Family News and Notes
As you recall.this day has been set aside as a day to contribute to the Building Fund. If you are able to do so, you may contribute today. Thank you so much.
Men, remember that our monthly Men's Business Meeting is next Sunday following the evening service. Please make plans to attend as your input is important.
Our Summer Youth Series continues this week and we will be meeting here at North Jefferson Church of Christ at 7:00 PM, Monday, July 7th, with Lee Moses as Speaker. Subject: Gideon
Next week we will be back at Talco Church of Christ.
With regards to Alva Mae Sheets her scheduled surgery was post- poned due to illness of her doctor. It will be rescheduled for a later date.
Glenn Parham was able to go home from the hospital last week but is still not feeling very well.
Sandra Cooper is still in Houston undergoing treatment. Her problem, although reportedly not curable, is treatable. She will be there several more weeks and will be staying with her son, Kyle. She is feeling as well as can be expected and is upbeat. We need to keep Sandra in our daily prayers.
There are many, many more in the congregation who continue to need our prayers and we need to keep them on our list. Please check the PRAYER LIST for those folks. If you know of someone who is not on the list please advise this Editor for inclusion on that list. Thanks.
Lee Moses will be bringing our lesson this morning and Tom Wacaster will be preaching tonite.
GOSPEL MEETING
Oak Grove Church of Christ.
July 1317, 2003
7:30 PM Each Evening
Guest Speaker
Ivie Powell
West Plains, MO
TOPIC:
The Only Answer For Us is Christ
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GOSPEL MEETING
Mount Mitchell Church of Christ
July 6 10, 2003
7:30 PM Each Evening
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PRAYER LIST:
Justin Barker, Louis Bell, Billye Campbell, Iona Carpenter,
Billy Carter, Woodrow Cooksey, Sandra Cooper, Barbara Duncan, Julia Ethridge, Howard Horton, Corine Hudson, Hollis Lee,
Joyce Lee, Glenn Parham, Ruby Pipkin, Bud Roach,
Murphy Ross, Alva Mae Sheets, Edith Shiflet 
ALSO: Donald Deaton, Tillman Ethridge, Linda Ferrell,
Keith Fetters, Minnie Moore
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Service Arrangements
ANNOUNCEMENTS...............Grady Duncan
SONG LEADER ..............................Bill Jones
PRAYERS Sunday
AM First Prayer........................Wayne Charlton
AM Closing....................................Charles Kyle
PM First Prayer.......................Lewis Robertson
PM Closing..................................Sid Charlton
PRAYERS Wednesday Nite
First Prayer..................................Ralph Phillips
Closing...............................................Tim Jones
COMMUNION FOR JULY
AM Wayne Charlton Jim Duncan
Rhodney Freeman Tim Jones
Ronnie Stewart Rodney Cook
PM Frankie Sargent Ralph Phillips
ATTENDANCE COUNTER................Grady Duncan
TRANSPORTATION....Those needing transportation,
call....Frankie Sargent at 903-572-2647
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Water's Amazing Properties
by Tom Wacaster
I never cease to be amazed at the overwhelming evidence of design that so engulfs our world. Only the fool would say there is no God. I recently came across this little tid-bit of information regarding water. It serves as a constant reminder that "God hath not left Himself without witness."
