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Family News and Notes

Men's Business Meeting tonight following the evening services. All the men of the congregation are encouraged to attend.

Summer Youth Series the next session will be hosted by Talco on June 14. On June 22 it will be Mount Vernon, and on June 29 will be back here at North Jefferson. Each of these meetings will begin at 7:00 PM. Altho this is for our youth everyone is invited.

Lake Cisco Christian Camp at Bangs, Texas will be July 25 thru 30, 2004 for boys and girls who finished 8th thru 12th grades.

SundayJune 134:30 to 5:30 PM LADIES DEVOTIONAL We will begin a study of the Psalms of David.

Attendance at our VBS was good.

Monday 44

Tuesday 48

Wednesday 50

Thursday 48

Friday 44

At Camp Ida (near Texarkana) David preached at the evening service on Monday and Lee preached on Thursday evening.

We still need your cooperation in gathering the 911 addresses and also the email addresses for those who have computers. If you have not furnished this information won't you please write the 911 address and email address on the back of your attendance card this morning. We plan to print up a new address directory for everyone and need your cooperation. Thanks.

Bud Roach had knee replacement at Paris this past week. He is now in post-op therapy.

Annah Brown is in room 401 at the Paris Hospital. She had back surgery last week.

Winnie Patton is in room 403 at Titus Regional Medical Center with viral pneumonia. She is experiencing breathing problems.

Helen Roper of the Oak Grove congregation recently had knee surgery, but she has fallen a couple of times and injured it again. Surgery is pending. She needs our prayers so add her to your prayer list.

There's a new life in the world. Karigan Jaye Fox was born at l7:53 AM on June 07, 2004, weighing in at 7 pounds and was 19-1/2 inches long. Her parents, Jimmy Jay and Karen Fox are the proud parents and Sherri Fox is the gloating grandmother.

THANK YOU "The kind and thoughtful things you do mean so very much .. thanks for caring. Christian friends are so special. Thank you for your prayers, cards and visits to the hospital during a very trying time for us. We are both well and on the way to returning to our normal health. You will always hold a special place in our hearts.

Love

Charles & Dorothy Kyle"

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PRAYER LIST

Justin Barker, Louis Bell, Winell Blackard, Annah Brown,

Sue Browning, Josephine Cooper, Perry Cooper, Laci Farmer,

Bob Hedges, Howard Horton, Winnie Patton, Dorothy Sargent.

Bud Roach,

ALSO: Robin Embree, Kelsey Meyers, Meghan Rios, Helen Roper, Aresser Thursby, Virginia Ward

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God's Unsung Heroes

By David McCain

Undoubtedly, some of the greatest unsung heroes in the Lord's church are the faithful men and ladies who teach our Bible classes. Godly Bible class teachers are the backbone of most congregations. We owe a great debt of gratitude to those self-less servants of Christ, who impart to us much spiritual knowledge as they help to mature us in the holy faith. As poor as I am at remembering names, I can still list almost all of my childhood Bible class teachers, so great was their influence in my life.

Faithful teachers come in a rainbow of variety, so far as personality, age, appearance, vocation, ability, and teaching style are concerned. But one thing all faithful teachers have in common is a tremendous love for God's Word, which causes them to devote themselves to sharing the Gospel with their students. It is impossible to assign a fair value to the influence for good that faithful, dedicated teachers have on the Lord's church. Their value is priceless! We are confident that many precious souls will enjoy heaven's bliss as a result of the influence of godly teachers.

The challenge of teaching a Bible class requires a special type of person. It takes someone who is mature in the faith and dedicated to God. It takes someone who is willing to make a large investment of time, because good teachers spend lots of time studying God's Word, and diligently preparing their lessons. It takes a loving, caring, dedicated person, who is willing to sacrifice of themselves in order to be well prepared to instruct the precious souls who are entrusted to their care (II Cor. 12:15).

Faithful teachers willingly exhaust themselves for our benefit, and the benefit of our children, in order to provide for us interesting and informative Bible classes. They are therefore deserving of our love, support, appreciation, and prayers. They need our presence, and the presence of our children, in their classes. They need us to be on time for our classes. They need parental cooperation in maintaining discipline in our children's classes. They certainly deserve our highest honor and respect.

Godly Bible class teachers don't usually draw any pay, and don't often receive very much verbal appreciation for their time and effort, nevertheless there are great rewards for faithfully proclaiming the Gospel. There is the reward of seeing your students grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus. There is the personal satisfaction of knowing you've done your best to serve God, by proclaiming His Word faithfully. There is the reward of knowing your efforts can change lives and save souls, and make this world a little better place to live. Ultimately, there is the rich reward of heaven reserved for God's faithful teachers. "For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which ye have showed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister" (Heb. 6:10).

God bless our faithful teachers! May your blessings be many! May your tribe increase! May you not grow weary in well doing, but rather keep up the good work, for indeed you will reap a great eternal reward for your diligent efforts (Gal. 6:9).

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Special thanks to all of our teachers, helpers, refreshment workers, and all who helped with our VBS. Lee Moses did a great job of directing, and the teachers and staff conducted a great VBS for God's glory! Thanks!

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GIBBERISCH

(Guest article by Jeff Sweeten, Odessa, Texas)

My good friend, Kristen, sent me an e-mail recently and quipped, "The brain does amazing things, doesn't it?" This comment preceded these instructions: "Just read the sentence straight through without really thinking about it."

Acocdrnig to an elgnsih unviesitry sutdy the oredr of letetrs in a word dosen't mttaer, the olny thing that's iopmrantt is that the frsit and lsat ltteer of eevry word is in the crcreot ptoision. The rset can be jmbueld and one is stlil able to raed the txet wiohtut dclftfuiiy.

Now, when I finished, I was amazed that this little paragraph was so understandable. I'm confident that there's a difference between critical appraisal and nit picking, but the fact that I could actually read these comments and understand them revealed that, while misspelled words are the pariah of every editor, people still get the message.

However, there is a more important application. The only way that these two sentences really make sense is if you follow the instruction: 'without really thinking." There it is! This is how the sentences make sense while contradicting every rule of spelling you've ever learned. So, this illustration points out that: [1] you can function without thinking much (and I continue to be amazed daily at how little some think and still manage to function), and [2] you tend to see what you are used to seeing (all evidence to the contrary).

Tradition is an amazing thing, too. We tend to see things a certain way because that's the way we have always seen them. Yet, in the face of irrefutable evidence to the contrary, it's still tough getting people, not just to change, but to even consider the fact that what they are doing, saying, or thinking violates godly rules and they need to change.

Some have even been convinced that there are no rules. This is especially convenient when the Bible directly contradicts their speech, conduct, etc. Clear thinking people, nevertheless, can readily see that jumbling letters in a word is first, wrong; and second, will eventually render the word functionless. There has to be rules here.

Without rules, we lose our ability to communicate. Therefore, just like there are rules in spelling English words properly, there are rules in understanding what God desires of humanity. God communicates with us using specific rules. He expects us to use them properly and when we do not follow such simple rules, we miss His point (Matthew 22:29). Further, it doesn't matter that "we have always done it that way," if what we do doesn't conform to the Bible's directives we are in error, even if it seems to make sense to us. People can make fun of the term, "hermeneutics," all they want but it remains a fact that if we do not understand interpretive rules, understanding God is impossible, and our faith will be nothing but gibberish (Romans 10:17).

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