February
16
2010
Mattsville Community Church and Pastor Gary Hosey will have a fellowship service Friday, February 19th at 7PM with Rev. Danny Gilfilen. There will be special singing and all are welcome.
February
16
2010
Revival Services: with Shane Roark, February 17, 18, 19 at the Coal City FWB Church, Pastor Charlie Brown.
Gospel Sing: February 20, at 7PM with Judah Lion.
February
15
2010
The last couple months have been rough on our local Churches and the members. We’ve had many cancellations due to weather. Some days were too cold, some were too snowy, and other days, all which needed done simply couldn’t be achieved such as cleaning parking lots, steps and ramps. Yet we must press on.
Many things in life will get us down such as the weather or storms which come not from the sky but from our own mind. Winter time is prime time for depression. Lack of daylight and less freedom of movement caused by slick roads and the cold play hard on us who are used to going and doing.
With Churches closed and a lack of fellowship it’s easy to feel defeated but remember its all part of the race. Spring will be here in a month or two and the winter will be past. Will we be ready then to march on? Now is the time of preparation. Don’t feel down or trapped. We still have our Cross to bear.
Consider the scripture below and the story of this man whose ministry was halted by horrible circumstances but through it all God had a plan for him. He has a plan for you also. The storms will pass and ministry will continue. God Bless………..Lynn
On This Day February 5, 1812
Matthew 10:38 And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. 39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
Adoniram Judson, who wanted to become America’s first foreign missionary, fell in love with the most beautiful girl in Bradford, Massachusetts. Ann Hasseltine was the daughter of a Congregational deacon, and Judson’s letter asking for her hand is among the most emboldened in church history:
I have now to ask whether you can consent to part with your daughter, whether you can consent to her departure to a heathen land, and her subjection to the hardships and suffering of a missionary life? Whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean, to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India, to every kind of want and distress, to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death.
John Hasseltine did consent, and the couple was married in the Hasseltine home on February 5, 1812. The next day they were commissioned as missionaries and soon left American shores. Their new home, Rangoon, Burma, was a filthy, crowded city. The atmosphere was oppressive, the work discouraging. By 1820, there were ten Burmese converts, but at a cost. One Judson child had been stillborn; another died of tropical fever.
When war broke out between Burma and England, Adoniram was accused of being a spy and placed in a death prison. His dark, dank cell was filled with vermin, and Adoniram was shackled at the ankles. Every evening he was hanged upside down with only his head and shoulders resting on the ground.
Ann, pregnant again, visited one government official after another, urging her husband’s release. On February 15, 1825, eight months after Adoniram’s arrest, she showed up at his prison carrying a small bundle, their newborn daughter Maria. No artist can capture the poignancy of that brief union with its intense emotions of sorrow and joy, fear and faith.
Torturous months followed. Adoniram was finally released, but both Ann and Maria soon died of fever. Adoniram suffered a mental breakdown that nearly took both his ministry and his life.
But God wasn’t finished with him. America’s first foreign missionary still had a world to change.
February
4
2010
As we grow older how is our work for The Lord? Will the time come when we simply sit down to work no more? Consider the scripture below and this man who finally labored no more on February 4, 856 AD at 80 years of age. God Bless………..Lynn
Psalms 92: 12 The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. 13 Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God. 14 They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing.
| Too Valuable a Man | February 4 |
Some Christian workers, facing the sunset years, may retire from official positions and pace themselves more carefully in ministry. But withdrawing entirely from the Lord’s work isn’t an option, for Christians don’t really retire. They just get transferred.
In 776 Rabanus Maurus was born in Germany with a good brain. His parents educated him in the best schools, and he eventually studied in Tours, France, under the great Christian educator Alcuin, who had advised Charlemagne. Alcuin mentored Rabanus with more than book knowledge; he equipped him to teach others. Back in Germany, Rabanus was appointed principal of the school in Fulda, and under his leadership German youth, both poor and rich, were afforded an education. Rabanus painstakingly developed the library into the best anywhere and made his school Europe’s most famous, the mother of scholars and of a score of affiliated institutions. He extended the curriculum to include many sciences, and “reproved superstitions.” His graduates were in demand across Europe.
At the heart of Rabanus’s educational genius was a passion for God’s Word. His academic programs included diligent study of Scripture. He wrote commentaries on almost every book in the Bible, preached regularly, composed hymns, wrote handbooks for ministers, and worked hard for a well-trained clergy — all in an age of darkness, ignorance, and superstition.
Finally in 842, exhausted, he retired. At 66, he longed to spend the rest of his life in quiet study, free from official responsibility. “But he was too valuable a man to be allowed to retire from active life.” Appointed archbishop of Mainz, Germany, Rabanus spent his remaining years preaching the gospel and contending for the faith. He didn’t lay down his labors until February 4, 856 when, at age 80, the Lord transferred him home. What kept Rabanus going? The Spirit’s anointing! In one of his hymns he prayed:
Come from the throne of God above
O Paraclete, O Holy Dove,
Come, Oil of gladness, cleansing Fire,
And Living Spring of pure desire
Let us serve even the more as we come closer to our retirement. God Bless……….LAH
February
3
2010
Pastor Jerry Brown announces revival services with Rev. David Cook. February 8-13, 2010. Services will be 6PM nightly. There will be singers each night.
Come join us in uplifting our Saviour, The Lord Jesus Christ.
For information call:
Marvin Turner 304-854-1628
Lynn Halstead 304-894-2215