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Contributing Writers: David Mathis | Tim Perkins
Past Contributing Writers: Mike Mills, Spring Hill Church | Doug Fincher | Pastor Randy and Sue Smith | Mike Belgard
Faith
March 17, 2025 - The St. John Missionary Baptist Church would like to cordially invite everyone to our Age Rally Program on March 23, 2025 at 11am. Our very own Pastor Donald Riley will be the speaker of the hour. The church is located at 102 Booker T. Washington Drive, Tenaha, Texas 75974.
2025
March 17, 2025 - Jackson Missionary Baptist Church in Joaquin will be celebrating their 104th anniversary this Sunday, March 23, 2025, at 11am. Everyone is welcome to come help us celebrate this historic event. God continues His blessings with our current pastor, Bro. Micah McArthur a man raised in the church and very versed in the scriptures, a true blessing to hear him preach.
"To Him be glory in the church by Jesus Christ throughout all ages." Ephesians 3:20
March 27, 1921
History of Jackson Missionary Baptist Church
Even before there was a building with the name “Jackson Baptist Church” on it some Jackson Community people were meeting to worship God in an old stone building, referred to as Jackson School, it was used for church services, singing and school. After a period of years, the need for a church was apparent. There was a Jackson Cemetery in the area, and .9 acres was donated for a church building next to the Jackson Cemetery.
Jackson Missionary Baptist Church was organized and dedicated on March 27, 1921 with 26 members. The membership was formed by people from neighboring sister churches. The building was built of ship-lap lumber and painted white. The building faced the “old Road” to Joaquin, and it had two doors on the front and one on the back. Three rows of home-built pews filled the rectangle shaped building. This church building was built with money furnished by the community, labor by members, a love of God, and a desire to serve and worship him.
1950
For almost 30 years, services were held in the original building, However, on February 20, 1950, the church appointed a committee for construction of a new building. On February 26, 1950, the original building was torn down and a second one story brick building was built. Labor was provided mostly by church members themselves. Some worked on regular jobs and came directly from their jobs to work on the new church building, also on Saturdays. Church members helped by purchasing doors, pews, and windows in their family’s names. In 1963, a parsonage was built and afterwards a dedication was held.
Through the years the church family grew, and once again the church appointed a new construction committee in 2013 to seek out expansion possibilities. After much searching it was determined and approved by the church membership, that the church should relocate by purchasing 9 acres of land. And a third building was built. Once, again, the third new building was built following the same pattern set by church members who had come before them. Saturday workdays were held to clear the property and accomplish tasks as the building was being built. Money to build the building was furnished by church members and others in the community. Some made donations in memory of their family members for projects and items. During the Construction phase worship services were held throughout the building process so that members could see progress being made. The stain glass windows from the previous church building were incorporated into the design, along with the previous pulpit and other church furniture. On May 10, 2020 church members met in the sanctuary for a Mother’s Day worship service and it was clear to see that the time had come to begin meeting permanently in the new church building. As the effort to complete this building continues, the church family at Jackson celebrates the Anniversary of the church and carries on the vision that began in 1921. The first church site was donated to the Jackson Cemetery Association, and the sanctuary is now being used by a Spanish Missionary Baptist Church.
Pastors through the Years
1921-1923 - H.T. Ritnor
1924-1925 - Lee J Ellis
1925-1926 - T.N. Fore
1926-1927 - E.B. Anderson
1927-1929 - H.T. Ritnor
1929-1930 - R.O. Bazer
1930 - W.J. Brown
1930-1933 - W.C. Koonce
1933 - Elam Cockrell
1933-1939 - A.L. Meador
1940-1943 - W.E. Crenshaw
1943 - dates unknown - Curtis Peace and Walter Ingram
1943-1950 no records due to fire
1951 - M. Otto Hillis
1951-1954 - E.E. Smithhart
1954-1961 - Dale Roberts
1961-1965 - F.A. McCann
1965-1966 - L.E. Garrison
1966-1968 - W.A. Reeves
1968-1969 - Ray Turner
1969-1970 - Bill Sheffield
1970-1972 - G.W. Griggs
1972-1974 - Roger Cole
1974-1980 - F.A. McCann
1980-1996 - R.D. Warr, Jr.
1996-1998 - Larry Andrews
1998-2001 - Dock Lazarine
2001-2002 - Harold Hanson (Interim)
2002-2003 - George Rogers
2003 - Harold Hanson
2003-2009 - Mike Cross
2009-2010 - Luke Garrett (interim)
2010-2021 - David Long (last day May 09, 2021)
2021 - Mark Sartain (interim)
2021-2022 - Luke Garrett (Interim w/guest speakers)
2022-present - Micah McArthur
March 17, 2025 - Good Morning! It’s Monday, March 17.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! We continue with our six-part series on the Creator and His creation, which will end this Thursday, the first day of spring. Our focus this morning is on the theological term “general revelation”. This is the idea that God reveals Himself, reveals His nature, through natural things - like His creation.
