Warsaw Christian Church
For it is by grace, you have been saved, through faith…
-Ephesians 2:8
I recently read an article on entitlement and decided to return to a familiar verse. There are things we are entitled to possess. If you pay for a car or a home, you are entitled to use them for your benefit. If you buy a show ticket in Branson, you are entitled to watch the show.
Are we entitled to possess salvation? Does God owe us His blessings? The answer is an emphatic NO! Are we entitled to live a trouble-free life, free from tornados and cancer? What does God owe us? The only thing we are entitled to from God is an eternity in hell. That is what we have earned. That is what we deserve. Salvation is by grace. Grace is God giving to us what we don’t deserve. He sent His Son to redeem us. He did this by taking the penalty to which we are entitled. When we trust in Jesus, we enter into the grace of God. God forgives us and grants us eternal life. Do we deserve it? NO! It is a gift from the grace of God given to the unworthy.
Yes, we are entitled to many things, but salvation is not one of them. Therefore, never think that God owes you anything. Instead, receive His grace with gratitude.
Lincoln First Baptist Church
Hello everyone. It was a good day to be in the Lord’s house. The ladies Sunday school class is studying the book of Genesis. Dana keeps the little ones on track with different lessons from the Bible. Bro. Jesse leads the youth class. Come and join in and learn more about Jesus and what He can do for you. The last two weeks we have had a large group for worship. We are glad to see some younger faces and some children in church with us. Bro. Jesse preached at the Lincoln Care Center this Sunday.
We will be going through a series from Daniel. Today’s message was from Daniel 1. He told us the difference between the word God and god. God with a capital letter is talking about our God in Heaven. A little god is just a god of people who worship idols. Daniel renamed Belteshazzar, Hananiah renamed Shadrach, Mishael renamed Meshach and Azariah renamed Abednego was taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar in Jerusalem along with other young people. He had killed their parents and wanted to mold these young people into what he wanted them to be the educated people as they seen them. Daniel defied the king by not wanting to eat of the kings table. Daniel stayed true to who his God was. He wasn’t willing to compromise his beliefs. God gave these young men their gifts.
What do you rely on? Turn it over to God. He will take care of His business then He will take care of yours. We have a choice of what we do. They were there to serve the king but their first service was to God. God has to call people to Him. Do you serve God? Don’t be willing to compromise yourself. Don’t do things that defile yourself.
GOD BLESS AND WE’LL SEE YOU NEXT WEEK. FIND A CHURCH TO WORSHIP THE LORD.
Unity Of The Lakes
This Sunday 2/11/24 Rev. Don Rogers will be at Unity of the Lakes. This year he will be speaking on the Gospel Miracles. He would like to know the one you would like to know more about. This week he will speak about the resurrection of Lazarus found in John 11:1-44. We will read the scripture, find its metaphysical meanings and how it relates to our life today. As we do this we find ourselves in the scriptures. This will be a fun and informative service that is certain to help us on our spiritual path. Service is 11 am, dress is casual and all are welcome. Please come for the service and stay for refreshments and fellowship. We are located 8 miles south of Warsaw on highway 65. Our physical address is 34948 Hwy. 65 South. Follow us on Facebook.
From The Pastor's Desk
The Preacher
Preach the Word, be instant in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.
-2 Timothy 4:2
Needless to say, these are my personal opinions that I have formed over the years. So to preachers, I say the following:
1. Get a suit. Preachers on social media look like they are going fishing or going on a date; certainly not to preach. There is nothing casual about standing before a congregation behind a pulpit to preach God's Word.
2. You are a pastor or a preacher and not a doctor. Pastor is the Biblical term. Doctor is a worldly term.You are not a medical doctor. Then again, you dress like the world so I suppose you need the world's terms and you need the crowd to make you think you are successful. So you dress like the world and you sing like the world.
3. Don't proselyte and tell your people not to proselyte.There are a lot of unchurched people out there.
4. Stop looking down on pastors with small churches. Some of the best pastors I know are in churches with under 50 members.
5. Stop changing the name of the church to fit the world. Yeah, you change it to get more people. I get that, but come on.
6. Preach the Word. Your stories and illustrations are nice but you leave the people with nothing to hang the message on later on.
7. Be a pastor. Visit your people. Pray with them. Let them know you care about them.
8. If you see another pastor out and about, take a moment to chat with him. You can talk about things that others can't relate to like you can. Iron sharpen iron.
9. Don't snub the people who leave your church. If you see them, be kind and friendly.
10. You are a pastor 24/7. Enough said.
I am Johnie J. Logue pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Warsaw, MO, and I am not exempt from any of the previous statements.
Hopewell Baptist Church
In Matthew 14:1-14 John tells Herod it’s not ok to steal your brother’s wife and he needs to be held accountable. Herod wants to kill John but is concerned about how the people will react, so he puts John in prison.
On Herod’s birthday, his stepdaughter dances and he is pleased and promises with an oath to give her whatever she wants. Prompted by her mother Herodias, she asks for the head of John the Baptist. Concerned for how it will look to his guests, Herod orders John beheaded, and his head brought on a platter and given to the girl, who carried it to her mother. John’s disciples take his body and bury it, then they went and told Jesus. This is not just history, it’s disgusting, and the important part is how we react to horrible things.
Jesus hears the news of His cousin’s passing, He is deeply upset, and withdrew, just like when we learn of something that breaks us, we want alone time. Jesus wants quiet time with His twelve friends, but when they arrived, the people were already there, and Jesus saw the crowd, had compassion on them and healed their sick. Jesus’ response is when the darkness shows it ugly head, show it the light. He does not let the circumstances dictate who He is. The worst thing we imagine destroy our ability to trust and care about those who hurt us, and our ability to see people with God’s compassion and love, and we lose sight of who we were created to be.
Justice must exist with compassion. When Jesus hung on the cross, He saw who we could be and He stayed, because He believed we were worth dying for. Have we lost our compassion for other people? We’ve got to find a way to find the compassion Jesus has, and we’ll find it at the cross of Jesus and no other place. When we are at our darkest and hardest, we need to lean into Jesus to rediscover the compassion Jesus created us with. This is love that man would lay down his life for others. Do we have that same compassion?
Join us Sunday mornings for Sunday School at 10 a.m. with Worship at 11 a.m., and Sunday and Wednesday Bible Study at 6 p.m. Watch live at 11 a.m. each Sunday on Hopewell Baptist Church Facebook page.
