The Men's Business Meeting will be today following the evening services. Please make plans to attend. Your input is important.
Ladies, you are reminded to pick up your dishes from the multi-purpose room for the meal for the Cooper family.
The Tuesday Ladies Bible Class, which meets at 10:00 AM, will have a salad luncheon on Tuesday, January 13. See you there.
Please mark your calendars, if you have not already done so, for the Gospel Meeting scheduled for April 2528, 2004 here at the building. Brother Michael Light will bepreaching.
Irene Duncan had her surgery last Tuesday and was scheduled to be dismissed from the hospital on Friday. At the printing of this bulletin she was scheduled to go to the home of Mary Hall for further recovery.
Josephine Cooper had knee surgery in Paris last Tuesday and was scheduled to return home this weekend. She will be having therapy for a few weeks.
Janelle Stephenson is still having difficulties and we need to continue to remember her in our prayers.
Jim White, nephew of Thelma Reed, is suffering from bleeding ulcers and is very ill. Please place him on your prayer list.
Jewel Allen (mother of Mary Taylor) passed away in Dallas on Thursday. At the printing of this bulletin services were pending.
Shade Wayne Bradley passed away on January 04, 2004. His funeral was conducted by Bates-Cooper Funeral Home here at the building at 2:00 PM Thursday, January 08, with burial at Farmer's Academy Cemetery.
THANK YOU "Our hearts were uplifted by the outpouring of love shown by our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are so appreciative of the beautiful singing at Sandra's services and the words of comfort expressed by Weldon. The cards, prayers, flowers, and the bountiful meal served by the ladies meant so much to us. May God bless each of you.
In Christian love,
The Cooper family"
THANK YOU "The family of Phyllis Reese Moon acknowledges with grateful appreciation the kind expression of your sympathy. Thank you for the fresh wall spray and schefflera with basket. We also want to express our appreciation in your sharing your singers with us during the service. Thank you again for remembering us at this challenging time in our lives."
I once had a geometry teacher who was fond of giving pop quizzes. He called them "pop inventories!" He said we needed to regularly inventory our mental storehouses to make sure we had memorized the theorems and postulates needed to solve the geometric equations.
Likewise, God expects us to mature spiritually (II Pet. 3:18), and has ordered us to take regular spiritual inventory of our progress. II Corinthians 13:5 says, "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith, prove your own selves" In fact, to make sure we don't wait too long between examinations, I Corinthians 11:28 admonishes us to take spiritual inventory every week in the course of taking the Lord's Supper, for the text enjoins, "But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup."
Periodic spiritual reality checks can be profitable for all of us, if we're honest with our self-evaluations. However, they can also be frightening! What if when we look in the mirror we don't like what we see? What do we do when we stand against the doorjamb of the Scriptures to measure ourselves, only to find we've stopped growing? Is there any hope if we discover we are stunted in spiritual growth?
Yes, there is hope! When Paul penned First Corinthians, he wrote to Christians whose spiritual growth was stunted. He said, "And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ" (I Cor. 3:1). The very fact that Paul offered this criticism, as well as some solutions to the problems of spiritual immaturity, is indicative of the fact that spiritual immaturity can be corrected.
If your spiritual inventory uncovers an area of weakness, the first step in outgrowing it is to admit your problem. Half the battle is now won! The Scriptures then provide the solution in the form of some practical guidelines for renewing spiritual growth in your life. Following is a checklist to help you inventory your spiritual progress.
First, for spiritual growth to occur, there must be an adequate intake of spiritual nourishment. The milk of God's Word (I Pet. 2:1-2), then the meat of God's divine oracles must be consumed (Heb. 5:12-14).
Secondly, for the maturation process to go unhindered there must be freedom from the disease of sin. Unchecked sin will kill Christian growth (Heb. 10:26). To grow spiritually, Christians must make a concentrated effort to weed willful sin out of our lives (Rms. 6:1-2). Liberal amounts of the "balm of Gilead" must be applied to help heal our sin-sick souls. Repentance, confession, and prayer should be our daily practice (Jms. 5:16, I Jn. 1:9).
