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Family News and Notes

The Ladies Monthly Devotional will be on Sunday afternoon, February 08, at 4:30 PM. Ann Pickrel will be teaching. All ladies are invited to attend.

Today is a day set aside for the purpose of contributing to the Building Fund. If you are able and have made plans you may do so today. Thank you.

Visitation Team No. 3 meets this morning following services. If you are on this team please try to attend.

There are 3 books in the cabinet in the Teacher Workroom / Library. They are patterns and suggestions for bulletin boards, etc. You may copy them but please do not take the books permanently from the room or remove the patterns. Thank you.

In Last Week's BIBLE QUIZ in the

High School division

3rd Place Devon Phillips

2nd Place Ben McCain

1st Place Jon McCain

Adults 2nd Place David McCain

Address changes:

Bob & Rhonda Hedges

3673 CR 4550

Mount Pleasant, TX 75455

Jimmy Jay Fox

778 CR 1465

Mount Pleasant, TX 75455

Jeannie Jaggers

868 CR 1030

Mount Pleasant, TX 75455

Delany Upchurch of Dallas, 13-month-old girl, and friend of Ola Mae Simpson, has lung problems. The family, and Ola Mae, have asked that we place her on our prayer list.

Sister Winell Blackard and her daughter, Diane Johnson, were involved in an auto accident last week. Winell is in Room 321B at Titus Regional Medical Center. Her daughter, Diane, is in East Texas Medical Center in Tyler.

Sister Janelle Stephenson passed away on January 25, 2004 at Titus Regional Medical Center. Bates-Cooper Funeral Home conducted her funeral on January 29 with burial at Nevill's Chapel Cemetery.

Next month's Bible Quiz will be Tuesday, February 24th. The Topic will be I Peter. Review sheets are on the table in the foyer.

THANK YOU "Your cards, calls, prayers and visits are greatly appreciated. Your concerns for me have shown true Christian love. Words could never express what you mean to me. Thank you so much. Each of you is special to me. I love you dearly."

In Christian love, Irene Duncan

THANK YOU "Dear Christian friends at North Jefferson: The family of Phyllis Moon acknowledges with grateful appreciation the kind expression of your sympathy. Thank you for all the prayers and kind deeds shown for our mother. We say a great big Thank you to Miss Faye for calling mother everyday for years. She was a great friend to her. It was a phone call but a wonderful deed. The Ladies Bible Class always remembered her with cards and baskets of goodies. Thank you. Thank you for giving to the Building Fund." In Christian love,

Barbra Blackard

THANK YOU "With sincere appreciation the family of Wayne Bradley wishes to express our appreciation for all that was done for us. The food and flowers were greatly appreciated. The singers did a wonderful job. A special thank you to Brother Weldon Miller for the lovely eulogy."

Meryl and Gene Riley & Children

BIRTHDAYS FOR FEBRUARY: (At least these are the ones that have been furnished this Editor.)

1 Rachel Barker 2 Alva Mae Sheets

3 Kensi Proctor 7 Brenda Harkrider

8 Staci Cook 10 Louis Bell

8 Terri Lee 19 Winell Blackard

20 Vernon Garrett

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PRAYER LIST

Justin Barker, Louis Bell, Nona Bell, Winell Blackard,

Howard Horton, Corine Hudson, Winnie Patton, Alva Mae Sheets,

Ola Mae Simpson

ALSO: Judy Betts, Diane Johnson, Velma Lucky, Kelsey Meyers, Delaney Upchurch

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Is Your Love Authentic Or Artificial?

By David McCain

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing" (I Cor. 13:1-3).

Love! It is the essential element, emotion, attitude, and motivation of Christianity. Without true love, our lives are worthless and empty, and all of our spiritual gifts and sacrifices are vain. But, the external signs of love can be feigned or faked, and men can sometimes be fooled by a hypocritical façade of love. However, God can't be fooled.

Look at the picture Paul paints. In the context of I Corinthians 13, Paul describes a "Christian" who possesses great spiritual power. Not only that, we observe them giving of themselves to others in sacrificial ways, and we know they would willingly die for Christ, because we've heard them say so! From all the external evidence, we would judge them "faithful," but God knows their heart, and pronounces a different judgment - empty, profitless, and vain.

