January 4, 2009
Sunday 10:00am WLEX TV Channel 18
It20is 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.
HYMN OF THE DAY
In Thy name, O Lord, assembling
We, Thy people, now draw near
Teach us to rejoice with trembling
Speak and let thy servants hear.
Saviour, follow with Thy blessings
Truth delivered in Thy name
Thus the Word, Thy pow’r possessing
Shalt declare from whence it came.
Let Thy Word be food to nourish
Those whom Thou hast made Thine own
Let Thy people’s graces flourish
And the glory Thine alone!
God of our salvation, hear us
Bless, O bless us ere we go
When we join the world, be near us
Keep us safe from ev’ry foe.
(Tune: “Jesus Calls Us”- p.374)
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Birthdays
5th – Mike Mohr 6th – Nathaniel Sligh 7th – Henry Lynn
8th – Nancy Benton 8th - Rachel Harries 8th - Tom Schuyler
9th – Emily Bryan 9th – Renee Culver 10th – Cali Warta
“Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much increase is by the strength
of the ox.” - Proverb 14:4
A NEW YEAR’S PURSUIT
“Follow after charity” (I Corinthians 14:1). The word follow means
to pursue, as one would a calling. This is better than a New Year’s
resolution. This is something to eagerly pursue this year and every day of
our lives. Charity. Pursue a love to God that makes sin truly loathsome to
me because it is against Him. A love to God that makes unbelief intolerable
because it is a failure to trust Him who is altogether trustworthy. Pursue
a charity towards my brother in Christ that makes me see him as God sees him,
without fault! A love that is filled with mercy and kindness. A love that
puts my brother before myself. A love toward all men, that causes me to do
all that I can towards their salvation. May God give us grace to make this
our pursuit for the New Year….“Follow after charity.”
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“Our Lord Is Above All gods” - Psalm 135:5
Our God is God!....Creator, Owner, Judge, Despot, Our Lord is Lord….Lord
of lords, reigning, ruling, controlling, directing all things! No one lets
our God be God…No, No!....this is their god, who is no God. Our God
is God! – Always has been, always shall be… “I am that I
am.” No one makes our Lord to be Lord….No, No!... “God hath
made Jesus Christ to be Lord!” “All power is given unto Him in
Heaven and earth” (Matt. 28:18). You see…. “Our Lord is
above ALL gods.” How so? The next verse says, “Whatsoever the
Lord pleased, that did He in Heaven and in earth…..”
Pity the poor people whose god is not God; who pray unto a god that cannot
save. Oh but, “Blessed are the people whose God is THE LORD.”
- Pastor Paul Mahan
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TWO RELIGIONS
There are really only two religions in the world. One of Cain and the other
of Abel. One is Ishmael and the other of Isaac. One of Esau and the other
of Jacob. One of law and the other of promise. One of Mount Sinai and the
other of Mount Calvary. One condemns, the other finds no fault. One leads
to bondage, the other to freedom. One tendeth to death, the other to life.
One of weakness, the other of power. One of merit, the other of mercy. One
of the weakness of the letter, the other of the power of the Spirit. –
Pastor Tom Harding
There is no attribute more comforting to His children than that of God’s
sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe trials,
they believe that sovereignty has ordained their afflictions, that sovereignty
over-rules them, and that sovereignty will sanctify them all. There is nothing
for which the children ought more earnestly to contend than the doctrine of
their Master over all creation, the kingship of God over all the works of
His own hands, the throne of God and His right to sit upon that throne. On
the other hand, there is no doctrine more hated by worldlings, no truth of
which they have made such a football as the great, stupendous, but yet most
certain doctrine of the sovereignty of the infinite Jehovah. Men will allow
Him to be in His workshop to fashion worlds and make stars. They will allow
Him to be in His almonry to dispense His alms and bestow His bounties. They
will allow Him to sustain the earth and bear up the pillars thereof, or light
the lamps of heaven, or rule the waves of the ever-moving ocean; but when
God ascends His throne, His creatures gnash their teeth. And we proclaim an
enthroned God and His right to do as He wills with His own, to dispose of
His creatures as He thinks well, without consulting them in the matter; then
it is that men turn a deaf ear to us, for God on His throne is not the God
they love. But it is God upon the throne that we love to preach. It is God
upon His throne whom we trust. – C. H. Spurgeon
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The most humbling and challenging thing that I face…the great concern
of my heart…is that my generation experience a return to the preaching
of the Gospel of God’s grace. This generation is plagued with a gospel
of works and are strangers to the gospel of redemption. I want a return to
the message that takes away all of the glory and dignity of the flesh and
proclaims the redemptive glory of Christ. The results of this message will
be a sense of the awesome holiness of God, the inability and sinfulness of
the flesh, and the total sufficiency of the Person and work of Christ. Perhaps
once again we will hear men and women cry…..
“Depths of mercy can there be, mercy still reserved for me? Can my God
His wrath forbear, and me, the chief of sinners, spare?”
- Pastor Henry Mahan