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The Country Baptist Church Newsletter
1 Mile south of Interstate 30 on HWY 19
September 07, 2008
Pastor: Bro. Harace Hammond Pastor E-Mail: cbcpastor@toast.net
Web Site: www.countrybaptist.org
"The Voice Of The Country Church" |
You Were Asked To Pray For:
Larry Platt, Bro. Archie & Barbara Griffin, Waylon & Pat Abercrombie with their daughter and son, Randy & Donna Johnson, Loyce Smith, Junior Potts, Roberta Bruce and family, Barbara Fails, Jim & Linda Meier, Dina and The Boys, Troy Wiler, Bro. Sergey Mochalov and the Churches in Russia, Kathy Rosinbaum, Don & Wynell Hammond, Brenda Galusha, Baby Tucker Walker, Helen Stone, Bro. & Mrs. Pinson, Leta Ellis, Chet Reagan, Sidney Strawn, Amanda Tomlin, Brother Keith & Susie Kennison, Helen Rowe, Kimberlee McCool, Brother David and Anne Shortt, Jewell Mathis, Justin Horne, Janette Sims; Richard Swan, Jean and Cheryl, Letha Langford, David Ellis and family, Beatrice and Virgil Young, Gwen Davis, Allison Rodgers Clay, Angela Hutson, Tiffany and Shannon Lemmon, Bob Ellis, Elaine Woodall, Reese Carrington, Jack Whittle, Ronda Douglass, Nancy, Rosa Tomlen, Pastor and Sister Hammond, Katie Fitch and Stephaine, Sarah Dooherty, and all of our Troops and their Families. |
| A Thought From C. H. Spurgeon:
Out of Spiritual Death
"And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up out of your graves" Ezekiel 37:13
Indeed it must be so: those who receive life from the dead are sure to recognize the hand of the LORD in such a resurrection. This is the greatest and most remarkable of all changes that a man can undergo -- to be brought out of the grave of spiritual death and made to rejoice in the light and liberty of spiritual life. None could work this but the living God, the LORD and giver of life.
Ah, me! How well do I remember when I was lying in the valley full of dry bones, as dry as any of them! Blessed was the day when free and sovereign grace sent the man of God to prophesy upon me! Glory be to God for the stirring which that word of faith caused among the dry bones. More blessed still was that heavenly breath from the four winds which made me live! Now know I the quickening Spirit of the ever-living Jehovah. Truly Jehovah is the living God, for He made me live. My new life even in its pinings and sorrowings is clear proof to me that the LORD can kill and make alive. He is the only God. He is all that is great, gracious, and glorious, and my quickened soul adores Him as the great I AM. All glory be unto His sacred name! As long as I live I will praise Him.
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| A Thought For The Week: THE SCHOOL OF GRACE
"He opened their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures" Luke 24:45
Our Lord not only opens the scriptures, He also opens our UNDERSTANDING. In opening the scriptures, He has many workers; but in opening the understanding, HE IS ALONE. Many preachers can bring the scriptures to our minds, but only our Lord can open the mind to receive and believe the scriptures. Other teachers can reach the ears; only Christ instructs the heart. Others deal with externals; He imparts a LOVE for truth.
How many people of profound learning are quite ignorant of eternal things! But the most uneducated often become skilled scholars in the school of grace when our Lord unfolds the mysteries of His kingdom. Natural men have a veil over heart, ears, and eyes, and cannot understand the way of the Lord.
We were that way! We who now see were totally blind. Truth was to us as beauty in the darkness-UNKNOWN and UNNOTICED! But our Lord, through His Holy Spirit, taught us in the only place where God's truth can be learned--in the school of grace at the feet of our Lord. Other schools can teach men WHAT to believe, but only Christ can show us HOW to believe and enable us to believe. "And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, THAT WE MAY KNOW HIM THAT IS TRUE, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life" (I John 5:20).
Author Unknown (Copied) |
Happy Birthday:
Nathan Fails September 11th |
| Please Note: Due to the Bible Conference next weekend in Texarkana there will not be a newsletter next week. |
| THE LITTLE FLOCK
"Fear not, little flock; it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." —Luke 12:32
The music of the Shepherd's voice again! Another comforting "word," and how tender! His flock, a little flock, a feeble flock, a fearful flock, but a beloved flock, loved of the Father, enjoying His "good pleasure," and soon to be a glorified flock, safe in the fold, secure within the kingdom! How does He quiet their fears and misgivings? As they stand panting on the bleak mountain side, He points His crook upwards to the bright and shining gates of glory, and says, "It is your Father's good pleasure to give you these!" What gentle words! what a blessed consummation! Gracious Savior, Your gentleness has made me great!
That kingdom is the believer's by irreversible and inalienable charter-right—"I appoint unto you" (by covenant), says Jesus in another place, "a kingdom, as my Father has appointed unto me." It is as sure as everlasting love and almighty power can make it. Satan, the great foe of the kingdom, may be injecting foul misgivings, and doubts, and fears as to your security; but he cannot divest you of your purchased immunities. He must first pluck the crown from the 'brow upon the throne', before he can weaken or impair this sure word of promise. If "it pleased the Lord" to bruise the Shepherd, it will surely please Him to make happy the purchased flock. If He "smote" His "Fellow" when the sheep were scattered, surely it will rejoice Him, for the Shepherd's sake, "to turn His hand upon the little ones."
Believers, think of this! "It is your Father's good pleasure." The Good Shepherd, in leading you across the intervening mountains, shows you signals and memorials of paternal grace studding all the way. He may "lead you about" in your way there. He led the children of Israel of old out of Egypt to their promised kingdom—how! By forty years' wilderness-discipline and privations. But trust Him; dishonor Him not with guilty doubts and fears. Look not back on your dark, stumbling paths, nor within on your fitful and vacillating heart; but forwards to the land that is far off. How earnestly God desires your salvation! What a heaping together of similar tender "words" with that which is here addressed to us! The Gospel seems like a palace full of opened windows, from each of which He issues an invitation, declaring that He has no pleasure in our death—but rather that we would turn and live!
Let the melody of the Shepherd's voice fall gently on your ear—"It is your Father's good pleasure." I have given you, He seems to say, the best proof that it is mine. In order to purchase that kingdom, I died for you! But it is also His: "As a shepherd seeks out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered, so," says God, "will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day." Fear not, then, little flock! Though yours for a while should be the bleak mountain and sterile wasteland, seeking your way Zionward, it may be "with torn fleeces and bleeding feet;" for,
"It is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish."
By John MacDuff |
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