief, it says I’m gifted as a pastor. (Not sure what I would’ve done if I’d scored low in that area!) Not surprisingly, the areas of teaching and administration were also high.

Now, bear in mind, these tests are not fool-proof. And they’re certainly not biblically required. The Holy Spirit was doing just fine for almost two-thousand years before these tests came along. If you take one, you’ll notice that they are more a survey of what you enjoy doing and perceive about your own abilities. They can’t factor in the essential role of others in the Body of Christ to affirm your gifts.

Nevertheless, the questions are interesting, and the results can be surprisingly accurate. If you’ve never done a spiritual gifts analysis, it may be one helpful way to “think with sober judgment” (Rom. 12:3) about your gifts. The one I did was through ChurchGrowth.org.

Which 2-3 gift(s) do you think you’re strongest in? Did the survey confirm this, or reveal anything new? Any areas you need to grow in?