February 4, 2017 - We would like to invite everyone to our Annual Youth Revival at Smith Chapel Baptist Church in Timpson, Texas. Services will begin on Monday, February 6 - Wednesday, February 8, 2017, starting at 7:00 pm nightly. Speakers are Clifford Williams (Monday), Byron Coutee (Tuesday), and Samuel Gibbons (Wednesday). Hope to see you there.

December 27, 2016 - St. John's Missionary Baptist Church Women's Department is hosting an evening of elegance, dinner, music and comedy at their annual Valentine's Banquet held at the John Dean Windham Civic Center on February 4, 2017 at 6:00pm.

Catering will be provided by Tome' Catering with music by "Soul Flake" Band, Raquita McCollister and The Flash. Individual tickets can be purchased for $25 or a table of 8 can be reserved for $200. Contact any SJMBC member for more information.

February 3, 2017 - Friendship Baptist Church encourages you to attend our Good Hope of the Gospel Missions Revival, Colossians 1:23.

Guest speaker will be Glenn Kosiorek. February 19, 2017 at 10:45am and 6pm; February 20-22 at 7pm.

Friendship Baptist Church is located at 6796 US Highway 84 East Joaquin, Texas. Pastor Stewart Lowe 936-269-4056.

February 3, 2017 - On Sunday, February 12, 2017, the Friendship Missionary Baptist Church of (BOBO) community will be observing 100 plus years Church Anniversary at 3pm. Pastor Brandon Owens and the New Pleasant Grove will bless us with the message. We would like to invite everyone who can to come out and worship with us.

Thank you from Pastor Jeremy Moore, Friendship Missionary Baptist Church. For more information, you can contact Theresa Pitts at 936-553-2976.

February 3, 2017 - Mt Zion will be celebrating Black History Month each Sunday in February during Morning Worship at 11a.m. Sunday, February 5th speaker will be Jeremy Small, Coach/ Life Science Teacher at East Jr. High in West Memphis. Rev. Elgena Weaver, pastor.

February 3, 2017 - This recovery plan works!

Through the pages of the 90-day workbook, A Daily Choice, Overcoming Life-controlling Problems, people from all backgrounds are finding freedom from addictions to drugs, alcohol, gambling, codependency issues, eating disorders, sex addictions, violence and criminal behaviors. Daily lessons help you discover root causes of emotional and spiritual road blocks that have kept you trapped in a cycle of confusion, addiction and wrong choices. These practical solutions for healing of the total person have been powerfully demonstrated in the lives of Charles and Sharon Burton since 1971, through their personal victories over alcoholism, abuse, bitterness and a broken marriage.

Their ability to explain the simplicity of God’s life-changing principles can transform your life. You can overcome your failures, regain your self-respect and take control of your future.

To learn more about the program you can check out the web-site at recoverysupport.org

Overcomers Recovery Support Program is an accredited program that is used in many rehab and prison facilities. The program hours can be used for probation, community service and many other avenues requiring certified hours of completion. However, you may not need the program in this way; you may just need some help and understanding with life’s issues. The class is conducted in a confidential manner, in a safe environment and instructed by caring Christian facilitators. 

This program is an outreach ministry of Timpson First Assembly. Meetings are held in the Fellowship Hall in Timpson, Texas. We meet on Wednesday nights @ 6PM. We are located at 652 Houston Street Timpson, Texas 75975. If interested in signing up please call 936-254-2999 and leave a message or just come to one of our meetings. Someone will return your call as soon as possible.

February 2, 2017 - Lydia Missionary Baptist Church would like to announce its new pastor and family, Bro. Michael McArthur. His beautiful family includes wife, Cristi and children, Micah, Malachi, Chloe, Kennedy and Matthias. The family most recently lived in Hornbeck, LA where they served at Union Baptist Church in Florien, LA.

Bro. Michael has a heart for families and his desire is for Lydia to be a lighthouse for God in the Huxley and surrounding community.

