Get in Shape for Summer
Submitted by Jon Hevelone on Sun, 05/19/2013 - 21:55The First Baptist Church of Arlington will be holding a program to teach health and wellness. It will meet for five Tuesday nights at 6:30 beginning May 28 and will be lead by Dr. Justin Mariano, a chiropractor who is part of First Baptist Church.
It will be based on a program created by three Christian chiropractors called Bonfire Health which was designed to teach people how to develop 39 healthy habits in 90 days and maintain those habits throughout their lifetime.
There will be five sessions:
1. May 28 Introduction: define health, wellness and introduce three basic subcategories about the program which are: how we eat (nutrition), how we move (exercise), and how we think.
2. June 4 How we eat: nutrition and how it relates to our health.
3. June 11 How we move: exercise and how it relates to our health.
No class on June 18.
4. June 25 How we think: stress reduction and dealing with conflict.
5. July 2 How we grow spiritually: some tips on spiritual growth.
This program is free of charge and everyone is invited. For more information visit www.bonfirehealth.com or contact the church at 781-643-3924.
Pray for Boston and our country.
Submitted by Jon Hevelone on Tue, 04/16/2013 - 17:47Welcome!
Submitted by Jon Hevelone on Sun, 01/27/2013 - 23:34First Baptist Church of Arlington is a church of faith where people can grow to their God given potential. If you are just now exploring the claims of Jesus Christ for the first time as an adult, or if you have been a personal Christian for years, it would be great to have you join us in our spiritual journey.
We are a group of people who are at different places in our spiritual walk discovering together what it means to be a Christian in the 21st century. Some of us are very traditional church folk. Some of us are postmodern. Some of us are young, some wish we were. We are shades of black, brown, and white.
We are a Baptist church because we believe in the centrality of the gospel, the importance of scripture, the necessity of personal faith, and the freedom that is found in Christ. Our faith has provided a place for us to stand in facing life, and we have found some meaningful answers. We also have many questions.
I'm so glad you're looking at our home on the web. If you'd like to know us better, come by on a Sunday morning for our worship service, or drop in at one of our group meetings or special events. Our worship service starts at 10 am.
I'll be here, and I look forward to meeting you.
Blessings,
Pastor Jon
Living in the Heartbreak Hills of Life
Submitted by Jon Hevelone on Fri, 05/17/2013 - 16:10Trouble can slam into your life so suddenly. Think of those celebrating a stunning spring day on the day of the Boston Marathon. They’re either glad they’re pushing their body to the limits, or glad they’re not the one whose been running for the past 26 miles. One way or another, most folks are just sharing the afternoon with friends and family.
The marathon of life doesn’t get much better than this. The day could be pretty close to your personal best. Then, BOOM. Tragedy. Terror. Suddenly it seems like the whole of life has become one long heartbreak hill. What happened on Patriot’s Day is not only tragic, it’s personal. It’s Boston. It’s our family. Our friends. It’s us.
We’ve all asked it, one way or another. “Why? Why does God let this happen? I am pretty skeptical of anybody who comes up with a simple answer to the problem of human suffering, the problem of evil. I sure don’t have an answer. But I think the bible does give us some pointers, some ideas, some suggestions, some insights into this part of life.
First, it’s clear that God is not behind evil -- it’s the Devil who is to blame. Don’t forget that!
We also know today that some kinds of suffering are tied to a person’s sins. If you smoke a small fortune’s worth of cigarettes every day from back when you were a teenager don’t be surprised when you get lung cancer. Don’t even think of blaming your problem on God, for it is your fault. If you drink whiskey like it’s water, it’s not God’s fault if you end up a drunk. You reap what you sow.
It gets a little more complicated, though, for sometimes we reap what we have not sown. Why did Martin Richard lose his life when at 8 years old he hadn’t lived long enough to sow much of anything beside love and joy? And Krystle Campbell, Lu Lingzi, Sean Collier? What about all the injured who will be scared for life, physically and emotionally?
We haven’t always had problems like this, you know. When Adam and Eve walked in the garden, at the very beginning, problems like these simply did not exist. There was no sickness, hate, death, jealousy, selfishness, terror or other evils. The garden of Eden was a beautiful place, a perfect place. Then sin entered our world and tore it apart. The jarring presence of sin infected creation, and all kinds of evil began to thrive.
But the Creator God became the Redeemer God and embedded himself in our broken world. Jesus by his atoning death on the cross opened the way for people who trust him to be saved, to find wholeness, life. God has provided a way for us to live, to thrive in relationship with him, and to be significant as repairers of a broken world. It all happens as we live out the good news of Jesus Christ.
Our Christian response is to trust God and know that God’s will shall ultimately be done.When you really believe and live this way, the “why”question loses it power, and becomes less and less a focus of our attention. We realize that we won’t ever be able to fully answer it this side of heaven. The more pressing questions become asking what good can come from our response to the heartbreak hills of life. How can we give God glory? How can we help others in Jesus’ name?
