Church news for Aug. 23

Published Friday, August 22, 2008

Lime Springs United Methodist Church

We continued our stud on Revelation last Sunday. We focused upon chapter 13 and the second beast. Bro. Shannon brought the morning message from Ecclesiastes 9 on wisdom overcoming strongholds in this world. Considering the many upsets in the Olympic Games, Bro. Shannon explained how often chance, time, and wisdom can overcome strength. James 3:13-18 reveals two types of wisdom; wisdom that is earthly and wisdom from above. Using the story of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness by Satan, Bro. Shannon explained how Satan used earthly wisdom against Jesus (turning stones into bread to satisfy hunger, etc....). In response, Jesus used wisdom from above to defeat Satan. How did Jesus get this wisdom from above? By quoting scripture, “It is written.” In like manner, the wisdom we need to overcome our strongholds in life must come from scripture, as we are reminded of the words of 2 Timothy 3:14-17. Seek wisdom from above to overcome your strongholds in life, and you too can win your Olympic medal!

Our Evening Bible Study focused upon I Corinthians 14-16.

We invite everyone to join us for worship at Lime Springs. Our Sunday school starts at 9:30; Morning Worship at 11; Evening Bible Study at 5:30 p.m. and Wednesday Prayer Meeting at 6:30 p.m.

For more information, please call 755-4950 or 755-6356.

Christ Independent Methodist Church

Today Dr. Mac Stinson took his scripture reading from Matthew 15:21-28. Beginning with verse 21 we read the scripture thus: “then Jesus went thence, and departed into the Coast of Tyre and Sidon. And behold a woman of Canan came out of the same Coasts and cried unto him saying have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word and his disciples came and besought him saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.”

But of course, our Lord did not send the woman away. When she came and worshipped him saying, “Lord, help me.” That is exactly what her Lord did. When she persisted in crying out for help, her Lord heard and said that because of her faith her daughter was healed from that very moment. Just another one of the many examples given us in the Bible where Jesus rewards the faithful for holding on to their faith when it is not easy to do so. But when did God ever promise his followers that their choice would be easy: Faith is certainly on the major hallmarks of Christianity. It becomes easier when we remember that where we will spend eternity is at stake. God also rebukes those of little faith as he did Peter when he failed to walk on water when his faith wavered. God saved his life but said, “O ye of little faith.”

Those with special needs we would have you join us in praying for are Ken Osborne, Dr. Mac Stinson, Randall Miller, Opal Miller, Sarah McEwen, Marie Williams, BeeBee and Dwight Sammons, our nation, our church, and ourselves.

Sunday, Aug. 24 is Single Seniors lunch at church. Tuesday night is Ladies Dessert and Coffee Night at the Fish Market Restaurant in Calera.

We invite all former members and families and friends of CIMC to spend the day with us Sept. 14. The Stewart Sisters from Tennessee will be guest singers. Jim Webster will be guest speaker. Com prepared to share lunch with us. This is our Homecoming. Come join us.

I’m sorry to report that the Bible Lands Cruise is no longer an option for March 2009. However, the same or similar cruise is in the works for November 2009. Too early for reservations now, but you will soon be seeing information on that opportunity. Dr. Mac and Glenda Stinson will be group leaders again. Until then think cruise!

Calvary’s Hill Church of God

“Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honor all the day long.” Psalm 71:8

Praise God for a wonderful day. Bro. Willard brought his message from Genesis 8:20-22 titled “The Altar.” The animal sacrifice was done away with when God sent the perfect sacrifice- Jesus Christ. He shed his blood for us the first time in the Garden of Gethsemane, when his sweat became blood. Jesus could have refused to be our sacrifice, but he gave everything for us and we should be willing to lay our lives on the altar and go the distance for him. Our children need to know what the church altar represents and that it is not a place to “play” church. It is a holy place, a place of sacrifice; a place where on drop of Jesus’ blood can cover a multitude of sins.

Our youth did several dramas Sunday night and did a fantastic job. Thank you, Sis. Denise, for all your hard work in this ministry. Bro. John testified about how our children need to have boldness, especially in school, to proclaim Jesus as their Savior. These dramas will help them face situations in their lives if they will listen to that inner voice of God. We would like to welcome our visitors and pray they were blessed. Sunday night, Aug. 31, we will have a singing featuring Heavens Jubilee, starting at 5 p.m. If you don’t have a home church, come join us. Sunday school starts at 10 a.m., Worship Service at 10:45 a.m. Sunday evening at 5 p.m. and Wednesday night at 7 p.m. The church is located on Alabama Hwy 191, two miles outside Jemison.

