Church news for the week of Aug. 13

Published Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Lime Springs United Methodist Church

Our Sunday School lesson was from Titus 2:15. Bro. Shannon brought the morning sermon, “Erase, Eradicate, Change or Start Over,” from 2 Corinthians 5:17. He reminded us that many times we try to erase, eradicate or change our mistakes in life so many times that we end up making a bigger mess than we started with. In that case, it’s often better to start over.

The same is true for the church. Over the years, many things God desired for the church to embrace has been erased, eradicated or changed. The end result is often a big mess. Trusting in Jesus Christ will allow not only our lives to become new but also things in our lives to become new. This includes the church.

Happy anniversary wishes go out to Bill and Judy House.

Our evening Bible study focused on the Holy Trinity: God the Holy Spirit (Old Testament).

Our service times are as follows: Sunday School at 9:30 a.m.; Sunday morning worship at 11; evening Bible study at 5:30; and Wednesday night prayer meeting at 6:30.

For more information concerning Lime Springs, please call 646-2399 or 755-4950.

Bethsalem Baptist Church

Sunday our morning service started off with a celebration of the baptism of Hollie and Michel Horton and Cameron Wright.

We had great singing by the congregation, followed by Roy Martin giving his testimony on Life Tracks. Come join us for this program Sunday nights.

For the morning message, Bro. Brad preached from Hebrews 5:12-14. His message was on developing right habits.

The evening message, “Extraordinary Women,” was taken from Joshua.

Pray this week for our sick, weekly special concerns, the Wendell Hand family, Dan Brock family, and all other families who lost loved ones. Also pray for our country, president, all leaders, those facing cancer and missionaries.

Happy birthday this week to Jody Deavers, Terry Johnson, Talon Hunter, Jacob Carroll, Joseph Wells, Pat Pike, Sue Bradberry and April Stange.

Next Sunday, Aug. 16, the church leadership will meet at 4:45 p.m.

Make plans to come worship with us and get connected in Sunday School and Life Tracks.

Tell someone about Jesus this week.

Mt. Carmel No. 1 Baptist Church

Sunday was a great day to be in the house of the Lord. Our guest speaker was Bro. Mike Lawrence. The title of the message was “Where Aren’t Thou,” from 1 Corinthians 2:11-16 and 3:1-6.

It was good to have Bro. Mike and family visit with us this Sunday.

Bro. Charles Christmas was with us on Sunday, Aug. 2. His message, “What is a Christian?” was from Luke 9:18-21. Sunday night he spoke on “You Are an Example” from 1 Thessalonians 1:7.

It is always good to have Bro. Christmas and hear his sermons.

It was good to see some of our members back in church this Sunday after being on the sick list. We welcome all visitors. Our prayer is that you received a blessing. We love for you to come, and we look for you again.

A very enjoyable time was the report we heard from those who took part in the fun and activities at Brierfield Park on July 31.

The special guest for Sunday will be Bro. John Pullen from Marbury. We will look for you on Sunday to support Bro. Pullen and our church.

Continue to pray for our pulpit committee and our church as a whole. We have lots of sick ones on our prayer list. Remember these when you pray.

Happy birthday to Louis Smith, Ricky Cofer, Erin Lawrence, Freddy Bowman, Kaylee Cummings, Phylis Cofer and Ernest Davenport.

Happy anniversary to Hershel and Sarah Scott, Jerry and Jan Franklin, Jeff and Debbie Lockhart, and Louis and Bonnie Smith.

Honor the Lord in whatever you do. Ask him to help you honor and be a witness for him better this week.

Mount Bethel Baptist Church

“The Lord liveth: and blessed be the Rock; and let the God of my salvation be exalted” (Psalm 18:46).

We started our worship with singing for our Lord followed by prayer, after which we went into our Bible study classes.

