"You err because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God…" Mark 12:24

February 5, 2024 - Following assembly directions is something I’ve never done really well. Years ago I ordered a Color Photo Enlarger. I was so anxious to get it that I wrestled it from the UPS driver and immediately began the assembly. But after a couple of frustrating hours, I did what I should’ve done to begin with: I found the instruction booklet, followed it step by step, and… Walla! …the parts fit perfectly!

We all spend a lot of frustrating hours trying to figure out the complex issues of life. We want to know things like who made us, where we came from, and where we’re going. And our human reasoning won’t fit it together.

But the parts are all there and it can fit together perfectly. But it won’t happen until we stop, lay down our wrenches …

… and read God’s Instruction Book.

February 5, 2024 - Good Morning! It's Monday, February 5.

Yesterday, at First Baptist Church of Center, we sang the scripture chorus "This is the Day", a little praise song written in 1967 by a 23-year-old pastor named Les Garrett. After listening to his song, I would have guessed that he was from Texas and grew up with country gospel music. But in fact, Les Garrett was born in New Zealand and the melody of "This is the Day" is a variation on a folk song from Fiji - imagine that!

The lyrics are from Psalms 118:24. We sometimes call the Psalms "The Bible's Hymnbook", and the children of God have been singing from that hymnbook for over 3000 years. But what is this "day" that the song, and the verse, are referring to? First, let's look at the context. Psalm 118 - a chapter at the approximate center of the Bible - was written at a time of great trial and trouble. That makes the verse that starts and finishes it all the more powerful -

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever.

And then we read verses 21-23, that immediately precede our "lyrics" verse.  

I will give You thanks, for You answered me; You have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the Cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.  This is the day . . .

The psalmist, a thousand years before Bethlehem, is speaking of Jesus. This is a "messianic" psalm and verse 24 celebrates the Cornerstone of our Faith.  
So, when you're having a good day, you'll certainly want to sing this little song. And when you're having a bad day, you'll certainly need to sing it. But whether the day is good or bad, whether it's the Lord's Day or a Monday - this song of worship celebrates our Messiah, our Redeemer, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Sing it again this morning . . .
 
This is the day! This is the day that the Lord hath made, that the Lord hath made!
I will rejoice! I will rejoice and be glad in it, and be glad in it!
This is the day that the Lord hath made! I will rejoice and be glad in it!
This is the day! This is the day that the Lord hath made!

 
Meet you back here tomorrow,

Bro. David
dmathis@fbccenter.org

February 2, 2024 - Mt. Zion C.M.E. Church Women's Conference Saturday, February 10, 2024 10am-12pm "No Stressing."

Speakers will be: 1st Lady Pearlie Nash House of Refuge Ministries Center, Texas and Sis. Stephanie Hicks Reed Chapel Baptist Church San Augustine, Texas

Registration is $20.

The church is located at 921 MLK Drive, Center, TX. Rev. Richard Edwards, Pastor

February 1, 2024 - In our day and time, we have become obsessed with the consumer mentality. To be sure, it has permeated every aspect of our lives. We look for a restaurant with the best price, menu, atmosphere and location. We shop for clothes at a store that carries our size, has our taste in clothes and the best sales.

Sadly, many take this same attitude with them when it comes to church. We call it “church shopping”. If we have little kids, we look for a church with a great program for kids. If we don’t have kids, we look for a church that doesn’t have a “bunch of noisy kids” bothering us. We want the music to be enthusiastic but not too loud and it must have a proper mix of contemporary music mixed in with the old hymns. The preacher needs to be youthful but not too young and relevant but not trendy. Most of all, he needs to deliver a life changing message in less than 20 minutes. And know this, if anything stops meeting our expectations, we are off, “church shopping” again.

Yet, the church was never intended to serve the consumer mentality. You see, the church is not about serving us, it is about serving God and serving others. In the church, we are to be more focused on seeking the desperately lost rather than meeting the felt needs of the saved community.

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

January 22, 2024 - Join us for an afternoon of family fun, food tasting, and a friendly cooking competition! First Methodist Church Missions Committee will host their annual Chili, Gumbo and Soup Cook-off competition on Sunday, February 4, 2024, beginning at 4:00 p.m. in the church Fellowship Hall located at 211 Porter Street, Center.

The cooking competition is open to all ages, all local organizations and amateur cooks only. A non-refundable entry fee of $10.00 per team secures table space. Advance registration is due by Sunday, January 28th.

Teams can set up their cooking space beginning at 3:00 p.m. and will have the opportunity to compete in one of the food categories as well as the Best Decorated Table Space category by decorating their table with a theme of the team’s choice.

Admission tickets are $5.00 for adults, $3.00 for youth ages four to 12 years, and free children 3 years and under; event tickets will be available at the door. The event begins at 4:00 p.m. for competition food sampling, which includes chili, gumbo and soup samples, crackers, and drinks. Adult ticket holders will receive five tickets to vote for their favorite Chili, Gumbo or Soup and youth will receive three voting tickets. Additional voting tickets will be available at the event for $1.00 each. Voting ends at 5:30 p.m. Winners will be announced at 6:00 p.m. for First Place People’s Choice awards in all cooking categories and Best Decorated Table Space.

In addition, a Silent Auction will take place during the cook-off competition and Dessert Auction beginning at 5:30 pm. All proceeds from the cook-off fundraiser will benefit the First Methodist Church Missions & Outreach.

For complete event rules and team registration, please visit the First Methodist website at www.centerfirst.org.

For additional information or questions, please contact our Cook Off Coordinator, Jan Cruse, at 936-714 4745 or the Church Office at 936-598-2707.

