Our_Bulletin_May_08

Family News and Notes

MEN'S BUSINESS MEETING .. following services this evening, in the Multi-purpose Room. All the men of the congregation are encouraged to attend.

GOSPEL MEETING at Blodgett this week (May 8 thru May 11), with Ivie Powell preaching. Services at 7:00 PM nightly.

Everyone is invited to Frankie and Carolyn Sargent's farm on Saturday nite, May 21 for a Good Old Fashioned Get-together. Meet at the Old Center Grove Church of Christ and then everyone will go from there to the farm. Frankie and Carolyn will provide the eats and drinks. Talk with Frankie for more details if you need them.

LADIES PLEASE NOTE the Baby Shower for David & Janice's daughter that was previously planned for May 15 has been moved to May 22 following the evening services, in the Multi-purpose Room. Please mark your calendars.

With that in mind, everyone needs to remember that next Sunday evening (May 15) we will be honoring our High School Graduates following the evening services. We will be honoring Christy Charlton, Ashley Thomas and Stephanie Thomas.

Anyone who is able and willing to help with refreshments for the Graduates on May 15 and with the Summer Youth Series and Vacation Bible School please give your monetary contribution to the elders or Veleta McFerrin.

We keep reminding everyone "2005 Summer Youth Bible Series of Northeast Texas" begins Tuesday evening, June 7 and we will host the first SYBSNET here at North Jefferson. Johnny Ramsey will be our guest speaker with a lesson entitled: "If I Were Young Again." This will also be "parent's night," where we are encouraging the parents to attend with their young people, and hear this renowned evangelist speak on this great theme. Our theme was selected as: "How Shall The Young Secure Their Hearts?" We will meet each Tuesday night of June and July from 7:00 to 8:30 PM, for singing, spiritual edification from God's Word, and fellowship / refreshments. Make plans now to attend.

This summer's Vacation Bible School is scheduled for Monday thru Friday, June 13 thru 17, from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM daily. The theme will be: "Jesus Our Perfect Captain." We will have 5 class groups for ages 2 years old thru the 6th grade (no nursery, teen or adult classes).

If you can help please let David or Janice McCain know your intentions. Also, we still need everyone to save the brown cardboard center roller tubes from your paper towel rolls and your toilet tissue rolls for VBS craft projects. Please bring them to the building and put them in the box in the foyer marked "VBS Supplies," until we notify you that we have enough. Also, Veleta McFerrin will need your help with cookies and soft drinks for VBS refreshments. Please ask her what she needs and how you can help.

We will continue to remind everyone of the above two articles because we want a grand attendance and for the events to be successful.

THANK YOU "Everyone .. Ben's surgery went well, but he will be laid up for a few more days to recover. He is still in quite a bit of pain. More tissue had to be removed than was first anticipated, but the growth was benign. Thanks to everyone for your prayers, calls, and cards. The McCains"

THANK YOU "We are so thankful that we have you as our Family. Your care during the loss of our sister, Marie, was wonderful. We appreciated so much the food, cards, flowers and donations to the Building Fund. We appreciate the lunch and the beautiful floral spray for her service. The singing was just so beautiful, and everyone commented on it. We love you! Nelda, Elna, George"

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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, Ben McCain, Winnie Patton, Helen Roper, Dorothy Sargent,

Alva Mae Sheets

ALSO: Melba Boyd, Denise Dering, Wesley & Juanita DuBose, Jeanette Goss,

Ruby Jeffery, Carol Johnson, Bascom Perkins, Johnine Phillips, Mike'Shedra Traylor

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Are You A Joses, Or A Nabal?

Who in the world are Nabal & Joses? Well, old Nabal was the churlish husband of a beautiful woman named Abigail. He was so hard to live with, the Bible says no man could speak peaceably with him. Had it not been for the humility and intervention of his sweet wife, he might have lost his head to David's mighty men when he very rudely rebuffed their appeal for assistance with provisions (you can read the whole fascinating story in I Samuel 25).

You'll remember Joses better by the nickname the Apostles gave him of, "Barnabus," which means, "the son of consolation or exhortation" (Acts 4:36). Nearly everything you read about Barnabus is upbeat, as he went about doing good to others, sharing what he had with those in need, preaching the Gospel to all who would listen, and encouraging men like Paul and Mark to be faithful servants of the Lord.

