FBC Gallatin,
Throughout my life, and particularly since I’ve been here in Gallatin, I’ve learned through various life events that nothing we plan is written in stone. This is especially true when Stacy and I have a baby on the way at some point this month but not exactly sure when. I write this letter the morning after coming home from a late night at the hospital in Kansas City when we weren’t sure if the continuing contractions were indicating real or fake labor. It turns out it was a false alarm and the little guy wasn’t ready just yet, but it’s hard to tell sometimes and with us living further away from a hospital than we ever have before with our other 5 children, it was good to make sure just in case.
And notice how this illustrates what we’ve been seeing even in the final chapter of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7 about the “faker” professing Christians who say one thing but are really on the broad road to destruction, and who are really just a bad trees producing bad fruit, and who claimed they loved Jesus, yet did not know Jesus, and who built their houses not on the rock, but on sand because they didn’t live out what they claimed. The “fakers” were not what we or they thought, but they were just false alarms. Hopefully the close of our series has had us examining our hearts and lives to ensure we are not like them.
But needless to say, as I plan this next month with Pastor Wood, we have done so with an open hand due to some uncertainties, and we will be thankful for whatever God provides for us as we look forward to see how it all turns out. And September has a lot of uncertainties to be honest and also a lot of exciting things to look forward to as it marks the beginning of a new school year and the first full month for out Bulldogs in school and sports, and there are so many new things for our community to look forward to. And the same goes for our church.
For instance, we just finished the sermon series Kingdom Come that we have been in since last December going through Matthew 1-7, and I have been working on the next series to start potentially sometime later this month in the book of Galatians titled Gospel Centered Justification which may or may not begin sometime in September. We also have the opportunity to worship together with pastor Steve Moseley who served us so well as interim pastor starting two years ago in September of 2019 before I was called and then began in January 2020. I have always been so thankful and encouraged by his ministry to our church and his friendship, so the potential of us worshiping together will be so special, but of course we can only plan some dates and just wonder whether or not our son will cooperate with our “plans” and we will trust God with however it all turns out. We are also excited to potentially begin our Intentional Discipleship Table Talks on “Getting the Gospel Right” this month as well but we will see and trust God with the timing of it all.
There are a few things that we are pretty certain will be starting this month; and that is our Pioneer Clubs which are also beginning on Wednesday August 22nd which is not dependent on some of the uncertainties around our baby, and we will gather week in and out to worship God regardless as well it will just be a different preacher depending on how it all works out which will be a tremendous blessing and I look forward to be edified potentially watching the livestream in the hospital room with Stacy. Regardless of all the details, God is so good and his grace and mercy to us is unmatched and we will rejoice in another month of opportunities to gather and worship the King together! Please pray for me as I pray for you, and also, pray for each other as well!
Sincerely,
Pastor Daniel Pelichowski