Anna Church of Christ
104 Nile Street, Anna, Illinois 62906
833-5815
Website:
www.annachurchofchrist.com
Vol 22. Issue
29 July 20, 2008
Thoughts on Our Upcoming VBS
What Does Our Upcoming VBS Allow Us
as a Church to Do?
- It allows us to get
our name into the community in a positive way.
- It gives us the
opportunity to spread the gospel.
- It opens the doors for
setting up home Bible studies with those
we might not normally do so.
- It allows us to
provide a “safe haven” for children and adults from outside worldly influences
for five
evenings.
- It provides our
members with additional time for structured Bible study.
- It puts Christians
together to do more work for the Lord.
- It furnishes
opportunities for teacher training.
- It allows us some
extra time to fellowship one another and praise and honor God.
What Should I Be Doing
to Help Our VBS?
- Be present every
night.
- Be inviting people to
come.
- Participate in any way
you possibly can.
- Be a
Barnabas–encourage anyone and everyone.
- Pray for its success.
What Determines a
Successful VBS?
- Not large numbers, but
lives greatly improved.
- Not entertaining men,
but honoring God.
- Not men-pleasing
socializing, but properly studying God’s Word.
- Edd Sterchi (reprinted from the 8/5/01 Harrisburg church
bulletin)
Our VBS begins tonight. Let’s take the thoughts in this article
to heart and do all we can to make our Vacation Bible School a great success! – R.W.
SERMON TOPICS
A.M. – “In Name Only?”
(II Cor. 5:17-21)
P.M. – VBS at 7 p.m.
Those For Whom We Are
Praying:
Kathleen Ritchey
Loren Eddleman
Rosemary Dillow’s
mother & Son–in-law
Jerry & Betty Ward
Rodney & Nikki Lingle
Bill Whitnel
Sheilah Whittington
Paul Frailey – Carolyn’s father. Wardell Barnhart
Virginia McIntyre Carlos Wright – experiencing arthritic back pain.
Renee McAlister – Had outpatient surgery on her knee this past Thursday at 1 p.m. There was a tear in the cartilage on the inside of her right knee that was trimmed. No further work was required and the surgery went smoothly. Thanks for all your prayers.
Dustin Dillow – Suffered knee injury recently and will need surgery to repair torn ACL & meniscus.
Sara Wilkins’ father - Should have received biopsy results Friday.
Carl Rivers’ family – Brother Carl passed away this past Wednesday. He was 94.
Lowell
Karraker
Fred
Hillman – (Margaret’s brother) Has had stents installed and is doing better.
Dr. has found a growth in his throat and is treating it.
Wisdom From Proverbs: “Turn not to the right hand nor to the left:
remove thy foot from evil” (Prov. 4:27).
UPCOMING ACTIVITIES/ANNOUNCEMENTS
*We now have invitation letters to our services to mail out. If
you’d like to be a part of this, see R.W.
*Our VBS begins today and runs
through July 24th. Be sure to invite someone!
*Feel free to drop any Bible
questions in the Question & Answer box in the foyer.
*Men – Be sure to sign up for a
Wednesday night in July if you’d like to offer the invitation.
*Thanks to all who took part in the men’s prayer breakfast
yesterday.
*Food Pantry needs canned fruit.
Hearing assistance for any service is available upon
request.
BIBLE QUESTION/ANSWER:
Last week’s answer: Moses struck the rock twice (Num. 20:11).
New question: How many men did king Nebuchadnezzar see walking
in the fiery furnace? Who were they?
Quotable Quote: “Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal” – Henry Ford
Birthdays & Anniversaries
Thelma
Bell – 7/18
Jamie
Driskill – 7/21
Carlos
& Rose Wright – 7/23
Sentence
Sermon: The best sermons are often the ones
that make us the maddest.
A
Footnote on the Mary Winkler Case
Ann Rule has been writing about crime for the past
thirty-eight years. A former police officer, she teaches seminars to law
enforcement groups, including the FBI, and has
testified before U.S. Senate Judiciary Sub-committees. She has authored
numerous books, some two dozen of which have been on the New York Times best seller list. More than twenty million copies of
her books have been sold. Some of her volumes have dealt with high profile
cases, e.g. serial killers Ted Bundy and Randall Woodfield
(“The I-5 Killer”).
Mrs. Rule’s latest book is titled Smoke, Mirrors,
and Murder. Among the five cases
reviewed in this volume is that of Mary Winkler, the back-shooting minister’s
wife who murdered her husband on March 21, 2006. The discussion of the Winkler
case consumes 111 pages of the book.
A while back, as I could snatch the opportunity, I
read the “Mary Winkler” segment of Ann Rule’s book. Clearly Rule, along with
her Henderson, Tennessee-based research assistant, Beverly Morrison, did a
considerable amount of investigation, doubtless reviewing the trial transcript
and interviewing a number of people. She did a respectable job in presenting a
balanced survey of the facts of the case.
While Mrs. Rule concluded that Matthew Winkler was
controlling, and at least a verbally abusive husband—she conceded that the
actual evidence for such was very thin and totally undocumented. On the other
hand, she was tough on Mary. She argued that Mary alone was involved in the
check-kiting criminal scheme that put her family more than $5,000 in debt, and
that she “played dumb” on the witness stand.
She noted how the defense team groomed Mary to look
like a bedraggled, almost dense-looking victim, and that the court dramatics
were easily discernable. She acknowledged that it is perfectly permissible for
a defense team to pull any trick in the book in the attempt to get its client
off.
Rule did not believe that the murder was a
long-planned, premeditated act. For example, when Mary fled the murder scene,
she had made no provision for a protracted stay, taking only a pair of baby
socks for the infant. But neither did the celebrated author fall for the “I
snapped” defense.
Mrs. Rule suggested that two prime factors contributed
to the murder. First, there was Mary’s panic over the next-day’s impending
exposure of her fraudulent bank scam; second, there was her perception that her
daughters were in danger of Matthew’s alleged abuse.
She argued persuasively, however, that all factors
considered there was absolutely no justification for the cold-blooded murder of
Matthew Winkler—shot in the back, possibly while he was asleep.
Mrs. Rule also included a brief discussion of that incident
on New Year’s Eve when Mary was photographed in a bar with a beer, and holding
a cigarette. The man who snapped the picture with his cell phone camera
subsequently asked Mary: “Are you the preacher-killer?” Reportedly, Mary
laughed, and said: “Yeah. You
want to be next?”
This should be of great comfort to those who rushed to
the defense of the “my-ugly-came-out” murderess, assisting her in multiple ways
as she repeatedly perjured herself on the witness stand, and eventually escaped
justice.
In her bio-sketch in the back of the book, Mrs. Rule,
now 74, extended an invitation for reader responses to her books, and provided
her e-mail address.
Since she misrepresented the church of Christ in the
matter of divorce, stating that in the church, “divorce is not a choice,” (thus
in Mary’s mind killing him was her only solution), I pointed out, in a very
kind way, that she is mistaken about the divorce issue. I called attention to
Jesus’ allowance for divorce in the case of marital infidelity (Matthew 19:9), and
the fact that there are many divorced people within our churches who are not
ostracized merely because of a past divorce.
However,
I commended her for her research, balanced presentation, and her engaging
writing skill. I subsequently received a gracious note from Mrs. Rule
apologizing for her misrepresentation of the church on the matter of divorce.
She had written about the “divorce” matter based upon a fuzzy childhood memory,
rather than current research.
- Wayne Jackson
June 3, 2008 (via Christian Courier)