December 13, 2009
Sundays 7:00 am Channel 27 WKYT
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.


HYMN OF THE DAY
Glory to God on High!
Let earth to heav’n reply ….. Praise ye His name!
Angels His love adore
Who all our sorrows bore
And saints cry evermore, WORTHY THE LAMB!

All they around the throne
Cheerfully join in one ….. Praising His name!
We who have known his blood
Sealing our peace with God
Sound His dear name abroad, WORTHY THE LAMB!

Though we must change our place
Yet shall we never cease ….. Praising His name!
To Him our tribute bring
Hail Him our sovereign King
And without ceasing sing, WORTHY THE LAMB!

(Tune: “Come Thou Almighty King” p. 6)


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The Christmas party for the adults will be this Friday evening at 7:00 at the Hartland Clubhouse. Bring an appetizer or dessert. There will be a nursery provided here at the church beginning at 6:30. If you plan to use the nursery please sign up so the attendants will know how many to expect.


Birthdays
13th – Joey Borders 14th – Christie Small
16th – Cindy Farmer 19th – Amanda Carver


“Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the Lord pondereth the hearts.” - Proverbs 21:2
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE SLIP?
Have you ever slipped on ice? Before you hit the ground, you know you are in for a painful fall, and there is not one thing you can do to prevent it. Have you ever felt like you slipped and fell into sin? It happens so quickly, and you could feel yourself falling? Davis said, “When I said, my foot slippeth: thy mercy O Lord, held me up” (Psalm 94:18). What a blessing of grace. When the believer’s foot slips, we fall into the hands of mercy!


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When Isaac asked Jacob, “Art Thou my very son Esau?” Jacob lied and said, “I am.” This was an act of deceit. Jacob knew the only way he would get the blessing was if His Father saw him as Esau. But when the Father says to us, “Art Thou my very Son Christ?” – we do not lie when we say, “I am.” We are united to Him, so that who He is, we are. He said, “His name shall be in their foreheads.” This is the name wherewith she shall be called, the Lord our righteousness. The only name I feel any safety in answering to is His name. Truly, His name is our name!


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Understanding human responsibility is fundamental to an understanding of the Gospel. If I do not understand that my sin is my fault, not somebody else’s, I will never acknowledge my own personal guilt. If I do not acknowledge the guilt of my sin, I will never ask God for mercy, nor will I ever look to Christ to save me. While the Bible does not teach human ability, it does teach human responsibility.


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I have taken all my good deeds, and all my bad deeds, and cast them through each other in a heap before the Lord, and fled from both, and betaken myself to the Lord Jesus Christ, and in Him I have sweet peace. – David Dickson, Scotland (1789-1842), on his deathbed

CHANGED
“Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.” - I Corinthians 15:51
This word represents all that I want to be and am not now. I don’t want to be like I am anymore, do you? This is the final and ultimate sense of the word salvation. Christ has saved this sinner in every way that a man can be saved, and the only sense in which I still wait is this. It is already done as far as He is concerned, that is, it is accomplished fully, by what He did for me. “Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified.” (Romans 8:30)
He has known me from the time before there was time and set His affection upon me. He fixed in His sovereign, immutable purpose every aspect of my existence and experience from the beginning to the glorious end. He called me effectually out of darkness into His marvelous light. He established and imputed to me a perfect righteousness and paid for all my sin, making me spotless and pure in God’s sight. He secured my ultimate glorification and interceded for me to the end that I might be like Him and with Him forever (John 17:24), and now I wait, rejoicing in the possession of all this at His gracious will and expense.
Rejoicing and yet groaning (II Cor. 5:4). I love, in a sense, even this death that we call life. I am tremendously blessed of God and enjoy all things in and by Him, but there is in me that desire that Paul had, to depart and be with Him Who made me. I don’t want to be a selfish fool anymore. I don’t want to be so taken up with vanity and tire of that which is good and beautiful anymore. I don’t want to be so anxious to pamper this flesh and so cold and disinclined to worship Him Who is altogether lovely anymore. I don’t want to be despondent. We have so much about which to rejoice, but forgive me if at times my heart seems a little heavy. May we be content with the fact that we are where God wants us, until that blessed day in which we shall be changed.
- Pastor Chris Cunningham