Saturday's baptism was awesome! We baptized around 60 people. Several people prayed to receive Christ before we began and at least a couple of them chose to be baptized on the spot . . . in their street clothes! How cool is that?

Discrimination is a big issue in our society. Based on a person's appearance, gender, income, race, weight, etc., others may give them preferential treatment or, for that matter, pretend that they don't exist. What happens when that sort of thing goes on at church? What does the Bible say about that? Find out Sunday as we continue our new message series Spiritual Fast-Tracking based on the New Testament book of James.

Allen

Maybe you heard about the controversy sparked recently by a public baptism in Richmond, Virginia. A church was baptizing a dozen new members when officials tried to break up the ceremony. In the end, they were allowed to finish the ceremony but they were then asked to leave the park. It was an unfortunate situation that received national coverage.

I'm happy to say that we've got the permits we need from the city for our baptism Saturday at Emma Long (City) Park [see Upcoming Events below]. My point in relating the incident in Richmond is that a public baptism is a powerful thing. We will baptize around 60 people this weekend. It's an amazing thing to witness as a few hundred people stand singing on the beach while dozens are led into the water to publicly identify themselves as followers of Jesus.

Sunday we continue our new message series Spiritual Fast-Tracking based on the New Testament book of James. We'll be talking about authenticity. It has been said that, "the greatest gap in life is the one between knowing and doing." Learn how to close that gap and get up to speed spiritually at either of two Sunday services at Calvary Austin.

Allen

Wednesday evening will be special for at least a couple of reasons. As part of our overview of the entire Bible, we come to James. What makes that unusual is that we are two weeks into a series in James on Sunday. So we'll be studying the same book Sunday morning and Wednesday evening. The two studies will be complimentary. The overview on Wednesday will last three weeks while the Sunday series will feature 11 messages over a 13-week period. And this is not without precedent. For nearly 40 years, Pastor Chuck Smith at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa has taken his Sunday morning text from the chapters he's overviewing that same evening. I think those attending on Wednesday will get that much more out of Sunday.

The other special thing is that we will be celebrating Communion tomorrow. Jesus instituted two ordinances in the church. One is Communion and the other is water baptism. We have a baptism Saturday at City Park (more about that in my next blog). But I want to invite you to join us tomorrow evening as we remember the Lord's death by way of two powerful symbols: the bread and the cup (1 Corinthians 11:23-26).

Allen

As Christians, we talk a lot about spiritual growth but how many of us are actually growing? How have you grown this year? How will you grow this summer? Sunday, June 6, we begin a verse-by-verse study of the New Testament book of James. The thing that amazes me about James - Jesus' half-brother - is that between Acts 1 and 12, he goes from new believer to spiritual leader. James has much to teach us about spiritual growth. We're calling this message series Spiritual Fast-Tracking. This week, as we celebrate our twelfth anniversary as a church meeting on Sunday mornings, we'll look at how responding rightly to problems accelerates our spiritual growth. Next week, June 13, we'll look at how handling temptation accelerates our growth.

Allen