Announcements
SYMPATHY: to the family and friends of Lewey King, who passed away on Thursday, February 1. Arrangements are pending.
SYMPATHY: to the family and friends of Nanette Hagan, who passed away on Tuesday, January 23. A memorial service will be held at Church of the Open Door on Wednesday, February 21, in Rooms 417/418. Visitation will begin at 10:00 a.m. and the service will start at 11:00 a.m.
SYMPATHY: to Kathleen Shillingburg at the passing of her husband, Lawrence Shillingburg, on Saturday, January 27. The funeral was held on Thursday, February 1, in WV.
THANK YOU: I want to thank God for seeing me thru another surgery and for the prayers and cards from my church family. It is comforting to know that prayers are being offered on my behalf when facing emergency surgery. Thanks to Pastor Holbrook for his visits and prayers before and after surgery. God has been so good. Griff Manahan
THANK YOU: I want to express my heartfelt thanks to Pastor Rick, the Royal Blue Class, and our church family for your incredible support during my hospitalization and recovery from a fall. Your care and compassion have made a significant difference in making the challenging journey to recovery more bearable. I am grateful to the Lord for His healing, your prayers, and thoughtful cards that have been a source of strength. Your kindness has been an invaluable part of my healing process. Evelyn Clemons (Philippians 4:13)
LIVING CROSS: If you are interested in participating in this year’s production entitled, "The Resurrection and the Life," you can sign up at the Welcome Desk or register online through the Church Website. Please see Pastor Jung if you have any questions.
From My Heart
Christ
By: Dr. Shelton Smith
When so many things have gone wrong in the world, it is easy to get wrapped up in those pressing urgencies and fail to address the primary message of the Faith. Addressing issues exclusively while failing to preach Christ is the sidetrack Satan so strategically provides. It is not our light that the world comprehended not – it is Jesus!
(John 1:5)
Many belief systems and religions of various kinds compete for the souls of men today. Other religions preach the precepts of some humanitarian philosophy, but Christianity is centered upon a Person, the Messiah of God, God’s only begotten Son, the Son of God Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. More than a teacher! Greater than a
philosopher or a political leader! Not just a good man, but He is God, the true and living God, the Creator of the world, and the Saviour whose salvation saves sinners from perishing while taking them with Him to Heaven. Jesus pleaded, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me” (Matthew 11:28, 29).
In striving with false religion and in confronting lost men everywhere, we triumphantly declare: He is the One who makes the difference. We can’t talk too much about Jesus to others, and so we can never learn enough about Him ourselves.
Sermons that are centered upon Him have a special value. The hymn writer Philip Bliss wrote, “The whole world was lost in the darkness of sin. The light of the world is Jesus.”
Satan’s work has ever been to blind “the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (II Corinthians 4:4). The divine solution, given in the next verse, is: “We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord.” The result (vs. 6) is that God will “give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
When a light invades a dark place, it is always the darkness that flees. The great advances of the church have always come when she charged the darkness with the Light of the World – Jesus (John 8:12).
Take His light into battle with a dark world and share it with
someone who needs to find Christ!