FAMILY NEWS AND NOTES
Volume 10 25 May 2008 Issue No. 14
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.
COMMUNION FOR MAY
SOUTH SIDE 
NORTH SIDE
AM
Wayne Charlton Grady Duncan
Daniel McCary Royce Armstrong
David Neal George O’Neal
PM
Jimmy Jay Fox Charles Kyle
ANNOUNCEMENTS ….…..…...…. Gene Campbell
SONG LEADER (AM)....... …….... Randy Eubanks
(PM) ……........… Randy Eubanks
Wednesday Nite ...……... Grady Duncan
PRAYERS —– Sunday.
AM First Prayer …….….............. Ron Traughber
AM Closing………….…..............…..... Tim Jones
PM First Prayer……..................Frankie Sargent
PM Closing……….…...............……..Wade Miller
PRAYERS — Wednesday Nite
First Prayer…………...............….. Weldon Miller
Closing………………...............… Ronnie Stewart
PRAYER LIST:
Justin Barker, Rachel Barker, Doris Bell, Louis & Nona Bell, Winell Blackard,
Billye Campbell, Nelda Dunn, Jim Duncan, Patsy Duncan, Myrtice Grissom, Joyce Lee, Georgia Lide, Ben McCain, Rebecca Tippitt
ALSO: Wesley DuBose, Dana Morton, Kent Miller, Betty Newman, Whayln Payne,
Don Shuette, Paul Unger
And now for …
FAMILY NEWS AND NOTES
Reminder … next Sunday is the Sunday we have designated for Building Fund Contributions. If you are able and willing you may contribute next Sunday. (Or you may contribute at any time you wish.)
Summer Youth Series begins on June 2nd and will be each Monday evening from 7:00 PM to 8:45 PM thru August 11th. Watch for weekly news and grab a schedule off the table in the foyer.
Sunday June 8th is Friends & Family Day. Each one bring a friend or relative as we try to double our attendance that day. Combined class will be in the auditorium at Bible Class hour for Introduction to VBS.
And then …. Along comes VBS from Monday, June 9, thru Friday, June 13, here at North Jefferson. Theme: Great Women of the Old Testament.” Hours: 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM daily for 2-year-old thru 6th Grade.
Doris Jean Bell was admitted to the hospital Friday with medical problems. Please keep Doris in your prayers.
Jim Duncan had gall bladder surgery on Thursday but went back home on Friday. He will be out of circulation for several days. Keep Jim in your prayers.
Nelda Dunn was taken to Baylor last Sunday and had a stent put into her heart on Monday. She is back at home. Please remember Nelda in your prayers.
R. C. Grissom passed away on Tuesday. His funeral was conducted on Friday, May 23rd at Bates-Cooper-Sloan Funeral home, with burial at Bridges Chapel Cemetery. Please keep Myrtice and the rest of the family in your prayers.
Louis and Nona Bell would like to receive cards and letters occasionally as they love this congregation so much. Following is their address if you are so inclined to use the mail.
Louis & Nona Bell
c/o Altura Sterling House
3505 University Blvd. Apt. 11
Tyler, Texas 75701
Rebecca Tippitt has returned home but still has many medical problems. Cards of encouragement and friendship would be appreciated, we are certain. So, keep her in mind when sending out your cards and letters.
Sarah Sparks was voted “Offensive Most Valuable Player” for girls softball at the MPISD Sports Banquet on Tuesday nite. Congratulations Sarah!
Cody Sparks received a “#1” medal at UIL Solo / Ensemble Contest for band this past week. Congratulations Cody!
Ben McCain had a colonoscopy last week and his doctor thinks he may have been misdiagnosed originally … that instead of Crohn’s Disease, he may have Ulcerative Colitis. The two diseases are very similar and very hard, sometimes, to definitely diagnose without extensive testing. The good news is that UC is curable, whereas Crohn’s is not. However, after a more aggressive treatment of medications, if the patient does not respond then the ultimate cure is the surgical removal of the colon. They did a biopsy on Ben last week and the initial report leans toward his problem being UC. He will have some additional testing done in the next few weeks, but for now they have upped the dosage and frequency of his Remicade infusions, and have put him back on a massive dosage of Prednisone. He is responding favorably to the new aggressive treatment and is already feeling much better, except for the side affects of the Prednisone (joint pain and insomnia). Please continue to keep Ben in your prayers.
THANK YOU …. “Thank you very much for the wonderful celebration in honor of my high school graduation last Sunday after the evening service. The Bible the elders gave to me on behalf of the congregation is greatly appreciated, and will be my most treasured graduation gift in the years to come, as I hope to be able Sunday to go to Ireland and work with the Graham family in evangelism and in helping to strengthen the Lord’s church. Thanks, also, for all the cards, gifts, and well wishes extended to me at the party and for the delicious cake and punch that were served to all the members. This is a great church family and I am thankful to be a part of it. Thanks, finally, for your many prayers in my behalf and all your words of encouragements.
