Saturday, August 30, 2014

Update Sat. 30 August 2014

MINISTRY UPDATE - SAT 30 AUGUST 2014

GOOD MORNING!

ITS SATURDAY NIGHT:  http://youtu.be/3rAdn9pGTKI
A VIDEO MESSAGE:  http://youtu.be/9sLHYmFSSPM
PRAYER REQUESTS:
--PRAY FOR THE SERVICES THIS WEEKEND--Let's pray that the lost will find Christ, that all of us will draw closer to the Savior this weekend.
--MELISSA WILKERSON'S dear Grandmother passed away.  Let's hold this family up in our prayers.
--KEEP PRAYING FOR OUR SO SHINE 18TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION!  Revival September 16-21.  ANNIVERSARY SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21.
--CECELIA SPOTTED BEAR appreciates our prayers as her family mourns the loss of her grand daughter. I think funeral services are this weekend.  We are especially concerned that the grand daughter had spiritual need and remained unmoved during a recent revival.  
--DUSTIN DODSON'S GRANDFATHER DON RAINES is at DePaul Hospital
NEWS UPDATES:

--HAVE YOU BEEN BAPTIZED?
--SEMINARIANS WILL BE MEETING THIS SUNDAY AT 5:30 PM
--BE A "SO SHINE" HOME ... Find out details this Sunday!

--MEN of FAITH meets this Thursday 7pm.  

--We hope to paint this coming week.

--WE HOPE TAKE PLEDGES FOR CARPET SQUARES this week. We would love to replace the carpet in the Assembly Area in the lower level.


QUOTE:   "It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light..."  A O
YE ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. Matthew 5:12

 Excerpted from “A Model of Christian Charity,” 1630
John Winthrop (1588–1649), lawyer and leader of the 1630 migration of English Puritans to Massachusetts Bay Colony, delivered this famous lay sermon aboard the Arbella to settlers traveling to New England. Although it is possible to exaggerate the significance of this particular sermon, which remained unpublished for two centuries after Winthrop delivered it, it nonetheless provides a clear statement of the sense of special purpose that helped motivate the settlement of New England. The excerpt below comes from the end of the sermon, whose main theme was Christian charity. Winthrop began the sermon by noting the fact that: “GOD ALMIGHTY in his most holy and wise providence, has so disposed of the condition of mankind, as in all times some must be rich, some poor, some high and eminent in power and dignity; others mean and in submission.” The sermon thus began with an acceptance of social hierarchies. Non-standard spelling and punctuation have been modernized. —D. Voelker
It rests now to make some application of this discourse . . . .
1. For the persons. We are a company professing ourselves fellow members of Christ, in which respect only though we were absent from each other many miles, and had our employments as far distant, yet we ought to account ourselves knit together by this bond of love, and live in the exercise of it, if we would have comfort of our being in Christ. . . .
2nly for the work we have in hand. It [our task] is by a mutual consent, through a special overvaluing providence and a more than an ordinary approbation of the Churches of Christ, to seek out a place of cohabitation . . . under a due form of Government both civil and ecclesiastical. In such cases as this, the care of the public must oversway all private respects, by which, not only conscience, but mere civil policy, does bind us. For it is a true rule that particular Estates cannot subsist in the ruin of the public.
3ly The end is to improve our lives to do more service to the Lord; the comfort and increase of the body of Christ, whereof we are members; that ourselves and posterity may be the better preserved from the common corruptions of this evil world, to serve the Lord and work out our Salvation under the power and purity of his holy ordinances.
4thly for the means whereby this must be effected. They are twofold, a conformity with the work and end we aim at. These we see are extraordinary, therefore we must not content ourselves with usual ordinary means. Whatsoever we did, or ought to have done, when we lived in England, the same must we do, and more also, where we go. That which the most in their churches maintain as truth in profession only, we must bring into familiar and constant practice; as in this duty of love, we must love brotherly without dissimulation, we must love one another with a pure heart fervently. We must bear one another’s burdens. We must not look only on our own things, but also on the things of our brethren. Neither must we think that the Lord will bear with such failings at our hands as he does from those among whom we have lived. . . . When God gives a special commission he looks to have it strictly observed in every article. . .   Thus stands the cause between God and us. We are entered into Covenant with Him for this work. We have taken out a commission. The Lord has given us leave to draw our own articles.
. . . If the Lord shall please to hear us, and bring us in peace to the place we desire, then has he ratified this covenant and sealed our Commission, and will expect a strict performance of the articles contained in it; but if we shall neglect the observation of these articles which are the ends we have propounded, and, dissembling with our God, shall fall to embrace this present world and prosecute our carnal intentions, seeking great things for ourselves and our posterity, the Lord will surely break out in wrath against us; be revenged of such a perjured people and make us know the price of the breach of such a covenant.
Now the only way to avoid this shipwreck, and to provide for our posterity, is to follow the counsel of Micah, to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God. For this end, we must be knit together in this work as one man. We must entertain each other in brotherly affection. We must be willing to abridge ourselves of our superfluities, for the supply of other’s necessities. We must uphold a familiar commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience and liberality. We must delight in each other; make other’s conditions our own; rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, as members of the same body. . . . The Lord will be our God, and delight to dwell among us, as his own people, and will command a blessing upon us in all our ways, so that we shall see much more of his wisdom, power, goodness and truth, than formerly we have been acquainted with. We shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies; when he shall make us a praise and glory that men shall say of succeeding plantations, “the Lord make it like that of New England.” For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world. We shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of God . . . .
Discussion Questions:
  1. What goals did Winthrop state for the Massachusetts settlement in the first few paragraphs above?
  2. What kind of relationship did Winthrop want Massachusetts to have with God, and how were his listeners to honor that relationship?
  3. What did Winthrop mean when he said that New England would be “as a city upon a hill”?
  4. What implications might Winthrop’s vision have for liberty in Massachusetts society? 
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Thursday, August 28, 2014

