FAMILY NEWS AND NOTES
Volume 11 05 April 2009 Issue No. 06
Service Arrangements
COMMUNION FOR APRIL 2009
SOUTH SIDE NORTH SIDE
AM
Rance Robison
Royce Armstrong
Rodney Cook Jody Sparks
Sid Charlton Jon McCain
PM
Bronson Roper Daniel McCary
ANNOUNCEMENTS …………...…. Wayne Pickrel
(Sunday and Wednesday)
SONG LEADER
(AM)……………..…… Name not furnished
(PM) …………….…… Name not furnished
Wednesday PM …… Name not furnished
PRAYERS —– Sunday
AM First Prayer …….…. Grady Duncan
AM Closing……………...Jimmy Jay Fox
PM First Prayer …….… Daniel McCary
PM Closing……………. Ronnie Stewart
PRAYERS — Wednesday Nite
First Prayer…………......... Doug Abbey
Closing…………….……..….. Tim Jones
PRAYER LIST
Justin Barker, Rachel Barker, Louis Bell, Doris Bell, Jim Duncan, Irene Duncan, Jan Hargrove, Dorothy Kyle, Wade Miller, Thelma Reed,
ALSO: Carolyn (Katy) Cabell, Wesley DuBose, Ronald Duncan, Janice Lineberger, Wayne Lineberger, Charlie Whitney
And now for … FAMILY NEWS AND NOTES
Gospel Meeting Invitations:
Post Card invitations are being printed and will be ready for distribution on Wednesday. We are asking your help in getting the word out about our Gospel Meeting. Be thinking of 10 people (preferably non-Christians) you would like to influence with this Gospel Meeting.
Please personally invite everyone you know to come. Tract booklets will be stocked, Bible Correspondence Course will be available and Free audio tapes and CD's. More details to come.
——- Kris
North Jefferson's Spring Gospel Meeting - Set for April 26-29
On Sunday Night, April 26, Kris will be preaching an “Old Fashioned Sheet Sermon.” If you don’t know what that is … then you must come to find out for yourself.
Spring 2009 is going to be chock full of Spiritual food and growth opportunities. With the events we have planned for the North Jefferson congregation and the area congregations, we would do well to be involved and use these evangelistic events as tools to reach our friends and neighbors who have not obeyed the Gospel of Christ. Kris Groda will be preaching our Spring Gospel Meeting, this will provide an opportunity for outreach and spiritual edification. It will also serve as a good opportunity for our community to get to hear and know our new preacher. Please save these dates and purpose to support our Spring Gospel Meeting!
We will have a noon luncheon on Sunday, April 26, 2009 ... on the first day of the Gospel Meeting.
The Clothing Drive (which has been ongoing) continues today. If you bring clothes, please place them in the Multi-purpose Room.
We should have an update regarding the Men’s Fellowship Breakfast and the Easter Egg Hunt, that were held Saturday, as to how those went.
Men … Mark your calendar for next Sunday evening after service for the MEN’S BUSINESS MEETING in the Multi-Purpose Room. All men are invited to attend.
Vernon Garrett is back at home and recovering from his recent surgery.
Jim Duncan has not been feeling well. He has an anuerism for a while and it is causing him discomfort. He is scheduled for surgery soon.
Janice Lineberger continues to improve from her recent two heart surgeries. She is a very sick person. Continue to pray for her recovery.
Georgia Lide fell at the Assisted Living and had a hemorrhage the doctors have been unable to find the source of. She was released from the hospital and returned home in the middle of last week.
Doris Bell is in Room 533 at Titus Regional Medical Center at the writing of this bulletin. She fell about the middle of last week and broke her hip. She had hip surgery Wednesday afternoon. She will most likely be there for several days.
Charles Kyle got his fingers a little close to the saw blade on his table saw last week and cut his fingers pretty bad, requiring stitches in at least one of them. It’s a good thing he had the blade set really low or he would have lost them. Dorothy is taking treatments for her lower back in Tyler this week. Hopefully, this will help her.
Jennifer Freeman (daughter-in-law of Hallie Lang and wife of Larry Freeman) had a stroke Thursday. She had an MRI done Friday morning to try to determine what caused it and how to prescribe proper medicines and treatment. She is now back at home. She is having some difficulties in movement.
ATTENTION...Anyone leaving a note of any kind on the Secretary’s Desk for inclusion in the bulletin … you will need to sign the note and show your telephone number in case I need to verify or clarify your meaning.
——Thanks Rhodney Freeman
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Releasing Barabbas
By Kris Groda
Barabbas was a rebellious man and a murderer (Luke 23:25) and by the time Jesus went before Pilate, the voices of ignorance and selfishness were crying "Away with the man [Jesus] and release unto us Barabbas" (Luke 23;18). Prior to this time prophesy heralded the virgin birth of Emmanuel (Isa. 7:14). The angel Gabriel told Mary, "And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. 23 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: 33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end" (Luke 1:31-33; cf. Mic 5:2; 2 Sam. 7:12-ff).
From the start there were selfish misconceptions about who Jesus was and His purpose. King Herod brought death and bloodshed to numerous male children, age two and under (Matthew 2:16).
Then, when Jesus began His evangelism, marveling multitudes flocked to Jesus desiring to hear His teaching (Matt. 4:25); to lay at His feet those who were lame, blind dumb and maimed (Matt. 15;30-31); and some, just to eat of his food (Jn. 6:26). Meanwhile the viperous Jewish leadership (Matt. 3:7) despised his following and sought ways they could defame him. Once upon a Sabbath, Jesus healed a man who had a withered hand. The Pharisees "asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days? that they might accuse him" (Matt 12:10). When Jesus reasoned with them "The Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy him" (Matt. 12:14).
Matthew 12 and John 11 help us to understand their selfish political and spiritual corruption. Jesus went to the temple and there "the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching, and said, By what authority does thou these things? and who gave thee this authority?" (Matt 21:23). Jesus simply exposed their mentality by asking them about the origin of John's baptism.
With that "...they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say unto us, Why did ye not then believe him? 26 But if we shall say, Of men; we fear the people; for all hold John as a prophet: (Matt. 121;25-26).
Additionally we read "Lazarus, come forth" (Jn 11;43) and many of the Jews having "seen the things which Jesus did, believed on Him" (Jn. 11:45). And like a volcanic brew, the chief priests and Pharisees "took council for to put him to death" (Jn. 11:53). It was then that Caiaphas prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation; "And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad" (Jn. 11:61). Then, with the betrayal of Judas, Jesus was arrested in the garden and went before the high priest Caiaphas to endure a series of unauthorized mock trials before being questioned and scourged by the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate (Mt. 26:47-ff; Mk. 15;15).
Political corruption was not the only problem that led to the fulfillment of prophesy and God's eternal purpose. There was corruption in the elders, priests, the scribes, the disciples who "went back, and walked no more with him." (Jn. 6:66), Judas who betrayed the Lord with a kiss (Lk. 22:48) and Peter who denied three times (Mt. 26:74).
The disciple must keep in mind that all corruption, be it political or otherwise is a manifestation of spiritual corruption (Eph. 6;12) Every day Christians are faced with choices that have eternal consequences. There can be no waffling on matters of the faith to accommodate sin (Rom. 6:4-ff).
"Release Barabbas" shouted those who "loved darkness rather than light" (Jn. 3:19). Israel “denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted” unto them (Acts3:14). They traded innocent blood for the sake of artificial peace, selfish political gain, and for the protection of a nation they had already lost to the Roman government (John 11:48).
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