Family News and 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.
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.
Willard Holliday will be preaching at the EVENING service today. His topic is CHURCH GROWTH.
LADIES BIBLE CLASS will resume at 10:00 AM on Tuesday, January 09, 2007. Ladies, please make plans to attend.
DO YOU PLAN TO STAY??? .. There will be a New Year's Eve get-together after the evening services TONITE. 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.
SEARCHING FOR HEAVENLY TRUTH These 6-part videos are available on the table in the foyer. A great help aid for gaining souls for the Lord. Feel free to take one (or more) to help you.
Grady is preparing an updated 2007 Church "Condensed" Directory to be published sometime during January. There are proof copies on each table in the foyer. Please examine the information that we have and make any necessary corrections. Then place a check mark by your family's name. If other members of your family are listed separately, make the corrections necessary and place a check mark by their names also. This needs to be completed no later than the second Sunday in January (the 14th). The sooner, the better, tho.
Denise Deering, niece of Jim & Barbara Duncan, passed away on Thursday, after losing her battle with cancer. Visitation was held Saturday nite at Sullivan Funeral Home in Marshall and her funeral will be conducted this afternoon at 2:00 PM at Victory Baptist Church, 607 East Burleson, in Marshall.
At the printing of this bulletin, R. C. Grissom was in Room 512 at Titus Regional Medical Center.
Toleda Ross Jackson, daughter of former member Murphy Ross (who is in a Nursing Home in Dallas), has breast cancer that has now spread to the lungs. She is in Methodist Central in Dallas and we have been asked to remember her in our prayers.
Wesley DuBose, Judy Freeman's dad, (who has diabetes) has developed a bad infection in his left leg which at this time requires medical attention at least twice a day. Judy requests that we keep her dad in our prayers.
THANK YOU "Thank you for thinking of us during this difficult time. We realize how much our friends really mean to us. Your expression of sympathy will always be remembered by the family of Alva Mae Sheets."
THANK YOU "Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ: It is with heartfelt and sincere gratitude for David coming to us following the tragic accident that took the life of our precious "Gin". Also, for Betty, Joe and Gene being at the hospital just after Gin was released from pain and into God's hands. There is no way to adequately express our thanks for the food following the Memorial Service and for those who served and cleaned during and after the meal. I ask for your continued prayers on behalf of my brother, Tom, as the hardest times of his recovery are yet to come. May our God bless you all.
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PRAYER LIST:
Sue Browning, Justin Barker, Rachel Barker, Jean Bell, Winell Blackard,
Annah Brown, Sue Browning, Josephine Cooper, Perry Cooper, Judy Freeman,
Vernon Garrett, Jan Hargrove, Charles Kyle, Carl Lee, Joyce Lee, Georgia Lide,
Wade Miller, Marie Plemmons, Helen Roper, Edith Shiflet, Ola Mae Simpson,
Julia Terrell, Rebecca Tippitt
ALSO: Robert Brewster, Cristell Cato, Tom Connor, Juanita DuBose,
Wesley DuBose, Carolyn Fox, Roy Fox, Edna Graves, R. C. Grissom,
Ruby Jeffery, Wayne Lineberger
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FORGETTING THE PAST
It is amazing how some "Christians" can think they are righteous, while blatantly holding grudges against fellow Christians, who have supposedly wronged them. Where is the spirit of Christ, who said, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do?" In our secular associations, we often find it convenient to overlook the slights of others, giving them the benefit of the doubt, that they were just out of sorts and did not really intend to hurt our feelings. However, I care not to number the times I have witnessed just the opposite when a grudge-bearing "Christian" is offended by another Christian, and seemingly the offense is locked away in their mental memory banks with a "do not erase" notation beside it.
In his inspired dissertation on striving for perfection, the Apostle Paul implied that it is detrimental for Christians to live in the past. He wrote, "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended; but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:13-14). Paul's own life is a perfect example of why we must learn to forget the past. To either browbeat himself for his original persecution of the church, or to rest on his accomplishments as a church planter, would have destroyed his continuing efforts to seek the high calling of God. So, he put the past behind him, and thought only of how he could more fully be like Jesus in accomplishing the Father's will.
An unhealthy regard for the past, can destroy individual Christians, or even entire congregations. Some brethren become complacent because of past spiritual accomplishments. They become self-satisfied with the status quo, and are happy to just keep house for the Lord. Others let occurrences from weeks, months, or even years ago, taint the way they feel right now about certain members, or even the entire congregation. Grudges are sometimes held for years by some folk, who can't even remember what it was that made them mad in the first place. Sadly our anger with our brethren is most often taken out on our perfectly innocent Lord, when we allow hurt feelings to cause us to quit working, quit giving, or quit attending.
The simple truth is, a petty regard for the past is going to cause lots of brethren to lose their soul. The Lord clearly warns us of the dangers of clinging to the past, whether it be positive or negative (Lk. 9:62; Jms. 5:9; Rev. 2 & 3). The congregation which clings to the past in an unwholesome way is in danger of having the Lord remove His presence from them (Rev. 2:5; 3:14-20). Likewise the individual who spiritually stagnates by living in the past is in danger of losing his soul. A lot of sour, surly, spiteful "Christians" are going to be surprised come Judgement Day, to find out that just being conservative doctrinally did not give them the right to be mean-spirited and unforgiving. Grudges won't fit through the pearly gates.
Brother or sister, if you've been living in the past, today is the day through repentance and prayer to put the past behind you. A new year is on the horizon. May God help us all to forget the past and press on toward "the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus!"
David McCain
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A FRESH NEW YEAR
Author Unknown
Another fresh New Year is almost here.
Another year, our life to live,
To banish worry, doubt, and fear,
To love and laugh and give.
This bright new year is given us,
To live each day with zest.
To daily grow in the Lord and try as we must
To do our highest and our best.
We have the opportunity
Once more to right some wrongs.
To pray for peace, to plant a tree,
To win a Soul, to sing more joyful songs.
Another year to laugh and love,
To try again; a brand new start.
Another chance to do things right
To share the Lord with all our heart.
Now that the holidays are through,
Were you with family and friends?
Did you do what you wanted to do?
Did it seem that the holidays would never end?
Remember thislet it live in your heart ...
The New Year is about to start.
Keep family and friends, and especially our Lord, in your thoughts every day
And the spirit of the New Year will not go away.
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