On the Lord’s Day:
9:15 am — Sunday school classes for all ages: Classes for graded age groups meet to learn from the Scriptures. To see Sunday school classes, ages and meeting locations, click on the red “Ministries” button under the category “Pages” (to the right).
10:30 am — In preparation for corporate worship, begin praying now for God’s Word to be delivered in spirit and in truth during the morning worship service. We’ll continue our study in the wonderful epistle of Jude.
Our offerings for Child Evangelism Fellowship summer missionaries continues! We’ve collected $1,845 of our $4,200 goal. Please make this a matter of prayer and action as we conclude our special offering this week.
Special Note: The Council of Elders will meet this afternoon at 2:00 pm. Please pray for these men to lead us in right doctrine and right action.
During the Week:
- Monday: Elim’s Softball team takes to Diamond # 2 at 6:00 pm!
- Tuesday: Our Ten-thirty Tuesdays study continues next week with a chronological view of the Old Testament: from eternity past to Abel’s murder! We meet at 10:30 am in the Fireside Room.
- Thursday: Our Thursday Night Toolkit Old Testament survey Bible study continues with the first of a 2-part survey of Psalms, meeting at 6:30 pm in the sanctuary.
Upcoming and Ongoing:
- Summertime gives us so many opportunities for great times together. Coming up is our 4th of July picnic at Ingersoll Centennial Park. Bring your blanket or lawn chair, a game and a side dish to share. Meet there starting at 4:30 for the food and the games. Then stay for the fireworks! Sub sandwiches will be provided for $3 per person but you MUST RSVP to the church office by July 1st to be included in the sandwich!
- Serving the Savior in singleness and senior times is a special blessing. All senior singles are invited to come together to rejoice in this blessing and to “spur one another on to love and good deeds” at a luncheon after the morning service on July 12th, hosted by the deaconesses.
- Our missionaries in Europe are in the United States for a period of time, and they’ll be our guests for a fun ice cream social on Thursday, July 16th. This event will begin at 6:30 and is sure to be a blessing for all ages as we visit with them, hear about their plans, and encourage them with our love and prayers.
- More volunteers are needed for on our own in-house mission field—Children’s Church! These little ones need to hear about God’s love and salvation. Won’t you tell them by being part of our rotation of volunteers? See the church office for details.
From the Pastor’s Recent Reading:
Christmas Evans, the great Welsh preacher, riding horseback one Saturday afternoon on his way to preach, was “convicted of a cold heart.” He tethered his horse and spent hours in the woods in prayer until his heart was thawed out “like the breaking up of a hard winter.” He had “got over it,” but, unlike some of us, he found it out. A preacher had better stop in his tracks if he finds himself moving from the apostolic to the mechanistic stage; he had better do something radical then and there. He had better drop everything and get into the woods with his Bible and read until he has a new Bible and pray until he has a new prayer, and come back a new man with a new message. A lot of churches think they need a new preacher when they simply need the same preacher renewed. Many a preacher thinks he needs a new pastorate when he needs to be renewed in the same pastorate. Robertson of Brighton wanted to resign from the ministry, but God impressed him that what he needed was to have his commission re-signed.
Not every preacher loses out because he went into false doctrine or had a moral breakdown. Some leave their first love in a round of church duties. Perhaps more leave it that way than in any other, for it is so deceptive: they are not aware of getting over it. They work at it harder than ever, but the harder they work, the farther they get from the thing they started out to do. The church at Ephesus was not having bingo instead of prayer-meetings. They were a fundamental, hard-working crowd, getting farther away all the time from the thing that mattered most, their love for Christ. We seem to think that the very momentum of Christian activity will keep us in spiritual trim, but it carries us away from what we started out to do and be. We Christian workers sometimes assume that just because we are in the midst of spiritual labours all the time, that will keep us warm for Christ. But nothing is more dangerous, for familiarity with the things of God, if it does not breed contempt, may breed complacency. We get over it.
—Vance Havner in “Jesus Only”
Posted on June 26th, 2009 by Janet
Filed under: This Week @ Elim