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Contributing Writers: Mike Mills, Spring Hill Church | Doug Fincher | Pastor Randy and Sue Smith | Mike Belgard | Tim Perkins
Faith
May 24, 2018 - Old Salem Cemetery Homecoming is Sunday, May 27, 2018 and it's time again for the annual fund drive to upkeep the cemetery. We will meet around 10am and bring your favorite dish to have fellowship at 12noon. You may mail in donations to J.C. McSwain 8612 FM 711, Center, Texas 75935 if unable to attend. We will have singing at 11am to 11:30am; please join us. We appreciate your attendance and donations.
May 22, 2018 - There are those who consider themselves to be followers of the Most High God who if asked to pray for someone or some thing would silently say to themselves, “ No, I am not going to pray for you or that thing which you ask for I have tried prayer and it has not worked for me.” Some would even admit that they could not pray for you because their prayers didn’t seen to be heard or answered by the Lord.
That is sad that any person who tries to walk with the Lord would feel that way, that anyone who professes to be a follower of Christ Jesus would not have faith in prayers asked of God.
How could that be, that a “Christian” would not believe in the power of prayer?
Jesus tells us that to be his disciples we must live/abide in his word. This means for us to truly be followers of the Most High that we must first learn from his word, the Bible, that we can know how we are to follow him in our lives each day.
“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31)
Are you seeking that closer relationship with the Lord each day? Are you studying the Bible that you will be better equipped to meet the world each day? For the apostle Paul says this about the Word of God.
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
Did you see, the Scriptures are good for so many things pertaining to God, including for training in righteousness. Meaning if we are to be righteous then we must learn from God's Word that we know how to conduct our lives in service to him. Only by study of God’s Word can we be equipped to go out and do his will each day. Only by training in righteousness are we equipped to pray and be heard by the Most High God.
Jesus tells us the story of the true vine and its branches where he calls himself the true vine and those who would follow him the branches and he says this about being with and in him.
“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:4-5)
“By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.” (John 15:8)
If you want your prayers to be answered then you must first abide in Jesus Christ and in his word. That word Jesus keeps using, abide, means to remain or to have one’s abode or home in someone or something.
So for us to abide in the Word and in Christ we must spend time in study of the Word, time walking with Christ each day that we then know and understand his will and wishes for us. By this our lives will be lived for Christ and the Father will be glorified by our lives served in Christ, as our prayers are then honored by the Father.
“And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” (1 John 5:14-15)
Praise and glory be to the Heavenly Father of all who leads us and guides us through each day of our lives. May he richly bless you this day…
May 22, 2018 - VBS Bible Heroes June 18th-June 21st 6pm – 8pm.
“My hero doesn’t hide behind a mask He doesn’t need a cape to fly He’s stronger than the ocean And bigger than the sky…Jesus Christ: The Only Superhero”
Center First United Methodist Church is located at 211 Porter Street, Center, Texas 75935.
May 22, 2018 - VBS 2018 at Tenaha First Baptist Church 200 S. George Bowers Drive, (Hwy 59), Tenaha, Texas.
Friday, June 1st at 6:30pm for Parents & Kids Saturday, June 2nd 9am to 3:30pm for Kids Pre-K 4 through 6th grade.
You are God’s Masterpiece!
May 21, 2018 - Mount Calvary Full Gospel Church is hosting Every Last Saturday Gospel Singing beginning Saturday, May 26, 2018. A Gospel Singing will be held every last Saturday of the month from 6pm until 10pm. All Musicians and vocalist are invited. Musicians setup time is 5:30pm. Gospel music only please. Food and refreshments will be after the singing. For more information, call 903-678-1447. Mount Calvary Full Gospel Church is located on 417 East, Shelbyville, Texas 75973.
May 21, 2018 - New Harmony Missionary Baptist Church is hosting its revival on May 28 through June 1, 2018. Services will begin nightly at 7:00pm. Bro Cliff Durham from Rosevine Missionary Baptist Church will be the evangelist. Bro. Billy Windham, pastor, and the congregation invite everyone to come enjoy a Holy Ghost revival.
