North Star Update A PUBLICATION OF THE MINNESOTA BAPTIST ASSOCIATION Inside This Issue: Fellowship Foundations
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Ladies Fellowship
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Volume IV, Issue 7
December 26, 2010
Meditation on Getting the “Wrong” Gift Dr. Robert Fuller, Jr.
Calendar January 24: 10 AM, MBA Executive Committee 1 PM, MBA Full Board January 28-29: Parent-Teen Conference at First Calvary, Inver Grove Heights, “Digging Deeper” March 18-19: State Ladies Meeting, Camp Friendship April 4-5: State Pastors’ & Wives’ Retreat in Baxter June 24-25: MBA Annual Meeting in St. Francis
Dreams – not the mindbending experiences of our sleep, but our hopes and aspirations for the future. One of the hardest things a person can do is turn his back on his dreams, his expectations for the future. Our dreams for the future can be nearly as dear to us as our children and giving up a dream like turning our back on our child. At Christmas children know what they want, and they dream of getting it. What we all learn early is that those dreams, regardless of our age, may or may not happen. For the child of God, the difficulty is that our dreams may come in conflict with God’s plans, or God’s gifts. Dreams tend to define expectations. At first a dream may be an amorphous “Someday I would like to/will do this or that.” We can have these dreams about our mates, our children, our jobs, our schools, even our politics. Then, our dreams be-
come plans. We might call them “planning ahead.” Plans are things we think we can get done, or are controlled by things that we never think will change. This leads to a potential danger. Dreams easily become standards of evaluation. We have a dream, and we strive to see it realized. If it is not, then we start looking for reasons why. We do not like facing the fact that they are the product of planning on possibilities that are often outside of our control. Sometimes we think that we can control enough to make something happen. When it does not we might ask, “Is this all there is?”. We may blame others or ourselves, and maybe even God. Either way, we open ourselves to frustration and bitterness. Regardless of where we put the blame, it is evident that we have invested a lot of our well-being in the fulfillment of our dream. This happens because
dreams can get in the way of rejoicing in reality. When we compare “what is” with what we had hoped “might be,” “what is” may pale to shades of gray. What we had hoped “would be” still has all the glitter and brightness of its inception, yet it remains elusive, unattained – a dream, still. So which do we yearn for? Which are we Continued on Page 2
Grotzkes 20th Year at Baxter On Sunday, October 3, the congregation at First Baptist Church of Baxter joined in celebrating Pastor Dave and Cindy Grotzke’s twenty years of ministry at First Baptist. As a special surprise, the Grotzke’s son Seth came home to preach. He challenged the congregation to honor God and give God the praise for all things.
The Grotzkes were thrilled to have all their children home for the day as well as some extended family. Several special musical offerings were presented, and a sweet time of testimonies reminiscing on the last twenty years was shared. Continued on page 3
A delicious carry-in dinner was served followed by an afternoon service.