An Encouraging Word – by Don Wilton

I trust these summer months are treating you well. Please know that I love you in the Lord Jesus Christ and that I pray for you. There is so much going on across our wonderful state of South Carolina as we serve the Lord Jesus in so many different ways and in so many different places. God bless you real good!

Don Wilton

I do want to encourage you on a personal level. Perhaps you are going through some crisis in your life, even as you read this edition of The Baptist Courier. It may well be you are facing an uncertain future because of the death of a loved one, or because of divorce or separation.

Perhaps your financial world has fallen apart, or you have to wake up each day reaching for pills and tablets which are designed to alleviate the pain and discomfort you experience.

Perhaps you have suffered a great injustice through the foolishness or inconsideration of another.

Perhaps you are reading this letter lying in a hospital bed, or, yes, even locked up in a prison cell.

Perhaps you are just flat out lonely. You have spent a lifetime celebrating with family and friends. July 4th, in fact, used to be all it is intended to be.

Today you sit and listen to your pastor wishing everyone “a happy 4th” as they headed out to their lake homes, barbecues and fireworks displays – but yours is only a distant, albeit precious, memory of a day gone by.

I just wanted to tell you how much I love you today. You have served the Lord Jesus with such faithfulness. So many of you have been true salt and light. You have been there when it counted. You have given of your finances to your church through God’s tithes and your special offerings. You are the ones who have made, and continue to make, it all happen. You have provided, guided, loved and encouraged. You have been found faithful in so many and varied ways. Now it is our turn to return the love to you. And so I want you to know we are praying for you.

And let’s be much in prayer for the continuing work of all South Carolina Baptists. Our churches are on mission for the Lord Jesus Christ.