TO HAVE FRIENDS, BE FRIENDLY.

That’s what the Bible says. Where can you find really good friends if you want them? Where can you find people who will be faithful friends? Where are friends you can talk to, depend on, fellowship and worship with? Where can you find friends who will help you to get to know God better? Well, in the Church, of course.

We will be celebrating friends at our 9am Pancake Breakfast on Sunday, February 12 in our Sunday School building. Hot cakes, sweet syrup, fun songs, and a talk by our own Richie Nicastro about “My High School Football Days.”

Getting together with friends is a blessing, and makes life good and happy. So how about it? Join us, get happy, be our friend.

A Resolution for 2012

Here’s a good resolution for all of us. Try to find out what God wants in your life.

How does He want you to behave towards others? What pathway in your current circumstances does He want you to follow? How much courage, kindness, or generosity does He expect you to have? And, maybe you have other questions about your life that you’d like to know His will about.

Where do you find the answers? Where does God speak? How can you find His will?

The answer is you find what God wants to make known to you in His revealed word, the Bible. Read it regularly, even just a little each day and you will find God speaking into your life. And, go to church (somewhere where the Bible is preached and taught; First Baptist Church of Matawan is a good place for that) because that’s where you will hear His word explained.

Here’s a principle: Know His word = know His will.

Ministries at Thanksgiving and Christmas

The Thanksgiving and Christmas season are a time in the life of our church each year when the people of First Baptist Church of Matawan express their thanks to God and love for others in wonderful tangible ways.

Each year at our Thanksgiving Eve Service we receive a canned and dry goods offering. The food stuffs given by our folks are divided between our small In-House Food Pantry and the Keyport Ministerium Food Pantry in a neighboring town. People that we do not know (some that we do) and may never know in this earthly life enjoy good food given by our people from the blessings given to them by God.

Our Christmas outreach to those who may be less fortunate includes Christmas gift cards from various well known store chains which are voluntarily given by our church folk and then forwarded in time for Christmas to a ministry in Weirton WV, the Weirton Christian Center, where children and families from that community are ministered to in the name of Christ.

Locally the folks of our church act like grandparents, and aunts and uncles to children in a day care center on the shore. The purchase and delightfully wrap individual gifts for this children from lower income homes, and then a group from the church (featuring a guy from the North Pole in a red suit) go down and provided a Christmas gifting party for the children who range in ages from 1-5. This year the people of First Baptist gave 148 gifts in this ministry.

On Christmas Eve at our two worship Services (7:30 & 11:30 pm) we will receive our annual Christmas Present for Jesus Offering. This offering is given away to other ministries as a present from our congregation to the Lord Jesus Christ at the celebration of His earthly birthday. This year’s offering will be given to Child Evangelism Fellowship and Murrow Indian Children’s Home in Muskogee, OK.

These gifts of thanksgiving given at this season of the year remind us that the greatest gift ever given was given by the Lord God, Himself.” For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, the whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16, KJV).