|
The Country Baptist Church Newsletter October 05, 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:
Reflectors of the Lord’s Beauty "As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness"Psalm 17:15 The portion of other men fills their bodies and enriches their children, but the portion of the believer is of another sort. Men of the world have their treasure in this world, but men of the world to come look higher and further. Our possession is twofold. We have God's presence here and His likeness hereafter. Here we behold the face of the LORD in righteousness, for we are justified in Christ Jesus. Oh, the joy of beholding the face of a reconciled God! The glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ yields us heaven below, and it will be to us the heaven of heaven above. But seeing does not end it: we are to be changed into that which we gaze upon. We shall sleep a while and then wake up to find ourselves as mirrors which reflect the beauties of our LORD. Faith sees God with a transforming look. The heart receives the image of Jesus into its own depths, till the character of Jesus is imprinted on the soul. This is satisfaction. To see God and to be like Him- what more can I desire? David's assured confidence is here by the Holy Ghost made to be the Lord’s promise. I believe it. I expect it. LORD, vouchsafe it. Amen. |
| A Thought For The
Week: THE EMPTY GRAVE The sublime tragedy of Calvary has been finished. Jesus has died on the cross for the sins of men. But we are not now in search of the Cross. Where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new sepulcher, wherein was never man yet laid. The first garden became the grave of man’s glory. There sin entered into the world and death by sin. The cedars and roses and lilies of Eden witnessed the moral entombment of the first Adam. But in this garden there may be found the new life through the second Adam, the Lord from Heaven. The grave is empty! The Lord said: "How that He must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders, and be raised again the third day." But, if Jesus left His grave empty, He did not leave Himself without witness. "He showed Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs," etc. He was with them "forty days." What opportunities they had of knowing that it was "the same Jesus" who "died and rose again." From this empty grave of Jesus there springs the Gospel of immortality. Coming to Jesus is coming to immortality. Eternal life is not in me; it is the gift of God through Jesus Christ. It is a pearl of great price, which we are to seek. It is a golden door at which we are to knock. As the flowers wait for the spring, and the yellow corn waits for he summer, and the stars wait for the morning, and as Lazarus waited in sweet silence for the voice of Jesus to awake him out of sleep, so do the blessed dead wait for the resurrection. Our friends, then, are not lost to us, although we buried them out of our sight; no, they are safe, restful, bright, immortal, in the Paradise of God. The fact that Jesus was laid in the midst of a garden, in the midst of tender grass, and flowers, and herbs, and trees, and birds, should teach us something as to the burial of the dead. Let this be to us a place of penitence, of faith in our risen Lord, of much praise and fervent prayer. "Come, see the place where the Lord lay," and muse on the greatness of His love, the purity of His life, the atonement for sin made by His death, and the immorality secured by His resurrection. Are you serving and waiting for Jesus? Do you answer---no? Alas, my friend, alas, for thy soul---thy future lot. No cross---no crown; no Christ---no Heaven. Come to the Lord Jesus, and you shall go home saying: "The Lord hath
risen indeed, and hath appeared unto me." May that glorious vision be
ours. |
| NUGGETS FOUND HERE
AND THERE
"Why come to Christ? Because of WHO HE IS–the eternal Son of God. Because of WHAT HE HAS DONE–He died on the cross for sinners. Because of WHERE HE IS NOW–at the right hand of the Father interceding for sinners. Because in Him there is HOPE, HELP, REST, SALVATION for sinners." "I have heard that beggars help one another. When one finds a house willing to help him with a good meal or a hand-out, he passes the word a long to others in need and they go there seeking help. Is this not a good description of Christian witnessing? One beggar telling another beggar where he can find food?" "The believer is a mystery to others and to himself, also. He is sanctified, yet he feels himself to be the chief of sinners. He loves God's law, yet he wrestles with an inward desire to have his own way. He has great sorrow and heaviness of heart over others, yet he rejoices in the Lord always. His spirit longs to be with Christ, yet his flesh clings to the earth. He knows that he is secure in Christ, yet he examines his faith continually." "I thought to prepare myself for great things only to learn that it was the rough voice in the wilderness He planned to use and not the polished preacher. It was the weak, impulsive shepherd with the sling that He planned to use and not the mighty warrior with his armor of wit and arsenal of facts, doctrines, and learning. If we don't pour contempt on ourselves, GOD WILL!" Author Unknown |