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Contributing Writers: Mike Mills, Spring Hill Church | Doug Fincher | Pastor Randy and Sue Smith | Mike Belgard | Tim Perkins
Faith
July 16, 2024 - St. John Baptist Church Center, Tx Pastor, Rev. Winston Kibbles, invites you to join them for their Annual Homecoming and Revival Services Sunday, July 21 at 2pm with Rev. Mario Osby Smith Chapel Baptist Church Timpson, TX.
This will then be followed by a three night Revival Monday, July 22 - Wednesday, July 24 at 7pm nightly with Rev. Cedric Grace Mt. Zion Baptist Church San Augustine, TX
Revive, Revive, Revival!
July 16, 2024 - White Rock Missionary Baptist Church is hosting five nights of revival with Bro. Nathan Luellen of Stockwell Road MBC of Bossier City, Louisiana starting Monday, July 22nd at 7pm nightly.
Bro. Nathan also serves as an Instructor and as Dean of the Louisiana Missionary Baptist Institute and Seminary (LMBIS) of Minden, Louisiana. Last month, he preached the Annual Message at the 2024 Annual Messenger Meeting of the ABA in Springfield, Illinois.
We are very excited to have him as our evangelist this year at White Rock, and we hope you will attend every night if you can.
July 15, 2024 - Everyone is invited to the annual homecoming for Tennessee Cemetery on Sunday July 21, 2024.
Homecoming will be held at the Tennessee Presbyterian Church on FM 947. The business meeting will begin at 11am with lunch following at 12 noon. Please come to enjoy a wonderful lunch and catching up with friends. If you are unable to attend and would like to contribute to the upkeep of the cemetery, send your donations to:
Tennessee Permanent Trust Fund
% Jeanie Rhodes
1434 CR 4916
Timpson, TX 75975
Tennessee Working Committee
% Billie Jackson
7607 RM 947
Gary, TX75643
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. John 14:3
July 15, 2024 - I learned early on that a successful Hitch-hiker had to follow these rules: Maintain a clean, youthful appearance, carry only a small amount of luggage, and stand in good light. I also discovered that most truckers aren’t allowed to have passengers and that hitchhiking was difficult on weekends and holidays when people were on vacations and family outings.
When I was in the seminary in Springfield, Missouri, I often made the 550-mile trip quicker by hitchhiking than I could by bumming a ride from a fellow-student. A man in a 1950 Olds Rocket 88 once gave me a hair-raising ride from Springfield to Shreveport, Louisiana at speeds reaching 90 miles an hour. I hitchhiked for over a year from ETBC in Marshall, Texas to my first pastorate in Patroon, Texas and was always back for my 7:00 class on Monday morning. Sometimes I was dropped off in pitch darkness but was never late for a preaching appointment at any church except one time at the First Baptist Church of Martinsville, Texas. But the rapists, murderers, drunk drivers, and dopers have ruined a once-good-and-fun thing. Picking up a hitchhiker nowadays is much too risky and no one thinking right would ever pick one up.
Thumbing a ride all those years never cost me a thing… but did cost the person giving me the ride. When I was fourteen, I got a free one-way ticket to heaven, too… but it cost the very life’s blood of the One giving me the ride. He’ll never drop me off in the dark and won’t be late getting me home, either. And even though making the trip was my decision…
… how I’ll go… and when… will be His.
July 15, 2024 - First Methodist Church, Center is hosting at Blood Drive this Saturday, July 20th from 10am until 2:30pm. Register online at https://www.commitforlife.org/donor/schedules/drive_schedule/373190
For more information, visit www.CenterFirst.org. First Methodist Church is located at 211 Porter Street, Center, Texas 75935.
July 15, 2024 - Good Morning! It's Monday, July 15.
And Jesus said to His disciples, Go into all the world, and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Mark 16:15
For decades, First Baptist Church of Center has been broadcasting a Bible lesson and a worship service each Sunday morning. When internet technology became available, our technicians were quick to make use of this new tool. Last night I was reminded of just how powerful and amazing that tool is.
Yesterday, First Baptist welcomed a missionary couple. They serve in a largely Muslim country, a place that is over 7,000 miles from East Texas. A large crowd gathered last evening to hear them share about their ministry. But before the event, the missionary shared something with me about our ministry. I introduced myself, but he quickly said he knew who I was because he and his wife watched our Sunday broadcasts... from the other side of the world.
I was suddenly filled with thoughts of thankfulness, thankful to God that he would allow a small church in a small town to "proclaim the gospel to the whole creation." To Him be all the praise, all the honor, and all the glory.
Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples. Psalm 96:3
Meet you back here tomorrow,
Bro. David
dmathis@fbccenter.org
July 11, 2024 - Lancewood Baptist Church in Lufkin is hosting the group Right Road Quartet on Saturday, August 24th at 5pm. Please be seated by 4:45pm.
Right Road Quartet is a brand new group started in March of 2022. The group was founded by lead singer Matt Linton. Matt had enjoyed a successful full time solo ministry but he always had a passion for great quartet music. Other members of the group include Kip Barrier (Tenor), Cameron Rawlinson (Baritone), and Lanny Wilkerson (Bass).
This Quartet is a high energy, ministry minded group with a strong passion for Jesus and they are causing a buzz everywhere they go.
Lancewood Baptist Church is located at 2535 Bethlehem Road, Lufkin,Texas 75904.
July 11, 2024 - A physician got up a few Sunday’s back to go to church, but he never made it there. The only explanation he gave was “T.B.” Poor Doctor! He spent his life fighting almost every disease known to man and T.B. finally got him.
A prominent woman was honored with an invitation to come and worship with the saints of God, but she was not able. You see, “T.B.” prevented her from being there.
T.B. is a very old disease. A man in the Bible explained his refusal of an invitation by indicating he had trouble with T.B. “Too Busy”, the most vicious form of T.B. ever known. “I have bought five yoke of oxen, I have bought a field, I have married a wife”. That is the way they explained it in the scriptures. Today, “I have a job; Sunday is my only day for recreation; life is so cluttered, I just don’t have any time to serve the Lord.” That’s the way spiritual T.B. is explained today. However, one day, all those suffering with T.B. today will discover they will not be too busy to die nor too busy to attend the judgment.
Friends, T.B. is not incurable, however it finds its origin in heart disease. Those suffering from T.B. must make their heart right with God. When you cure your “heart trouble” you will never again be “Too Busy” to live for Jesus.
It’s something to think about... tbp
Join Us for Worship this coming Lord’s Day Center Church of Christ or online at www.centerchurchofchrist.com
July 8, 2024 - Good Morning! It's Monday, July 8.
What do these names bring to mind? Alicia, Ike, Rita, Carla, Harvey. If you've been a Texan for very long, you know that they're all catastrophic hurricanes that have visited the Lone Star State. As we wait to see what Beryl is going to do, I'm waxing meteorological today.
Carla, in 1961, is the first storm I can remember. I grew up in Houston and she hit us pretty hard. I was still in H-Town in 1983 when Alicia put a big tree across my driveway. The sound of chainsaws and generators was heard across the land. Rita, Ike, and Harvey have been some fairly recent unwelcome visitors. And even though she wasn't a Texas storm, Katrina sent a lot of evacuees to Houston. Hard to believe that next year will be the 20th anniversary of that disaster.
And then there's the mother of all hurricanes - The Great Galveston Storm of 1900. All these years later, it's still the worst natural disaster in United States history. The storm (this was before we decided to give them names) roared in with 150 mph winds and a 12-foot storm surge. An estimated 8,000 souls were lost, 7,000 buildings and houses were destroyed, leaving a third of Galveston's citizens homeless.
Before the storm, Galveston had been the largest city in Texas and boasted one of the largest ports in the country. It would never regain that place, a place taken over by its neighbor to the north, Houston.
As I write this, it's still uncertain what kind of storm Beryl will be. But, living in Texas, you can be sure of two things - storms will come and Texans will survive. I'm reminded today of God's promise in John 16:33.
"In this world you will have tribulations but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world."
Meet you back here tomorrow,
Bro. David
dmathis@fbccenter.org
July 5, 2024 - James would write these words for us in James 3:8-10, “But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.”
Have you ever thought about how powerful the tongue is and how powerful your words can be? By our words we express our ideas and thoughts. Our words often convey the deepest thoughts of our heart. With words we can hurt, discourage, anger, stir up strife and crush the spirits of those around us, or we can cheer, enlighten, encourage, uplift and calm those we come in contact with.
We can speak a language pure and pleasing in the sight of God and unquestionable in the eyes of men. Conversely, we can corrupt that language until it damns our soul.
Do my words justify or condemn me? Is my speech pure and clean or is it discolored with the kind of foul language that makes is distasteful not only in the sight of God but also in the sight of men and women I come into contact with? We must seek to speak in a way that is becoming to Christians and uplifting to those we associate with on a daily basis.
It’s something to think about. . . tbp
Join Us for Worship this coming Lord’s Day Center Church of Christ
www.centerchurchofchrist.com
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