From the Heart of the Pastor

I feel somewhat sentimental as I begin to write this block.  This is the final article of 2016.  What a year this has been in my own personal life and the life of Oak Crest Baptist Church.  What an amazing God we serve.  Have you stopped to think about the perfection of God’s plan?  We cannot know the future, but God does.  Some who are reading this block had not even heard of Oak Crest Baptist Church when 2016 began, but now in the divine providence of God those families are a part of our family.  God saw fit to bring us into relationship with each other.  That was no coincidence; it was the divine plan of a Holy and all powerful God.  Every year that passes I am more and more thankful for God bringing my family to Oak Crest!  Just in the span of the past year, so much has happened.  Dear members of our church family have passed away, at the same time, babies have been born.  Your own lives are filled with changes, some encouraging and some difficult.  Who would have thought that God would do so much in one year?
          How has your life changed from a year ago?  That is not always an easy or comfortable question to ask.  That question probably stirs many emotions in your own heart – good and bad.  For some of you, 2016 has been an amazingly wonderful year.  Maybe you have met someone who has changed your life.  Maybe you have been blessed with an addition to your family.  Maybe you have been promoted at work.  For others of you, 2016 holds bitter memories.  Maybe a relationship has been broken.  Maybe a loved one has passed.  Maybe an illness has arisen.  Regardless of your circumstances, good or bad, take heart.  Our God Reigns!!  God’s promises will endure.  We don’t have to wonder about his faithfulness.  “The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever,” (Isaiah 40: 8).  I like to reflect as a new year approaches, not because I want to think about what would have been or should have been.  I like to think about the fact that no matter how much my life has changed in the past 12 months, God hasn’t.  He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  Whatever circumstances surround you at the conclusion of 2016, I pray one thing above all else.  I hope and pray you have come to treasure Christ more through the past year.  May God be supremely magnified above all else in 2017.
 
 In Christ,
Blain Craig