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Contributing Writers: David Mathis | Tim Perkins
Past Contributing Writers: Mike Mills, Spring Hill Church | Doug Fincher | Pastor Randy and Sue Smith | Mike Belgard
Faith
May 15, 2024 - St. John Baptist Church hosting it annual Pastor and Wife Appreciation for Rev. Winston Kibbles Sr. and 1st Lady Terri Kibbles on Sunday, June 2, 2024 at 2:30pm. Special guest is Rev. Ronderick Kirkendoll, Sr. from St. Luke Baptist Church of Logansport, LA.
You are invited to worship with us!
St. John Baptist Church is located at 2308 CR 2050, Center, Texas 75935.
May 14, 2024 - House of Refuge Apostolic Ministries is hosting Soul Saving Conference 2024 at 7pm nightly, May 15-May 17.
Speakers are:
Wednesday, May 15 - Ionnia Hubbard
Thursday, May 16 - Sis. Stephanie Hicks
Friday, May 17 - Evangelist Zorona Skinner
There will be local vendors and more. Everyone is invited by the Conference host Lady Pearl Nash.
House of Refuge Apostolic Ministries is located at 215 Church Street, Center, TX 75935.
May 13, 2024 - Good Morning! It's Monday, May 13.
On May 13, 1767, the composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, wrote his first opera. He was eleven years old. He began writing music at the age of four. At four, I was learning to tie my shoes. When he was eight, Mozart finished his first symphony. I was doing a serious study of Saturday morning cartoons.
We mere mortals can't hope to accomplish what geniuses do. But we, like young Mozart, can make a start. You've heard the old saying, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step". And I'm reminded of the famous speech President John F. Kennedy gave at his inauguration in January 1961. After listing a series of lofty goals, he famously said, "All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even, perhaps, in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.
Is there something that God wants you to begin? Maybe He's leading you to reach out to mend a broken relationship. Perhaps He's placed it in your heart to start a daily quiet time of Bible study and prayer. Maybe there's a particular ministry that He's pointing you towards. Whatever it is, there's no time like the present.
Let us begin.
Meet you back here tomorrow,
Bro. David
dmathis@fbccenter.org
May 13, 2024 - “After that he poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.” John 13:5 (Please read verses following verse 5)
Moving back to East Texas in 1990 fulfilled a fifty year dream that meant….along with other things…that we’d live near Mother again. Our living only 18 miles from her in San Augustine, Texas made it easy to make frequent visits with her in Center. We talked every day on the phone and when she called us, she’d always ask, “Are your beans burning?”
As Pam and I were visiting with her one day, her eyes suddenly welled up with tears as she quietly said, “Hen Doug, I’ve been thinking….I was often too hard on you as you were growing up.” “Would you take off your shoes and let me wash your feet”. I didn’t let her wash my feet but I embraced her and told her how much I loved her.
We’ve passed Mother’s house many times since she passed away in 1999. I always envision seeing her raking and burning leaves in her yard and begin thinking how wonderful it would be to talk to her again. And I know what I’d say: “My dear Mother….Thank you for all your love and care for us.” “I’m so sorry I was hard on you at times as I was growing up.” ”Please let me take off your shoes….
….. and let me wash your feet”.
May 9, 2024 - To forgive is one of the greatest expressions of the human spirit. To be sure, it is a God-given capability. Certainly, Alexander Pope was not engaged in the idle use of words when he wrote, “to err is human, to forgive, divine.”
Have you ever thought of the difference forgiveness made in the lives of those who came in contact with Jesus? One moment the thief on the cross was without hope. The next moment he was full of hope of eternal life. When the woman was brought to Jesus who had been caught in adultery, Jesus told her, “neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more.” Forgiveness made a tremendous difference in the life of Peter. He had denied the Lord with cursing and oaths. Joy left his heart and he wept bitterly. Then, one morning after the resurrection Jesus forgave him by the sea shore. The joy returned to Peter’s life and he became the great preacher of Pentecost.
Forgiveness is one of the most tender and beautiful words in our language. Yet, forgiveness is not something that comes easy. However, think of all the things that forgiveness can accomplish. Forgiveness restores broken relationships. Resentment, ill-will, anger and hatred are all cast out. Happiness, peace and love come in to abide in our lives. To heal the wounds of friendship, bind up the spirit of the broken-hearted and transform hatred and indifference into attachment and love – is this not the spirit of Christ? Forgiveness does, indeed, make a difference.
