If you have something that needs to be included in the announcements ... please make certain you get it to the person making the announcements ... in legible written form … prior to announcement time.
Daylight Savings Time started this morning. If you haven’t changed your clocks, you need to do so.
MEN’S BUSINESS MEETING TONITE FOLLOWING EVENING SERVICE. All men of the congregation are encouraged to attend.
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. Everyone is invited. Bring your favorite foods. Everyone … take a brochure (or two) off the table in the foyer and give one to your friends.
Those of you who have computers may wish to visit the following website… good site! http://www.housetohouse.com/hth/index.htm
We don’t often mention personal dates that are upcoming (or just happened), but we think it work mentioning that today is the Marriage Anniversary of Gene and Billye Campbell. Don’t know how many years, so you have to ask. But, I bet it’s a bunch!
Jim & Barbara Duncan celebrated last Wednesday, March 5.
These days you just don’t see people stick together that long! Must be true love! Huh?!
On March 22nd we will have a CLEANING DAY here at the building beginning at 9:00 AM. Afterward there will be a sit-down fellowship luncheon. Everyone should bring their favorite finger-food and soft drink (s). We need everyone who is able to come help us.
Thanks to the person (or persons) who cleaned the carpet in the Fellowship Hall this past week. It is always nice when someone notices the need and just does it.
Also, thanks to Grady Duncan for setting all the tables and chairs back up afterward.
On Monday, March 31st, there will be a LUNCHEON followed by a MEN’S BIBLE CLASS at Western Sizzlin—Dutch Treat—all men of the congregation are invited to attend. The event begins at Noon. There is a sign-up sheet on the table in the foyer. If you plan to attend please sign up so we can know how many are coming.
R.C. Grissom is back in the local hospital. Keep him in your prayers.
Alice Lovelady—hospice has been called in on her. She is still in the nursing home. She is very depressed. Please keep her in your prayers.
Keith Rubedor, age 6, (great grandson of Frances Neal) from Copperas Cove, Texas (son of Milette and Dellmar Rebedor) has been diagnosed with a blockage in his liver. He has been transferred from Scott & White to Children’s Hospital in Dallas. He has severe jaundice.
Bible Bowl will be this coming Monday evening at 7:00 PM here at our building. The Pittsburg congregation will be hosting. Come one come all and enjoy the fellowship and edification.
There will be a Bible Bowl study session at 5:00 PM this evening.
YOUNG PEOPLE & OTHERS … Mark your calendar for Friday and Saturday, April 25th & 26th for the 22nd Annual Mabank Bible Lectures on the Theme “BIBLE TIME.” Janice and I are planning on going and spending the night on Friday night and staying for the Saturday session. If any of the young people, or others, wants to go with us, you are welcome to come along. The Mabank congregation will provide housing with brethren for all who want to spend the night, but they need to know ahead of time how many will come. If you want to attend, please let Janice, or me, know so we can arrange housing for you. The advertising flyer for the lectures is on the Announcements Bulletin Board just outside the foyer in the north hallway. Check the schedule and see if you want to go with us. Jacob Rutledge and Sam Dilbeck will be the speakers for the Friday night youth forum.
I have never seen enough snow to suit me. Of course, I live where snow is a rare event, so when it does come, even if it’s only a little dusting, I am as giddy as a school boy, wishing I still possessed the old Radio Flyer snow sled of my youth Silently but gloriously fell the beautiful white snow from heaven early Friday morning, tickling my snow fancy, and reminding me of the Lord’s promise to cleanse us from our sins in such a way that, “though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow…” (Isaiah 1:18). King David’s humble plea also came to mind, when after being convicted of his sin with Bathsheba, David begged God, “…wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psalm 51:7).
Is there anything whiter than snow? The answer to that question lets us see how completely free from sin God can make us when we comply with His terms of pardon. What a promise - washed clean of our sins - made pure in God’s sight - all because of the precious blood Jesus offered at Calvary (Eph. 1:7, Col. 1:14 & 20, Heb. 9:12-14). Because of the cleansing power of Christ’s blood, we are washed free of our sins in the “snow” of God’s mercy, so free in fact that we can press on in the race of life. David extolled God’s matchless grace with these thrilling words, “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12). The author of Hebrews, quoting the promise made by Jehovah through Jeremiah wrote, “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more” (Heb. 8:12). Thanks be to God, we can be forgiven and washed whiter than snow!
Not once does the Bible condone sin, nor whitewash its consequences. “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound,” Paul asks in Romans six? His solemn answer rings forth, “God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” No, the Bible always pictures sin for what it is, and for what it does to those who participate in it. Sin is transgression of God’s law (I Jn. 3:4). It is missing the mark, or going beyond what God authorized (I Cor. 4:6, II Jn. 9). Sin robs man of innocence and leads to great misery (Prov. 13:15). Sin destroys man’s fellowship with God (I Jn. 1), erecting a wall of enmity between us. Isaiah wrote, “Behold the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear” (Isa. 59:1-2). Willful sin, if continued in after learning the truth, voids the sacrifice of Jesus, and will condemn your soul (Heb. 10:26-31). Ultimately, sin’s price is death, “for the wages of sin is death” (Rms. 6:23a).
However, thanks be to God, He has not left us hopelessly lost in our sins! Though the wages of sin is death, the “good news” is “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rms. 6:23b)! Yes, we’ve all failed the Lord miserably, but He wants us to get up, learn from our mistakes, and go on trying to serve Him. Occasionally, we all make terrible choices, sometimes because of ignorance, or immaturity, and sometimes because we’re just plain rebellious. When we do, we buy for ourselves lots of trouble. Wishing we had not sinned will not make the guilt, nor the consequences of our sin go away. Ignoring our sin, or trying to hide it will only add to our pain and increase our guilt. Don’t compound the problem by denying your sin, or by letting it defeat or destroy you. Rather, deal with the reality of your sin, as you seek God’s help for overcoming it, and His strength for living with its earthly consequences.
It takes some effort to get the old snow sled out of the attic, and to bundle up against the cold to go out sledding, but if you like snow like I do, the effort is surely worthwhile. Likewise it may not always be easy, but repenting of our sins, confessing them to God, and others, if necessary, and asking for forgiveness, is the only way to be freed from sin’s eternal stain, by Christ’s grace. Surely, though, forgiveness and eternal salvation are worth the effort!
Snow can be messy! After it melts things can get muddy, the roads are often left covered in sludge and our cars need to be washed to get rid of the grime. Likewise, sin’s unpleasant consequences must always be dealt with in this earthly vale, but the eternal consequences can be avoided. John wrote, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I Jn. 1:9). Paul penned, “...but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 13-14). Peter admonished, “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time; casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you” (I Pet. 5:6-7). These three men all knew whereof they wrote. They had all failed the Lord miserably at times, but they all washed in the snow of God’s mercy and then kept pressing on. They knew that the race will be won not by the perfect, but by the patient, persevering souls who will not let sin destroy them.
Brethren, when sin knocks you down, don’t let it keep you down. Don’t wallow in the mire! Get up, change up, fess up, pray up, and PRESS ON! Let it snow! D. Mc
NORTH SIDE