—In Christian Love,
Ben McCain”
Janice and I would like to thank everyone for all the kindness you have shown Ben these last few months and the many cards and calls that have come to wish him well with his illness and to encourage him to “keep on keeping on.” Thanks especially for all the many prayers that have been offered in his behalf. We are hopeful that the results of his recent tests will ultimately show a very positive answer that has been received, and the hand of God in answer to the many prayers said in Ben’s behalf. Thanks also for the wonderful graduation party that was held in Ben’s honor last Sunday evening … and for all the sweet cards, and generous gifts that were bestowed upon him. His spirits were really lifted by your outpouring of love. Please continue to pray for him that God will give him the strength to endure whatever outcome ultimately comes as a result of his illness. May God bless you all for your kindness and love shown to our son in this time of transition in his life.
—In Christian Love, David & Janice McCain”
THANK YOU … “Thanks you for the card. It is comforting to know that we are not forgotten far from home. My days are filled with much difficulty ahead, but with God’s help anything is possible. I know that life is uncertain and only God knows the minute or hour or day that you might be called home. I will try to do my best to be a good Christian and father, and with your prayers and wishes I feel fortified to meet the challenge. Thank you all so much.
— In Christian Love,
Kent Miller”
A WORLD PASSING AWAY
By Floyd Kaiser
Guest Article from The Southwesterner—Southwest Church of Christ—Ada, OK
In Corinthians 7 Paul gave guidance to some of the brethren who were thinking about getting married and starting a family. Some were men seeking a wife, and some were women seeking a husband.
What Paul advised was probably as disconcerting to the brethren of the First Century as it would be to the church of the Twenty-First Century. He basically said, “Don’t complicate your life by getting married and taking upon yourself additional commitments. Rather keep yourself unburdened that you might better serve God” (See 1 Cor. 7:25-35).
Can you imagine the stir it would cause if the elders announced one Sunday morning that after careful consideration they were advising all singles to not get married? End the engagements. Return the wedding gifts. Call off the ceremonies. They would no longer give hardy approval to any new families within the church!
This is what Paul was having read to the church at Corinth!
But, why?
The answer: for the form of this world is passing away (1 Cor. 7:31). How life used to be, would be no longer. Living as a Christian was going to become more difficult than it had ever been, so the Corinthians needed to adjust. No longer could it be ‘business as usual.”
In retrospect, we do know why Paul was giving this warning to the Corinthians. Jesus also had prophesied of this same period and called it “a great tribulation” that would be without equal in the annals of human history (Matt. 24:22). The Corinthians were being warned that a time was coming soon when the entire world would suffer, and our brethren most of all. Christians would be thrown into prison, have their property seized, and some would even be put to death (see Heb. 10:32-34 and 1 Pet. 4:12-19).
Now, say that the form of this world today is passing away as it did in Paul’s time would be a mistake. It would be an insult to what our brethren back then suffered.
However, there is a principle here that would do well to think about. TODAY’S WORLD IS CHANGING FASTER THAN MOST OF US WOULD EVER HAVE IMAGINED FORTY YEARS AGO, AND ALL OF US ARE GOING TO HAVE TO CHANGE WITH IT. As Paul advised the church of his age to prepare for change, we may have to make changes we don’t prefer. Different kinds of changes, perhaps, but changes nonetheless.
What am I talking a bout? Think of today’s world. The price of everything is going up at an alarming rate. Worldwide food supply is down. Gasoline prices may hit $4 a gallon this summer and much higher than that by the end of the year. The war on terrorism is nowhere closed to being won. Retirement plans and Social Security are no longer dependable. The economy is uncertain. More and more people are dependent upon the government, while fewer and fewer workers are there to support themselves and everyone else. More diseases. More addictions. More crime. Prisons are over capacity. It not this form of world passing away even today?
Although this news at first seems really bleak, please don’t think we ought to be discouraged. No, a Christian’s future is not attached to the price of gasoline or to anything else of this world. A Christian’s future is God! If anything, we ought to be excited about the possibilities that are coming. Maybe families will become more united when individual family members can no longer afford to just go their own ways in separate cars. Maybe the church will become a closer fellowship when we have to work together in order to survive. Maybe unspiritual additions will be stopped because they become too expensive. Maybe more people will pray as they feel their lives shaken and their futures in doubt.
Think about it. The affects of the form of this world passing away could be among the greatest blessings the church has ever experienced.
