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The Country Baptist Church Newsletter “The
Voice Of The Country Church” |
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You Were Asked To Pray For: Bro. Archie & Barbara
Griffin, Waylon & Pat Abercrombie with their daughter and son, Randy
& Donna Johnson, Loyce Smith, Roberta Bruce and
family, Barbara Fails, Jim & Linda Meier, Dina and The Boys, Bro. Sergey Mochalov and the Churches in Russia, Don & Wynell Hammond, Brenda Galusha,
Baby Tucker Walker, Helen Stone, Bro. & Mrs. Pinson, Leta
Ellis, Chet Reagan, Sidney Strawn, Amanda Tomlin, Helen Rowe, Kimberlee McCool, Brother David and Anne Shortt, Jewell Mathis, Justin Horne, Janette Sims, Jean
and Cheryl, Letha Langford, David Ellis and family, Virgil Young, Gwen Davis,
Allison Rodgers Clay, Angela Hutson, Tiffany and
Shannon Lemmon, Bob Ellis, Elaine Woodall, Reese Carrington, Jack Whittle,
Ronda Douglass, Nancy, Rosa Tomlin, Pastor and Sister Hammond, Katie Fitch
and Stephaine, Sarah Dooherty,
Scott & Gina, Otis Steward, Mark Ralston, Fay Johnson, Bro. Frank
Pittman, David Lemmon, Martha Haygood, Kim Stevens,
Lit Hatly, Brian Berry, Mike & Sally Leinhauserand,
all of our Troops and their Families. |
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A Thought For The Week: I
go to a land which the plough of earth hath never upturned, where it is
greener than earth's best pastures, and richer than her most abundant
harvests ever saw. I go to a building of more gorgeous architecture than man
hath ever builded; it is not of mortal design; it
is "a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the
Heavens." All I shall know and enjoy in Heaven, will be given to me by
the Lord, and I shall say, when at last I appear before Him— "Grace all the
work shall crown
C.H. Spurgeon |
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Happy Belated
Birthday: Justin
Hall March 6th |
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Election: George Muller, the man of faith and prayer, is quoted by Arthur T.
Pierson on pages 387-388 in George Muller of Bristol as saying,
"Before this period I had been much opposed to the doctrines of
election, particular redemption, and final persevering grace; so much so
that, a few days after my arrival at Teignmouth I
called election a devilish doctrine. I did not believe that I had brought
myself to the Lord, for that was too manifestly false; but yet I held, that I
might have resisted finally. And further, I knew nothing about the choice of
God’s people, and did not believe that the child of God, when once made so,
was safe for ever. In my fleshly mind I had repeatedly said,
If once I could prove that I am a child of God forever, I might go back into
the world for a year or two, and then return to the Lord, and at last be
saved. But now I was brought to examine these precious truths by the Word of
God. Being made willing to have no glory of my own in the conversion of
sinners, but to consider myself merely as an instrument; and being made
willing to receive what the Scriptures said; I went to the Word, reading the
New Testament from the beginning, with a particular reference to these truths.
To my great astonishment I found that the passages which speak decidedly for
election and persevering grace were about four times as many as those which
speak apparently against these truths; and even those few, shortly after,
when I had examined and understood them, served to confirm me in the above
doctrines. As to the effect which my belief in these doctrines had on me, I
am constrained to state, for God’s glory, that though I am still exceedingly
weak, and by no means so dead to the lusts of the flesh, and the lust of the
eyes, and the pride of life, as I might and as I ought to be, yet, by the
grace of God, I have walked more closely with Him since that period. My life
has not been so variable, and I may say that I have lived much more for God
than before. And for this have I been strengthened
by the Lord, in a great measure, through the instrumentality of these truths.
Thus, I say, the electing love of God in Christ (when I have been able to
realize it) has often been the means of producing holiness, instead of
leading me into sin. It is only the notional apprehension of such truths, the
want of having them in the heart, whilst they are in the head, which is
dangerous." |
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The Secret of the Strength What Would
the Anabaptists Tell This Generation? by Peter Hoover Following Christ, the
Anabaptists, especially those of south central Europe, spoke of Gelassenheit (a
"letting loose" of everything) for Christ. Hans Haffner
from a community of believers in Moravia wrote a tract while in the dungeon
of the castle in Passau, Bavaria, in the 1530s, entitled "About the True
Soldier of Jesus Christ." In it he spoke of surrender: Now let us hear what true
surrender is: It is to let go of all things for God's sake . . . and to turn
to God so that he may lead us. Jesus Christ called it hatred: "He who
does not hate his father and mother and renounce everything he has is not
worthy of me." True surrender is to put to death the flesh and to be
born another time. The whole world wants to have Christ, but they pass him by.
They do not find him because they want to have him only as a gift, only as a
giver of grace and a mediator which he certainly is, but they do not want to
have him in a suffering way. The same Christ who says,
"All who are heavy laden, come to me and I will refresh you," also
says, "Whosoever will not forsake father and mother cannot be my
disciple." Whoever loves truth must accept the one as well as the other.
Whoever wants to have Christ must have him also in the way of suffering. It
is foolish to say: "We believe that Christ has redeemed us, but we do
not want to live like he lived." True surrender involves
two things: enduring persecution and overcoming ourselves. When they hit us
on one cheek we are to turn to them the other. . . . In the second place we
must be weaned from the ways of our human nature as a child must be weaned
from his mother's breast. We must be willing to forsake wife and children,
father and mother, lands and property, our lives and even what God has given
to us . . . for Christ. |