|
|
Nile
Street Notes
Anna Church of
Christ 104 Nile Street,
Anna, Illinois 62906 833-5815 |
Website: www.annachurchofchrist.com
Vol 23. Issue
44 Nov.
1, 2009
A
Successful Gospel Meeting Depends on You and Me!
It Depends On Our Attitude - Are we looking
forward to it? Do we realize its potential for good? Are we excited about the
cause of Christ?
It Depends On Our Attendance - Some meetings
fail because 50% of the members do not attend any service except Sunday and
Wednesday. Will we clear our schedules so we can be present at every service?
It Depends On Our Invitations - Regardless of
all the advertising done through printed announcements, the newspaper, radio,
etc., visitors will usually attend only if personally invited by a Christian
friend. How many do you plan to invite?
It Depends On Our Friendliness
-
Do our visitors feel welcome and wanted in our services? How many of us make a
special effort to greet visitors and invite them back?
It Depends On Our Participation
-
Nothing “kills” a service so effectively as a combination of back-seat sitting,
inattention during the services, and lackluster singing. How simple these
problems are to avoid! Will we?
It Depends On Our Prayers - Are we praying
for the preacher, the song leader, the lost, the delinquent, and the spiritual
growth of all who attend?
It Depends On Our
Encouragement -
A word of love and encouragement to one who needs to respond to heaven's
invitation means so much. Words of appreciation to those who work on behalf of
the meeting help to insure success. Yes, Christian friends, a successful gospel
meeting depends on us. Let’s do our part! - Selected
Our
gospel meeting begins today - let’s all do our part!
SERMON TOPICS
“Remember Thy Creator…”
“…In The Days Of Thy Youth” – 9:30 a.m.
“…Before The Difficult Days Come”
– 10:30 a.m. (Eccl. 12)
“…When
No One Else Remembers” – 6 p.m.
Jeremiah
Tatum speaking.
Those For Whom We Are Praying:
Kathleen Ritchey
Rodney & Nikki Lingle
Bill Whitnel
Mitchell Shock – Grandson of
Rosemary’s cousin.
Paul Etherton - Sara Wilkins' father. Cancer
in lymph nodes.
Tommy Schultz
– Heart trouble.
Wes Boie – Terminal cancer.
Bonnie Mangum
Jeannie Britt
- diagnosed with kidney cancer. Her address is:
212
West Ash Street, Cobden, IL 62920 if you'd like to send a card or letter.
Wisdom From Proverbs: “He that withholdeth
corn, the people shall curse him: but blessing shall be upon the head of him
that selleth it.” (Prov. 11:26).
Quotable Quote: “Yesterday's gone on down the river, and
you can't get it back.” – Larry
McMurty
Welcome! If you're visiting with us, we extend you a
special welcome and invite you to come back at every opportunity. If our
worship seems unusual to you, please let us know what you find different. We
endeavor to worship "in Spirit and in truth" (Jn. 4:24) and do only
what scripture authorizes (Col. 3:17, Deut. 4:2; Rev. 22:18-19).
UPCOMING
ACTIVITIES/MEETINGS
* Our Gospel Mtg. starts today 4 w/Jeremiah Tatum. Theme: “Remember Thy
Creator...” Please invite someone!
* Today is
Potluck Sunday.
* There are
still opportunities to have brother Tatum over
for/treat him to a meal. Please take advantage of them.
* Devotional
& hayride Nov. 6 at R.W. & Renee’s at 6 p.m.
* Ladies Day
Nov. 7 at West End Blvd. church of Christ in Cape Girardeau. Areva Chesser & Jenny
Newman speaking.
Please RSVP soon.
* Please
continue to drop any Bible questions in the Question & Answer box in the
foyer.
* Please
continue boycotting Pepsi & Frito-Lay products as they support the
homosexual agenda.
BIBLE QUESTION/ANSWER:
Last week’s
answer: Olive,
pine, myrtle, and palm (Neh. 8:15).
