From Velta Morris
Please add Dr. Derry Magee to the prayer list. Last Friday, December 31, he suffered a significant stroke and is in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at St. Joseph Medical Hospital in Bryan, Texas.
Also, I (Velta) would appreciate the prayers of those on the prayer link. I have some medical issues that need looking into. Pray that I will glorify God in all things.
I know you will want to pray for these two families.
“LORD my God, You have done many things–
Your wonderful works and Your plans for us;
none can compare with You.
If I were to report and speak [of them],
they are more than can be told.”
~Psalm 40:5, HCSB~
Joey Messina, a former student from Independence, requests prayer for his wife who will have her 8th brain surgery in 5 years. The surgery is today. Please begin praying and keep praying.
There is no obituary for Mrs. Jimmie Shaw yet. I’ll post one when it is available.
Prepare for a cold night. You may know someone who needs assistance staying warm. If so, do what you can.
Pray for travelers as many families will be returning home today.
Don’t forget the 2 P.M. prayer time to Jadon Pailet tomorrow in the parking lot of House on the Rock. Be there to support this family as they take Jadon for brain surgery in Detroit.
Thought for the Day: Adding water to the mudhole
A husband and wife were driving down a country lane on their way to visit some friends. They came to a muddy patch in the road and the car became bogged. After a few minutes of trying to get the car out by themselves, they saw a young farmer coming down the lane, driving a tractor. He stopped when he saw the couple in trouble and offered to pull the car out of the mud for $50.
The couple accepted and minutes later the car was free. The farmer turned to the husband and said, “You know, you’re the tenth car I’ve helped out of the mud today.” The husband looks around at the fields incredulously and asks the farmer, “When do you have time to plow your land? At night?”
“No,” the young farmer replied seriously, “Night is when I put the water in the hole.”
There are some people who are always available to help solve problems, and there are others who spend their time making life more difficult for others (and sometimes the same person can do both!). The New Testament is filled with warnings, though, about being a “stumbling block” to others, especially to children and young Christians.
“But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!” (Matthew 18:6-7)
May your day be filled with opportunities to help others in need. But don’t be adding any water to the mud hole!
Have a great day!
Alan Smith
We all know it would be a good deed to clear up a problem, but shouldn’t we confess that sometimes we have been guilty of “adding water to the mudhole”? Let’s try to be better.
Anna Lee
Mrs. Jimmie Shaw passed away last night. Arrangements are imcomplete, but will probably include a Tuesday service. I’ll post the obituary when it is available. Please pray for the family.
And so we shall all come together to that oneness in our faith
and in our knowledge of the Son of God;
we shall become mature people,
reaching to the very height of Christ’s full stature.”
~Ephesians 4:13 TEV~
Today is the 65th anniversary of the day Momma and Daddy got married. She wanted a big party. She celebrating in heaven while Daddy will be here with us for a traditional New Year’s meal. Pray for Daddy today.
I’m thanking God Carol New made it home after a successful knee surgery. Pray for her as she works to get that knee doing what she wants it to do.
FBC, Kentwood will have Sunday School and the morning worship service, but nothing tonight.
Thought for the Day: Failed resolutions
At the beginning of a New Year, a high school principal decided to post his teachers’ New Year’s resolutions on the bulletin board. As the teachers gathered around the bulletin board, a great commotion started. One of the teachers was complaining. “Why weren’t my resolutions posted?” She was throwing such a temper tantrum that the principal hurried to his office to see if he had overlooked her resolutions. Sure enough, he had mislaid them on his desk.
As he read her resolutions he was astounded. This teacher’s first resolution was not to let little things upset her in the New Year.
It has been said that “nothing is certain but death and taxes.” Perhaps we should add one more thing to that list of certainties — the breaking of New Year’s resolutions! Looking back on 2008, you may be one of the fortunate ones who accomplished exactly what you hoped to accomplish during the year. But, if you’re like most of us, you didn’t read all the way through the Bible like you intended to, you quit smoking but only for a while then picked up the habit again, or you lost a few pounds only to put them back on again when your diet failed. After experiencing this failure year after year, a person tends to say to himself, “What’s the use? Why even bother to try to make these changes?”
As an old Chinese proverb puts it, though, “Failure is not falling down. Failure is not getting back up.” Or as the Japanese put it, “Fall down seven times, get up eight.” If there are areas of your life that you’ve tried to improve and failed, let this this be the month that you try again. And if you fail this month, get up and try again next month. Learn from your mistakes and become stronger. God does not turn his back on the Christian who fails (if you question that, you need only look at the story of Peter’s denial of Christ). However, He cannot help the Christian who refuses to try any longer.
“Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hearts, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded….Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” (James 4:7-8,10)
If you have made a resolution to develop a habit that will bring you closer to God or a resolution to get rid of a habit that is pulling you away from God, may God bless you with the strength to accomplish your goal. And, if you should stumble on your journey, may He pick you up and dust you off so that you can continue on the long journey of becoming like Christ.
Have a great day!
Alan Smith
Have a great Lord’s Day and a great 2012!
Anna Lee
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