First Baptist Church of Copperas Cove

06/15/2026

2 Kings 15 gives us details about several kings, beginning with Azariah (Uzziah), King of Judah and including no fewer than five kings of Israel before concluding with King Jotham of Judah. These men were consistently bad, violent, and idolatrous, doing ‘what was evil in the LORD’s sight’ ( v. 9,18,24,28). By contrast,
both Uzziah and Jotham, Kings of Judah, did what was right in the LORD’s sight, though Uzziah spent the last few years of his life in isolation because he was afflicted with leprosy. We read the details of how that happened in 2 Chronicles 26; as a man of the tribe of Judah, he was not allowed to perform any of the ceremonial duties allotted only to the priests, but he still insisted on going to the temple and burning incense before the LORD. When the priests objected, he became angry, and as he was raging at them, he was struck with leprosy, from which he was never healed . What Uzziah did had its consequences, causing him to have to withdraw from public life and allow his son to perform all official duties in his place, but he was still numbered among the good kings of Judah and was buried among them. Uzziah learned a hard lesson, one that his son Jotham must have
taken to heart, because 2 Chronicles 27 has nothing negative to say about Jotham. Some lessons are harder than others, but in God’s sovereignty they can be used for our growth and his glory if we only surrender to his will.

06/14/2026

06/14/2026

Good Morning Church Family!

06/13/2026

Have you seen the latest news?

We have had a wonderful week of VBS. Thank the Lord for many children and faithful volunteers who have served and shared the light of Christ with the children and their families.

06/12/2026

“But Amaziah would not listen.” Those words, in 2 Kings 14:11, reveal the willfulness that led to King Amaziah of Judah’s defeat at the hands of the man he challenged to a battle, King Jehoash of Israel. Jehoash reacted scornfully to Amaziah’s challenge to a battle, pointing out that he had much superior force , but Amaziah, fresh off a decisive victory over the Edomites, was determined. The results were disastrous, as the rest of the chapter tells us.

How often do we get into trouble because, like Amaziah, we refuse to listen – to listen to God’s word as recorded in Scripture, to listen to godly counsel, or to listen to our own hearts when they tell us that what we are doing is not right? Amaziah’s spiritual ‘deafness’ had serious consequences not only for him but for his entire nation as well; when we as believers choose not to listen, we also take great risks. Most serious of all, we risk losing the closeness that listening and obeying God consistently brings to our relationship with him, but we also risk damaging our
relationships with one another and damaging the witness of the church to the unbelieving world. If we are to live our mission statement by making disciples for Christ, loving God in worship, loving one another in community, and loving the world in missional living, all the glory of God, we must not fail to listen. May we do so day by day and moment by moment.

06/12/2026

Life at First Baptist

We have had a wonderful week of VBS. Thank the Lord for many children and faithful volunteers who have served and shared the light of Christ with the children and their families.

06/11/2026

“The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22-23)

2 Kings 13 shows us God’s amazing love, mercy, and faithfulness even though the
people of Israel worshiped idols instead of worshiping the LORD. Each time that they sought the LORD, He helped them. King Jehoahaz and Jehoash did evil in the sight of the LORD. However, when they sought the LORD, He delivered them. It was at this time that the prophet Elisha became sick with a terminal illness. King Jehoash visited Elisha while he was sick and mourned. This showed his respect for Elisha and his reverence for the LORD. He recognized that the LORD was the real protector of Israel. Elisha predicted that the LORD would give him victories. Later, Jehoash defeated the King of Syria.

Elisha died and was buried. Sometime later, God used Elisha’s bones to show His
power! A burial party was passing Elisha’s tomb when they saw raiders coming. They threw the body into Elisha’s tomb. When the body touched Elisha’s bones, the dead man came back to life! This showed the people of Israel that God was with them showing compassion and protecting them.

LORD, Thank you for Your amazing love, mercy, and faithfulness. Help us to stand firm in our faith and continue to be faithful to You. Help us to love each other and to testify of Your love to those around us. Amen

06/10/2026

We are reminded by this passage that our most important gift to God is our worship of Him and the value He places on truth and honesty. The priests spent 23 years receiving money for the repair of the temple, but repairs were not made. Verse 13 implies that they squandered that money on gold and silver bowls and trumpets. They failed to repair the temple. The high priest finally created a chest that only he would empty keeping the other priests from using the money for other than temple repairs. Yet, when the money was given to the craftsmen to repair the temple, no accountability was required and there was money remaining after the temple was totally repaired. (2 Chronicles 24:14). The implication is that the craftsmen were more honest than the priests. That’s never good.

As believers we must always be more honest and truthful than non-believers. We must be good stewards of God’s treasury and use His resources, time and money, for His glory. When we get sidetracked and embellish our own desires rather than God’s will, we dishonor God. Humbling ourselves to Him and seeking Him first should be our intent. Walking with Him as individuals and as His church should be our pathway.

Pray that we can use ourselves daily for His purposes and always be the example of His truth to the world. Forgive us when we disregard His will and trust ourselves or others instead.

06/09/2026

In 2 Samuel 7, God made a covenant with David, one that would ultimately result in the birth of Jesus the Messiah, the Son of David. Today’s chapter describes the attempts of Athaliah not only to usurp the throne of Judah but also to destroy all the males of the house of David, which would have made fulfilling the covenant
impossible. That attempt that was thwarted, in God’s providence, because one brave woman, Jehosheba, rescued her baby nephew, Joash, and his nursemaid and hid him in the temple until he was old enough to be proclaimed as the rightful heir to the throne at age seven. The temple was the perfect place to hide the child, since Athaliah had no interest in the things of God. She thought she’d eliminated any threat to her illegitimate reign, and so it seemed for most of the next seven years, but those who supported the young king were only waiting for the proper time to bring him out. While they waited, Jehoida the priest taught the young king the truths of God’s word, much as Eli taught young Samuel centuries before. Throughout the unfolding story of humanity’s redemption by the blood of Christ, the forces of darkness have tried to ruin God’s plans, but they have never
succeeded; Joash survived, his descendant, Jesus, conquered death once and for all, and because of Christ’s victory, we can also rejoice in victory over death, hell and sin. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

06/08/2026

“Motivation matters”- those words, often spoken by a former Connection Group leader, came to mind when I read 2 Kings 10. In this chapter, Jehu, King of Israel, was used of God to fulfill a prophecy against the family of King Ahab by the prophet Elijah (1 Kings 21:21); he even killed the priests of Baal, tore down their
temple and turned the site into a public toilet, but although he claimed to be doing the LORD’s work (v. 16) one has to question his motivation. If he had truly been concerned about doing what was right in the sight of the LORD, the writer of 2 Kings would not have said of him, “he was not careful to follow the instruction of
the LORD God of Israel with all his heart.” (10:31). Although Jehu was used by God to carry out God’s judgment on the house of Ahab, in so doing he also made sure that no member of Ahab’s family was alive to contest his authority, and eliminating Baal worship, so closely connected to Jezebel and Ahab, also had political motives. In other words, everything he did was to his advantage politically. As 21st century believers, those words, “Motivation matters”, hold true for us today. Are we doing what we do for our own selfish reasons, or for God’s glory? Doing even the right thing for the wrong reasons is building with wood, hay and stubble ( 1 Cor. 3:12); may we commit ourselves to building with what will last instead.