The difference between the two judgments is LOVE, genuine, heartfelt, agape "LOVE!" The kind of love that says I have your best interest at heart, even though you may not appreciate it. The kind of love that will cause me to do what's best for you, even if it hurts. The kind of love that wants no other reward for sharing it, than to see your soul lifted out of the miry depths of sin, guilt, depression, heartache, sadness, and slavery to Satan, so you can begin traveling the road to glory! Oh, it's so very easy for one to say he loves God, his brethren, his neighbor, his fellowman, the lost, and even his enemies; but saying it is one thing, really doing it is quite another. There are preachers, elders, and members who preach, order, and demand a cheap love, which means never confronting sin, never disagreeing with their opinions, and never ever saying anything of a negative nature by way of reproof or rebuke. There are those who go to great lengths to prove they are more loving than others. You'll find them doing high visibility things to receive the praise of men, so that their egos can be stroked, thus reassuring them of their tremendous love for others. They have their reward (Mt. 6:2, 5, 16).

You may fool most of the people all of the time, but you can't fool God even some of the time, and you won't fool those who have really studied the Word, because it tells us what love really is, in I Corinthians 13:4-8. It is "long-suffering" or patient, it is "kind," it's "not envious" or jealous. It "vaunteth not itself," in other words it doesn't toot its own horn. It is "not puffed up," or is not proud, arrogant, or full of wind. Love does "not behave itself unseemly," or does not act unbecomingly. It does "not seek its own," or is not self-seeking. Genuine love is "not easily provoked," because it understands that a violent temper is the sign of a loveless heart. It "thinketh no evil," which means it forgives and forgets, and lets God worry about retribution. Love "rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;" meaning it does not laugh about sin, but rather takes pleasure in hearing and seeing the Gospel proclaimed and practiced. Finally, love "beareth all things," or takes life as it comes without complaint, seeking only to bear the other's burden and so fulfill the law of Christ (Gal. 6:1-2).

I s your love genuine or counterfeit? God knows! Does the fire of your love need rekindling? If so why not return to your first love through repentance and renewed faithfulness. Why not do so today!

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God on a Shelf

by Lee Moses

The great sin of the nations surrounding the Israelites, which became the demise of the Israelites themselves, was idolatry. How foolish a notion it is, that one would fashion an idol from his own imagination, believing that such a thing could function as God! Consider the words of God recorded by the prophet Isaiah:

Who hath formed a god, or molten a graven image that is profitable for nothing? . . . The carpenter stretcheth out his rule; he marketh it out with a line; he fitteth it with planes, and he marketh it out with the compass, and maketh it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man; that it may remain in the house. He heweth him down cedars, and taketh the cypress and the oak, which he strengtheneth for himself among the trees of the forest: he planteth an ash, and the rain doth nourish it. Then shall it be for a man to burn: for he will take thereof, and warm himself; yea, he kindleth it, and baketh bread; yea, he maketh a god, and worshippeth it; he maketh it a graven image, and falleth down thereto. He burneth part thereof in the fire; with part thereof he eateth flesh; he roasteth roast, and is satisfied: yea, he warmeth himself, and saith, Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire: And the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his graven image: he falleth down unto it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me; for thou art my god. . . . And none considereth in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burned part of it in the fire; yea, also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof; I have roasted flesh, and eaten it: and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? shall I fall down to the stock of a tree? (44:10,13-19).

God, though all-knowing, is portrayed almost as confounded as to why any would worship an idol that very obviously was not the one true God. People had made "gods" that they could worship when they desired, and when they were done, they could then place their god upon a shelf (possibly a shelf made from the same tree from which the god was made). Could they not see that there could never be efficacy in a manmade idol?

However, sometimes people blind themselves to the truth when the truth is not equal to what they personally desire. Contrariwise, those who follow the Lord make their own desires conform to His, having an appreciation for all of His magnificent qualities. David, glad for the constantly abiding presence of the Lord, offered the following words of praise to Him: "Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, thou art there" (Psalm 139:7-8, ASV). The apostle Paul wrote, "Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God" (Romans 11:22). Unfortunately, most people do not want a God that is constantly abiding with them. They do not want a God that will judge them, that has a severe side. People want a god that is there for them when they want it, yet unobtrusive when they do not. People like the idea of a god that they can simply put on a shelf when they are done with it.

gods can be put on a shelf, but God cannot. Who made whom in Whose image? (Gen. 1:26-27). Who rules the universe? (Psalm 89:11; 103:19). Man's will must conform to God's. If you notice that the God you serve has been spending a lot of time on the shelf latelyif you disregard His word, speak irreverently at times, set an improper example for others, or miss services of the Lord's church for convenience's sakemaybe it isn't God that you are serving at all, but merely your god that you have created.

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