First Baptist Church of Texas City From Our Pastor, Robert Miller

First Baptist Church of Texas City

From Our Pastor, Robert Miller:
According to the Christian calendar, Lent began last Wednesday. Lent is 40 days right before Easter that is to be spent fasting and meditating on Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. The 40 days are representative of the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness fasting and dealing with temptation. Though Lent as a remembrance or festival isn't explicitly mentioned in the Bible, I believe that setting aside significant time to meditate on the cross and fasting are spiritual disciplines we need in our lives. The fast Jesus did was a supernatural fast of going without food or water for 40 days. If someone did that without God's intervention, they would die. Jesus did teach us to fast. Many people give up something (fast) important to them for 40 days to focus more on their relationship with Christ. During Lent, people give up meals, coffee, sweets, social media, etc. I believe fasting is a biblical, spiritual discipline that has largely been ignored in our Baptist tradition. I encourage you to practice it along with taking time to read the cross accounts in the gospels over and over during the 40 days before Lent.
The other emphasis I do during the season of Easter is to give what I like to call a "30 for 30" offering. I coined that term for you ESPN viewers before there even was an ESPN. I started doing this as a little boy. I heard a sermon on Judas selling out Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. In my young mind, I thought if Judas could sell him out for 30 pieces of silver, I could give 30 pieces of silver to the church to make up for it. I didn't have any money, but back then, you could pick up pop bottles and sell them back to the store for 3 cents a bottle. I picked up 100 bottles the next week and gave 30 dimes (made of silver back then) next Sunday, Easter. Ever since, I have given an extra offering with 30 in it to the church. When I was younger, it was $3.00 and then $30.00, and I worked up to $300.00. We will be taking this offering up again this year. We will use the offering to help offset any shortfall from our budget offering that is way behind this year. We will give any above that to the Ukrainian Baptist Convention for benevolent relief in Ukraine. Please pray about joining me in this offering. Give $3.00, $30.00, $300.00, or $3,000.00 to this offering to honor Jesus over and above your regular tithes and offerings.