After getting some bugs worked out, taking some downtime to re-charge and re-energize, the Westlake Baptist blog is back!
Thank you for your patience, and as always for taking time to read and comment on our blog postings. In 2018 we want this blog to be a place of encouragement for your walk with God. We also want it to be a supplement to your personal time of Bible study and prayer as well as your local church’s teaching. If you don’t presently have a local church you call home, we want to encourage you to pray about it and ask God to lead you to the right house of worship. Hebrews 10:25 tells us to “not forsake the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some, and so much the more, as you see the day (Jesus’ return) approaching.” The previous verse is the writer of Hebrews telling us how the local church is a gift from God and can help you grow in your relationship with God when it says, “And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works.” We are to provoke or prod one another to love as Christ loves us. And we are to provoke or prod one another to do the good works that God has pre-ordained us to do according to Ephesians 2:10.
If you live in the Smith Mountain Lake area in Virginia and you don’t have a church home, I want to encourage you to come visit us at Westlake Baptist Church. We currently offer to worship services on Sunday mornings. Our 8:30 service is a traditional worship service in which we play the great hymns that many of us grew up with. In the 11:00 service we have more of a blended approach to our worship music. We still sing the hymns, but we also sing some of the contemporary songs as well. The one thing you will find whether you visit us at 8:30 or 11:00, is our primary focus in worship is to make much of Jesus. As we have said before, we want to pray the Word, preach the Word, and sing the Word so that we can go out and live the Word. We offer children’s ministries and youth ministries on Sunday mornings during the 11:00 service. If you are unable to make a Sunday service, we encourage you to join us on Wednesday nights beginning at 6:45. Wednesday nights are a little different than Sunday mornings. We still offer a children’s ministry and youth ministry. But the adults focus more on prayer as well as a time of Bible study. On Wednesday nights we encourage the adults to dialogue with the pastor as he teaches. It is a place to ask questions, and really dive deep into God’s Word.
Thanks again for reading this post. I hope you will add our blog to your regular routine of reading.
Serving Christ,
Pastor Justin