Bivocational Ministry Success Hinges on Servant Mentality for Pastor, People – One of Four Things to Know This Week, June 19, 2025

A Word to the Wise: 4 Steps to Take When Yesterday’s Sin Haunts You 

1.   Make sure you’ve truly repented. Have you, in the power of God, truly turned from your sin? If not, yesterday’s sin might continue to haunt you because it is, in fact, today’s
2.   Talk with a trusted Christian friend or pastor. Simply being honest with somebody “with flesh on” can help you trust God’s forgiveness.
3.   Know and trust the Word of God—particularly its teachings about what God does with our sin. Know these many texts, and believe them:

• He has separated us from our sin an immeasurable distance: “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12).
• He has dropped our sin to the bottom of the ocean: “You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19b).
• He has blotted out our sin: “It is I who blots out your transgressions for My own sake” (Isaiah 43:25b).
• He remembers our sin no more: “For I will forgive their wrongdoing and never again remember their sin” (Jeremiah 31:34b).
• He has cleansed our sin: “Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they will be like wool” (Isaiah 1:18).
• He has cast our sin behind His back: “for You have thrown all my sins behind Your back” (Isaiah 38:17).
• He has forgiven and covered our sins: “How joyful are those whose lawless acts are forgiven and whose sins are covered!” (Romans 4:7).
• He does not count our sin against us: “That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them” (2 Corinthians 5:19).
• He laid all our sin upon His Son: “We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished Him for the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).
• He takes away our sin: “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Here is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’” (John 1:29).
  

4.   ​Thank God for His forgiving grace. Genuine gratitude can go a long way toward breaking bondages to yesterday’s sin. Cry out like the tax collector in Jesus’ parable in Luke 18 (“God, have mercy on me, a sinner”)—and thank Him for His grace.
Chuck Lawless, 6.17.25, https://chucklawless.com/2025/06/4-steps-to-take-when-yesterdays-sin-haunts-you/

​Here are Four Things to Know this Week:
 

1. Wrap-up: SBC25 in Dallas Marked by Celebration, Debate (Baptist Press)
   
2. Messengers Hear Seminary Updates (Baptist Press)  
3. Study: Nearly Half of Churchgoers Attend More Than One Church (The Baptist Paper)
   
4. Bivocational Ministry Success Hinges on Servant Mentality for Pastor, People (Baptist Press)  

 
Thank you for reading. Please share it with pastors and other AMSs you believe would benefit.
 
To the praise of His glory,
 
Ray
 
P. S. I also host the “SBCAL Podcast with Ray Gentry” where ever you get your podcasts.