Making a Difference in Our World
- Dr. Marc Mortensen
The theme for this year’s Missions Conference is from Jude 22: “And of some have compassion, making a difference.” First Baptist Church of Westwood Lake was a mission church started by Sylvania Heights Baptist Church in West Miami. Within the first year of existence, First Baptist had its inaugural missions conference taking on our first missionary, Stella Lynn, a missionary to the Jewish people. Romans 1:16 tells says: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”
Preaching the Gospel to Israel pays the debt we Gentile believers owe to the Jewish people. Paul says in Romans 15:27 that we are indebted to Israel because of the spiritual blessings they brought to the world. The blessings that came through the Jewish people are the Bible, the Messiah, and the Judeo-Christian ethic on which the whole of Western civilization is built.
Taking the message of the Gospel to our community and to the farthest parts of the earth is the very heart of all that we do at First Baptist Church. Whether it is handing out a gospel tract, going to the mission field, or assisting missionaries to get to the mission field, we desire to be obedient to the command of Christ to proclaim Jesus to a world that is without hope and without God.