Bulletin / Prayer List 9-4-16

Prayer List
Nell Hall is having sciatica nerve pain
Don Harrington will have surgery on his right eye sometime in September.
Wanda Peterson is home with Home Health.
Dan Tucker is home recovering from heart surgery.
Leta Embry will have to have more tests some time in September..
Kerry King’s mother has stage 4 cancer. She has begun treatment.
A friend of Helen Counts, Carol Moore has been diagnosed with cancer.
Jerry Foster’s nephew Carl Reid is in TMC
A.C. Quinn’s neighbor Beverly Roberts is having heart problems.
Robert Embry’s uncle Glen Durham has swelling of the leg as well as cancer.

Aramanda family, Andy LeDane, Eddie Griffin, James and Florene Griffin, Jerry and Betty Harris, Don Hickerson, Larry Lee, Lester and Billie Phillips, Mary Jean Turner, Jack and Diane Arnold, Don Boyd, Betty Clark, Glenn Durham, Doris James, Dan LeDane, Gary Hickerson, Beryl Miller, Dean and Della Price, and Terry Turner.

Serving in the military: 
Dakota Smitherman has been deployed to Afghanistan. 
Travis Counts has been deployed to Kuwait.
Faith Balzen 
Cody Blomstedt

Let us pray for our country and government leaders and those who are in harms way, military and civilian personnel.
The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much…

The Ladies Bible Class will begin September 6 at 10:00AM. All ladies are invited and encouraged to attend.

Men’s Business Meeting is Sunday Sept. 11 after evening worship services. All men are invited and encouraged to attend.

Pantry Item: Assorted Cereal

Sept. 11th Prayers: Morning: Butch Balzen – Don Harrington
Evening: Robert Courtney – Kerry King
Scriptures: Greg Counts
Baptism, Repentance, and the Problem of Sin
By David Shearer

I have observed that some folks are taking a different view of baptism and overlooking some vital things, which the Bible teaches.
While it is true that Baptism cleans us from sin Acts 2:38, it does not give us a license to sin or continue in sin. Some think once you’re baptized you have your fire insurance so you can do whatever you want. This is not a new idea but some are propagating it today with false teaching.
Paul recognized this problem in Rom. 6:1-2, “…Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. …”. In Heb. 10:26 the writer says this, “For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins”.
The Bible teaches with these scriptures and others that we cannot keep willfully sinning.
It boils down to a repentance issue. What is repentance? Well, essentially it is turning your back on sin and walking in the other direction. Jesus said in Luke 15:3 and emphasized again in verse 5, “I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all in like manner perish”. The key is turning away from sin or getting out of the sin that is in your life, so sacrifice for sin, which Christ did for you, will remain in effect.
The problem of sin is as old as man. Divorce is an acceptable thing. “Shacking up” is what society deems as OK. Immoral behavior is approved in the courts and legislators as being common and tolerant and the right thing to do. However, in God’s eyes these actions are still wrong and abhorred by God.
The line between what God’s Word says and what man’s laws say is often a cavernous abyss that leads to death spiritually.
A bank robber who becomes a Christian by being baptized while in possession of the stolen money cannot keep it because it would be a sin to do so. So it is with marriage, immoral life styles and the like. We must be careful not to let man’s laws and ways be accepted as God’s way.
(Marshalltown church of Christ, July 18, 2008)