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Calendar
 Sunday School - Aug 31 @ 9:30 am Worship Service - Aug 31 @ 11:00 am Prayer and Praise - Aug 31 @ 5:30 pm Mid-week Worship - Sep 03 @ 6:30 pm Deacon's Dinner - Sep 06 Kristi Haugan's Baby Shower - Sep 06 @ 1:00 pm Sunday School - Sep 07 @ 9:30 am Worship Service - Sep 07 @ 11:00 am
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Aviano Baptist Church
Via Mazzini 15 - Map, Directions Aviano, IT 33081 Phone: 39-0434-651910 Email: · Membership · Statement of Faith · Church History
Verse of the Day
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Pastor Sam's Devotional Thought
Luke 10:16 "He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me."
What a promise of protection and comfort Jesus offers in this little verse of Scripture! It is a well established fact that the vast majority of born again believers will never in their entire lifetime tell another person about either their salvation or their Savior. The number one reason given for this blatant failure to obey Jesus Christ in witnessing for Him is fear of rejection. No one enjoys being rejected. But here Jesus tells all of us that we are not going to be rejected – He is. We are protected from the rejection of rebellious sinners because Jesus has assumed that rejection for us. Why can’t we believe Him on this? We have trusted the fact that He assumed our sins upon the cross; otherwise we would not be saved. Why can’t we trust Him to have assumed the rejection that every faithful witness faces as they go about obeying His commands to tell others? Why can we not trustingly wrap ourselves in the comfort of knowing that we can’t be rejected as we engage in the one purpose to which Jesus has commanded us all?
Notice that Jesus says here that if an unbeliever listens to our message, they are listening to Him. That means that we can take absolutely no credit when they become believers. Truthfully, every faithful witness knows that all the credit and glory goes to the Lord when they lead someone to be saved. Why, then, can’t we equally trust in the fact that every rejection also goes to Him? Surely in the economy of a totally just Lord we who can take no credit for the success can also be assigned no blame for the seeming failures. Yet we persist in blaming ourselves when someone rejects our gospel message, and most of us let that prevent us from ever presenting our gospel message.
Why is it that we can’t be rejected when we share our testimony? Because, in truth, we have nothing to offer; we can only tell people what Jesus has given us and is offering to them. Allow me to try and illustrate it this way. Several months ago I went into a local optometrist’s office in Aviano to buy a new set of frames for my glasses. The lady who served me found a pair of frames that suited me well, and she told me about the guarantee that her company gave to back up my purchase. I took her word for it that the company that she represented did indeed guarantee their product, and I bought the frames. I did not make my decision based upon her guarantee because she is only an employee with no power to guarantee anything. I trusted her company’s power to honor the guarantee.
Just two weeks ago one of the ear pieces broke off my frames, and I returned to that same shop to get them repaired. To be honest, I had forgotten completely about the guarantee and, when I went back to get my repaired glasses, I was ready to pay for the service. That same faithful sales lady refused my money and reminded me that the frames were still under warranty, that the repair was free. She had the authority to tell me that because her company stood behind their guarantee, and her company had the power to give me free of charge the repairs that I needed.
Had I rejected the offer of a guaranteed product at the beginning, I would not have rejected the sales lady but her company. By accepting it, I did not accept her offer, but her company’s. She had nothing to offer me, but she told me what her company was offering. When I went back and profited from that guarantee, I did not get anything from the sales lady but from her company. It was not she who gave me the fulfillment of the guarantee, but her company.
So it is with witnessing for Jesus. Since we have nothing to offer, we simply tell what He is offering. If they reject the offer, it is His offer, not ours, that they are rejecting. Conversely, if they accept the offer, it is not our offer they are accepting, but the offer of the One who has both the authority and the power to honor that offer to the fullest degree. Now, knowing that you have that divine protection against rejection, go forth in the comfort that it provides, and freely tell people about the salvation offered by the Lord Jesus Christ! |
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· Very-Young Married Couples· Sunday School · Vacation Bible School PollMailing ListSearchWeatherYou need to fill in your location information for this. Mission StatementAviano Baptist Church's mission statement embraces all that Jesus has commanded His church to do. As we in the church learn to love Jesus more, we are coming to fulfill His great commandment to “love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). As we lead more to love Jesus, we are attempting to fulfill the second part of the great commandment, to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12: 31). We also intend through this part of our mission statement to fulfill the Lord’s Great Commission given in Matthew 28:19-20 and Acts 1:8. |
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