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Sovereign
Grace Missionary Baptist Church 1217 Dillon Texarkana, Texas 75501 Elder Randy Johnson, Pastor Bro.
Ronnie Henderson, Song Director "Where The Truths Of God’s Word Are Still
Taught" |
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You Were Asked To Pray For: All
of Our Military, Their Family’s & All the Civilian Workers in The Middle
East, Zee Mink Fuller and Family, Her son’s Bryan Armstrong and Hunter
Hackie, Daughter Shannon, and Brother Philip & Sondra Thornsberry,
Virgil & Alice Hoskins, Grandchildren, and his daughters Liz Janis and
Debbie Gray, Alecia Clements, Bryndon
Thomas, Frank & Dawana Reigel, Andrew Preston,
Helen Maggard, Renee Jackson, Larry Mollette, Larry
Mollette II & Family, Linda Mollette, Kirby Mollette, Kerry Pennington,
Kim Butler, Danny & Nita Mollette, Verna Mae Allen, Wendell Henderson,
Judy Dunn, Joshua Kidd, Matthew Kidd, Ronnie Henderson Jr,
Donnie Henderson, Kevin Henderson, Ricky Henderson, Rosalie Graves, Terry
Hanson, Jim Stagner, Bro. & Mrs. Hammond, Don
Hammond, Charles Hammond, Archie & Barbara Griffin & son Daniel, Bro.
& Sister Bob Keller, Wanda Fowler, Kathy Rosinbaum,
Brenda Galusha and Jewel, Mary Ramsey, Donna
Johnson, Fay Johnson, Luann Reynolds, Bro. & Sis. Curtis Pugh, Timothy
and Nathan Fails, Jacob Ramsey, Jim & Linda Meier, Brother David &
Sister Anne Shortt, Brother Manuel Seymour &
Family, Doris Hammock, Letha Langford, Leacho Tittle, Brother & Sister Kelley Hinson and Kelley Lee,
Billy and Jo Hobbs, Jerry Hughes, Sister Nita Bookout and her Niece, Pastor
G. L. Burr, Alicia Lightsey, Melody Carr, Betty, Janie
Capps, Kathy Johnson, Doyle Thomas, and Bro. Sergey Mochalov
and the Churches in Russia. |
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A Thought From Pastor Johnson: Jehovah God Command’s “Turn ye
unto me” Beloved as Christians we are not Israel, we are different in so many
ways and in many ways we are just like them. Here we read a message from God
to the people called His beloved “son” Israel, and that message is “Turn ye
unto me”; because Israel had a great fleshly desire to turn from Jehovah God
and to turn to the thinking with their fleshly minds rather than to what God
wanted them to do and that was to worship Him properly in spirit and truth.
Jehovah God commanded that if we (as Christians) were going to properly
worship Him we were going to worship Him in spirit and truth and anything
else was false worship and equal to the falling away which the Israelites so
wrongly done. God spoke this warning to His prophet Zechariah to tell the
Israelites. Today God has not prophets but rather His called ministers,
missionaries, and pastors, and Jehovah God is still making this same command
John 14:21 “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth
them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love
him, and will manifest myself to him.” Keeping the commandments of God is
worshiping Him in spirit and truth. If we fail to keep His commandment then
His blessings will stop coming and we will fail to honor the Lord here on
this earth. The Lord says our works will be tried by fire and those of wood,
hay, and stubble will burn up and no reward will be given as a result. The
blessings of God do not necessarily amount to earthly treasures but can; the
blessings of God are mostly heavenly treasures. Heavenly treasures are
opportunity to; (1.) to be allowed to do something to bring glory to God, and
(2.) something that will bless us here on this earth. There are so many today
that believe that God’s blessings to us are earthly treasures such as money,
large congregations, lots of programs, good jobs, and etc. however while it
is true that God could bless us in some of these things they are not normally
what God is talking about. Let us use this example of a blessing from God;
God gave the Holy Script to His beloved Israel for their care however they
did such a bad job of caring for it God took it away and put it in the hands
of the Gentile churches, beloved this is a great blessing for us from God. God calls men to preach or to pastor this also is a great
blessing, and God has also blessed us with churches. While it is true the
glory of these things are glorifying to God that are also blessings from God
and while they may not have much reward here on this earth they will be of
great rewards in heaven. Israel is God’s chosen nation, the nation He dealt
with and allowed to do His earthly work but since they have failed to comply
with God’s commandments He has removed that blessing as He will
with us if we continue winking at God’s commandments. The Lord told Israel to
turn unto Him or loose His blessings, God also told them how disappointed he
was in their fathers but it still did not move His beloved Israel and it will
not move Christians today. While so many today look at God’s blessings as
earthly treasures, here God’s blessing to Israel was “I will turn unto you”
and what a blessing that is. Let us notice in verse 3 the phrase “the LORD of
hosts” is repeated 3 times to let Israel know this promise was from Jehovah God
or the Trinity. This is like the phrase in Hebrew 13:5 “…I will never leave
thee, nor forsake thee.” Is actually from Joshua 1:5 which means
the word “I” should also be repeated 3 time as it is a promise from the
Trinity and beloved could there ever be a greater blessing from God. |
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A Thought For The Week, By Octavius
Winslow, 1858 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the
will of man, but of God. John 1:13. THE real believer in Jesus is a gracious man. He is a "living
soul." He is the partaker of a new and a divine nature, and is the
depository of a heavenly and a precious treasure. But grace is a thing
foreign to the natural state of a man. His possession of it is not coeval
with his birth, nor can it be his by right of hereditary law. No parent,
however holy, can transmit a particle of that holiness to his posterity. But
see how this mystery is cleared up in the conversation which Jesus held with
the Samaritan woman, as He sat wearied upon the mouth of Jacob's well: "Jesus
answered and said unto her, If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that
says to you, Give me to drink, you would have asked of him, and he would have
given you living water." This is the grace of which we speak, and this
is the source from where it flows into the hearts of all the truly
regenerate. It is in you, Christian reader, a "well of water," a
springing well, mounting upward, and ascending to the source from where it
rises. Blessed words—"springing up into everlasting life"! As the
first blush of morning is a part of the day, so the least dawn of grace in
the soul is a portion of heaven. What an exalted character, and what an enviable man, is the true
Christian! All the resources of the Triune God unite to replenish this
earthen vessel. No angel in heaven contains a treasure half so costly and so
precious as that poor believing sinner, who getting near to the Savior's
feet, and bathing them with tears of penitence and love can look up and
exclaim, "Whom have I in heaven but You? and
there is none upon earth that I desire beside You." But what deep
humility ought to distinguish the true Christian, as a real professor of the
grace of Christ Jesus! The grace which you possess is a communicated grace.
All that is really holy and gracious in us springs not from our fallen
nature, but, like "every good and perfect gift, comes down from the
Father of lights." It is the spontaneous outflowing
of the heart of God—the free unmerited bestowment of his sovereign mercy.
Then what meekness of heart, what profound humility of mind, ought to mark
you! What a prostration of every form of self, self-confidence, self-seeking,
self-boasting—should there be, as reasonably becomes those who have nothing
but what they have received, and whom free and sovereign grace alone has
distinguished from others! |
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Happy Birthday: Dawana Reigel February 15th |
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Hebrews 13:17 |