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August 2018 Witness
Jesus said in John 15:5:“I am the Vine, and you are the branches; He who abides in Me, and I in him, the same brings forth MUCH FRUIT: for apart from Me you can do nothing.”
In 1886, a well-known baseball player was converted to Christ. And when that ball-player was baptized and joined the church, an older Christian put his arm around his shoulder and said,“Billy, there are three simple rules that I can give you, and if you hold to them I can promise you that you will never be a ‘back-slider.’ Take 15 minutes each day to listen to God talking to you through His Word; take 15 minutes each day to talk to God through prayer; and take 15 minutes each day to talk to others about God.”
The young ball player was deeply impressed and determined to make those the three rules of his life. For the first 30 minutes of each day, he allowed nothing to interrupt his time with God. The young ball-player’s name was Billy Sunday,and by the time he died in 1935, he had led 300,000 people to Jesus! What a fruitful life Billy Sunday lived! Jesus promised that all of us can live fruitful lives if we will abide in Him!
We had a good month in July with an average attendance of 343 in Bible Study. As I write, we are in the middle of VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL that will run through July 26th. Thanks to Russ Jenkinsand all who have volunteered to help him put together a great VBS this year! In addition, I want to thank Jason and Honey Tealfor leading our children to CENTRIKID CAMPat Gardener Webb College July 9ththrough the 13th. Both Russ and the Teals went above and beyond the call of duty in taking on assignments normally performed by our children’s minister. Greg Burrell’sannual DINNER THEATERtakes place at the end of VBS, on the evenings of July 27th-28th.
We are also excited about the progress that ChairmanSteven Bacon and our STUDENT BUILDING PLANNING TEAM are making. Carson Selph,Chairperson of the Design and Planning Team is working with his team to finalize the design of our new student facility. In addition, Chairperson Kim Walland our Fundraising Team heard three presentations from potential fund-raising companies during the week before VBS. Please continue to pray for the vital work of these important teams.
July has, among other things, some great evening opportunities:
- PRAYER WALK FOR SCHOOLStakes place on Sunday evening, August 5th, beginning at 6:00 P.M. at the Lamar County Schools Fine Arts Center.We’ll begin with some refreshments and then progress to praying for our schools.
- MISSION FEST will take place on Sunday evening, August 12th, beginning at 6:30 in our C.F.L.C. We’ll hear exciting stories from those involved in Summer missions from our church as well as enjoy a western meal.
- TEAM NIGHT, a chance for our church teams (committees) to get together and plan for what they want to accomplish in the coming year, will take place on Sunday evening August 19th, beginning at 6:30 in our C.F.L.C.
- THE CANOPY, a worship event for women in our church and community, will be held in our C.F.L.C. on Thursday evening, August 23rdbeginning at 7:00 P.M.
We look forward to a great month in August. COME EXPECTANTLY!
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July 2018 Witness
In John 10:27-29, Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father, which gave them to Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.”
Tornadoes are phenomenal storms of great power that form when areas of very low pressure encounter high humidity and high winds. As geologists do with earthquakes, meteorologists rate the intensity of tornadoes, too. The scale that meteorologists use to classify tornadoes goes from one to five. An F 5 tornado, the strongest of tornadoes, has winds over 260 miles per hour.
In the 1996 movie Twister, which is about a group of meteorologists who chased tornadoes in order to study them, someone asked one of the meteorologists what an F 5 Tornado was like. He replied that this all-powerful tornado was “the finger of God.”
But tornadoes are destructive powers that leave disaster in their wakes, while God’s power is constructive and leaves blessing behind. Jesus said here in John chapter 10 that for all eternity believers are guarded by the fingers of Jesus in the palm of God’s hand. If I was Jesus, I would have used a good Old Testament metaphor and said that believers are guarded by the “strong right arm of God!” But Jesus said that all it takes is His little finger to guard us for all eternity!
We had a good month in June with an average attendance of 324 in Bible Study. We celebrated FATHER’S DAY and celebrated the birth of Olivia Josephine Bernard, the daughter of Trey and Amanda. Jason Teal and crew worked hard to make the EQUIP MISISONS CAMP an exciting time here on our campus. Equip Missions is an association-wide event for our students to do missions locally as well as consider God’s call to missions for their lives.
And thanks to our Children’s Ministry Team for helping us put together a great Wednesday night summer activity for our children, grades 1-5. It’s called “OVERCOMING THE FEAR FACTOR” and will run through August 1st, from 6:30 to 7:30pm. The Bible study follows the Gospel of Mark, while they also have some fun activities that work off of the biblical theme. And of course, there’s always something good to eat! You can find more information about it in this edition of The Witness.
Congratulations to Michael Richardson for celebrating 17 years of sobriety! We appreciate Michael and the way he walks every day as a genuine believer in Jesus Christ.
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