"Water is one of the most plentiful and, at the same time, most necessary substances on earth. Obviously, we know that it is necessary to drink six to eight glasses of water per day to have good health. We need water for cooking, for cleansing and many other essential daily functions. However, water has many more essential properties and necessary functions beyond what we normally think. Water has the property of absorbing vast quantities of oxygen at low temperatures. This makes life possible for the creatures of the seas and the lakes. Water has the unusual property that its maximum density is at four degrees centigrade, just above freezing. All other elements and compounds continuously expand when heated and contract when cooled. Water expands when heated and contracts when cooled down to four degrees centigrade. At four degrees centigrade, however, water begins to expand again. Frustratingly, this is what causes our pipes to burst in freezing weather. Thankfully, however, this is what causes ice to float, thus, our rivers, lakes and oceans freeze at the top, but the water does not freeze at the bottom. This enables sea creatures to live and not be killed by being frozen in the water. If ice sank, the rivers and lakes would freeze from the bottom up and in their entirety. A related property that helps keep the water beneath the ice liquid is water's property of releasing great quantities of heat as it freezes. Normally, it requires one calorie of heat to raise one gram of water one degree centigrade. However, at the point of changing states from ice to water and from water to vapor or gas hundreds of additional calories of heat are involved. When water goes from liquid to ice eighty calories of heat must be extracted per gram to cross the zero degree mark. This property alone saves many pipes from bursting, but it also means that ice serves as an insulation, hence protecting the water beneath it and the life in the water and protecting those who live in igloos. 597.2 calories per gram are required to vaporize ice. To move water from the liquid state to the vapor state or gaseous state requires over 500 degrees of heat to cross the 100 degree centigrade mark. This property retains adequate heat in our universe to keep the whole earth from freezing and becoming one great glacier leaving no place for man and beast to live. These unusual properties of water are not characteristic of all other elements and compounds as one might normally think. It is these properties of water that make life as we know it on this planet possible."
The complex operation of this world, yea even the universe, has no adequate explanation separate and apart from Divine Creation. Before we close this little article we will point out yet one more characteristic of water not readily visible to those who disbelieve, or who do not study their Bibles. Water has played a major role in God's separation of the righteous and the wicked, from the universal flood of Noah to the watery grave of baptism by which men are separated from a sinful world today. Men may be ignorant of water's physical properties and suffer no ill effects. But if we do not learn and apply this last most important single property pertaining to water, it will have eternal consequences. Think about it.
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Why Abortion is Wrong (Part I)
by Lee Moses
Many people, upon being asked, "Why is abortion wrong?", will respond, "Because it takes human life." This is the true, simple, and obvious answer to this question. However, many in the "pro-choice" camp (meaning they want to be able to choose to live immorally, yet not have to bear responsibility for the consequences of their actions) have attempted to blur America's conscience by saying, "Life does not begin until birth." However, what does science say? Even more importantly, what does God say? And if life begins before birth, what does the taking of prenatal life constitute?
From the very time of conception, an unborn child has his own DNAthat is, he has his own genetic identity. He is not simply part of his mother, he is a completely separate person, although he is completely dependent upon his mother. Some will say that because of this complete dependence upon his mother, the unborn child is not an actual person. However, a child continues to be dependent upon his parents for his physical existence long after he is born. The characteristics considered those of a born child are in the process of forming while that child is still in the womb. Bert Thompson points out,
(1) The baby's heart starts beating 18-25 days after conception.
(2) By the age of two months, the heart beats so strongly that a doctor actually can listen to it with a special stethoscope.
(3) At about this same time, brain activity can be recorded by use of an electroencephalogram. Brain waves are readily apparent.
(4) By the age of two months, everything is "in place"feet, hands, head, organs, etc. Upon close examination, fingerprints are evident. Although less than an inch long, the embryo has a head with eyes and ears, a simple digestive system, kidneys, liver, a heart that beats, a bloodstream of its own, and the beginning of a brain.
(5) The unborn child hiccups, sucks his or her thumb, wakes, and sleeps.
(6)The unborn child responds to touch, pain, cold, sound, and light.
In light of these facts, brother Thompson then asks, "Is the child alive? Do you know any dead creature that attains such marvelous accomplishments?" The facts of science clearly demonstrate that an unborn child is both human and individual. However, the mindset of "no life before birth" has been so accepted by the liberal left that some have pushed the envelope even beyond this. Joseph Fletcher has suggested that one must achieve a certain IQ before he can legitimately be considered a "person." Nobel laureate Francis Cook stated, "No newborn infant should be declared human until it has passed certain tests regarding its genetic endowment, and . . . if it fails these tests, it forfeits the right to live."
Most people are rightfully shocked to hear such talk. Could not these requirements be applied to someone much later in life than newborn? Would a 20 year-old individual with an extremely low IQ and otherwise insufficient "genetic endowment" then "forfeit his right to live"? But such is the logical conclusion of an abortion culture. Faced with an inability to say that there is not life in an unborn child, they must argue that "it is insufficient human life." But who is to judge what is sufficient or insufficient to allow or deny that life's existence?
To be continued next week . . ..
