KEEP IN PAYER AND IN MIND

As we celebrate Black History Month, think about the influence of your ancestors, of the black leaders in our history and all they did to sow seeds of hop and survival as a race, in our lives. Especially think of and try to name every spiritual seed that was sown into your that helped lead to you to acknowledge Christ as your personal Lord and Savior? 

The outcome of sowing good spiritual seeds is why it is so important to take the opportunity and privilege every day of our lives to sow spiritual seeds into the lives of our family friends, co-workers, neighbors, or even strangers. God takes what you plant and adds to it by leading others to sow more seeds or to "water" the ground that day by day, such that through seeds we have spread, God’s truth is cultivated into the lives of many others. Our God has a plan and purpose for all of our lives and as we do His work, spreading spiritual seeds which lead others to walk in His plan for their lives, we too, are moved closer to Christ. 

So don’t be disappointed or downhearted because others don’t see, understand, or even appreciate the evidence of the Christ-like spirit evidenced in your life. What is important is that the love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance that is Christ Jesus is exemplified by the life you live, will draw others to Christ through the seeds you plant. 

Saints, know that not only does God see, He is pleased by your faith in Him, your good works and the spiritual seeds you spread daily to accomplish the work in His kingdom, daily!

 MINISTER: By what common and gracious experience do we enter into spiritual fellowship and covenant relations with God and with one another?  

CONGREGATION:  Having been led, as we believe, by the spirit of God, to receive the  Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour, and on the profession of our faith,  having been baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of  the Holy Ghost, we do now in the presence of God, angels and this  assembly, most solemnly and joyfully enter into covenant with  one another, as one body in Christ  

MINISTER: What is the great bond of our union with God and each other?  

CONGREGATION: We engage, therefore, by the aid of the Holy Spirit to walk together in Christian love.  

MINISTER: What are our great privileges and duties as members of the New Jerusalem Baptist Church?  

CONGREGATION: To strive for the advancement of this Church in knowledge,  holiness, and comfort; to promote its prosperity and spirituality; to  sustain its worship, ordinances, discipline, and doctrines.  

MINISTER: What vows do we gladly make as stewards of that which God has entrusted to us?           '  

CONGREGATION: To contribute cheerfully and regularly to the support of the ministry, the expenses of the church, the relief of the poor, and the spread of the gospel throughout all nations.  

MINISTER: For the sake of our homes and our loved ones, what gracious task do we humbly assume?  

CONGREGATION: We also engage to maintain family and secret devotions;  to religiously educate our children; to seek the salvation of  our kindred and acquaintances; to walk circumspectly in the world; to be  just in our dealings, faithful in our engagements, and exemplary in  our deportment; to avoid @ tattling, backbiting, and excessive anger; to  abstain from the sale and use of intoxicating drink as a beverage, and  to be zealous in our efforts to advance the Kingdom of our Saviour.  

MINISTER:  Since one is our master, even Christ, and all we are brethren, by what  fraternal ministries are we to strengthen each other and adorn the  teachings of our Lord and Saviour?  

CONGREGATION: We further engage to watch over one another in brotherly love; to remember each other in prayer; to aid each other in sickness and distress; to cultivate Christian sympathy in feeling and courtesy in speech; to be slow to take offense, but always ready for reconciliation, and mindful of the rules of our Saviour, to seek it without delay. 

MINISTER: Upon removing from the Washington, D.C. area, what solemn pledge do we make?  

CONGREGATION: We moreover engage that, when we remove from this  place, we will as soon as possible unite with some other church  where we can carry out the spirit of this covenant and the principles of  God's word.  

MINISTER and CONGREGATION: Humbly  confessing our past sins, we pray for grace and strength to keep these,  our holy vows, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord, and the edification  of His Church.  

MINISTER: And now unto Him, who brought again from the dead, Our Lord Jesus, be Power and Glory forever, Amen.    

 1. BAPTISTS believe in one God, the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit- three persons, yet one God.  

2.  BAPTISTS believe in the deity and the humanity of Jesus Christ, who is  none other than God the Son manifest in the flesh, and in whom all  the fullness of the Godhead dwells forever.  

3. BAPTISTS believe  that Jesus Christ is the one only Head of the Church; that all believers  are equally priests unto God; that ordination, while it recognizes  position, bestows no power; that the local church is independent and  sovereign.  

4. BAPTISTS believe that all men are sinners needing a  Saviour; that salvation is only and altogether through simple faith in  Jesus Christ, who died for our sins-faith always accompanied by works  meet for repentance, and that without such faith there can be no  salvation here or hereafter.  

5. BAPTISTS believe in unbroken  conscious existence after death determined by life before death: in the  personal second coming of Christ to judge the world; in the resurrection  of the body which for those who die in the Lord shall be like Christ's  glorious body; in the eternal weal of the saved and the eternal woe of  the lost. 

 II. What Baptists Stand For 

1.  BAPTISTS stand for the Bible. It is their law, their creed, and their  final authority in all matters relating to faith and practice.  

2. BAPTISTS stand for regeneration or "the birth from above" as a basis of church membership.  

3.  BAPTISTS stand for believer's baptism, the immersion of the believer in  water in obedience to Christ's command in the name of the Father,  and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, as a symbol of the death to the  old life and the resurrection to the new.  

4. BAPTISTS stand for the separation of Church and State, and for the largest measure of civil and religious-liberty.  

5. BAPTISTS stand for education, evangelism, and world-wide missionary endeavor.    

As  believers in Christ of the Baptist denomination, our object is to  worship God in Christ, fellowship together in Christian love, preach  Christ, teach and practice Christianity as taught in the New Testament,  and carry out the principles of God's word. We further aim to  witness for Christ in word and deed to the effect that others shall be  won to the saving knowledge of Christ by our example. We further  aim to promote orderly and godly living and dedicated Christian service  among our constituency for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. We further aim to advance the work of Christian Missions on both home and foreign fields.