Stirrings at Bethesda
A Weekly Publication of
Bethesda Baptist Church
October 27, 2014
Upcoming Activities
1. NO Academy Monday
2. Bible Study & Prayer Meeting, Wednesday, 7:00 p.m.
3. Men’s Breakfast & Book Study, Saturday, 8 a.m.
4. Sunday School, Sunday, 9:15 a.m.
5. Worship Service, Sunday, 10:30 a.m.
6. Discipleship Training, Sunday, 5 p.m.
Daylight Savings Time…
ENDS on Sunday morning! Remember to set your clocks BACK one hour on Saturday evening before going to bed.
Operation Christmas Child
Operation Christmas Child is underway! You may help in several ways.
1. Pray
2. Pack a box or two.
3. Donate gifts for the packing party.
4. Give financially to help with the postage.
5. Be at the packing party and help pack some boxes.
We close out our role in Operation Christmas Child with a Packing Party on Monday, November 17 beginning at 6:30pm in Fellowship Hall.
Congratulations!
Happy Birthday to Dan who turns another year wiser on Tuesday!
Church Council
Our final Church Council meeting is this Saturday, November 1, at 9 a.m. The Council is primarily a scheduling body and we have several items to place on the church calendar.
If you are a council member and will not be present, please find someone to represent you at the meeting this Saturday.
Men’s Breakfast & Book Study
Men, bring your breakfast and join us at 8am on Saturday. We’ll spend 15-20 minutes sharing with one another and then resume our study of the book Holiness by J. C. Ryle. Even if you missed all of our previous sessions, you are more than welcome to join us.
Missouri Baptist Convention
Every year, delegates from the various Southern Baptist churches in Missouri meet to conduct business related to all Missouri Baptists. This year the convention is meeting at Tan-Tar-A in the Ozarks. David and Christy Diamond were elected by our church at the last business meeting to represent us there. Please keep them in your prayers as they express our church’s conscience at the meetings this week. The convention meets Monday through Wednesday.
If there be granted for you to trust in your own righteousness, then all that Christ did to purchase salvation, and all that God did to prepare the way for salvation, is in vain.
Jonathan Edwards
The Bethesda Academy
We will not meet tonight (October 27) but will resume next Monday evening in Revelation 20. Our final Fall session will be on Monday, November 10. I’m open to any suggestions for a topic to cover next Spring. If you have something you would like us to examine, please let me know soon.
God did not look at Abraham and say, ‘Abe, you have a lot of faith. Therefore, I am going to make you righteous.’ Faith is the means, the instrument by which God declares us to be just. It does not cause God to save us.
It was on October 31, 1517 (497 years ago) that Martin Luther, a German monk, posted his 95 protests against the Roman Catholic Church practice of indulgences on the Castle Church door in Wittenberg. This “nailing of the 95 theses” ignited what became known as the Protestant Reformation (protests against the church in an effort to reform her). I believe it is almost impossible to overstate the impact of this movement in the history of the Western World including our our nation. The 19th century essayist, editor, and novelist Charles Dudley Warner wrote, “The United States, Great Britain … are to-day what they are largely because of the life of Martin Luther.”
Pastor’s Postscript
Thank you, everyone, for yesterday’s breakfast and the cards and gifts. You are a very kind and very generous people and I am blessed (and honored) to be your pastor. A special thank you to Karla for organizing the breakfast and picking up the food.
May Christ bless you for such kindness and grant you a wonderful week.