We would like to invite you to come out to Lydia and check out what God is doing.

Sunday School begins at 9:45 am, Worship service at 11:00 am and Evening service at 6:00 pm. A nursery is provided. We have Wednesday night services that begin at 6:00 pm, which includes a children’s/youth program. Our  van ministry  runs on Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings.

We at Lydia feel truly Blessed that God has sent the McArthur family our way.  We look forward to serving along with them. Please join us!

We are located on FM 139 in Huxley. Phone is number is (936)368-2462.

February 1, 2017 - The British Victorian poet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, published her Sonnets from the Portuguese in 1850—a collection of 44 love sonnets. Number 43 is the most famous and opens with one of the most well-known lines in all of love poetry: “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” The sonnet goes on to enumerate powerful ways in which the poet loves the beloved. But there is one way to love—perhaps the most important—that is missing. The poet never says, “I love you unconditionally.”

There are some fundamental questions on love that we all need to ask ourselves if we want to love someone with a true and perfect love. First question is, "Do I love this person so much that I can forgive them in spite of their shortcomings and failures?"

Second, "Is there anything this person can do to make me love them less than I do right now?" Third, "Is there anything that this person can do to make me love them more?" These questions seem pretty simple to answer "yes" to when we think we truly love someone or when love is fresh and new. When they become harder is when we have to actually love those people who have hurt us or when our love grows old. We find it easy to love others when they return that love, but when love is not reciprocated it becomes much harder for us to love back. Unconditional love is impossible for us to achieve on our own. It's just not in our nature.

So now the question that we have to ask ourselves is, "How can I learn to love in that way?" The answer is you can't without help from God. We can only love how we have been loved, and the only person who can love us unconditionally is God Himself. When we surrender our lives to the love of God , He promises us that He will fill us with HIs Spirit. His spirit living in us allows us to love as God loves, unconditionally. 1John 4:7-8," Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love." There is nothing that you can do to make God love you more and there is nothing that you can do to make him love you less. He states that in Romans 5:8

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."  This tells us that God loved us enough to die for us even though we didn't love Him at the time.

Only when we allow the Holy Spirit to flow through us can we love others unconditionally and know that same unconditional love. God wants loves you and was willing to die for you on the cross through Jesus. Accept His love and you will be able to reflect that same agape (unconditional) love to everyone you meet .

I'm Just Saying,
Mike Belgard

February 1, 2017 - Last week we celebrated the baptism of Jesus.  This Sunday, the 4th Sunday after the Epiphany, Jesus has called his disciples.  In our Gospel lesson from Matthew, Jesus begins to describe the people of the Kingdom.  His “Sermon on the Mount” is Jesus’ manifesto to kingdom living.  There is a similar story in Luke called the “Sermon on the Plains.”  Matthew’s telling is more difficult to understand because it is so Jewish.  Jesus, like the Prophet Micah and John the Baptizer, has a problem with the Temple and those who run it.

Seven hundred years before Jesus spoke from the mount, Micah warned the people of Judah that they were not living righteously as God requires.  The emphasis of Micah and later, of Jesus was on righteous living.  Is righteous living fulfilled by temple worship and sacrifices?  Is righteousness attained by tithing or attending religious festivals and holy days?  These might be outward signs of righteousness, but one is actually righteous who is just, full of mercy and love, and walking humbly with God.  These are not suggestions—this is what is required to live in God today, tomorrow, and for all eternity.

Our Sunday school lesson once again was a hymn of praise from the hymnbook of the Jewish people—The Psalms. The lesson title was All Creation Praises God. Ms. Fannie divided up the hymn so we read the hymn responsively.  The week before Fannie divided up the lesson and Joe and I added our thoughts to one section of the lesson.  The writer had a great love of music and related praise to music.  My section of the lesson dealt with jazz.  Before a jazz musician can improvise on the music he must first master the fundamentals.  This is also true in faith. Joe said he wasn’t as knowledgeable as the author about music so he related his section of the lesson to science.  All in all our time in Sunday school went by very quickly.  As Sunday school was coming to an end people started coming in for worship.  It was so nice to have Susan Whiddon worship with us Sunday.  We had a good crowd for Paxton this morning and our worship attendance so far in 2017 is higher than 2016!

