Announcements
SYMPATHY: to Judy Hannah at the passing of her sister, June Keener, on Friday, September 24. Details for a memorial service are pending.
THANK YOU: A great big thank you to my church family and pastors for their texts, cards, and well wishes during my sickness and surgery. A special thank you to Pastor Holbrook for coming to the hospital to pray with me before surgery. In Christ’s love, Ezra Smith
PRAYING FOR OUR MILITARY: We would like to update our list of Military people that we put in the Wednesday prayer bulletin. If you have a family member or friend who is serving in the military and would like us to pray for them, please complete a form at the Welcome Desk.
From My Heart
In the church I pastored in Illinois, there was a fellow in his mid-70’s who would often show up to church on Sunday morning, wearing a suit and tie, or a sport coat and tie that he purchased for himself back 30-40 years earlier. I asked him if he had every suit he had ever purchased, and he proudly smiled and said he has kept them all through the years. He would argue that whatever style he was wearing that morning was certainly going to make a come-back!
There is no doubt our world recycles itself over and over! We look at our world today and we hear folks say, “I have never seen things as bad as they are today.” There have been many times throughout history where things were worse than they are today! It is clear from the Old Testament Scriptures that things seem to cycle and recycle over and over. Throughout time, there have been periods where people were lulled by Satan into a certain wicked mindset. Then, things would gradually change for the better - only to eventually swing back to a wicked view once again.
For instance, in Isaiah 59:14, we read that back in Isaiah’s day he said, “…truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.” That sounds like our country today, does it not? Today, truth has been muddied, shaded, and diluted by so many Leftist courts and politicians that it can certainly be said of our nation that truth has fallen in the streets.
The way to combat this is to uphold the truth and speak it every opportunity we get. The world needs to know what the Bible says, more today than at any other time in our nation’s history. Biden, Psaki, Pelosi, and Schumer will go before a microphone and tell the country a big whopper-jawed lie with a straight face, and the Press will never challenge them, and never fact-check their claims. They state something and it is reported as “FACT.”
The Apostle Paul told Timothy to, “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.” (2 Timothy 4:2). Our nation’s pastors need to continue to preach the truth even if it is not popular! Speak for the Lord with every opportunity we are given. Parents should also speak the truth to their children in the home. The best way to confront the lies of Satan is with God’s truth.
Maybe the Lord will send revival to America through this chaos our nation is facing. I would love to see revival…but if it does not come, we must keep the truth of God’s Word on our lips and in our hearts. The Lord Jesus said in John 8:32, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Free to live for the Lord. Truth sets us free so we can live for the Lord.
Have a great day and may the Lord bless you richly.
Pastor Norris