"I am with you always….." Matthew 28:20
May 21, 2018 - As I was growing up, we lived near the railroad tracks in Center, Texas. They were dangerous and illegal to walk, but my brothers and I always got to our fishing holes at Mill Creek and Weaver's Pond by walking on these rails. In time we became quite good at balancing on them for long distances.
My brother Joe and I were recently bragging to each other on how good we were at it when he asked how far I thought we could have gotten if they'd been ten feet off the ground. "Then we couldn't have walked them", I replied.
When I was fourteen, I attended a tent revival in Center, Texas and got on the high rails to heaven. Many times since that night, I almost lost my balance and would have most surely fallen off….
…had Jesus not walked them with me.
May 21, 2018 - Sunday was the Day of Pentecost, which is seen as the birth of the church. This Sunday we celebrate wind and fire and the excitement of something new. But Pentecost is not really a new celebration. It was the Festival of Weeks in the Jewish faith that commemorated the harvest and later the Torah. But for us Followers of the Way, it is when the Spirit of God infused the Jesus Community, giving birth to a new way of seeing.
Last week was warm for May and gave us just a taste of what a hot, humid, summer day is like in East Texas. All this month we have been collecting cans of fruit to take to Community Christian Services. Friday night was graduation in Joaquin. Joaquin had a big graduating class this year, and I know there are many proud parents and grandparents. One of my students who then taught in Joaquin is retiring this year. Mark Lawrence is retiring but his son Chad is coming home to Joaquin to teach and coach. Congratulations, Mark, on your many years of service to your school.
Our Sunday school lesson focused on the old idea of a Jubilee Year. The scripture from Leviticus told how they came up with the timing for the special year every fifty years. The idea was to set things right—or to return to the way they were when God gave the Israelites their land. Much of the lesson spoke of the importance of cleaning the slate and starting anew, which is certainly a theme found in both Old and New Testaments.
Last week was our program at Holiday Nursing Home. They were readying for a fifties-themed celebration right afterward, so we stopped a little short of 3PM. But we had a good time while we were there. Mrs. Hilda was lively on the piano, and we sang mostly spirited hymns to keep up with her. Mrs. Fannie read about God making mothers—sweet and sometimes bittersweet. It was wonderful to have Pastor Matt back among us; he talked of his upcoming graduation from Perkins at SMU—not really looking forward to the ceremony, but certainly pleased about being finished. Nora sang a couple of her beautiful songs, inviting us to accompany her. (I always hum or sing quietly so I can still hear her.) It was Jo’s birthday and also another of her and Nora’s sisters; they were headed after the program for a sisters’ day out. Because it was a shorter program, Sue didn’t read to the folks, but she kept us moving along as emcee. I closed us out with prayer and our usual hymn, “God Be with You ‘Til We Meet Again.”
“Whoever you are, in whatever faith you were born, whatever creed you profess; if you come to this house to find God you are welcome here.” Paxton United Methodist Church is an inviting church that takes to heart the idea of “Open Doors, Open Hearts, Open Minds.” Sunday School starts at 9:30 and Worship begins at 10:00. Our email address is paxtonumc@yahoo.com. If you would like the weekly email newsletter about Paxton Methodist you can send me your email address to the Paxton email address and I will add you to the list. Godspeed.
May 18, 2018 - St. John Baptist Church 2308 County Road 2050, Center, Texas Pastor & Wife's 11th Appreciation Service.
Rev. Winston and 1st Lady Terri Kibbles, Sunday, June 3, 2018, 2:30pm.
Special guest Rev. Shan Gilder, Pastor of Holy Temple C.O.G.I.C. Silsbee, Texas.
May 17, 2018 - Ramah Cemetery in Tenaha, Tx will hold its annual meeting and dinner on the ground on Saturday, June 2, 2018. All friends and relatives of those buried at Ramah are invited to attend and bring a covered dish dinner for after wards. Time is at 11am for the meeting and dinner will follow in the Ramah Baptist Church gym.
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