I went to Lufkin last Tuesday for my yearly interview with our District Superintendent.  This was my first time to the new District Office.  It was very nice and certainly a step up from their old digs.  It was so nice to see Vetta and Vonnie who run the office.  It was like seeing old friends that you don’t see that often.  This was my first official meeting with Rev. Tony Vinson who has been our DS since summer.  I had met him at the Charge Conference in Center but this was the first chance to have a real conversation.  We discussed the strength of Paxton in mission and in finances and if the church is agreeable Rev. Vinson is going to appoint me to another year at Paxton.

Last week, the crew went to Lakeside to present the monthly program.  I was sick all day, so Maggie Casto was “anointed” Mistress of Ceremonies, a task she’s quite good at.  The singing was led by Nora and Laura, who also joined Gene Casto for a couple of specials.  Nora and Laura read—Dolly Parton’s “Coat of Many Colors” and poems from the Bible and Wordsworth.  Fannie read and told a joke.  Sue, who forgot to bring her reading material, ended up adlibbing her Name Report from her English 2 teaching days.  Spoiler alert: She wasn’t named Gloria, didn’t have long blond hair and big blue eyes—instead getting stuck with curly brown hair, brown eyes, and “Susan.”

“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. God’s Speed!

January 31, 2017 - The blessed man of the Psalm-

"Blessed is the man who walks not in the council of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by steams of water that yields its fruit in it's season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers." (Psalm 1:1-3)

The Psalmist tells us not to; walk with the wicked, nor stand with the sinner, not sit with the scoffer. In other words, pick your friends carefully, choices made today determine your life tomorrow and eventually, possibly even your eternity.

I think this is a reason some are reluctant to accept the free gift of salvation from the Lord Jesus. They are afraid they may have to change their habits, friends or sometime maybe their jobs.

And this may be true, except, once truly saved it is not something you "have to do", it is something you will "want to do". Your life is then changed for the good.

The blessed instead delights in the commandments of the Lord and meditates day and night. (Meditate - to engage in devout religious contemplations; a quite, spiritual introspection, or look within oneself)

It says the blessed man is like a tree that yields fruit, that does not wither; he then prospers in all that he does.

So, let's break this down and see what it means to us as born-again Christians.

Yes, it is true that once one is born-again that his life does change. Old things of the world no longer tempt him, old haunts no longer draw him, and old habits are left and not revisited. This is all good though and helps in a closer walk with the Lord each day.

Let's look at the results of the born-again life.

By giving up the things of the world in which we once delighted, we now delight in the Lord. Our time is spent with Him and not in the pursuit of worldly things.
The scriptures say the benefits are; we then become like a tree planted by flowing water. Our roots run deep keeping us grounded in the laws of the Lord and we no longer drift around in darkness but now walk in the light. We now yield fruit for the Lord which is the reason for our being here, and everything we do will prosper.

To meditate daily gives us the roots we need, by transcendental meditation we go way beyond simply studying the Bible, we take study to a supernatural level and we find ourselves becoming of a quiescent mind, a restful and peaceful mind.

To take full advantage of our daily walk with the Lord we need to take a particular scripture or passage or even a single attribute of God and spend time in meditation just contemplating the meaning of it. Letting God talk to us as we listen to Him.

In this way we become more deeply rooted, more steadfast in our relationship with our Lord God. By spending this time, transcending the normal study of the Word we become much more useful to the Lord and much harder for the evil one to deceive.

May God bless you and keep you and make His face to shine upon you today...

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