Mt. Carmel No. 1

Our pastor’s sermon Sunday morning was “Show me the Father”, John 14:1-21. Looking at verse 8, Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it suffieth us. Jesus said, “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the father may be glorified in the son.” The choir praise and welcome song was “Great and Mighty” as the congregation welcomed and greeted everyone. A very special newcomer today was little Hayesle Grace Orange., the two week old daughter of Brandi and Bryan Orange. We wish Happy Birthday to Charles Liveoak, Wendy Avery, Louise Liveoak, Vicki Winslett, Everee Powell, Erin Lawrence, Freddy Bowman, Kayle Cummings and Laura Liveoak. Sunday night we enjoyed a short drama, “Word of God Speak” by Jessica and Jennifer Dennis. Youth and young people are invited to come be a part of the drama team. The message Sunday night was “Be ye doers of the word” James 1:19-27. The verse to focus on was 19. Don’t show favoritism, control your tongue, don’t quarrel, don’t be greedy and be patient. All children that would like to sing come join the children’s choir. We practice Wednesday night at 6 p.m. starting Sept. 3. Nursery worker for Sunday, Aug. 24 will be Louise Liveoak. The Children’s church will be directed by Shanda and Jeremy Griffin. Always remember to pray for us, we will be praying for you. Pray for the names on our prayer list, the unspoken requests, our military and our pastors.

Bethsalem Baptist Church

We heard testimonies Sunday from George Edwards and Roy Martin, both of whom participate in our Sunday School and Life Tracks programs.

Bro. Brad Eubank’s morning message, “Praying In All Things,” was taken from James 5:13-15. The evening message, entitled “David and Despair,” was based on 1 Samuel 27,29.

Please pray for Annetta LeCroy, Jared Duncan, Karen Elban, Amy Hicks, Terry Collier, Sammy Dawson, Homer Carlisle, Vince Helms, our men and women in service, missionaries, our country and its leaders, Johnny Thomas, Sue Edge, Rebecca Meadows, Carol Hayes.

Wednesday night is family supper at 5:45 followed by choir practice at 7:30. Saturday, our students will depart for En Fuego.

Everyone have a blessed week. Remember, God is good. Share Jesus with someone this week.

Jackson Chapel

“I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14).

As we sang hymns Sunday, people began to come to the altar seeking God for various needs. If you missed this, you truly missed a blessing because the Holy Spirit was present in a mighty way.

Bro Dennis’ text came from Joshua 1:1-9 with a message entitled “Keep Your Eyes On The Prize.” In this society that we live in we are constantly running from here to there and never one time do we ever stop to see if God has a word for us but every once in a while we do need to stop and let God give us a word so we can grow in him. We also need to remember that God has no limit to what he can do so we need to quit putting limits on God.

Sunday evening, Bro Dennis’ text came from Philippians 4:6-9. We as Christians need to remember that when things are not going so good we need to go ahead and thank God anyway because he knows what we need before we ever ask. We need to keep our eyes on Jesus because when we take our eyes off of Jesus that is when Satan will have us back doing worldly things.

Please remember these as you pray this week: Ashley Campbell, James and Marie Johnson, Juanita Wyatt’s sister Glenda, Glen Riley, J.E. Burnett, Cynthia Bean, The Lesley Harris Family, Kathy York, Robert Howard, Sha Bruce, Winston Cofer, George Williams, Patricia Cofer, Janice Williams, David Mitchell’s Mom and our service men and women.

Jackson Chapel is a Bible-based, Bible-believing church where the Spirit of God is felt and we invite you to come see what God is doing in our church as we are growing in spirit and in number.

We are located at 4020 Yellowleaf Road in Clanton. Our service times are as follows: Sunday School at 10, morning worship at 11, evening worship at 6, and Wednesday night prayer meeting and Bible study at 7. We also have Kid’s Club on Wednesday nights at 7 for grades 1-6.

Bethany Baptist Church

We were happy to have several visitors in our worship service. We hope they got a blessing from our service and will come again soon.

Bro. Aubry’s sermon Sunday morning was taken from Philippians 2:12-16, and he called it, “A Call To New Testament Christianity.” The Apostle Paul reminded the Saved people in the church to bring their salvation to its full completion by showing humility and submissiveness to God’s will in our mind and body, and to dedicate our talents and abilities to the Lord. And with fear and trembling, knowing that our service to God is a serious matter.

Sunday night Bro. Aubry’s sermon was on the seventh of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:14), “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” God gave this commandment to protect the home, which He established. Bro. Aubry’s sermon outlined many destructive aspects of this sin, including the fact that it is an attack on the spouse and children, an attack on oneself, on the home and community, and, most of all, an attack on our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To avoid this sin, Christians should walk with God, avoid sexual activities and flirty relationships, count the cost, and love our mate.

