“Not All Love is Created Equal”
Human beings are fickle. We will exalt, praise, and love something and someone … celebrities, sports figures, business leaders, material goods. The practice of giving praise and love is consistent, but the focus of our affection may drift.
As believers we know that Jesus has called us to Love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength (Mark 12:30) and to love our neighbors as ourselves. However, we also develop affections for other things. It is a transition where good things can (and often do) take the place of Godly things. The process is subtle. We often think we’re just enjoying life. Jesus came that we would have life and life abundantly (John 10:10), but he warned us that life does not consist in the abundance of things (Luke 12:15). As a culture, we develop a rut where the love of things draws from our love of God and our love of others. As believers, we rarely see the loss of our love for God. But we know that we’re struggling to love others. We “unfriend” them on social media and talk about them to our friends. We’re more than ready to “vote them off the island” and out of our workplace, family gatherings, and from our lives. We accept this as normal. But God tells us in His word that this is not normal Christian behavior. 1 John 2:9, 11 "Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister[b] is still in the darkness.” “11 But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.” 1 John 4:20 hits us right between the eyes, “For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.” These verses can catch us off guard because we still believe we’re loving God, while our love may have been shaped more by our world than by God’s Word.
For this reason, John (the one Jesus loved) warns us of love run aground, off course and hi-jacked. Our love is destined for the pure, the lovely, and the eternal. God is the genuine article, but our love drifts to the counterfeit. So John warns us, "15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father[d] is not in them. 16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever."
Let us remember in this month of love, that our best love is from God, for God and for others. Let His love fill and guide your hearts.
God bless you. Pastor Tom
DLABC MEN’S FELLOWSHIP:
The next meeting will be Friday, February 11, 2022, 11:00 a.m., at Holly’s Home Cooking – 489 East Dixie Drive – West Carrollton, OH 45449. Men’s Fellowship Meeting will take place the second Friday of every month at 11:00 a.m. If you would like to bring a friend, please do so. If you have any questions, call or text Brad at 937-603-2141.
American Baptist Women News
THANKS to all who have contributed books, stamps, and socks! We donated to the Montgomery County Jail 9 pair of women socks and 43 men socks. To Dayton Christian Center 42 pair of children/youth socks were donated.
Remember to turn in ALL cancelled stamps off of your mail and donate books for Right to Read Project.
Gifts were delivered to 9 children through Angel Tree Ministry (Children of incarcerated parents). Thanks to Joyce Kelley for her leadership in this project.
There will be no February meeting and we will not meet until March 10. Pat Trent is the coordinator of that meeting and has arranged for Bessie Smith to share her personal “Walk with Christ”. This meeting will be during Lent and ideal for each of us to evaluate our own walk.
Library: Off the Shelf
In the church lobby there are: books by our own authors, meditation books and later years of Father Tim series by Jan Karon. Choose your book, fill out the sign out card in back of book, take a date due card and ENJOY!
Books by our own authors are:
Cecelia Elliott – Gleanings and Off the Ruffled Cuff
Janet Mayo – Rhubarb & Roses
Hyacinth Palmer – Caregiverlocity
Mary Jane Salyers – Appalachian Daughter
Rev. Bill Salyers – Why We Are Baptists
There are many other books downstairs in the church library which is always open for your self checkout.
From the Trustees
January and February are always a challenge for our church home. Boiler maintenance and repairs top the list as we just replaced a Zone control board and the pump for the sanctuary. At this moment, the boilers are fully functioning.
We will be receiving our annual building insurance bill. Be aware that all insurance policies are seeing dramatic increases. We will challenge any charges that seem unreasonable.
Moving from lawn care to parking lot care due to snow activity is a seasonal challenge. The trustees monitor snowfall carefully. We always want to make sure lot conditions are safe for Sunday worship and our employees during the week.
We will be scheduling an inside workday in February. It will be on a Saturday and specifics will be announced at a Sunday service.
Thank You Notes
To the congregation of Dorothy Lane Baptist, thank you for the very thoughtful and generous Christmas gift this year for my 30th anniversary as your custodian. Your kindness and friendship are always appreciated.
Custodian, Steve Boggs
To my church family, a heart felt Thank You for the Holiday gift. Much appreciated! I think we are all looking forward to a better year in 2022. Best wishes for the New Year to all, thank you for making me feel at home, be safe, be well and see you in Church.
Jack Dallas Smith
Dear Dorothy Lane American Baptist Church Congregation,
Thank you so much for the cards, gifts and words of your appreciation during the Christmas holiday season. I am deeply touched by your thoughtfulness and caring.
Pat Manley
Christian Ed Corner
Adult Sunday classes and preschool and nursery will resume in February as, hopefully, Omicron decreases.
