Family News and Notes
REMEMBER GO VOTE ON TUESDAY . Proposition 2 is one of the most important issues to come before God loving people.
Mark your calendar . our mid-week service for Thanksgiving week will be on Tuesday nite instead of Wednesday nite. We'll mention again later.
Please make a correction in your Church Directory: The correct phone number for Kent Cooper is: 903-572-7087
Any widow, shut-in, or elderly needing firewood for the winter please let David or Janice know. A youth activity is being planned for Saturday Nov. 19th from 3 PM until whenever .. to cut up and split firewood and deliver it to those who need it.
Attention all youth save Saturday, Nov. 19th from 3 PM until whenever for this activity. David will buy Pizza for all who participate after we are finished, and maybe a movie if there is a good one out by then.
Placing membership last Sunday: (Welcome !)
Charles & Dorothy Kyle
402 Park Drive
Mount Pleasant, Texas 75455
903-577-7855
Marie Plemmons
2307 Matthew Drive
Mount Pleasant, Texas 75455
903-575-1099
Marie would enjoy visits from time to time. She lives with her son and daughter-in-law in the house on the corner.
Last Sunday Jim Duncan responded to the invitation and requested our prayers and love on his behalf. Please continue to remember him in your prayers.
Wade Miller continues to improve and got a good report from his doctor last Wednesday. There was no damage to his retina. He will be doing follow-up visits as the days progress and as his eye heals.
Joyce Lee fell at home last Wednesday and was able to reach a phone and call 911 to come help her get up. She did not break any bones.
Courtney Marshall had surgery last week and will be resting at home for several days during her recovery period.
Sick at home during the past week;
Ann Carter & Tim Jones
Please remember also everyone on the Prayer List.
Billye Campbell had a good day Wednesday and continues to slowly improve following her recent surgery and stroke.
THANK YOU "It is truly a blessing to have such a wonderful Christian family.
Thanks so much for all the encouraging cards and especially your continuing prayers. Thank you so much.-- Billye Campbell"
Wayne Lineberger is now at home but continues to visit his doctors regularly. Thursday he had a MRI and CATS CAN and on Monday he begins a three-day Chemo treatment.
THANK YOU "Wayne and I would like to express our appreciation to each of you for your visits, cards and phone calls over the last several weeks. Please continue to remember us and keep our family in your prayers. We have faith that God will hear our prayers and help us through each day."--Wayne & Janice Lineberger
THANK YOU "Members of North Jefferson Church of Christ: Our appreciation and thanks to you comes from deep in our hearts. You have been a blessing to us during so many of our saddest and most difficult days. Your love for Winnie during her good times and bad times is a testimony to your goodness, and makes us thankful that she was a part of your church family. "Our Winnie" was easy to love with her beautiful laughter and sweet spirit. We miss her and will cherish our good, good memories. Thank you again for everything. we will never forget.
God Bless, James & Lynda Steen
THANK YOU "Dear Christian Family: The family of Zeneth Hargrove wants to express our heartfelt appreciation for your expressions of sympathy, prayers, cards, flowers, donation, plants and the meal that was prepared for us. The members at North Jefferson Church of Christ are a tremendous source of comfort for us during this difficult time. May God bless you, Richard, Shannon & Tyler;
Raymond, Margie, Keith & Sara; Katy & Ashley; Jan"
It takes time for broken hearts to heal so we need to remember, at least for a while yet, the Winnie Patton family and the Zeneth Hargrove family in our prayers.
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PRAYER LIST:
Betty Abbey, Justin Barker, Rachel Barker, Louis Bell, Winell Blackard,
Annah Brown, Billye Campbell, Ann Carter, Perry Cooper, Tim Jones, Hollis Lee, Joyce Lee, Georgia Lide, Courtney Marshall, Wade Miller, Elna O'Neal,
Wayne Pickrel, Dorothy Sargent, Alva Mae Sheets, Edith Shiflet, Rebecca Tippitt
ALSO: Melba Boyd, Austin Cody, Wesley & Juanita DuBose, Dudley Farrell, Ruby Jeffery, Wayne Lineberger, Lonita Thompson
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Is It Worth All The Trouble?
From past experience, I know parents sometimes ask themselves the question I have used as a title for this article, in regard to the value of bringing their little babies and toddlers to Bible study and worship. Please let me answer the query for you with a resounding YES! Be assured, it is worth all of the trouble, effort, and frustration you suffer, in order to bring those little tykes to church, and you are to be commended for your dedication in doing so. If we gave out awards for service above and beyond the call of duty, it would be my opinion, to place at the top of the list, the parents who faithfully bring their young children to every service.
Anyone who knows me very well knows I love babies, toddlers, and little children, and that I deeply appreciate all those parents who struggle to bring them to church. I think I know whereof I speak, when I say, I understand the sacrifices of time and energy required to get those little ones up, fed, bathed, and dressed on Sunday morning, in order to bring them on time for Bible study. I also understand how frustrating their antics can be, as you strive to have them sit quietly through an hour, or more, of worship.
