December 21, 2008
Sunday 10:00am WLEX TV Channel 18

It is requested that all children under the age of five stay in our nursery
so there will be no distractions during the preaching of the Gospel.

Compared with Christ, in all beside
No comliness I see
The one thing needful, dearest Lord
Is to be one with Thee.

The sense of Thy redeeming love
Into my soul convey
Thyself bestow, for Thee alone
My All-in-all, I pray.

Less than Thyself will not suffice
My comfort to restore
More than Thyself I can not crave
And Thou cans’t give no more.

Loved of my God, for Him again,
With love intense I’d burn
Chosen of Thee ere time began
I’d choose Thee in return.

(Tune: “Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove” p.158)


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Thank you all so very much for your generous gift to Lynn and I. We are blessed and encouraged by your love and kindness. May each of you have a Merry Christmas and may the Lord bless us in the New Year to come.

No Wednesday service this week.

We will have a New Year’s Eve service next Wednesday night beginning at 7:00pm. Paul Mahan, Pastor of the Central Grace Church in Rocky Mount, Virginia will preach for us and we will observe the Lord’s Table. We will order pizza and eat together afterwards. If you would like to bring something, we will need drinks and desserts.

Birthdays
21st – Erik Charron 25th – Paul E. Daniel 25th – Joyce McSherry
26th – Sherry Borders 26th – Jacob Murphy 26th – Paul Walmsley

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“He that hath knowledge spareth his words: and a man of understanding is of an excellent (cool) spirit. Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.” – Proverbs 17:27-28


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THE IMPORTANCE OF SELF DENIAL
“If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself” (Matthew 16:24). If there is no self denial and personal sacrifice in my religion, it is because it is really not important to me. Men like a convenient religion - one that does not require much of an imposition on their time or finances. The Sunday morning sermon will suffice. A Sunday evening or mid-week service is too much. Giving of our surplus, after all our needs and pleasures20are met is fine. But giving sacrificially, so as to have to deny myself in order to give is taking it too far.
I repeat, if there is no self denial or personal sacrifice in my religion, it is only because it is really not important to me. And I will find out that my religion was not important to God either!



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“You have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine.” This was the charge bought against the early church. Before there was internet, before there was radio or T.V., before there was a printing press, they filled Jerusalem with their doctrine. By their preaching and witnessing, empowered by the Holy Spirit, the entire city of Jerusalem was filled with the doctrine of Christ! Oh, that that might be said of the cities in which we live. Through our preaching and witnessing, empowered by the Holy Spirit, the city in which we live being fi lled with our doctrine, the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

A FULL-TIME ADVOCATE
“My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” - I John 2:1
This Scripture encourages the believer to trust and hope in the mercy of God AT ALL TIMES! It does not say, “If any man is holy, prayerful, and always faithful, he has an advocate”; but it says, ‘If any man SIN, he has an advocate with the Father.” It does not say, “If any man sins, he forfeits his right to Christ’s advocacy.” Grace that can be forfeited because of human failure is not grace at all. Mercy that is conditioned upon the merit of the creature is not mercy at all. If my title to glory rests upon my works, either BEFORE OR AFTER conversion, it is a total failure. This scripture declares that at all times, under all circumstances, Jesus Christ is our righteousness, our sanctification, our advocate, and our redemption. So when I sin, when I consider my past or present and come creeping to my closet with a guilty conscience and an aching heart, I can rejoice in the mercy of my Father; for I have an advocate – JESUS CHRIST THE RIGHTEOUS!
- Pastor Henry Mahan


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AUGUSTUS TOPLADY ON FREE-WILL
A man’s free-will cannot cure him even of a toothache or a sore finger, and yet he madly thinks it is in his power to cure his soul of sin. Actually, the greatest judgment which God Himself can in this present life inflict upon a man is to lea ve that man in the hand of HIS OWN BOASTING FREE-WILL! Look where you will, and you will generally find that free-willers are not free-givers nor are they free-forgivers, but are very free-livers!

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I will go as far as Martin Luther, where he says, “If any man ascribes anything of salvation, even the very least thing, to the free will of man, he knows nothing of grace, and he has not learned Jesus Christ ri ghtly.” – C. H. Spurgeon