August Birthdays and Anniversaries: Aug. 2 - Glenn Vines, Aug. 5 - Chris and Lori Knight; Aug. 25 - Ron and Melissa Peppers; Aug. 29 - Barbara Avery

Prayer list: Bonnie and Gerald Burks, Lillian Burkhalter, Lela Mae Courtney, Amos and Mildred Crawford, Paul Griffin, Rosalind Griffin, Doug Mims, Billie Neeley, Ricky Paschall.

Upcoming Services: Aug. 31, Fifth Sunday service and lunch; Sept. 13, State Mission Meeting, Hamilton, AL; Sept. 28, Annual Homecoming at Bethany.

See you Sunday!

Cedar Grove Methodist-Protestant Church

First we want to remind everyone about homecoming Sunday, Aug. 24 (tomorrow). We begin at 10:30 with Bro. Dennis Smith as our guest speaker. He and his wife, Susan, are former members of our church. At 1:30, Heirline will be the guest singers. If you have never heard them, you are missing a blessing indeed.

Sunday we had two wonderful services, small in number but large in the Spirit of God. We pray that all those on vacation will have a safe trip home.

We welcome all our visitors. It was good to have Nick and Gala Popwell with us.

Bro. Jeff has been preaching a series of messages on “The Fight To Stay Right,” cautioning us about our three worst enemies: the devil, the world and the flesh. Sunday’s message was based on John 16:32-33 and Matthew 16:26.

We have many on our prayer list, but God knows who they are so when you pray, ask God to touch everyone on Cedar Grove’s list.

I wish everyone in the county could have seen the beautiful field of rolled hay across from the church this morning. You probably get tired of hearing about it from me, but it starts out as such a beautiful green velvet-like field, and next thing you know it is all rolled up into many rolls of hay that smells so good. God is so good.

Bro. Heath was on vacation this week, so Bro. Jeff preached the last of his series of messages, focusing on the flesh. His text came from 1 Peter 2:11, Romans 7, and Romans 8:1.

Bro. Jeff passed around a card for everyone to see their worst enemy, and in the card was a mirror.

Monday night at 7 is the first night of our revival. Bro. Mark Lambert, formerly of Mississippi and now from Thomasville, Ala., will be our guest evangelist. The revival will go through Wednesday night. Everyone is welcome. For more information call 646-2390.

Oak Grove Church of God

Our revival with the Rev. Stanley Owensby began Sunday morning, and we came expecting God to be in our midst and that many souls would be blessed. Bro. Owensby’s text was taken from 2 Corinthians 12:9 and his message was “Sufficient.”

Paul in his letter to the church at Corinth wanted to assure them that God’s grace is sufficient for their ever need. It does not matter what need we have in our life we can be sure that the grace of God is sufficient. His grace is sufficient to save a sinner from his life of sin. His grace is sufficient to calm our fears that we may face in life and with all that is going on in our world there are many things to put fear in our hearts.

Happy birthday this week to Inez Owens, Kevin Rhodes, Jimmy Watts (Aug. 17), Kim Kohn (Aug. 19), Paul Bryant (Aug. 20), Linda Warr (Aug. 22) and Joyce Wheller (Aug. 26). Happy anniversary to Conroe and Bernice Easterling (Aug. 17) and Pete and Linda Warr (Aug. 20).

Oak Grove will be in revival with the Rev. Stanley Owensby through Wednesday, Aug. 20 and possibly longer. We invite you to join us each night at 7 p.m. and come expecting a real touch from God on your life and we are all praying that God will give us souls in our altars and that many will be saved.

We are so blessed of God at Oak Grove and we are continuing to see new people come into our services. We thank God for them and want them to know that we love

them and they are always welcome.

If you do not have a church home we invite you to come worship God with us and be a part of our church family at Oak Grove. Service times are: Sunday School at 10 a.m., worship service at 10:45, Sunday evening service at 5:30 and Wednesday night service at 7. We also have children’s church each Sunday.

Our church is easy to find. When you leave Clanton heading south on US 31 turn left at Peach Park and follow the signs to Oak Grove Church of God.

Walnut Creek United Methodist Church

The Prelude was beautiful as always and Sunday was sure to be a special day.

Bro. Tony talked to the children about symbols and ended his children’s message with “God loves you and so do we.”

Sue Belcher and Hazel Hanline provided the sanctuary with the beautiful flowers, in memory of Ray Belcher and in honor of Dave Hanline to commemorate their birthdays. It was so good to see Hazel’s husband and Dave and Sue’s son, Steve Belcher.

God’s message by Bro Tony, “Focusing on the External,” was from Matthew 15:1.

Scribes and Pharisees asked Jesus, “Why do your disciples transgress the traditions of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.”