Adult Classes – If you haven’t been reading*Power Thoughts by Joyce Meyer, here are a few of the “power thoughts” studied:
1) I can do whatever I need to do in life through Christ. Philippians 4:13
2) God loves me unconditionally. Ephesians 1:4
3) I will not live in fear. 2 Timothy 1:7
4) I am difficult to offend. Psalm 119:165
The author suggests writing these points on index cards or post-it notes and leaving them in places you will look at throughout the day; inside a cupboard, or the medicine cabinet, on your steering wheel or on the door you exit when leaving your home. In other words, convenient places where we’ll be reminded of God’s will for us.
Janny Kehr is teaching this class using this book. The class begins promptly at 10 and ends promptly at 10:45. Come early to share prayer concerns and visit.
Preschool/Nursery- Always looking forward to the happy faces of Sam, Abbey and June. We would welcome any child, preschool age. Preschool/Nursery at 11:00 on Sunday. Hope to see you there! (Please leave your cell phone number with the teacher.)
2021 Year-in-Review Highlights, Moderator Report
When I was looking over the DLABC monthly Tie Binder’s from 2021, it was amazing to see the tremendous number of rewarding activities and fellowship the congregation experienced in 2021. This will be described in details by the boards in the 2021 Yearly Report, coming in February 2022. However, for this issue of the Tie Binder, I am providing a short summary of highlight events of 2021.
The year 2021 was full of challenges for DLABC; however, it was impressive and inspiring how church members responded so positively and with great spirit throughout the year. And there are so many great events and blessings to note, and be truly thankful for. A few of the church highlights and timeline from 2021 are provided below.
Jan – Feb. The on-going pandemic of COVID-19 was a continuing challenge during 2021, and the year started out on 1 Jan with DLABC only able to provide online services. This was because of the large surge of infections in Nov and Dec 2020, which caused DLABC to stop live-services in Dec 2020. After infections reduced by about 5 times by 1 Feb 2021, DLABC was able to restart live services on 14 February 2021. With the availability of vaccines in February and March 2021, infections dropped to very low levels by 15 July 2021, however started to rise then and peaked 2 months later at ~ 15 September, partly because of the Delta variant.
June-July. Our gifted pastor for 10+ years, Rev. Karen Johnson, officially sent a resignation letter to church dated 28 Jun, and her last official Sunday was on 1 August. A dinner of thanks was held on 1 August, which was a celebration of her time and ministry at DLABC. This was a partly a time of mourning, as Pastor Karen was a large part of lives for many years.
August – September. We were very blessed to have Interim Pulpit supply during 2 months starting 8 August, to hear the unique messages and visions from local ministers, including: Rev. Tom Kehr multiple times, Dr. Wes Babian two times, ShroyerRoad Pastor Emeritus Ken Damon, and Ohio American Baptist Ohio (ABC) Area minister Dr. Marva Hughes. Kind of amazingly during COVID-19 times, church members organized to hold a successful annual rummage sale on Aug 19-21, and raised $776.25! And the clean-up was accomplished in record time finishing by ~ 2 pm on Saturday Aug 21! Way to go DLABC members!
October. DLABC was very blessed to have Rev. Tom Kehr accept an offer to serve as Interim Pastor officially starting Sunday 3 Oct 2021, for a period of 18 months. Rev. Kehr has been providing wonderful and inspiring sermons every week, and leadership and guidance to the church and boards. He is also working full-time, in a blessed ministry as a prison chaplain for the State of Ohio.
November – December. The church had a wonderful annual meeting and thanksgiving dinner on 21 November, and the annual pledges, budget proposal, and board nominations for 2022 were approved by the congregation. The ABW women held their annual Christmas Bazaar on 5,6 November, and successfully raised ~$1,500 for charities they sponsor. This was accomplished with some ABW leaders sick for this year. The church had a wonderful Christmas dinner and party on 12 December, with live music! And it was wonderful to be able to celebrate Christmas Eve and Sunday services in person this year, compared to 2020!
Wonderful Staff. DLABC was very blessed in 2021 with talented and wonderful staff, who kept the church and services running so well and smoothly, and working on church business details: Rev. Karen Johnson and Rev. Tom Kehr, Jack Smith - Organist and Pianist, Pat Manley – Office Staff and Treasurer, and Steve Boggs – Custodial Support. Our heartfelt thanks to the staff for their wonderful support and service.
Moderator, Tim Haugan
Upcoming Events
Annual Planning Meeting, 19 Feb 2022, 10 am to 2 pm, details tbd; and snow date 26 Feb 2022
Workday
We will be scheduling an inside workday in February. It will be on a Saturday and specifics will be announced at a Sunday service.
