TRANSPORTATIONT......Those needing transportation can call;
Frankie Sargent at 903-572-2647
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Family News and Notes
Please be reminded our Building Fund Contribution Day was moved to today. If you have made plans to contribute to this fund this is the time. Thanks.
Men remember that we have the Men's Business Meeting following evening services tonight. Please try to attend.
VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL is quickly approaching...June 2-6. Mark your calendar.
Karen Sargent will be graduating from High School this month as Valedictorian of the Senior Class. She has also received many other honors this year. Congratulations Karen.
Camp Cisco for High School students begins July 20th and runs thru July 25th. This year they are also having a session for the 4th thru 7th grades from June 29th thru July 3rd. Any students who wish to attend one of these sessions should contact either Bob Hedges or Lee Moses ASAP.
We had a good attendance for our Gospel Meeting May 1-6. Following is the attendance record for each nite and day.
Thursday 135
Friday 135
Saturday 115
Sunday AM 158
Sunday PM116
Edith Shiflet entered Titus Regional Medical Center for surgery on her leg last Sunday morning. She is in Room 308 and is still not feeling well.
Billy Carter has been ill at home. He is having breathing problems.
Tillman Ethridge has been experiencing serious health problems and we need to keep him in our prayers. Tillman is the father of Alice Freeman and husband of Julia Ethridge.
Nona Bell has been admitted to Mount Pleasant Healthcare Center on Hwy 67 West for further rehab on her broken arm. She is in Room 56A. Please keep her and Louis in your prayers.
What is a Mother?
Katherine Nelson Davis
A mother is someone to shelter and guide us,
To love us, whatever we do,
With a warm understanding and infinite patience.
And wonderful gentleness, too.
How often a mother means swift reassurance
In soothing our small, childish fears,
How tenderly mothers watch over their children
And treasure them all through the years!
The heart of a mother is full of forgiveness
For any mistake, big or small,
And generous always in helping her family,
Whose needs she has placed above all.
A mother can utter a word of compassion
And make all our cares fall away,
She can brighten a home with the sound of her laughter
And make life delightful and gay.
A mother possesses incredible wisdom
And wonderful insight and skill
In each human heart is that one special corner
Which only a mother can fill!
Happy Mothers Day!
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PRAYER LIST:
Bob Adams, Justin Barker, Louis Bell, Nona Bell, Iona Carpenter, Billy Carter, Sandra Cooper, Barbara Duncan, Patsy Duncan, Howard Horton, Corine Hudson, Hollis Lee, Joyce Lee,
ALSO: Geneva Cooksey, Woodrow Cooksey, Tillman Ethridge, Marie Keith, Minnie Moore
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Tom's Pen
This morning I am away in a meeting with the brethren in Briar, TX. This is our eighth meeting with them in as many years. Johnnie Ann's parents are members at Briar, her dad, Al Alston, having served as an elder for a number of years. My thanks to you for allowing me to be away from time to time to conduct meetings and attend lectureships. Upon completion of the meeting, we will head to Huntsville, Alabama, for a couple of days with our son and his family, and then travel to Virginia where I will speak Sunday morning at the East Bristol lectures. Their theme this year is a study in the book of Psalms. I am to provide the introductory lesson for that series. Fortunately, brother Paul Sain has informed me that my first volume on the Psalms is now printed, and he should have some of those bound for me to pick up and take with me to that lecture series. If all goes according to schedule, we will pick up the remainder of the books on the Psalms on our return trip. We should be back in town by Friday the 23rd, and back in the office on Monday. Lee will be preaching both services for the 11th and the 18th. I'll brag on my co-worker and let you know that it is a genuine joy working with him, and having he and Kelley associated with the congregation in that capacity. Please keep us in your prayers as we travel that we might have a safe journey to and from our destination.