The Rev. Oneal Cleckler’s morning message was taken from Revelation 20:14-15 and Luke 16:19-31. We cannot even begin to realize the vast beauty of heaven or the torment hell will hold. A beggar named Lazarus sat by the rich man’s gate day after day hoping to get some scraps from his table. The beggar died and was carried by angels into Abraham’s bosom. The rich man died and he was buried. The rich man begged that Lazarus be allowed to just touch his lips with a drop of water.

We know the rest of the story. It was too late for the rich man to make things right. Do you want to be carried by the angels into heaven or be buried and spend eternity in the torments of hell?

Happy birthday to Myra Burnett, Dale Marcus, Ernest Austin and Rusty Easterling.

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

Chestnut Creek Baptist Church

Our Pastor Bro. Derek Deavers brought our early message from several different chapters and verses beginning with Matthew 27: 50-53, Ephesians 4:1-10, Psalms 16:8-10, Acts 2:25-36 and Luke 23:39-43. Where and What did Jesus do during the three days he was in the grave until his resurrection? After Jesus died he went down to Paradise to teach and preach to the Old Testament Saints that he was the Messiah they had put their faith in, whom they had never seen but had read and heard from the Prophets and believed. What a celebration that must have been. After the third day, Jesus led these Saints out of Paradise into the Third Heaven before the Throne of God. Jesus allowed some of these Saints to walk briefly into and about the Holy City of Jerusalem as a witness to the believer and non-believer. How does this help with our faith today? Believers today have the promise like the Saints of Old that believed but had not seen that Jesus will come back down to reunite his people to live and worship around the Throne of God forever.

Happy birthday this week to Krymson Headley, Leslee Deavers, Hunter Hayes, Julie Wilson, Patty Drake, Richard King. Happy anniversary to Thomas and JoAnn Brown.

We love you at Chestnut!

Mt. Carmel No. 2

Our homecoming service started with wonderful music provided by The Samaritans. Our fellowship continued with Bro Ralph Esco bringing us the Lord’s message. He reminded us how amazingly rich and wonderful our inheritance is through Jesus Christ. When we relax our grip on Christ and the fellowship of the church, we lose our closeness to Christ. We also become restless and dissatisfied when we lack that fellowship because we are incomplete. The love of Jesus Christ melts our friendships we find in fellowship into love, making the church a place joyous, loving, immortal, divine, and redeeming fellowship. Every time we come to church we are coming to the blood that forgives. Refuse not. Our services concluded with lunch, music from members of the congregation, and more music from The Samaritans.

Christ Independent Methodist Church

Bro. Ron Mensinger preached from our pulpit again Sunday, taking his text from 1 Samuel 2. He continued to preach on the relationship between King Saul and his son, Jonathan, and Jonathan’s friend, David. 1 and 2 Samuel appear in the oldest Hebrew manuscripts as a single continuous story. The division is arbitrary because the transition between the two is made without the slightest change in style, tone or point of view. The division first appeared in A.D. 1517. The title is due to the fact that Samuel is the central figure in the first 16 chapters. The time period covered is approximately 100 years. Samuel could not have written the books because much of it is descriptive of the period following the death of Samuel. The books bearing his name possess extraordinary historical value. The biographical sketches of great leaders and the records of many happenings can be relied upon almost as eyewitness accounts. In the Hebrew Bible the Books of Samuel have always been regarded as prophecy.

Continue to pray for our pastor, Dr. Mac Stinson, his wife and son. We ask special prayer for our young missionary, Holly Muehlelsen, who will be following her call to the mission field later this summer as she goes to serve in Japan as a World Gospel Mission missionary. Continue to pray for Dylan Payton whose dad, Steve Payton, was buried on Wednesday, Aug. 5. Remember his step-mother, Betty Sue.

Today was our One-Dish Dinner day at CIMC. We had several visitors to break bread with us and we enjoyed having each one and invite you back.

Have a blessed week.

Cedar Grove Methodist-Protestant Church

Bro. Steve told all the announcements including about our homecoming the fifth Sunday in August. The date is Aug. 30. The guest singers are Mike and Kelley Bolin; they will be there at 1:30. Our service begins at 10:30.