MINISTRY UPDATE - FRIDAY 29 AUGUST 2014

GOOD MORNING!
 
A VIDEO MESSAGE:  http://youtu.be/9sLHYmFSSPM
 
PRAYER REQUESTS:
 
--PRAY FOR THE SERVICES THIS WEEKEND--Let's pray that the lost will find Christ, that all of us will draw closer to the Savior this weekend.
 
--MELISSA WILKERSON'S dear Grandmother passed away yesterday.  Let's hold this family up in our prayers.
 
--KEEP PRAYING FOR OUR SO SHINE 18TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION!  Revival September 16-21.  ANNIVERSARY SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21.
 
--CECELIA SPOTTED BEAR appreciates our prayers as her family mourns the loss of her grand daughter.
 
--DUSTIN DODSON'S GRANDFATHER DON RAINES is at DePaul Hospital
 
NEWS UPDATES:
 
--TEEN NIGHT WILL START EARLIER THIS EVENING...WE WOULD LIKE TO START AT 6PM as the Pastor has to drive to Upland, Indiana for a meeting of the VICTORY INNER CITY MISSION board on Saturday Morning. 
 
--BUS ROUTE CALLERS WILL MEET FOR PRAYER AT 10AM SATURDAY 
 
--SEMINARIANS WILL BE MEETING THIS SUNDAY AT 5:30 PM
 
--BE A "SO SHINE" HOME ... Find out details this Sunday!
 
QUOTE:  "Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light."
Helen Keller
 
YE ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. Matthew 5:12
 
Jesus gives the Christian both a great compliment and a great responsibility when He says that we are the light of the world, because He claimed that title for Himself as He walked this earth (John 8:12 and John 9:5).   Adam Clarke
 
WE ARE LIGHT GIVERS. Jesus means that we are not only light-receivers, but also light-givers. We must have a greater concern than only ourselves, and we cannot live only to ourselves; we must have someone to shine to, and do so lovingly.
 
Jesus never challenged us to become salt or light. He simply said that we are - and we are either fulfilling or failing that given responsibility.
 
