Mt. Springs

Services started Sunday, Sept. 2 with Bro. Kenneth Moates leading the church in the following hymns: “I Love My Savior, Too,” “There’s Power in the Blood,” “This World is not My Home” and “Anywhere is Home.”

Bro. Ricky Bice gave the devotion. If we humble ourselves before the Lord, he will bless us.

After Sunday school, Bro. Kenneth led the church in the hymn ,”Victory in Jesus,” and Mrs. Sheri Moates sang “Shepherd’s Point of View.”

Bro. Tim Henry and his family were with us this Sunday. Bro. Henry preached from John 1:10-11. People today are rejecting Jesus because they think there’s another way. Just because you do good doesn’t mean you’re saved and going to heaven.

We had Craig and Valerie Smitherman’s sweet baby boy, Carter, a baby shower today. We are so happy for them and their precious gift God has given them.

Sept. 9 will be our homecoming. We will have Bro. Don Vanderslice as our preacher with special guests Canaanland and the Mike Bowling Family. Services will start at 10 a.m. and end whenever the Lord allows it to. Hope to see you there!

Mars Hill Baptist Church

It’s football season! Whether you are a Tide or Tigers fan, you know your team by their colors, their uniform or mascots. As Christians, we are told to be “set apart” from the world. What does a Christian uniform look like? How do people know us as Christians just by looking at us?

Bro. Short’s message this week comes from Hosea 4:1-6. Hosea writes, “There is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land.” This was relevant in the time of Hosea when God gave him these words to record. It is also relevant today—just watch a news program. There is “killing, and stealing, and committing adultery they break all restraint, with bloodshed upon bloodshed.” America has never been further from God than today. A Christian “uniform” is getting harder to see every day. There has never been a time in America when going to school and college was made easier. Online schools make it possible for you to stay home and get a degree. But what about God knowledge? Have we pushed aside the Bible and its relevant message for a more worldly message?

Today, people believe what is read off the Internet more so than what is read in the Bible. If the Bible is not read and studied, our knowledge of God and his plans for us will be forever kept out of our hearts. No longer do people reverence the house of God, the church. We should leave the world outside when we enter the church doors and open our hearts to hear what God wants us to hear. If your church is lucky, like Mars Hill, to have a pastor that preaches from the word of God and sticks to it no matter what public opinion says about a certain matter, then your church is blessed. There are too many preachers out there that “go with the flow” instead of the Bible. The best way to kill a church is to “not show up;” an empty church is a dead church. God wants us to have all knowledge of him, and the only way to get that knowledge is to read the Bible, study the Bible and go to church.

Our older, more spiritual generation is dying away, and they are not being replaced. It’s a different world today; we are a different people, and that’s not always a good thing in the eyes of God. A new generation is growing up without knowledge of God and his saving power—without knowledge of how to worship him and pray. We must get back to the ways of God and be a constant Christian, not just on Sunday. Be committed to God outside of church. Become a joyful Christian. Put on the “uniform” of love for God, love for others and love for self. The Bible is still relevant today. It never changes, and God never changes. He is the one constant in this world we can depend on. Amen.

Pray for us at Mars Hill, that we continue to grow in Christ and win lost souls to him. Pray for the upcoming election, and vote the Bible way! God loves you!