The point of my title is, are you an encourager or a discourager? Are you like Barnabus, a positive person, who looks for the good in others and finds a way to encourage it, or are you a churlish, grouchy, railer, like Nabal, who never offers an encouraging word or a positive comment to anyone?

Faithful Christians are to be encouragers of others, and we have a special responsibility to exhort our brethren in all that is good. Paul commanded, "As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith" (Gal. 6:9-10). I didn't realize, though, how much the Scriptures have to say about encouragement until I made a detailed study of the subject. The word "encourage" appears 9 times in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, the force of the concept is strengthened by a change to the word "exhort," or its derivatives, which appears 34 times in 33 verses. A sampling of texts follows.

"But charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him..." (Deuteronomy 1:38). "...but David encouraged himself in the Lord" (I Sam. 30:6). "....that they might be encouraged in the law of the Lord" (II Chron. 31:4). "...We exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children" (I Thess. 2:11). "We exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak..." (I Thess. 5:14). "...give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine" (I Tim. 4:13). "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine" (II Tim. 4:2). "But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin" (Heb. 3:13). "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching" (Heb. 10:25).

Have you ever met someone who has truly mastered this "art of encouragement?" Aren't they a delight to be around? Think of the people who have meant the most to you. I'll guess they are folks who practice encouragement rather than discouragement. They are the people who know the right thing to say, in the right way, and at the right time, when you really need it. They live by the "Golden Rule" (Mt. 7:12).

There are many ways we can practice encouragement. A visit to the sick, ...a meal for a lonely person, ...a repair for a widow, ...a well-placed compliment to a young person, ...taking a moment to listen to an old person's reminiscences, ....a note of encouragement, ...a smile, a warm hug or handshake, ...a pat on the back for a job well done, ...a friendly greeting, ...a willing ear, a compassionate heart, and a helping hand to someone in trouble, ...and a thousand and one other "little things" which can help to comfort the weak, lift up the downtrodden, restore the unfaithful, and keep the faithful ever moving forward in the Lord's work! Are you a Joses, or a Nabal? Are you an exhorter, or an exasperation? Think about it, then determine to be an encourager! David McCain

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The Pathway of Life

(Author Unknown)

A young mother set her feet on the pathway of life. "Is the way long?" she asked.

And her guide said, "Yes, and the way is hard and you will be old before you reach the end of it, but the end will be better than the beginning."

But the young mother was happy and would not believe that anything could be better than these years. So she played with her children and gathered flowers for them along the way and bathed with them in the clear springs. The sun shone on them and life was good and the young mother cried, "Nothing will be lovelier than this."

Then the night came and the storms and the path was dark and the children shook with fear and cold. And the mother drew them close and covered them with her mantle, and the children said, "Oh, Mother, we are not afraid, for you are near and we know that no harm can come to us." And the mother said, "This is better than the brightness of the day, for I have taught my children courage."

And the morning came and there was a hill ahead, and the children climbed and grew weary, and the mother was weary too, but at all times she said to the children, "A little patience and we are there." So the children climbed and climbed and when they reached the top, they said, "Mother, we could not have done it without you." And when the mother lay down to sleep that night, she looked up at the stars and said, "This is a better day than the last, for my children have learned fortitude in the face of hardness. Yesterday I gave them courage today I gave them strength."

And the next day the strange doubts came, clouds of war and hate and evil. And the children groped and stumbled, but the mother said, "Look up. Lift up your eyes to the Light." And the children looked up and saw above the clouds the Everlasting Glory and it guided them and brought them beyond the darkness. And that night the mother said, "This is the best day of all, for I have shown my children God."

And the days went on and the years, and the mother grew old, and she was little and bent. But her children were tall and strong and walked with courage. And when the way was hard, they helped their mother and when the way was rough, they lifted her, for she was light as a feather. And at last they came to a hill, and beyond the hill they could see a shining road and gates flung wide and the mother said, "I have reached the end of my journey and I know that the end is better than the beginning, for my children can walk alone, and their children after them." And the children said, "You will always walk with us, Mother, even when you have gone through the gates."

As they stood and watched her as she went on alone and the gates closed after her and they said, "We cannot see her but she is with us still. A mother like ours is more than a memory she is a living presence."

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