Text Box:   Text Box: First Baptist Church EDITION OF The Baptist Record Church Offices: 20144 Pineville Road, Suite B Mailing Address: P. O. Box 338 Long Beach, MS 39560 228-864-2584, Website: www.fbclb.com Text Box: February 21, 2008 Text Box:   OUR GOD REIGNS! Text Box: Total Annual Budget             $835,869.00 Budget to Date Needed          $315,421.98 Budget Received to Date       $317,086.34   February 2008 Budget as of 2/29/08                   $  63,084.00 Budget Rec. as of 2/17/08          $  44,185.25   His Church Rising Totals           $606,072.38 Tennessee Disaster Relief       $    5,786.10

Text Box: Hey Youth, Once again I must say how impressed I am with the youth that showed up at the cross workday last week. We turned out a great deal of productivity. I will need you guys one more Saturday though. We will meet again on the 23rd, that’s this Saturday, at the Mogler’s for a final run through. Wear your old clothes again and be prepared to get a little dirty. True Love Waits is well underway and going really strong. Come join your youth group Wednesday nights at 6:00 at the annex for “Nite Life.” Our next fundraising workday will be the second Saturday in March, the 8th. I will have a list ready by then. We will meet at the annex at 8:30 and break up into teams there. I know, Youth News this week was pretty lame. Hey! If you can think of ways to improve it just email me at snwedge@yahoo.com and share your thoughts. Or, you can call me or text me on the cell at 341-0407. Remember, it’s your youth group, take control. I need your input for the brochure we will be making for the new school year. Send in a quote, one line please, about what the youth group means to you. Here is an example from an unknown youth…”The youth group to me is an environment where I can be myself and worship God without anyone judging me.” Send in a line by email, text or by mail, we could use yours in the brochure along with a goofy picture of you saying it. I hope you all have a great weekend and I’ll see you Saturday at the Mogler’s. Scott

Text Box: The LBHS Concert Choir under the direction of our own Joel Dunlap, will be singing in our worship service this coming Sunday morning. I look forward to their sharing with us.   The Coast-Wide Choir Festival is coming, Thursday, Feb. 28, 7:00 pm, at First Baptist in Pascagoula. I know it’s a long way to Pascagoula, but we surely would appreciate your support, and I know you will be blessed!    By the way, “I Stand Upon the Rock,” the selection that the Worship Choir shared this past Sunday, is the selection we will be sharing at the festival. Plus, at the end of the festival, all choirs will sing together a very special combined song that will be a great time of worship for all of us. So, if at all possible, don’t miss this great evening of music, worship and praise.   HeartSong Youth Music Camp is “ON” again for 2008! Dates are June 23-27, on the campus of William Carey University in Hattiesburg. More information will be available at Youth Choir this Sunday. Deadline to sign-up is April 6, and a $50 deposit is needed.   Youth Choir: “THE LIFESONG PROJECT” “The Lifesong Project” kicks into high-gear on March 2 with this special schedule:   Youth Choir will meet at 4:30 pm for a little extra practice time. At 6:00 we will depart for supper and bowling. Get all the details at choir on Sunday afternoon. This would be a great time to join us, Youth!

Text Box: Brenda’s Notes . . .                  I would like for you to be in prayer for an event that is coming up in the next week. It is the 6th Grade Retreat on March 1.  LaRue and John will be leading this and it will be on the “6 Questions of Worship.”  We will be asking them the following: What is Worship?  Who do we Worship?  Why do we Worship?  When do we Worship?  Where do we Worship?  How do we Worship? Do you know the answers to these questions?  I hope that you have the answers.  I hope that you are always in the act of worship and ready for worship.  It can happen at any time.  I worship when I see God working in the lives of His people.  I worship when I see His handiwork in creation.  I worship all day long.  We must be ready to worship when the Holy Spirit shows us God.  Are you watching for Him and ready to worship?              Please pray for the 6th Grade department.  This group of kids is fantastic.  They are reaching out to their friends.  They are bringing their friends.  We are seeing professions of faith in this group.  I am so proud of them and their leaders.  Please pray for them – they are the future of our church and committees.  Pray for a passion for Christ and the lost.  While you are at it, please pray for that for all of us.   ***********  

Text Box: There will be a brief Business Meeting Sunday morning, February 24, with a recommendation for the number of Deacons to serve in the 2008-09 year.

Text Box: Heart to Heart Friendship: everybody needs a friend. Charles Swindoll, in The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart, recalls this story of friendship. He writes,    Out of the furnaces of wars come many true stories of sacrificial friendship. One such story tells of two friends in World War I. They had enlisted together, trained together, traveled overseas together, and fought side by side in the trenches. During an attack, one of the men was wounded in a field filled with barbed wire obstacles, and he was unable to crawl back to his foxhole. The entire area was under enemy crossfire, making it suicidal to try to reach him, yet the friend decided to try. Before he could get out of his own trench, his sergeant yanked him back inside and ordered him not to go. He told him it was too late. He would only get himself killed if he tried. A few minutes later the officer turned his back, and instantly the man went after his friend. Several minutes later he staggered back, mortally wounded, with his friend, now dead, in his arms. The sergeant was both angry and deeply moved. "What a waste," he blurted out. "He's dead and you're dying. It just wasn't worth it.”    With one of his last breaths, the dying man replied, "It was worth it, Sir. When I got to him, the only thing he said was, 'I knew you would come.'" Jesus put it this way, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends,” John 15:13. True friendship will risk pain and harm to rescue a fallen friend. Friends don’t let friends give up, get the big head, get distracted, or destroy themselves; and the next few weeks we will discover how Jesus is that kind of a friend to us. We may turn our back on Christ as many have done through the ages, but nobody can say that Jesus did not come to them as a friend. Jesus wants to be your friend. Joseph Scriven expressed the scope of Jesus’ friendship when he wrote, “What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer! Oh, what peace we often forfeit, oh, what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer! Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged, take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness, take it to the Lord in prayer. Let’s worship together Sunday! - Bro. LaRue

Text Box: Youth News