AS LIGHT GIVERS WE ARE TO GIVE DISCTINCTION. A key thought in both the pictures of salt and light is distinction. Salt is needed because the world is rotting and decaying, and if our Christianity is also rotting and decaying, it won't be any good. Light is needed because the world is in darkness, and if our Christianity imitates the darkness, we have nothing to show the world. To be effective we must seek and display the Christian distinctive. We can never affect the world for Jesus by becoming like the world. (Commentary)
IF WE ARE "DIM LITS" THE WORLD SUFFERS  "Poor world, poor world, it is dark, and gropes in midnight, and it cannot get light except it receives it through us!...To be the light of the world surrounds life with the most stupendous responsibilities, and so invests it with the most solemn dignity. Hear this, ye humble men and women, ye who have made no figure in society, ye are the light of the world. If ye burn dimly, dim is the world's light, and dense its darkness." (Spurgeon)
 
 
I've been trying to squeeze more and more information into my Daily Scripture Texts and FaceBook Text Postings, and that seems to be hard to manage.  So today I'm adding the link to our blog so that I can add PRAYER REQUESTS, NEWS UPDATES, and a few COMMENTS.  Let me know if this is a good idea.
 
 
 
 

 

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

FAST FACTS - WEDNESDAY 27 AUGUST 2014

Good Morning!
 
I've been trying to squeeze more and more information into my Daily Scripture Texts and FaceBook Text Postings, and that seems to be hard to manage.  So today I'm adding the link to our blog so that I can add PRAYER REQUESTS, NEWS UPDATES, and a few COMMENTS.  Let me know if this is a good idea.
 
PRAYER REQUESTS:
--KEEP PRAYING FOR OUR SO SHINE 18TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION!  Revival September 16-21.  ANNIVERSARY SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21.
 
--Received word this morning that CECELIA SPOTTED BEAR'S Grand-daughter was killed in a tragic car accident yesterday. The grand-daughter's son is still in critical condition.  CECELIA lives on a reservation in South Dakota not far from Mt. Rushmore.  She spoke at FCC at our Holiness Convention several years ago.
 
--NATASHA PARMLEY was in the Emergency Room last evening but test results were very assuring. Thank the Lord for His help.
 
--DUSTIN DODSON'S GRANDFATHER DON RAINES is at DePaul Hospital
 
--LET'S KEEP THE ELDERLY IN OUR PRAYERS during this hot weather.
 
NEWS UPDATES:
--EVERYONE is invited to stop by the Parsonage for Cheeseburgers and Hotdogs before church at 6:00p.m. Please text Pastor Rick (314) 607 1424 if you are coming and how many are with you.  I will not have enough food if I don't hear from you.  :)
--TONIGHT the ANNUAL MEETING for FCC will take place during the service at 7:00 p.m.
--TEEN NIGHT WILL START EARLIER ON FRIDAY...WE WOULD LIKE TO START AT 6PM as the Pastor has to drive to Upland, Indiana for a meeting of the VICTORY INNER CITY MISSION board on Saturday Morning. 
--LABOR DAY WEEKEND IS THIS WEEK!  Hope you're planning to come!
 
QUOTE:
“If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
 
 
THREE CHEERS FOR THE CHRISTIANS!
 
BE OF GOOD CHEER YOUR SINS ARE FORGIVEN!  Matthew 9:2  And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.
 
BE OF GOOD CHEER YOUR SAVIOR IS WITH YOU!  Mark 6:49-51  But when they saw him walking upon the sea, they supposed it had been a spirit, and cried out:  For they all saw him, and were troubled. And immediately he talked with them, and saith unto them, Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid. And he went up unto them into the ship; and the wind ceased: and they were sore amazed in themselves beyond measure, and wondered.
BE OF GOOD CHEER GOD WILL KEEP HIS WORD!  Acts 27:2  Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me. 






 

Friday, August 15, 2014

LESSONS FROM FERGUSON MISSOURI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssT6JR_g8MM&list=UUpUmxduWvxlTv1C-2JA4xtw

Friday, August 8, 2014

AUGUST 2014 - CONNECTION

http://fccstlouis.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/2014-AUG-FCC-UPDATE.pdf