Our_Bulletin_03_02

FAMILY NEWS AND NOTES

The tradition continues … today ... you who are able and willing will have an opportunity to contribute to our BUILDING FUND. The first Sunday has been traditionally set aside for this purpose. Your continued contributions have made it possible to see our building paid off … maybe before the end of the year. We can hope.

NEXT SUNDAY MORNING …. early, early … DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME BEGINS! Don’t forget to run your clock up early or you will be late for worship service!

Bible Bowl study at 5:00 PM this evening before worship service. Everyone is invited to attend and participate.

OUR GOSPEL MEETING BEGINS March 30th and runs thru April 02. It is not too early to make your plans to attend. Already we have folks talking about the upcoming meeting with Michael Light preaching. We hope to have good crowds each evening. Won’t you be there?!

Also, following the morning service on March 30th we will be having a Luncheon in the Multi-Purpose Room. Bring your favorite food. Everyone is invited. (Visitors … you are welcome.)

TENNIS-SHOE ROLLER SKATES ???

Moms, Dads, Boys and Girls …. If your child is wearing to church a pair of shoes with a roller-skate built into the heels, please caution them to not skate inside the building. We have found several scuff marks on the carpets in the foyer and other places. These skates could tear our carpets. So, won’t you, if you are wearing them to church, refrain from skating inside and wait until you get out on the parking lot?

Lurline Reese Johnson passed away in Tyler on February 26, 2008. Her funeral was conducted Friday morning at Bates-Cooper-Sloan Funeral Home Chapel with burial at Nevill’s Chapel Cemetery. Lurline’s friendly smiles and kind words will be missed.

BABY SHOWER ...Joshua and Dara Elliott have a baby girl coming soon, and they plan to name her Mallory Reese Elliott. A shower honoring them will be held on Saturday, March 25th, 2008 from 2PM—4 PM at 108 Sweet Pea (located in the Point North Addition - Mount Pleasant. If you plan to attend please RSVP to 903-563-3895 (Joshua is the grandson of Ronald and Delores Traughber.)

THANK YOU … “Thanks for all the cards, calls and well wishes during the time of my illness with pneumonia. I have been to a bad place and returned. I’m now back among the living and hope to continue to improve. I hope to be back preaching Sunday. Thank you for all the prayers offered in my behalf.

In Christian love,

David McCain”

Ladies —- pick up you dishes in the kitchen from the meal for the Johnson family on Friday. They are ready.

Teachers …. Any material you have left over from the last quarter ... Please take these items to the Teacher Work Room. Thanks

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LOSING GOD’S QUARTER

-Floyd Kaiser

I read a story once about a little boy who lived in a small town with his grandmother. Every Sunday the grandmother took the boy to church and afterward they would go downtown for a special treat, an ice cream cone. One Sunday grandmother was not feeling well, and she told the boy that he would have to go to church by himself. Before he left she gave him two quarters, one for the offering and one for an ice cream after church.

Now it happened that the boy needed to cross an old wooden bridge to get to church. As he was crossing the bridge, he began jumping up and down, as boys will do, making the bridge shake and sway. His sharp ears suddenly picked up a small thunk. He looked down just in time to see one of the quarters roll into a small crack and into the river below.

Standing up and dusting off his knees, he said to himself, “Oh well. There goes God’s quarter.”

Isn’t it the case that with good intentions we plan to give ourselves or our money to God’s service but something happens? The house needs repair. The car breaks down. The kids get sick. Our time is lost to some other commitment or our money is diverted to some other expense. And, we just never get around to doing for God what we know we should. God’s quarter is lost.

Realizing that this is going to happen to all of us, Jesus issued us this challenge in Matt. 6:33. He said, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” In other words, if you have to decide where to assign a loss, let it be to something other than God. Put Him first.

What Evil Will Do

By Floyd Kaiser

[Guest Article from The Southwesterner—Southwest Church of Christ—Ada, OK]

God gave a law to humanity. This law is the owner’s manual of achieving as much in life as possible. It’s the owner’s manual for marriage, for parenting, for personal and societal economics, and for emotional and physical health. It’s the owner’s manual to achieve the most miles out of each individual life.

The Bible teaches that sin exacts a price of suffering that we do not want for ourselves or anyone we care about. The message is that sin, as someone once said, “Will take you farther than you want to go, cost you more than you want to pay, and keep you longer than you want to stay.” Sin has a way of controlling our lives and taking away all our facilities to make good choices. Sin is a quicksand that the more we struggle without God, the deeper we get.

In Luke 8:26-33, Jesus comes to the country of the Gerasenes just east of the Sea o Galilee. While there He’s met by a man who was demon possessed. And what a pitiful sight he was! He was naked and living among the dead in a cemetery. He was suffering. He was an outcast, lonely and hopeless. Without Jesus, he had no future.

The distinction between the demon possession of the New Testament and evil among men today is this: while demon possession happened against person’s will, i.e. no one chose to be possessed, today men and women are allowing evil into their lives to control them. All around us are folks who are hanging out the vacancy signs for any demon that comes along. John wrote, “The one who practices sin is of the devil” (1 John 3;8).

The irony of this matter of practicing sin is that many people give themselves over to sin because they want “freedom.” They do not want to live under what they perceive as the primitive, unenlightened and joyless rigors of religion and church life.

There is a movie called Pleasantville where two young people are transported to a black and white, colorless world of an old TV program like Ozzie and Harriet. The young lady found the situation intolerable. She wanted color and excitement so she began to challenge the norms of that world and gradually, as she did, the world began to change and become filled with brilliant colors.

That old, tasteless, lifeless and colorless world is how many of the lost perceive church life. Someone once said from their own perspective everyone who comes to church is like a spirit wrapped in a pasty-white cadaver.

You and I know that nothing could be farther from the truth. The greatest joy in the world and the greatest satisfaction with life is found in the church.

But, what about this man living among the tombs in the country of the Gerasenes? What do you think this demon-possessed man would have chosen? Here is a man who did not have a choice for evil to come and reside in his life. If time could have been reversed and he was given a choice, do you think he still would have chosen evil? Do you think he would have chosen nakedness? Do you think he would have chosen living among the tombs of a cemetery instead of a house? Do you think he would have chosen loneliness over companionship and rejection over love? What do you think? Which do you think he would have considered a colorless and joyless world? The one with demons or the one with God?