Jesus answered with a question, “Why do you transgress the commandment of God by your traditions by devising a way around honoring your father and mother, and not caring for them when they get old?” Jesus called them hypocrites and said, “It is not what goes into your body, but what comes from your hear.”

While on earth we have a physical body and a spiritual self. We have two choices of what will happen to our soul; we will live with our God forever or we will be forever banished from God! Bro Tony repeated the words that he had said before, “There are three things that will tell you all you need to know about a man: how he spends his money, how he spends his time, and what he talks about.” It’s what is in your heart that counts. What is in your heart?

Next Sunday will be a very special day at Walnut Creek, for it will be our homecoming! Don’t forget, there will be no Sunday School, and morning worship will begin at 10:30. For other information call Duane Jones at 755-3112.

Mount Bethel Baptist Church

As always, we started by singing praises to a risen Lord, followed by prayer. After our song we went into our classes for Bible study.

The Rev. Oneal Cleckler’s morning message was from Exodus 33:1,12-18. Moses pleaded that although God had declared that Moses had found grace in His sight, He had not given assurance that was necessary to carry on this difficult task of leading the people.

The Lord had said, “Depart from me.” Moses knew he could not do this alone, nor did he want to even try without God. Literally he meant, “Make me know, let me see that I might understand.”

In verse 14 God promised he himself, not a representative, would go up with Israel.

The evening sermon was from Psalm 101. David makes a commitment to God. Regardless of our situation, we should still praise our Lord. Not only did David commit himself to the Lord, but he also committed his kingdom to God. He promised to make his a Godly kingdom, doing whatever necessary to do so. David invited God to come into his life and rule it.

We would like to wish a happy birthday to Gene Hucks and Larry Bussie.

Visitors are invited to join us for worship and fellowship. Sunday School is at 10 a.m.; morning worship at 11; Discipleship Training at 5 p.m. and evening worship at 6.

Friendship Baptist Church

Caleb Wakefield was baptized by his grandfather, Pate Huggins.

Bro. Pate preached Sunday morning from Isaiah 45:22. Love the Lord with all you have. Love your neighbor. Help your pastor and be there for him.

Bro. Mike preached his message, “Three Gardens,” from John 19:41, Mark 14:32 and Genesis 2:8. He talked about the Garden of Eden, the Garden of Gethsemane and the garden near the empty tomb.

Put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. We should put more emphasis on Jesus dying for our sins and the Resurrection.

Happy birthday to Tony Connell and Buddy Jones. Happy anniversary to Keith and Regeana Funderburk.

Prayer requests: John English, the McCall family, Judy Mims, Florence Hardin, Logan Duncan, Donnie Price, Clark Carroll, Clyde Beam, Rachael Cordes, Faye Powell, Tyler Price, Tony Pierce, Doug Hawkins, John Mills, Clark Carroll.

Upcoming events:

• Aug. 30: church-wide yard sale

• Sept. 14: homecoming

• Oct. 27-31: senior adult mission trip. They will be working with Dr. Ken Taylor, pastor of Gentilly Baptist Church in New Orleans.

First Baptist Church of Lomax

Our pastor, the Rev. Harold M. Clements, and Sunday School director Gilbert Green invite you to join us for Sunday School at 10 a.m., Discipleship Training at (insert time here) and Wednesday night Bible study at (insert time here).

Come join us.

Pates Chapel church

Bro. Clint’s sermons blessed us Sunday. We had 127 in Sunday School and many more for worship service. To our visitors – thank you for visiting and welcome any time.

Our senior spotlight shines on Evelyn Patterson this week and our deacon is Ken

Hayes. Tell them how much you appreciate them.

Congratulations to Joe Price upon his retirement!

AWANAS is in full swing again every Sunday at 5 p.m. Come on out kids and join the fun. A special thanks to all our new workers and all those who helped our Back to School Bash at the park be such a fun filled event.

There are so many request for prayer on our list. Little Kate Burnette and her

family, Betty Lou vines, Faye Horton, Danny and Tyler Price, Lane Moton, Patsy Mims, Dean Porter and all the others .Thank God for your blessings and ask blessings for the USA and its leaders, our church and especially our military folks.

Be praying about our transportation opportunity – a new 26-passenger bus. We need 25 percent or $15,000 in pledge money by pledge day Sept. 7.

En Fuego is today. It’s free and for everyone. See enfuegoinfo.com for more info.

See Bro. Clint if you are interested in the New Orleans adult mission trip.

Deacon Ordination Sunday Aug. 24 during evening worship for Kevin Porter, Dwayne Hughes and Steve Howard. Please pray for them.

Penny March is Sunday morning. The proceeds go for playground equipment.

Bring your change.

Weekly verse to rememer; Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.

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