FAMILY NEWS AND NOTES
Volume 10 12 October 2008 Issue No. 33
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.
Service Arrangements
COMMUNION FOR OCTOBER 2008
SOUTH SIDE NORTH SIDE
AM
Rance Robison
Bob Hedges
Daniel McCary Jon McCain
Bronson Roper Austin Neal
PM
Jim Duncan Darrell Cooper
ANNOUNCEMENTS …………...… Grady Duncan
(Sunday and Wednesday)
SONG LEADER AM………......... Rance Robison
PM …….......…. Rance Robison
Wednesday Nite ….....…. Grady Duncan
PRAYERS —– Sunday.
AM First Prayer …….............….. Wayne Pickrel
AM Closing…………..............…… Weldon Miller
PM First Prayer…................…… Daniel McCary
PM Closing………..…................. Bronson Roper
PRAYERS — Wednesday Nite
First Prayer………...............….. Frankie Sargent
Closing……………….…................… Cody Sparks
PRAYER LIST:
Justin Barker, Rachel Barker, Doris Bell, Louis & Nona Bell, Billye Campbell, Suzanne Charlton, Irene Duncan, Mary Jane Joyner, Joyce Lee, Georgia Lide, JoAnn Miller, Wade Miller, Ben McCain, Thelma Reed, Rebecca Tippitt
ALSO: Gary Bell, Wesley DuBose, LaWanta Garner, Michael Gilbert, Donald Johnson, Mary Jo Lee, Wayne Lineberger, Cammy Jo McCain, Lee McCain, Betty Newman, Johnine Phillips, Don Shuette, Paul Unger, Yvonne Waldrup, Shirley Wright
And now for … FAMILY NEWS AND NOTES
MEN … Be here and attend the Men’s Business Meeting this evening following services. Your attendance and input are important.
Many thanks to Hal Roper who taught the auditorium class on Wednesday evening. He did a great job.
Please remember that our “Bible Bowl” will begin again for its second season on Monday nite, October 13. We will host this first meeting. All of the competitions will be held here, but with different congregations hosting each month. Our study material will be the Old Testament book of Judges, out of the NKJV. The first test will cover Judges 1—3. Our coaches this year will consist of the Armstrong(s), the Robison(s), and the McCary(s).
“Everyone is invited to a CAMPFIRE COOKOUT at the McCary’s on Saturday evening, October 25, beginning at 6:00 PM. Please bring your camp chairs and a drink or dessert.
Thanks—Keely”
The CD/DVD’s are ready from the Ladies Day on September 20th. If you are interested please sign the list in the foyer.
Even after having received a shot in her back, JoAnn Miller is still having some pain problems. Perhaps it will get better with time.
Gary Bell is still in the local hospital.
Billye Campbell has not been able to attend services on a regular basis, as she would like to do, due to her physical problems.
In addition to those just mentioned, above, please remember those on the prayer list. They all need our prayers.
Choosing The Good Part
—Maxie B. Boren, Dallas, TX
Bulletin Digest
A context of Scripture that every Christian needs to read carefully is Luke 10:38-42. An incident in the life of Jesus is recorded there wherein a great lesson is taught. In this text, Jesus came to the house of Mary and Martha in the village of Bethany, on the eastward slope of the Mount of Olives. These two sisters and their brother Lazarus, were much loved by Jesus (John 11:5) and He would visit with them when passing through. Upon His entering their house, Martha evidently busied herself with “much serving” while Mary sat down and absorbed all Jesus had to say. Apparently frustrated, Martha approached Jesus and asked, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me” (Verse 40). Jesus replies, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled with many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her” (Verses 41-42).
O what a lesson for us! In the midst of a “fast-moving world,” wherein are so many distractions and things clamoring for our attention, how desperately urgent it is that we choose “the good part” and take the time to listen to what Jesus and His inspired apostles have said to us!
Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God — Jesus (Luke 6:20)
[Guest article by Floyd Kaiser—The Southwesterner—Southwest church of Christ—Ada, OK]
In 2007, in America, we had a difficulty accepting this attitude of poverty of spirit. We live in a society that’s been influenced by humanism for, I would say, about four or five decades. Humanism teaches that every individual is society’s god and the aim of every person is to tap into his/her own almost divine potential. Therefore, we are taught, we have the power within ourselves to reach our potential and to journey to “self-actualization.”
It was Abraham Maslow who coined the expression self-actualization. He described it like this: “A musician must make music; an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be. This is the need we may call self-actualization … It refers to man’s desire for fulfillment, namely to the tendency for him to become actually in what he is potentially: to become everything that one is capable of becoming.”
Self-actualization is not anti-spiritual. Every person, even the Christian, should desire to become all one is capable of being. The only problem is that with humanism, man can do it himself without God. Yet, the Bible teaches that it only happens by God. In John 15:5, Jesus announced, “Apart from Me, you can do nothing.”
Today we don’t see too much of congratulating ourselves that we’ve won a great relationship with God by means of our good deeds or self-righteousness, like the Pharisees. No, we don’t see much of that. But, what we do see is this tendency to not include God in our problems of daily life, like marriage, finances, parenting, depression, grief and so on. We feel like we can live well without God. We feel like we can become our own god.
What this does is that it produces arrogance. We don’t want God’s way of dealing with life because his way is unacceptable. Americans don’t want religion, true religion, because they have fallen for humanism and the deifying of man. In other countries like India and some countries in Africa, the need for God is greater, but not here. After all, it’s hard to convince people they need God when they thing they are gods themselves.
But the first beatitude defies humanism. What you need is God! The only poverty that really matters is spiritual. You have no riches on your own. You have no potential for riches. You have no future and no hope without God! What Paul wrote in Philippians 4:13, is something the whole world needs to hear, but especially America, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” It’s only through Christ that there is a path to self-actualization — if you want to call the abundant life, self-actualization.