Indeed, I know how trying it can sometimes be, to have little "wiggle worm" sitting on your lap. I, too, have experienced that warm, red-faced feeling you get, when your little "GI Joe" decides to turn his teething ring into an unguided missile aimed at "brother Buster's" bald noggin. I understand how nerve-wracking it can be when little "octopus arms" can somehow grab a Bible, two song books, and "sister Sudie's" priceless heirloom pearl necklace, all at the same time. And, yes, I perceive how utterly upsetting it is to your peace of mind, when "junior" decides a tray of grape juice in the lap of your new white dress, or on your new "Dockers," is just what you need to "make your day!"
By noon on Sunday most young parents, especially the young mothers are in a state of "shell shock." You may feel as if you've run the Boston Marathon, twice! As you reflect back on the service, I'm sure there are times when you can't remember much about it, except maybe the embarrassment you felt when you overheard someone complaining about those "crying babies disrupting the service." As you consider whether or not you got any real spiritual edification, you may begin to wonder if it's even worth the trouble to attend. And, if that's not enough frustration, then the preacher gets meddlesome by putting an article in the bulletin on disciplining children. It's enough to discourage you and make you want to quit, isn't it?
Don't do it! Let me assure you, the preacher wasn't trying to add to your frustrations, nor was he trying to discourage you from bringing those little ones to church. Nothing could be further from his intended purpose. No one in his right mind would ever do anything to keep children, nor their parents, away from the Lord, especially considering Jesus' statement, in Matthew 19:14, where he said, "Suffer (permit) little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven."
That's exactly why it's worth the trouble to bring children and even little babies to Bible study and worship, because you want to start early in preparing them for the kingdom of heaven. So, why not let them know from day one, Sunday is the Lord's Day!
When I think about the value of bringing babies and little children to Bible study and worship, I'm reminded of the story I heard about the old Christian gentleman whose health was failing fast. He was almost totally deaf, his voice was all but gone, and his eyesight was greatly diminished. However, he never missed a church service.
One day, one of the brethren, by writing the question on a piece of paper, asked him why he still bothered to attend church, since he obviously got so little out of the service and was unable to put much into it. The elderly brother's scrawled reply was a sermon in itself, "I want my brethren, and the world, and Satan, and most of all God, to know whose side I'm on!"
That's why you should keep at it, young parents, if for no other reason than to let everyone know whose side you're on. Even if you personally don't get much out of the service, please remember you are helping to establish early on in your child's life, a pattern of behavior that hopefully will last a lifetime. Nothing will affect the ultimate outcome of your child's life, like the early training he or she receives in the Bible study and worship services of the Lord's church.
So, don't quit! Even if they cry and have to be carried out every Sunday, don't quit! Remember, and again I speak from experience, it won't be long until those precious little souls, who have been entrusted by God into your care, will be grown, and gone, and out on their own. You'll turn around twice and they'll be gone before you can believe it. Hopefully, though, because of the training and instruction you are giving them now, in just a few years they will be faithful servants of the Lord, serving as elders, deacons, preachers, and Bible class teachers, and faithfully raising their own kids to love the Lord and His church. Indeed, when that time comes, you'll know for sure that, "it really was worth all the trouble!" So, "let us not grow weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not" (Galatians 6:9).
"And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." Ephesians 6:4
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PROPER GOALS
Johnny Ramsey
Living in this old world would be much more tedious were it not for goals toward which we strive. Standards of excellence challenge us. The joy of achievement drives us onwardand to Christians upward! Paul mentioned the "pressing on" motivation of Christianity in I Cor. 9:24-27 and in the third chapter of Philippians. In the beauty of Psalm 27 we learn that having the Lord as our light and our salvation provides within us the goal of heaven. Abraham looked for an abode that God provides (Hebrews 11:10). Every loyal follower of the Master can borrow James Wolfe's dying words in 1759:
"Now God by praised; I will die in peace."
Since riches will not profit us (Prov. 11:4) and we shall see the vanity of all earthly possessions (Ecc. 2:11) we dare not hold such fleeting treasures as our ultimate goal (I John 2:17). Because our life is "but a vapor" that swiftly passes away we cannot make length of days our most important consideration (James 4:14). Indeed, we labor in vain unless our Creator is the basis of all our plans (Psalms 127:1). When we allow God to "work in us" (Phil. 2:12) our labor is not in vain (I Cor. 15:58). Sadly, millions in our day launch out on their own in pursuit of nebulous goals of carnal amusement (II Tim. 3:4) and then come to the end of the way and wonder why their sojourn was fruitless.
Such foolish emphasis caused them to be "counterfeit coin" (Jeremiah 6:30) and thus, good for nothing (Neh. 2:20) on heaven's market! In the shallow existence of many in our age of debauchery the sentiment of Oscar Wilde in 1900 is apropos:
"I can resist everything except temptation."
But, for those who have become partakers of the divine nature (II Peter `1:4) and even deepen in the virtues of the gospel (Col. 1:9-10) there is purpose in living and glorious hope beyond (Titus 1:2, Phil. 1:21).
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