Happy birthday to Corine Gray, Russell Wyatt, Blake Dodson and Sam Price. Happy anniversary to Ruby and Eugene Neeley, Rachel and Cody Hubbard, and Jim and Faye Lowery.

Remember to pray for all the sick and shut-ins, the Dan Brock family in their loss, our spoken and unspoken requests.

Our Sunday evening service was such a blessing. We had special guest singers Scotty and Lisa Roberts and Steve Roberson with Bro. Stoney Barbee playing the harmonica. Bro. Steve Price led in congregation singing, and Bro. Jeff led in prayer.

Our own Alton Russell and Cody Hubbard were called to join in as Bro. Stoney played “Amazing Grace.” Steve Roberson sang a song he wrote, “I’m Not Getting Older.” He then did a song he and his brother wrote after watching a 3-year-old with cancer from St. Jude’s who had lost all her hair and told her mother, just before dying, to listen and look at all those “pretty, pretty angels.” This is such a touching song. We then got a blessed surprise. Steve is a former Samaritan, and he had Gene Lowery and Jeannie Mims come up and they sing “I’m Rich in Faith.”

Jeff said the Spirit of God was truly in this place Sunday night. Thanks to all our visitors who came out.

Cedar Grove is located three miles south of Thorsby just off County Road 37, next to Bro. Harold Garrison’s farm. If you passed by this week you would see the most beautiful rolls of hay in his pasture.

Jackson Chapel

Bro Dennis’ text came from 1 Peter 5:8 with a message entitled “Stay in the Herd.” Satan will try to cut our spiritual air off and get us to the point to where we don’t want to serve the Lord. We need to put our guard up because Satan is waiting for us to mess up and he will try to get us back into the world. Satan will also tempt us to cross the bloodline, and we need to be very careful and stay within the protection of Jesus Christ. Discouragement will also cause one to leave the protection of Jesus Christ.

Sunday evening, Bro. Dennis’ text came from Daniel 3:8-20 with a message entitled “Peer Pressure.” God is looking for people that will make a difference in this world. Our young people can be the best examples if they will stay in the word of God and apply their Christian values while in this world. We need to be all that we can be in this world because if we don’t tell them, nobody will. We need to make up our minds that we are going to serve the Lord no matter what comes our way. Bro. Dennis ended the service with our children coming forward, and everyone gathered around them and prayed that God would put a hedge of protection around them as they start back to school this week.

Happy birthday this week to Marie Burnett.

Please remember these as you pray this week: Geraldine Smith, James and Marie Johnson, Janice Williams, Jason and Jessica Davis Family, Gail Fant’s mother, Jennifer Oden, J.E. Burnett, Sha Bruce family, Billy Waites, Essie Marcus, our lost loved ones and our service men and women.

Walnut Creek United Methodist Church

Altar flowers were placed in honor of David Florea’s birthday.

Happy anniversary to Roger and Virginia Littlefield.

Diane Handley asked the children Sunday if they knew what worry was. This resulted in some discussion, and she reminded them to pray and give God those burdens.

Myron Littlefield is sick. We are much in prayer for our guests last week, Joe and Gail Nettles; we just learned that Gail was diagnosed with cancer. Michael Maddox is better and should be home today. Pray for Sue Belcher; please pray for Myrtis Enfinger and Lavada Attaway. They are both better today.

Bro Tony’s Message was from Ephesians 4:25-30. Bro Tony said, “Don’t let your anger get the best of you. When you are angry, you will usually say something or do something that you will regret. As Paul said, ‘In your anger, do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are angry and do not give the devil a foothold.’”

Bro. Tony reminds us, “You cannot continue in sin — sin is sin. Don’t buy into this modern term: ‘Why that’s just a lifestyle or a choice that people make.’ If it’s a sin, it’s a sin.”

Trust God more than you trust all your things, or anything else. Don’t let Satan get a foothold!

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