In Psalm 19:1, the psalmist puts it like this, “The heavens declare the glory of our God, the whole earth shows His handiwork.” The Apostle Paul, in Romans 1:19-20, writes, “What may be known about God is plain to men, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities - His eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”
In 1960, Barbara Gaultney, a 25-year-old writer from Atlanta, Georgia, described her experience with God through these lyrics -
In the lightning flash across the sky His mighty power I see
And I know if He can reign on high His light can shine on me
I’ve seen it in the lightning, heard it in the thunder, and felt it in the rain
My Lord is near me all the time. My Lord is near me all the time.
This song of testimony and praise made it into the Baptist Hymnal in 1975 - the year that Barbara Gaultney died, at the age of 39. She was plagued by chronic health issues her entire life, spending her last years bedridden and blind. Her writing gave her purpose and peace - and her Lord was near her all the time.
Meet you back here tomorrow,
David
cindertex50@yahoo.com
March 14, 2025 - You've been drafted! Bright Morning Star Baptist Church is hosting a Youth Revival Boot Camp March 19-21 at 7pm nightly. The revival theme is 'Training Up a Generation for Jesus' Psalms 32:8.
Wednesday, Day 1 - #TRAINUP
Thursday, Day 2 - #SHAPEUP
Friday, Day 3 - #GEARUP
Guest speaker is Minister Deshmond Johnson. Dress code is Army or Military outfit.
Bright Morning Star is located at 623 MLK Drive, Center, Texas and its pastor is Anthony Jackson.
March 13, 2025 - Once upon a time, I thought I might like to take up the game of golf. I played a little for a few years, and then realized, golf was not my game. The men I played with (my grandfather and some of his friends) were guys that believed strongly in the mulligan. Truth be told, none of them was ever going to join the PGA. Now, to those unacquainted with the finer technical points of the game of golf, let’s define what a mulligan is: “You are allowed a second drive, or a do-over on your drive off the first tee if your first drive is not good enough or not to your liking or satisfaction.” That means that “first shot” doesn’t count. You get a “do-over.”
Wouldn’t it be great if we could take a mulligan in life? Wouldn’t it be great if God gave us a do-over?
Well, when we get to Isaiah’s prophecy, we find that our God is the “God of the Mulligan”. The faith and hope of God’s people were at a low point during this period. They needed constant assurance that things would turn around. Isaiah repeats these assurances over and over. When you turn to Isaiah 43:18, you find a beautiful statement. “Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old” When we come to God with a penitent heart, when we obey God’s will, when we begin to live God’s kind of life, God gives us a do-over. A mulligan!
It’s something to think about... tbp
Come join us for worship at Center Church of Christ or online at www.centerchurchofchrist.com.
March 12, 2025 - First Methodist Church, Center is hosting at Blood Drive this Saturday, March 22 from 10am until 2:30pm. Register online at https://www.commitforlife.org/donor/schedules/drive_schedule/388506
For more information, visit www.CenterFirst.org. First Methodist Church is located at 211 Porter Street, Center, Texas 75935.
March 11, 2025 - New Prospect Missionary Baptist Church in Timpson, Texas will be having Choir and Usher Anniversary on Sunday March 16, 2025 at 2:30pm. Guest Speaker is Pastor Kevin Boyer, Sweet Union Baptist Church, Garrison, Texas. Everyone is invited to attend.
March 10, 2025 - The Annual Cemetery Clean up at Mt. Gillion Cemetery, is on Saturday, March 15 from 8am to 12 noon. Bring your yard tools and let's make our ancestors proud.
The Cemetery is located on CR 1612 off Hwy 87 North.
March 10, 2025 - The McWilliams-Rather Cemetery Association invites you to attend and participate in our Fundraising Drive and Annual meeting. This will be held on Sunday, March 23rd at 3pm at Todd Spring Baptist Church.
March 10, 2025 - Good Morning! It’s Monday, March 10.
We wake this morning to a world filled with division, to a culture characterized by the drawing of battle lines instead of the search for common ground. People with different views or backgrounds are too often reduced to negative stereotypes, turned into caricatures that can easily be derided and dismissed. It is a culture that threatens to consume us.
This depiction of our present world would also aptly describe the world of the New Testament. But in those pages we find a different point of view, a different way to live, and we get a glimpse of that philosophy when we look at the men that Christ chose to be His disciples. I turn the spotlight on two of those men - Matthew the tax collector and Simon the Zealot. In the Jewish culture of the 1st Century you would have been hard pressed to find two people more different, more disconnected, more in opposition.
As much as the Romans were hated by the Jews, the Jewish tax collectors were hated even more. They were seen as self serving bureaucrats. They were seen as traitors. And what group in that culture would have hated the tax collectors the most? The Zealots. They actively conspired to overthrow the Romans, and often used violence as a tool. If a Zealot and a tax collector entered a dark alley, it was quite probable that only one man would exit.
How amazing it is that Jesus would choose these two men, choose them to live and walk and work together for three years, choose them to be a team. The methods and the philosophy of Christ must have seemed ridiculous to his contemporaries, must have seemed idealistic, foolish, and naive. But these two men, these twelve disciples, would go on to change the world.
A different point of view. A different way to live. Two thousand years ago... and today.
Meet you back here tomorrow,
David
cindertex50@yahoo.com
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