Some years back there was a silly notion that, at least for a few years, was quite popular. Some European "intellect" had come to the conclusion that truth was not attainable, nor was it absolute. Of that he was certain. The foolishness of such a notion is easily discerned. If someone ever tells you truth is not absolute, just ask him, "Is your statement absolutely true?" The Bible says, "Answer a fool according to his folly, Lest he be wise in his own conceit" (Pro. 26:5). I don't know who wrote this poem, but I filed it away in my files more than 20 years ago:
Truth Never Dies
Truth never dies. The ages come and go.
The mountains wear away, the stars retire.
Destruction lays earth's mighty cities low;
And empires, states, and dynasties expire;
But caught and handed onward by the wise,
Truth never dies.
Though unreceived and scoffed at through the years;
Though made the butt of ridicule and jest;
Though held aloft for mockery and jeers,
Insulted by the insolence of lies,
Truth never dies.
It answers not. It does not take offense,
But with a mighty silence bides its time;
As some great cliff that braves the elements
And lifts through all the storms its head sublime,
And never dies.
As rests the Sphinx amid Egyptian sands;
As looms on high the snowy peak and crest;
As firm and patient as Gibraltar stands,
So truth, unwearied, waits the era blessed
When men shall turn to it with great surprise.
Truth never dies.
Have a good week!
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Provocative Attire
by Lee Moses
God instructs Christians to "consider one another to provoke unto love and good works" (Hebrews 10:24). This manner of provocation takes place in worship assemblies and wherever Christians can be found. However, as summer approaches, a different type of provocation is widely taking place. As the mercury rises, the number of articles of clothing covering people's bodies seems to drop. Sometimes covering only as much flesh as the law demands, many women (and some men as well) delight in the ease with which they can make jaws drop as their clothing drops.
Clearly, such an attitude violates the Biblical principle of modesty. In instructing Christian women, the Holy Spirit inspired the words,
I will . . . that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; but (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works (I Timothy 2:9-10).
Women are not to dress in such a way as to draw undue attention to themselves. This principle would certainly apply to men as well; but apparently it is not a new development that the problem of immodest attire is greater with regard to women.
Women are found dressing themselves in short shorts, short skirts, bikini swimsuits, and other items of clothing whose purpose is not to conceal, but to reveal. Mary Quant, (dis)credited with designing the miniskirt, boldly stated, "I mean today's woman is proud of her body. . . . Her clothing is worn for decoration, provocation, and look at me. A lot of look-at-me about it" [McCall's Magazine, March 1970]. Public nakedness and shame should go hand-in-hand (cf. Gen. 9:22-27; II Sam. 10:4-5; Isa. 20:4; 47:3; et al.), yet scores of women are brazenly flaunting everything they have for anyone to see. There is no modesty to be found in their attire; yet, "Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush" (Jeremiah 6:15). Compare the attitude of the Persian Queen Vashti, who refused to "show the princes and the people her beauty" (Esther 1:10-12), with that of the exhibitionists parading in public during the warm summer months.
Immodest attire not only conveys the wrong attitude; it provokes inordinate desires in others. Some may say, "I do not conduct myself as immorally as my clothing might suggest; this is only how I dress." However, sin is begun from the time of its inception as a thought-Jesus said,
Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart (Matthew 5:27-28).
It cannot be unequivocally stated that all men or women who dress immodestly are intentionally trying to arouse indecent desires; however, intentional or not, this is still the result. One who dresses in a way which causes another to think indecent thoughts has caused that person to sin, making the provocative dresser guilty of putting a stumbling-block before the other's salvation. Again, our Lord said, "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea" (Matthew 18:6, NKJV).
Each of us makes the choice daily what to wear. God saw fit to clothe Adam and Eve with animal skins rather than the scanty fig leaves with which they had adorned themselves (Genesis 3:21). Each of us also makes the choice daily as to how we will endeavor to provoke our fellow man. If we care about others and love our Lord, we will endeavor to "provoke to emulation" those about us, that we "might save some of them" (Romans 11:14).
Thursday 