Family News & Notes
As the men serving on the communion table make their way toward the front to be seated, please begin to prepare your minds for our worship service.
It is great to see each of you here this morning to worship our Lord. We wish to express a warm welcome to our visitors and hope you will not leave after services so we can meet you and visit. Each person, please take a card and fill those out and pass them to the inside aisles and they will be picked up shortly.
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.
The men are reminded of the Men's Business Meeting scheduled for tonight after services. All men are encouraged to attend.
Geneva Cooksey has furnished us with her new phone number, as follows: (please mark your records)
R. C. Grissom is back in Titus Regional Hospital with a back injury. His room number was not known at the printing of this bulletin.
Charles Kyle had heart surgery on Thursday, receiving 5 by-passes. He is still in ICU in Tyler Mother Frances Hospital at the writing of this bulletin. He seems to be much better and hopes to move to a private room soon.
Hollis Lee is still in Mother Frances Hospital in Tyler. He is very ill. At times he is not very responsive.
Vernon Garrett has cornea surgery this past week. Still a little early to tell whether the surgery is helping his sight or not.
Sue Browning is back at home to complete her recovery from her recent heart surgery.
Bob Hedges has been pretty sick at home this past week. Thinks it was pneumonia.
Judy Freeman arrived back at her home on Monday shortly after noon, following her heart attack and subsequent stint surgery in Tyler. She is doing good but is bored because she can't do anything. She hopes to be out of the house real soon.
As previously reported, Tom and Virginia Conner were involved in an auto accident last week. Tom is still in the hospital with three broken ribs, a broken sternum and a broken wrist. Virginia was placed on life support but passed away on Thursday afternoon. Her funeral was pending with Bates-Cooper-Sloan Funeral Home at the writing of this bulletin.
Grady Duncan is feeling much better and was able to be back in services Wednesday evening.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR AND MAKE YOUR PLANS NOW.. There will be a New Year's Eve get-together after the evening services Sunday, December 31, 2006. Everyone will be in the Multi-Purpose Room. If you are planning to attend bring sandwiches, snacks of your choice, table and board games. Coffee and tea will be furnished.
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PRAYER LIST:
Judy Freeman, Vernon Garrett, Sue Browning, Hollis Lee, Justin Barker,
Rachel Barker, Jean Bell, Winell Blackard, Annah Brown, Sue Browning,
Nancy Chastain, Josephine Cooper, Perry Cooper, Judy Freeman, Jan Hargrove, Charles Kyle, Joyce Lee, Georgia Lide, Wade Miller, Carl Lee, Marie Plemmons, Helen Roper, Alva Mae Sheets, Edith Shiflet, Ola Mae Simpson, Julia Terrell,
and Rebecca Tippitt
ALSO: Bobby Brewster, Cristell Cato, Austin Cody, Lana Downs,
Juanita DuBose, Wesley DuBose, Carolyn Fox, Roy Fox, Edna Graves,
R. C. Grissom, Ruby Jeffery, Carlos Kidwell, Wayne Lineberger,
and Nola Vandusen.
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THINK ON THESE THINGS
BY Derrick Coble
(Guest article from Mammoth Spring Church of Christ Bulletin)
It's quiet. It's early. My coffee is hot. The sky is still black. The world is still asleep. The day is coming. In a few moments, the day will arrive. It will roar down the track with the rising of the sun. The stillness of the dawn will be exchanged for the noise of the day. The calm of the solitude will be replaced by the pounding pace of the human race. The refuge of the early morning will be invaded by decisions to be made and deadlines to be met. For the next twelve house, I will be exposed to the day's demands. It is now that I must make a choice. And so I choose ...
I Choose Love No occasion justifies hatred; no injustice warrants bitterness. I choose love. Today, I will love God and what God loves.
I Choose Joy I will invite my God to be the God of circumstance. I will refuse the temptation to be cynical, the tool of the lazy thinker. I will refuse to see people as anything less than human beings created by God. I will refuse to see any problem as anything less than an opportunity to see God.
I Choose Peace I will live forgiven. I will forgive so that I may live.
I Choose Patience I will overlook the inconveniences of the world. Rather than complaining that the wait is too long, I will thank God for a moment to pray. Instead of clenching my fist at new assignments, I will face them with joy and courage.
I Choose Kindness I will be kind to the poor, for they are alone; kind to the rich, for they are afraid; and kind to the unkind, for such is how God has treated me.
I Choose Goodness I will go without a dollar before I take a dishonest one. I will see the good in others when it is hard to find. I will confess before I will accuse.
I Choose Faithfulness Today, I will keep my promises. My debtors will not regret their trust. My associates will not question my word. My wife will not question my love. And my children will never fear that their father will fail to come home.
I Choose Gentleness Nothing is won by force. I choose to be gentle. If I raise my voice, it may be only in praise. If I clench my fist, may it be only in prayer. If I make a demand, may it be only of myself.
I Choose Self-Control I am a spiritual being. After this body is dead, my spirit will soar. I refuse to let what will rot rule the eternal.
LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, KINDNESS, GOODNESS, FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS, AND SELF-CONTROL The fruit of the Spirit in Galatians (5:22-23). To these I commit my day. If I succeed, I will give thanks. If I fail, I will seek God's face. And, then, when this day is done, I will place my head on my pillow and rest.
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DID GOD CREATE EVERYTHING?
Did God create everything that exists? Does evil exist? Did God create evil?
A University professor at a well known institution of higher learning challenged his students with this question. "Did God create everything that exists?"
A student bravely replied, "Yes he did!"
"God created everything?" The professor asked.
"Yes sir, he certainly did," the student replied.
The professor answered, "If God created everything; then God created evil. And, since evil exists, & according to the principle that our works define who we are, then we can assume God is evil."
The student became quiet & did not respond to the professor's hypothetical definition. The professor, quite pleased with himself, boasted to the students that he had proven once more that the religious faith was a myth.
Another student raised his hand & said, "May I ask you a question, professor?"
`
"Of course," replied the professor.
The student stood up and asked, "Professor, does cold exist?"
"What kind of question is this? Of course it exists. Have you never been cold?"
The other students snickered at the young man's question. The young man replied, "In fact sir, cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat.
Everybody or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, & heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-460F) is the total absence of heat; & all matter becomes inert & incapable of reaction at that temperature. Cold does not exist. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat."
The student continued, "Professor, does darkness exist?"
The professor responded, "Of course it does."
The student replied, "Once again you are wrong, darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact, we can use Newton 's prism to break white light into many colors & study the various wave lengths of each color. You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness & illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is?
You measure the amount of light present. Isn't this correct?
Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present."
Finally the young man asked the professor, "Sir, does evil exist?"
Now uncertain, the professor responded, "Of course, as I have already said. We see it everyday. It is in the daily examples of man's inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime & violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil.
To this the student replied, "Evil does not exist, sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness & cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God.
God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat, or the darkness
that comes when there is no light."
The professor sat down.
The Student's name? Albert Einstein
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