Family News and Notes
We hope you set your clocks last night for Daylight Saving Time. If not, then you thought you were coming to class but showed up for worship services.
Good to see you all here.
IMPORTANT MESSAGE
FROM THE ELDERS
During a conversation this past week, our outstanding fellowship issue with the Pittsburg Church of Christ has been resolved. We look forward to a renewed effort of working together in fellowship with the brethren at Pittsburg. We commend them to you as we strive together to strengthen the work of faithful congregations in our area for the glory of God. The Elders.
Today is Building Fund Sunday. If you are able and wish to contribute to the fund you may do so today. Thanks.
MEN'S BUSINESS MEETING following services next Sunday. All men of the congregation are encouraged to attend.
EVERYONE PLEASE REMEMBER Area Wide Singing this coming Saturday, April 09, 2005 from 7:00 PM9:00 PM here at North Jefferson Church of Christ. Everyone is invited.
UPCOMING YOUTH OUTING (and for the young at heart) . On Monday evening, June 13, we will take a trip to THE BALL PARK in Arlington to see the Rangers play the Atlanta Braves. The Mount Vernon congregation has invited us to join their youth on this trip as a joint outing. Great, field-level box seats have been secured (normally $30 tickets) for just $7 a ticket. There is a sign-up sheet on the table in the foyer. Only about 25 tickets are still available, so sign up soon if you wish to go.
Helen Roper is at Villa of Mount Pleasant. She is on a diabetic diet and continues to improve. She would appreciate visits and cards. She will be able to receive phone calls after 5:00 PM Monday evening. (see number below)
Helen Roper
1714 North Edwards
Mount Pleasant, Texas 75455
Ph: 903-572-5987
Ruby Lawhon has moved to be near her son, Charles. The address is:
Ruby Lawhon
1000 River Walk Blvd.
Apt. 809
Shreveport, LA 71105
Billye Campbell had more tests last week to try to reach a proper diagnosis and determine treatment. Several things have already been ruled out.
Billy Carter was taken to the hospital last Monday morning in severe respiratory distress and was placed in ICU on a ventilator. He was able to be removed from the ventilator on Wednesday and he was scheduled to be moved to a regular room sometime last Thursday.
Hallie Lang is still recovering from her fall and will consult with her doctor next week (when he returns) to determine what type treatment she will require to fully recover.
Denise Dering of Marshall (niece of Jim Duncan) has been diagnosed with breast cancer that has now spread. She will begin taking chemo treatments next Thursday. A determination will be made as to what further treatment will be necessary.
Melba Boyd of Mt. Pleasant (friend of Jim and Barbara Duncan) has been diagnosed with bladder cancer. She is scheduled for surgery on April 7 and then treatment will begin.
Ralph Phillips continues to slowly improve and is still at Mission Manor Nursing Home in Mount Vernon, Room 21. We need to remember him and the rest of the family during this time of healing from the loss of his beloved wife, Hazel.
John P. Jones (brother of the late Bill Jones) from El Paso, has been diagnosed with colon cancer and the family requests that we keep him in our prayers.
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PRAYER LIST
Justin Barker, Rachel Barker, Louis Bell, Annah Brown, Sue Browning,
Billye Campbell, Billy Carter, Perry Cooper, Zenith Hargrove, Howard Horton, Hollis Lee, Joyce Lee, Glenn Parham, Winnie Patton, Ralph Phillips, Helen Roper, Dorothy Sargent, Alva Mae Sheets
ALSO: Melba Boyd, Denise Dering, Marie Holloway
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An Appeal For Modesty (Part One)
(True Christians Will Avoid The Appearance Of Evil Apparel)
Summer is just around the corner, but already the clothes have started "coming off" and once again it seems "modest apparel" has gone the way of the Dodo bird. >From the lack of clothing one sees in public today, it is evident modern society scoffs at the idea of immodesty. The Biblical concept of the "shame of nakedness" (Gen. 3:10, Rev. 3:18), is all but forgotten in an age where "anything goes," so far as public attire is concerned.
I'm sure worldly folk will laugh at the premise of this article. Likewise, I know I would be "hooted down" in most public forums for even suggesting there is such a thing as being "dressed immodestly." However, what really saddens and concerns me is that more and more people in the Lord's church seem to believe God's plain instructions on modest attire are outdated. Have we become so "enlightened" that there is no sin involved anymore in our being seen naked or half-naked in public? Has God changed His instructions on modest apparel for the modern "Christian" (I Timothy 2:9-10, Titus 2:4-5), or does He now suspend those commands for the warmer months of the year? If you are honest with the Scriptures you know that is not the case, however, the clothing I've seen some of my own brethren wear in public might cause a weaker brother/sister to think otherwise.