“I’ll make you fishers of men….” Matthew 4:19

January 29, 2024 - Even though this pond was posted and guarded with a shotgun, my brothers and I were able to sneak in and fish it for many years. It’s fat bass and goggle-eyed perch made crawling on our bellies through a pine thicket well worth the trouble. And fortunately, we could see the Caretaker before he could see us.

But after being greeted one morning with a load of bird shot, we decided to do some night fishing. Besides being safer, we could now munch on cold biscuits, nap on the piers and watch “shooting stars” streak the sky. Mr. Adams never knew how severely his bass population dropped while he slept.

Who’d ever thought that a few years later my brothers and I would be lined up waist deep in this pond (with sixty other converts) being baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. I’m sure Mr. Adams caught more fish after our conversion, and there’s no doubt that the farmers in Center soon gathered larger numbers of eggs and realized larger harvests of watermelons and sugar cane, too!

We walked away from Robert Adams Pond that day with a new view on fishing. Now the Lord of the Harvest would add numbers to His Kingdom, too… because now we’d fish for men.

January 29, 2024 - Good Morning! It's Monday, January 29.

Have you ever been to Pittsburg? No, not Pittsburg, Pennsylvania... Pittsburg, Texas! It's an East Texas town that has several notable "claims to fame". It's the headquarters of Pilgrim's Pride Chicken, the birthplace of racing legend Carroll Shelby, and the location of a very unusual flying machine - the Ezekiel Air Ship. You can see a replica of that odd aircraft in a museum in Pittsburg, just down the street from First Baptist Church (where Bo Pilgrim was a deacon).

Burrell Cannon was an East Texas Baptist preacher in the late 1800's. But he also had a passion for engineering and inventing. He decided to build a flying machine based on the one described in the first chapter of the book of Ezekiel. You know the one - the King James Bible describes its "four living creatures" and the "wheels within the wheels.” Legend has it that Cannon's creation actually flew in 1902. That's a full year before the Wright brothers historic flight. Interesting story. And another weird little Texas trivia fact - of which there are many.

Ezekiel was given a rare opportunity. In his vision he saw not only the "air ship", but in verse 26 we read, "High above on the throne was a figure like that of a man. I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire, and brilliant light surrounded him. Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. When I saw it, I fell facedown, and heard the voice of one speaking."

And so it appears that Ezekiel, like Moses and Isaiah before him, was given a "glimpse" of God. What a worship experience! But why did God give Ezekiel this experience? Was it to bless him? Was it to give him a warm, comforting feeling? Sometimes we evaluate our worship experiences that way, don't we? Were we blessed? Were we comforted? Were we pleased? But the Ezekiel airship story ends with God giving Ezekiel a command to service. The same was true after Moses saw God in Exodus 33. And the same was true when Isaiah (in chapter 6) saw the Lord "high and lifted up, seated upon a throne.”

We are saved to serve. And our worship experiences are intended to give glory to God and to give us inspiration and motivation to serve Him. When Ezekiel saw God he fell facedown. And when Isaiah saw God he said, "Here am I, Lord, send me."

Meet you back here tomorrow,
Bro. David
dmathis@fbccenter.org

January 25, 2024 - In our day and time, we have become obsessed with the consumer mentality. To be sure, it has permeated every aspect of our lives. We look for a restaurant with the best price, menu, atmosphere and location. We shop for clothes at a store that carries our size, has our taste in clothes and the best sales.

Sadly, many take this same attitude with them when it comes to church. We call it “church shopping”. If we have little kids, we look for a church with a great program for kids. If we don’t have kids, we look for a church that doesn’t have a “bunch of noisy kids” bothering us. We want the music to be enthusiastic but not too loud and it must have a proper mix of contemporary music mixed in with the old hymns. The preacher needs to be youthful but not too young and relevant but not trendy. Most of all, he needs to deliver a life changing message in less than 20 minutes. And know this, if anything stops meeting our expectations, we are off, “church shopping” again.

Yet, the church was never intended to serve the consumer mentality. You see, the church is not about serving us, it is about serving God and serving others. In the church, we are to be more focused on seeking the desperately lost rather than meeting the felt needs of the saved community.

It’s something to think about... tbp

Join Us for Worship this coming Lord’s Day at Center Church of Christ or online at www.centerchurchofchrist.com

January 22, 2024 - Good Morning! It's Monday, January 22.

Rain! Rain! Rain!

The sound of heavy rain woke me up before sunrise and the forecast is for a rainy week here in East Texas. We could see a half foot or more before all is said and done. But, as the old saying goes, "every cloud has a silver lining".

Silver lining #1 is that we could use the extra moisture. Silver lining #2 is that all this rain is coming just as the temps are climbing well above freezing. If this had happened early last week, we would have had an ice-catastrophe!

It's all about timing, and that's the subject of today's devotion - specifically, God's timing. The Bible promises us that God hears our prayers, but sometimes we doubt that promise when we feel our prayers go unanswered. Well, at least when we don't get the answers we want.

And so, we're reminded that God does answer prayer, but sometimes his answer is no. And many times, his answer is... wait. God's calendar, God's schedule, God's timing.

Psalm 27:14 - Wait for the Lord, be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.

Meet you back here tomorrow,
Bro. David
dmathis@fbccenter.org

January 19, 2024 - Smith Chapel B.C. will be celebrating their Pastor and Wife Appreciation Sunday, January 21 at 3pm.

Guest Speaker will be Pastor Carlos Johnson of Mt. Olive Baptist Church in Timpson.

Everyone is invited to attend.

Smith Chapel Baptist Church is located at 919 CR 4704, Timpson, Texas 75975.

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