Evelyn Boyd (Shelton’s mother) will be leaving as soon as she can get a ticket to fly to Haiti. She is very concerned about the orphanage, the children that have been left orphans, the preachers and other Christians in Haiti and has not received news about them since the 7.0 earthquake that hit Haiti on Tuesday. She has made numerous trips to Haiti as a missionary and has been instrumental in building an orphanage, a school of preaching, spreading God’s Word to the Haitian people and much more. Most of the work she has been involved in has taken place on the north side of the country, but she does know alot of people in Port Au Prince. If you would like to help the main thing we can do is make monetary donations and send prayers up for the people there and Evelyn as she travels there and while she is in country. We will collect the money and have it available for her, after she gets there she will be able to see what is needed and how best to use the money. Please make your checks payable to the Church of Christ and write Haiti in the memo.
Order of Worship
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Sermon: Michael Bryan
Song Leader: Lou David Allen
Opening Prayers: AM-Mark Rogers PM-Scott Carey
Closing Prayers: AM-Billy Lucas PM-Kelly Woolard
Lord’s Table: Logan Cravens, Lane Boyd, Finley Barnett, Tim Walker, Rick Buczyna & Ray Juarez PM-Logan Cravens
Pick-up Cards: Tyler Jones & Jacob Toliver
Worship Helpers: Cody Buczyna & Jonathan Juarez
Nursing Home: Logan Cravens
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Devo: Lane Boyd
Song Leader: Joel Owens
Prayers: Opening-Kacey Toliver Closing-Tim Walker
Are You Faced With A Mountain?
An ancient Chinese parable tells of Old Tan Chang who had a small farm overshadowed by a towering mountain. One day he got the notion to get rid of the mountain. With the help of his wife and sons, he began to hack at the rock around its base. A neighbor walked by and scoffed, “You will never finish the job, old man! There are not enough days in the year for you to do this.”
But Tan replied confidently, “I am not as foolish as you think, my friend. I may be old and feeble, but after I am gone, my sons will continue to peck away at the mountain. Then their sons and their sons” sons will do the same. Since the mountain cannot grow, someday it will be level with the ground, and the sun will shine upon our land.”
As I read the Bible, I am reminded that God’s work often takes hundreds of years with each generation doing a little bit more until finally God’s work is completed. The Hebrew writer tells us (11:13) that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob all received promises from God, but those promises were not fulfilled in their generations. They “pecked away” at the mountain one stroke at a time, and later generati
ons received a multitude of blessings.
It is a reminder that we need in our “instant culture.” We have gotten used to instant coffee, instant messengers, and a multitude of other products all designed to help us receive what we want as quickly as possible. The result is that when we pray for God’s will to be done in our lives, we want it done within the next five minutes. There are great things to be achieved simply by laying groundwork that succeeding generations can build on.
It is a reminder that I need when I tackle a task that seems to be endless. Many days I have told myself that “the mountain cannot grow” and every chip I take out of the mountain makes it that much smaller, and in time, the mountain will be gone. I hope that if you are facing mountains in your life that this parable will serve as an encouragement to you as well.
I Cor. 15:58 “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” - TFTD
God bless you all and have a great week,
Michael
It’s A Boy
Derek & Janae Dye have a new son, Makai Derek Dye, was born Wednesday, January 6, at 11:46 a.m. He came in weighing 9 Lbs 8 oz and 20 ½ inches long. Jim & Dee Goldsmith are his grandparents.
Order of Worship
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Sermon: Michael Bryan
Song Leader: Joel Owens
Opening Prayers: AM- Jimmy Bellah PM- Shelton Boyd
Closing Prayers: AM-Billy Bob Toombs PM- Jason Myers
Lord’s Table: Jim Goldsmith, Billy Jones, Lane Boyd, Cody Buczyna, Jonathan Juarez, & Kelly Woolard PM- Jim Goldsmith
Pick-up Cards: Zach Owens & Tyler Jones
Worship Helpers: Russ Russell & Jansen Savage
Nursing Home: Logan Cravens
Wednesday, January
Devo: Dustin Simmons
Song Leader: Kacey Toliver
Prayers: Opening-Jerry Russell Closing-Michael Bryan
Seeing Past The Dots
Nobel Prize winner Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations, is retiring next month after more than 40 years service in the UN system.
In talking about the success he has experienced in his career, he relates some of it to this story from his early teenage years in a Methodist boarding school in Ghana.
One day our headmaster walked into the classroom and put up a broad sheet of paper with a small black dot in one corner.
“Boys,” he asked, “what do you see?”
All of us shouted in unison, “A black dot!”
Then he said, “So not a single one of you saw the large white sheet of paper? Don’t go through life with that attitude.”
Seeing Past The Dots:
Throughout the day we see these dots everywhere — in the system, in society, in the people we work with and the projects we’re trying to complete. If we’re not careful, we can become completely focused on the dots to the extent that we fail to see the big picture.
Red tape. Bureaucracy. Opposition. Criticism. Leaders who lack vision. Workers who lack initiative. Financial setbacks. These are dots; don’t let them prevent you from focusing on the good things that God has called you to do.
Peter reminded us in I Peter 1:6-7 “…now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith … may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
All kinds of trials, he says. These include the big problems and the little dots. We need to practice seeing past both, so we can focus on the big picture of God’s work in our lives. - Steve May
God bless you all and have a great week,
Michael