Thirdly, Christian maturity demands exercise. The reason so many Christians are stunted spiritually is because they don't exercise their faith. Paul wrote, "...exercise thyself unto godliness: for bodily exercise is profitable for a little; but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life which now is, and of that which is to come" (I Tim. 4:7-8). Without spiritual exercise you'll never grow to your full spiritual potential.
Finally, Christian growth requires a good spiritual environment. Avoiding people, places, and things which can hinder spiritual growth, is an absolute necessity (I Cor. 15:33, II Thess. 5:22). Regular fellowship and worship provides the excellent climate Christians need for optimum spiritual growth (Acts 2:42-47, Heb. 10:23-25).
Surely, one of God's greatest desires for us is sustained personal spiritual growth. Are you more dedicated to the cause of Christ today than yesterday, a week ago, a month ago, or a year ago? Is your knowledge of the Scriptures increasing with eachpassing day? Are you kinder, gentler, more loving, and more caring as the years unfold? Are you more Christ-like in thought, speech, dress, and actions than when you first became a new creature in Christ? May God help us to take regular spiritual inventory of these crucial matters!
A recently popular song entitled "Celebrity" pokes fun at the lifestyles of the rich and famous, noting their "marriages that barely last a month." If the artist who performed this song had waited until now to release it, he might well have changed the lyrics to suggest an even shorter duration of marriage. Britney Spears, the entertainer known for influencing scores of 13- and 14-year old girls to dress with extreme impropriety, recently had a marriage that lasted all of fifty-five hours. Apparently on a wild night in Las Vegas with a male childhood friend, the two, according to him, "were just looking at each other and said, 'Let's do something wild, crazy. Let's go get married, just for the [expletive] of it.'" It was not long after saying, "I do," that they changed their minds. Upon the realization that their "wild, crazy" idea was just that, they filed for and received an annulment. What are some lessons that can be taken from this sad occurrence?
1. Marriage is to be taken seriously.
Marriage was ordained by God (Genesis 2:18-25). Every marriage involves a joining together by God (Matthew 19:6). This bond holds firm until death, with only one allowable exception for divorce (Romans 7:2-3; Matthew 19:9). Yet many fly into this sacred and enduring bond with no forethought whatsoever. Why are you marrying? Whom are you marrying? When are you marrying? A statement was made by Miss Spears' record label that she and her ex-husband "took a joke too far." One considering marriage needs to consider whether he is ready to make that commitment, and to share that particular commitment with that particular person.
2. Accountability cannot be suspended.
An Associated Press article describes annulment as follows:
Marriage is a legal contract. An annulment acknowledges that there was some inherent problem with the contract or how it was executed. . . . An annulment makes a marriage go away as if it never happened, while a divorce recognizes that it did occur.
All people make mistakes upon occasion, and one certainly would not expect Miss Spears to be exempt from this rule. All can be forgiven even of sins against God through repentance and obedience to God (II Peter 3:9). However, no decree of man's law can make anything "go away as if it never happened" in the sight of God. He is aware of all: "Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do" (Hebrews 4:13). Although Miss Spears and her ex-husband have tried to run away from their responsibility regarding the mistake they made, it is something with which they will have to contend for the remainder of their lives, and possibly beyond. It must be remembered that "every one of us shall give account of himself to God" (Romans 14:12).
3. Carefully consider before selecting role models.
Indisputably one of the greatest and most faithful Christians to ever live, the apostle Paul was compelled by the Holy Spirit to write, "Be ye followers of me" (I Corinthians 11:1). God considered Paul worthy of emulation. However, the verse does not end therehe added, "even as I also am of Christ." If ever an occasion occurred when Paul was not following Christ, Paul was not to be followed. If a qualifier was required with regard to this faithful man, should not this qualifier be applied to all? Entertainers generally make lousy role models. A role model should not be selected because of fame, wealth, talent, or physical appearance; but rather on the basis of how that person follows Christ. Ultimately, the greatest role model of all is Christ Himself (Ephesians 5:2; Philippians 2:5-8; Hebrews 12:2-3; I Peter 2:21-24; I John 2:6).
In Christian love,