New question: What wood was used to build
the altar in the tabernacle?
Sentence Sermon: “.Exercise daily. Walk
with the Lord.”
Birthdays &Anniversaries
Nickolas Ward - 11/1
Remember Thy Creator…
“Remember now
thy creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the
years draw nigh when thou shalt say, I have no
pleasure in them” (Ecclesiastes 12:1).
Older people have a love for those who are younger. If you have any
doubts about that, just observe grandparents while they’re around their
grandchildren – that should remove all doubt! God loves the young, too.
This passage in Ecclesiastes is primarily directed toward those who are young
and is a challenge to every youth. It’s a plea for all young people to turn to
the Lord early in life. Let’s try to understand the main point of this Bible
passage.
Sometimes, the young never grow older. The young die, too, and
opportunity may be taken from them quickly. Death is no stranger to the
beautiful innocence of youth. I’ve seen the funeral of one young girl and it
impressed me so deeply how death comes to youth.
Disease, accidents: many things terminate life and opportunity is gone
forever. One of the devil’s most subtle and vicious lies is, “You have plenty
of time yet to obey the gospel!” and this lie is told to the young and the old
alike.
Delay makes obedience harder. Ecclesiastes 12 tells of evil days that
follow the days of youth. Evil has the power to harden the heart. Those that
were once tender become set and resistant even to the gospel. Waiting can cause
indifference and many things can occur in the course of a person’s life that
can turn attention away from the soul. I Peter 5:8 tells
us, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a
roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may
devour:” Satan is constantly begging the youth to postpone obedience
for he knows that delay gives him additional opportunities to deceive and
mislead.
We must ever keep before us the reality of the promise of the Lord’s
return. We don’t know when that’ll be. First Thessalonians 5:2 tells us
that the “…day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.” He
may come before a young person grows to maturity. Even the young ought to want
to meet Him prepared.
No matter what your age – young, or just young at heart – you need to be ready
to meet your Lord.
We welcome brother Tatum as he imparts to us several important,
powerful lessons from the Word of God regarding the timeless theme:
"Remember Thy Creator." It's my prayer that you will make every
effort to support this meeting with your presence and your interest and by
inviting others to attend as well.
- R.W.
Imagine what it would be like to try and hit
something you cannot see. If you have ever been to a birthday party and there
was a pinata or a "pin the tail on the
donkey" contest, you may remember how difficult some of that was
How about trying to bowl
strikes without being able to see the pins? Actually this is not as hard as you
think, because bowling lanes have markers and arrows that make it possible for
a person to aim at something other than the actual pins in order to have
success. In fact, in 1933, a man by the name of Bill Knox demonstrated this
fact. He had a screen placed just above the fowl line so that he could not see
any of the pins. He could not see most of the bowling lane, either. But Mr.
Knox used this method to bowl a perfect 300 game, 12 strikes in a row!
How did he do it? He used a
method called, "spot-bowling." This method simply suggests that a
person use a close marker on the lane just past the foul line. You just use the
same motion and hit that close mark every time. It makes perfect sense. If your
form is good, then easy targets will line you up for success
The
concept that produced "spot bowling" is an idea that really can work
for us in our daily Christian lives. We
often miss the mark when we place our spiritual targets too far away. We end up
feeling like miserable failures and our faith is weakened by how many times we
find the gutter. But if we will set reachable goals with nearby targets we will
hit them . This involves consistency in form and
confidence that God will help us to improve every time we do our best.
Stop looking so far down the
lane! Find a reachable spiritual goal and hit it! Hit it again, and again! You
will find that in attaining reachable goals, you will have the confidence to be
a stronger Christian than you ever thought possible
Being
a Christian is not as difficult as many people make it. It is not about your
perfection, it is about faith, obedience, determination, and executing the
simple plan of the One who will perfect all things for us.
"I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward
call of God in Christ
Jesus." (Phil.3:14) -
Jeremiah Tatum