Chambersburg Bible Church

It has been our conviction that when we have enough prayer support, the Lord will give us enough financial support to start our church planting ministry. Now, with close to 1,000 people receiving our prayer letter directly and many others through their church, the Lord is opening the door for our departure. With 95% of our support in place, we are making firm plans to move in October. This will give us time to pack, sell our house, and hold several more meetings to wrap up our deputation ministry. We are excited, but well aware that in faith we are stepping far outside our comfort zone.  As a family we are resting in this promise in Deut 31:8Deut 31:8
8 And the LORD, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.  
: “And the LORD, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee.”

House—Theo has been finishing a number of projects around the house and has listed the house in several places. We have had a few responses, but no serious inquiries yet. Please pray that the Lord would bring the right buyer our way. Along these lines, we are also actively looking for housing in the Netherlands. We have several options and need the Lord’s clear direction.

Ordination—We rejoice that Theo passed his public ordination questioning! He will be formally set apart for the Gospel ministry on August 15th (5 p.m.) at our home church, Mount Calvary Baptist Church. We invite all who are in the area to come share this special service with us.
Support—At 95% we are getting close to having all our needs met! We are pressing on toward an October departure with confidence that the Lord will indeed bring together the final members of our support team. We praise Him for providing almost fifty percent of our passage fund (which covers all one-time expenses involved in our move) and plan to hold a large yard sale in September to help add to this fund. We are entering a bittersweet time as we begin our farewells! This past weekend we said goodbye to extended family and dear friends in Sarah’s home state of Virginia.

Looking Ahead

• Aug 15–Ordination Service, Greenville, SC
• Aug 22–Community Baptist Church, Bradenton, FL
• September–Pack
• Oct 10-13–Fairview Baptist Church, Towanda, KS
• Oct 17–Crossview Baptist Church, Harrisburg, NC
• Oct 20 – Potential  Departure Date (10-20-2010)

Prayer Requests

• Daily growth in grace through God’s Word.
• The sale of our house.
• Effective ministry to churches.
• Our final support and passage fund needs.
• Increased evangelistic opportunities.

Serving Him Joyfully,
Theo and Sarah van Reijn

Text: Matthew 5:13-16Matthew 5:13-16
13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. ¹⁴ Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. ¹⁵ Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. a bushel: the word in the original signifieth a measure containing about a pint less than a peck ¹⁶ Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.  

Topic: Admonishing the believer to fulfill his patriotic duty

On this Independence Day 2010, we should examine our patriotic duty as understood from the scripture, while also considering our freedom in Christ from sin and death.

Abraham Lincoln once said, “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” We as American Christians have a patriotic duty as citizens in the greatest nation on earth to stand up for and defend the freedoms God has blessed us with.

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• Our patriotic duty to government (Romans 13:1-5Romans 13:1-5
  13 ¹ Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. ordained: or, ordered ² Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. ³ For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: ⁴ For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. ⁵ Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.  
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  • Obedience to our government and laws
  • Prayer for our government
    • President
    • Economy
    • Law Enforcement
• Remain educated and informed on current issues
• Our patriotic duty to our Creator (Acts 17:22-27Acts 17:22-27
  22 Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. Mars' hill: or, the court of the Areopagites ²³ For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. devotions: or, gods that ye worship ²⁴ God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; ²⁵ Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; ²⁶ And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; ²⁷ That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:  
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  • Understanding that God is “knowable”
    • Paul was not indifferent to those who were in spiritual darkness (v 17)
    • Paul sought to make known the “Unknown God”
• Established governments are used to promote the knowledge of God (v 27)
  • God establishes all governments (Romans 13:1Romans 13:1
    13 ¹ Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. ordained: or, ordered  
    )
  • God has a purpose for each government and nation
• Our God offers freedom from sin and death through Salvation

Challenge

• We celebrate America’s 234^th year of proclaimed independence – God has ordained and allowed the USA to exist for these many years that men and women may have opportunity to find and know God
• Have you found the Lord? He is near and awaiting your faith and dependence in Him!
• Thank God for the independence of our great Nation, do your patriotic duty for our Nation and in our service for the Lord!

Do you pray for yourself?  I’m not talking about asking God for “food and clothing,” though there is nothing wrong with that.  As a matter of fact, God commands and encourages His children to ask Him for their daily bread (Matthew 6:11Matthew 6:11
11 Give us this day our daily bread.  
)!  The kind of prayer that I’m referring to is asking the Lord to bring about real Christian growth in your life.  We have been conditioned to pray for others, but we feel that petitioning God on our own behalf is somehow self-serving and contrary to the Scriptures.  Christians rally to pray for the hungry in Africa and the devastated in Haiti, but are reluctant to bow their knees in prayer for their own spiritual growth.  Why is it that so many of us neglect prayer for our own spiritual development?  Allow me to suggest a few reasons why we avoid this kind of prayer.

A failure to understand the importance of seeking the Lord’s strength in spiritual transformation heads the list.  Many Christians think that spiritual transformation (i.e. being conformed to the image of Christ) can be accomplished through human initiative.  We conclude that Christ-  likeness is the necessary result of personal effort and determination.  While it is true that the Bible commands the believer to work out his own salvation (sanctification) with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12Philippians 2:12
12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.  
), it also tells us that God is at work (energizing) in us making us both willing and able to undergo this radical transformation (Philippians 2:13Philippians 2:13
13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.  
).  Since God has determined that every Christian be conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29Romans 8:29
29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.  
) and since He is the One who is at work in us to accomplish this goal, doesn’t it stand to reason that we should pray to Him asking Him for daily power for the process?

Another reason why this kind of personal prayer never crosses our mind is because we never make Christ-likeness a priority.  We somehow think that God is really not concerned about our spiritual growth.  God is indifferent and it really doesn’t matter to Him how we live.  Beloved, the Bible declares that God’s will for us is that we be dedicated to Him (1 Thessalonians 4:31 Thessalonians 4:3
3 For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:  
).  God is far from indifferent concerning our spiritual growth.  He has willed it to be so!  Henry Martyn, a missionary to India in the early 1800’s, understood the importance of his own spiritual development.  He said:  “Let me be taught that the first great business on earth is the sanctification of my own soul.” Martyn made his sanctification a priority and he prayed about it.

Finally, I think that many believers avoid personal prayer out of discouragement.  Oh, we understand that we have the omnipotence of God at our disposal to accomplish our sanctification.  We even understand that transformation is according to His perfect will for us.  But many times we fall short of that biblical standard.  We experience failure after failure and we begin to think that the quest for Christian maturity will never become a reality for us.  We become discouraged, convinced that we are the exception to the rule and that even though God has accomplished transformation in the lives of so many others, He is powerless to bring us to Christ-likeness.  Beloved, nothing could be further from the truth!  Take heart!  In Ephesians 3:14-21Ephesians 3:14-21
14 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵ Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, ¹⁶ That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; ¹⁷ That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; ¹⁹ And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. ²⁰ Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, ²¹ Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.  
, the Apostle Paul prays a powerful prayer for the saints at Ephesus concerning their sanctification.  Paul concludes that prayer by praising God for His ability to accomplish the sanctification of all His children.  Let the truth of verse 20 sink into your soul.  Take heart and pray for yourself like you have never prayed before!