FAMILY NEWS AND NOTES
Volume 10 11 JANUARY 2009 Issue No. 46
COMMUNION FOR JANUARY 2009
SOUTH SIDE NORTH SIDE
AM
Bob Hedges
Gene Campbell
David Neal Roger Grimes
Sid Charlton Daniel McCary
PM
Grady Duncan Darrell Cooper
ANNOUNCEMENTS …………....… Grady Duncan
(Sunday and Wednesday)
SONG LEADER
(AM)………………………...… Hal Roper
(PM) ………………………..… Hal Roper
Wednesday Nite …...……. Wade Miller
PRAYERS —– Sunday
AM First Prayer …….… Jimmy Jay Fox
AM Closing…………..….... Jody Sparks
PM First Prayer……..… Daniel McCary
PM Closing……………....… Austin Neal
PRAYERS — Wednesday Nite
First Prayer…………..... Darrell Cooper
Closing………………. Royce Armstrong
PRAYER LIST:
Betty Abbey, Justin Barker, Rachel Barker, Louis & Nona Bell, Doris Bell, Billye Campbell, Suzanne Charlton, Steele Cooper, Irene Duncan, Amber Kimbrough, Wade Miller,
Elna O’Neal, Thelma Reed, Bud Roach
ALSO: Beth Adams, Roy Coats, Wesley DuBose., Wayne Lineberger, Ben McCain, Yvonne Waldrup, Charlie Whitney, Linda Wysinger
And now for … FAMILY NEWS AND NOTES
Today we will have Bro. John Baker trying out for the minister position at North Jefferson. John, his wife Angie and their children Daniel (5 years old) and Abby (3 years old) will be here for the AM and PM services. John will also teach the AM Auditorium Bible Class as well as the Tuesday morning Ladies Bible Class and again on Wednesday evening Bible Class.
Following the AM service we will have a Get Acquainted Covered Dish Luncheon for all to get to fellowship with John and his family. There will be an opportunity for you to ask John any questions you may have. If you would like, give your questions to one of the elders and we will ask them for you, or you may ask them yourself. So, if you can’t remember what you would like to ask, write your questions down.
Ladies Bible Class will meet at 9:00 AM instead of 10 for coffee and donuts … BEFORE the morning lesson begins. Bro. Baker will be teaching.
The monthly Bible Bowl meets Monday nite, here at the building. Everyone needs to study up.
Many thanks to Royce Armstrong for the lesson he presented on Wednesday evening using Power Point.
Margaret Reynolds of the Mount Vernon congregation (sister-in-law of JoAnn & Weldon Miller) was returned to ICU at East Texas Medical Center in Tyler last week. She was having breathing difficulties and was placed on a breathing machine. Friday her doctors made a decision to see if she could do without the machine. We should have an update today on her condition.
Men … remember that the Men’s Business Meeting will be held next Sunday evening after services in the Multi-Purpose Room. All the men of the congregation are encouraged to attend as your input is important.
Zeal and Knowledge
Floyd Kaiser
Let’s think about these two concepts. Zeal is the outcome of human will and the strength to act upon that will. Knowledge however, gives direction. Knowledge is what keeps zeal from just being expended action without accomplishing a purpose. While zeal would be the turning propellers of a great ship, knowledge is the rudder and the proper stirring of the ship.
Through man’s striving to rebuild his relationship with God lost in the Garden of Eden, the greatest struggle has not been zeal but knowledge. While zeal for God is not necessarily a cinch, it’s always been easier to come by than knowledge. Zeal is an emotion. Emotions can be stirred by experience with very little effort. Knowledge takes toil and time and self-discipline.
For instance, think a bout the prophets of Baal who tried to call down fire out of heaven in the days of Elijah. After preparing a sacrifice from morning to noon they jumped around their altar crying out, “O Baal, answer us!” As their deadline approached they even cut themselves with swords and lances (see 1 Kings 18:20ff). If zeal alone were all it took to win, they would have come in first place. They had zeal, but no knowledge.
The striving of the church today must be a balance of zeal and knowledge. One without the other will never win a soul. Not even your own.
“Be Of Good Cheer”
Dalton Key—Cooper church of Christ Bulletin Digest
One thing in life is certain: we all have our share of pain, difficulty and suffering. Bad things happen, and they often happen to good people. Age, disease and sickness seek to destroy our health. Family problems often threaten to destroy lives and souls of those we love most dearly. Such problems, along with financial strain, job-related stress, and the everyday challenges of everyday life seem to be like Jesus’ description of the poor —””With us always” (Mark 14:7).
This, though, should not surprise us. Didn’t Jesus warn, “In the world you shall have tribulations?” (John 16:33).
We can be thankful that Jesus didn’t conclude his thought on that somber note, but continued by promising, “… but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
No problem, no catastrophe, no sorrow is larger than our God. And God, who “cannot lie” (Titus 1:2), had promised to help his own. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. (Psalms 46:1).
The question is not “Does God care?” He does. The real problem that each one must answer is “Do I believe what God has promised?”
Can a person change?
(Part 4)
—Floyd Kaiser
[Guest Article from The Southwesterner—Southwest church of Christ—Ada, OK]
When John the Baptist preached in the wilderness God’s message of change — he called this change repentance — he challenged his listeners by telling them exactly what they needed to do. He told the man who had two coats to share with the one who had none. He told the tax collector to garnish no more taxes than what was due … he told the soldier to take nothing by force (see Luke 3:10-14). John did not leave his audience with any reason to say, “I never understood what he wanted me to do.” There was never a preacher whose sermons were more pragmatic than John’s.
John was an educator. He taught every person what change they needed to make. Through the preaching of John, God is telling us that unless we have a clear understanding of what beneficial change is supposed to be, what the “new” person is supposed to be, there is no chance that change will occur. To change each one must have a concrete view of the new life into which change brings one.
How does this view of a changed “me” come about?
By learning.
The capacity to learn a different way of living is what lifts us above lower creatures. Animals are trained; their instincts are manipulated. Man learns. Through his senses man receives knowledge by which he can measure his own life and formulate what he would like a new one to be. John the Baptist’s audience, if they chose to be submissive, could leave with a clear understanding of what change God was expecting. John did not leave them aimless.
If you were to improve your life, what changes would you need to make? Do you have a clear image of what your post-changed life would be?
In Proverbs 27:17 it is written, “Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” The suggestion is that one person can facilitate the change of another.
There are some who take this proverb literally and have important persons in their lives in whom they confide and who give them clear direction as to the kid of changes they need to make. If one can find such a friend of wisdom who can be rusted and who is willing to make such a commitment, it is indeed a blessing.
However, even though this ought to be one of the features of the Christian fellowship where we work to “present every man complete in Christ” (Col. 1:28), the reality is that in our culture and in the church, it is rarely done. Repeatedly through the years I have heard my brethren say, “I’m not close enough to confide in anyone in the church.” As a consequence, I have known of brethren to go outside the church to connect with someone who will give them guidance — a very spiritually risky situation!
So what are we to do? How am I to discover the exact changes I need to make in my life if no one is there to tell me? If someone tells me I should make a change, how do I know they have the wisdom to give such advise? How do I know that they are not simply seeking their own interest instead of mine?
The answers to these questions rest with God. Wisdom to change any man rests in his Word.