As little as 30 years ago, it was not uncommon to hear sermons on "The Sin of Immodest Apparel" in pulpits across America. Our "Christian" colleges and summer Bible camps all had strict dress codes that prohibited the wearing of "immodest apparel" (i.e. - clothing that was either too low cut on the top, too high cut on the bottom, too tight, too slit, too sheer, too suggestive, or too revealing). Sadly, however, over the years as society's views on modesty changed, evidently so did the views of the brotherhood in general. In most pulpits today sermons on modest attire are a relic of the past. Dress codes have just about been done away with completely at most of our "Bible" camps, and so greatly amended that shorts are now the status quo on all of our "Christian" college campuses (if there even is such a thing as a "Christian" college anymore).
Sadly, this relaxed atmosphere is becoming more and more common even in assemblies of Christ's church, where it is not uncommon in some congregations today to see even adults wearing shorts to the worship services, not to mention what the teens and kids wear. Quite frankly some of our "ladies" ought to be ashamed for the way they appear in public and sometimes even at worship services or other church activities in too short or thigh-high split skirts, bare-midriffs (a virtual plague among teens today), plunging necklines, too tight, too sheer, or too revealing clothing that often looks as if they were melted and poured into it, and has but one purpose, and that is to appeal to the sexual lust of the opposite sex.
Some brethren would argue, "so what?" They would say modesty is dictated by culture, and since our culture has changed, we can now change with it. Let's explore that argument to its logical conclusion. Our culture says it's OK for men to wear shorts and a T-shirt in public. We see that kind of dress all the time in society today, everywhere you go. So what would you think if I wore that outfit to services next Sunday? I know that's not a pretty picture in your mind's eye, but if culture is the only determining factor in matters of modesty, what would be wrong with me preaching in attire like that? What if my wife or one of our elders' wives wore one of those little short jumpsuits to services? Why, we/they would never hear the end of it. Is there a double standard in the Lord's church? You know the answer to that too, don't you? What if our culture decides it's OK for women to go topless (it seems we're not far from that conclusion in today's society)? Will that then become an acceptable standard of undress for Christian women? Hopefully you get the point!
(...to be continued next week)
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Teaching from the Tippecanoe Teacher
by Neal Pollard
(Guest article from the Mammoth Spring, AR bulletin)
William Henry Harrison was elected president on March 4, 1841. He was sixty-eight years old at his inauguration. His inauguration speech, at one hour and forty minutes, still holds the record for being the lengthiest. Throughout his big day, he was drenched by a soaking, cold, D. C. rain that made his body sick and the sickness rapidly developed into pneumonia. He passed away exactly one month later, on April 4, 1841. The longest talk about being a president. The shortest tenure actually being a president.
Bible class and worship are imperative periods of fellowship. Gospel meetings are so beneficial, and yet too poorly attended. Business meetings, planning meetings, deacon's meetings, elders' meetings, visitation meetings, and youth meetings all can spark a fire in the congregation. Yet, too often, we spend all this time talking about what we are supposed to do, what we need to do, what we want to do, and what everybody should do. Then, typically, very little gets done. Harrison, sadly, enjoyed a very forgettable, unproductive presidency. His brevity is his benchmark. How shallow we live when we talk and talk about Christian duty, then die never having done much, if any, of it.
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On The Way To The Barn
-Author Unknown
(Guest article from Bangs Church of Christ bulletin)
There's an old story about a farmer who one morning decided to plow the south forty acres. His tractor needed oil, so he started for the barn to get it,
but on the way he notices that the pigs hadn't been fed. Near the corncrib was a pile of sacks, reminding him that the potatoes were sprouting. But on his way to the potato pit, he passed the woodpile and remembered that the kitchen stove was burning low. While picking up wood, he saw that one of his chickens was ailing, so he dropped the wood to doctor the chicken and so it went all day, and he still hadn't oiled the tractor or plowed the south forty.
Is your Christian life like this trip to the barn? Do you have grand visions of great service that never gets done? Have you found too many "other things" to do that interfere with your goal of being a productive servant in God's kingdom?
The only way you and I will ever "get to the barn" of Christian service is to get our priorities in order. The farmer in the story didn't have any priorities. He just flowed with the tide of events around him.
Our life contains plenty of "pigs to feed," "wood to cut," and "chickens to doctor." But we can't allow them to get in our way of serving God. If we will make the commitment and extend our effort, God will make a way for us to "get to the barn."
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