It’s something to think about... tbp
Join Us for Worship this coming Lord’s Day at Center Church of Christ or online at www.centerchurchofchrist.com.
May 8, 2024 - A community candle light prayer service for Kutter Milford and his family is this evening, May 8 at 6pm at Roughrider Stadium in Center. Kutter Milford was in a car accident at the end of April and is in the hospital fighting to recover.
He is a 2020 graduate of Center High School and is engaged to Roxie Taylor.
May 8, 2024 - Open Door Baptist Worship Center is hosting the 2024 Youth Revival “Slaying Giants” from May 13 through May 15, 2024 at 7pm nightly.
Guest speakers are:
- Monday night - Pastor Anthony Jackson, Bright Morning Star BC
- Tuesday night - Min. Cameron Cloudy, Abundant Love Ministries
- Wednesday night - Pastor Johnny Jones, Pleasant Grove BC
The church is located at 900 Cotton Ford Road, Center, Texas 75935.
May 6, 2024 - St. John Baptist Church and Pastor Winston Kibbles are hosting their Annual Usher Program at 2pm on Sunday, May 19, 2024. The program’s theme is “Take a Stand” from Psalms 84:10.
Guest speaker is Pastor Anthony Jackson from Bright Morning Star Baptist Church.
The church is located at 2308 Co Rd 2050, Center, Texas 75935.
"He sent redemption unto his people: he hath commanded his covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his name." Psalms 111:9
May 6, 2024 - J.W. and I were students at ETBC in Marshall, Texas back in the fifties. We had several things in common: We were both ministerial students, drove '55 Fords, were both English majors, and were both student pastors.
One Sunday he invited me to visit with him at his church in Weaver, Texas, (a small town in northeast Texas.) The building resembled many of the country churches of that time… a small sanctuary with two Sunday School rooms. As he walked me through the building, I called out, "'J', what is the seating capacity of the building?" He immediately grabbed me by the arm, pulled me to the side and whispered, "Doug, don't call me 'J.' Call me Rev. Baker… I want the people to respect me here." And since members were now arriving, I choked down my rebuttal for the time being.
As we drove home, I asked if he knew that Billy Graham never liked being called Reverend. "When Reverend" appears in the Bible," I said… "It is referring to God… not man. People respect us by what we are," I insisted.
I haven't seen J.W. since we graduated from ETBC in the summer of '58. I heard he married a girl named Patricia that he called "the world's sweetest girl."
J. W. Baker was a good man and I have no doubt that he was respected wherever he went…
Even by those who called him 'J.'
May 6, 2024 - Good Morning! It's Monday, May 6.
Mother's Day is this Sunday, and this morning we begin a five-part series on mothers of the Bible. Our first character is one that the Bible says very little about. She's only mentioned a few times, and during a part of her story she isn't even referred to by name. But we know her name. It was Jochebed, and she was the mother of Moses.
By the time Moses was born, the Israelites had been in Egypt for over 400 years. The memory of Joseph, who had saved Egypt from famine, had faded. In Exodus 1:8 we read these unsettling words, "and there came a Pharaoh who did not know". That Pharaoh, distrusting the Jewish people and seeing them as a threat, made a chilling decree that all Hebrew boy babies should be killed. It was a decree that would be echoed 15 centuries later, when King Herod, fearing the Christ child, had all the male infants in Bethlehem put to death. Jochebed hid Moses for the first three months of his life, and then she came up with a remarkable plan.
Every morning, the daughter of Pharaoh would come to the Nile to bathe. On one such morning, Jochebed put Moses in a basket and placed it in the river. The Egyptian princess saw the child and had her attendants rescue it. Cue Miriam! - the sister of Moses - who approached and offered that she "knew" of a Hebrew woman who could nurse the child - for a price. And so Jochebed was paid by Pharaoh to care for her own son. But she had a price to pay, too. When the baby was weaned, he would move to the palace and be raised as a child of the king.
Jochebed was a mother who showed great faith and trust. When she laid that baby in a basket, she did not know that her son would grow to become a leader of his people, a leader who would free them from slavery. She also had a characteristic that we see in every godly mother - she was selfless. Jochebed put the needs of her child above her own. A beautiful story. A story of love and sacrifice. A story that would be echoed 15 centuries later . . . in Bethlehem.
Meet you back here tomorrow,
Bro. David
dmathis@fbccenter.org
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