August 2 – FaithFriends

Friends of Faith Baptist of North Chili,

Last night it was 86 degrees (inside the auditorium) and it felt like a sauna. I was expecting 10 or 12 to show up for Prayer Meeting. I decided that we would set up chairs in the shade under the trees in the back yard of the parsonage. We set up twenty chairs and then people started coming, and just kept coming. About 50 showed up for our Bible Study and Prayer Meeting! Wow! God is great. We had a delightful time in the Word – from Genesis 12:10-20. We saw Abraham whose faith we have come to respect and admire, showing his feet of clay as he runs from a famine, though God hadn’t told him to go, straight to Egypt and greater problems there. It’s easy to see how God was testing his faith and where he failed. The point isn’t to disparage him and feel superior, but to see how easily and quickly our own faith falters. When trying circumstances and/or people enter our lives – TRUST THE LORD! He is faithful!

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TIME FOR A SMILE

Here are some choice nuggets (of course these practical platitudes have been plagiarized):
* Never hire an electrician with singed eyebrows.
* This is precisely the sort of thing that people who like this sort of thing will like.
*The length of a minute depends on which side of the bathroom door we’re on.
* If a handful of coins is dropped, the pennies will land at my feet and all the good stuff will roll under the car.
* Why isn’t “phonetic” spelled the way it sounds…and shouldn’t there be a shorter work for “monosyllable”… and what’s another word for “synonym?”
* One good thing about laryngitis is that people can’t bug us about how miserable they feel.
* If I file it, I’ll always know where it is but never need it. And if I don’t file it, I’ll always need it but won’t know where to find it.
* Prayer, the easiest of actions, is the most difficult of disciplines.
* Nothing seems to bring on an emergency as quickly as putting money aside in case of one.
* Complex problems always have simple, easy-to-understand wrong answers.
* If it weren’t for that last minute, nothing would get done.

You might be a redneck if…
The State Trooper pulls you over and says to you, “Got any ID?”
And you say, “‘Bout what?”

Someone writes:
My sister-in-law decided to go on a diet after a recent trip to the store with her grandson.
They’d stopped in front of a pantyhose display, and, as she chose a package, he read out loud: “Q … U … E … E … N … S … I … Z … E. Grandma!” he exclaimed, “You wear the same size as our waterbed!”

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Sunday, August 5, 2007

* Family Bible Classes – 9:30am
* The Adult Class (meeting in the auditorium) continues studying the Old Testament life of David. This week, from II Samuel 5-6 we see David accepted as king over all of Israel (finally)! One of the things David did was return the ark of the Lord to the tabernacle. As a related issue we can discuss dignified versus undignified worship (whew, THAT will open a can of worms)! Read chapter 6 and come prepared to weigh in on the subject of “leaping and whirling” before the Lord. After the morning service all who want to join the “Worship Whirlers” will meet in… (no, no, no, only kidding!)

* Morning Worship – 10:45am
* In John 5:24-30, Jesus continues to speak to the Jews who, a) persecuted Him, and b) sought to kill Him – because He had made Himself “equal with God.” The title of this message is, “He Who Hears Has Everlasting Life.” Jesus makes the seemingly outrageous statement, “the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God.” Does He mean those who are physically dead or the spiritually dead? Think about that as you come to worship with us this Sunday morning.

* Evening Celebration – 6:00pm
* This Sunday evening we will be obedient to the Lord’s command to observe “The Lord’s Table.”

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That’s all for this edition of FaithFriends. Pray with me that God’s people will be equipped and encouraged and the lost will hear the good news of the Gospel and trust Christ for their salvation!

Your faithful Minister of the Word,
Pastor Harriman
www.fbcnorthchili.org