Friday, May 12, 2017

Dear Church Family,

The truth as it is in Jesus can be experienced, but never explained. Its height and breadth and depth pass our knowledge. We may task our imagination to the utmost, and then we shall see only dimly the outlines of a love that is unexplainable, that is as high as heaven, but that stooped to the earth to stamp the image of God on all mankind.

Yet it is possible for us to see all that we can bear of the divine compassion. This is unfolded to the humble, contrite soul. We shall understand God’s compassion just in proportion as we appreciate His sacrifice for us. As we search the word of God in humility of heart, the grand theme of redemption will open to our research. It will increase in brightness as we behold it, and as we aspire to grasp it, its height and depth will ever increase.

Our life is to be bound up with the life of Christ; we are to draw constantly from Him, partaking of Him, the living Bread that came down from heaven, drawing from a fountain ever fresh, ever giving forth its abundant treasures. If we keep the Lord ever before us, allowing our hearts to go out in thanksgiving and praise to Him, we shall have a continual freshness in our religious life. Our prayers will take the form of a conversation with God as we would talk with a friend. He will speak His mysteries to us personally. Often there will come to us a sweet joyful sense of the presence of Jesus. Often our hearts will burn within us as He draws nigh to commune with us as He did with Enoch. When this is in truth the experience of the Christian, there is seen in his life a simplicity, a humility, meekness, and lowliness of heart, that show to all with whom he associates that he has been with Jesus and learned of Him. COL 129-130

In the news: sebastian

This Sabbath, we will have a special guest speaker with us named Sebastian Teh. Originally from Malaysia, Sebastian Teh is a Medical Missionary Evangelist who has over 25 years’ experience in practicing and training Natural Remedies. He has trained literally 1,000’s of missionaries in and throughout China, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Caribbean and the United States.
AYA will be at 6:30 pm. You won’t want to miss this fascinating presentation by Sebastian. He has a wealth of experience serving as a medical missionary.
Sebastian will conduct three evening medical ministry “How To” classes for our members beginning this Monday night. Tina went to a presentation he did in Newport last night and can’t stop talking about it so I would encourage you to at least check them out. You are sure to learn a lot. All three presentations will run from 5:30pm to 8:30pm
1. Monday nights theme will be on massage.
2. Tuesday nights theme will be on hydrotherapy.
3. Wednesday nights theme will be on herbs.
The 8^th Grade Graduation will be this coming Thursday evening at 7pm.
I want to encourage everyone to invite their guest for the Thunder In the Holy Land Dinner scheduled for Thursday, May 25 at 6:30pm. Remember, everyone is invited but members must bring a guest in order to attend as this is designated as an outreach event. We are asking that you please RSVP as soon as possible as we seek to make preparations for this special event. The evening will go like this, Dinner at 6:30pm and desert and ½ hr Thunder presentation to follow in the fellowship hall.
Are you looking for ways you and your family could share your faith? Join us on the May 20th , at 3 pm as we share Jesus in our community at the Greeneville Commons parking lot (1505 E Andrew Johnson Hwy). We will have Glow tracts that we all could distribute. It is a simple and easy way to share your faith. We will meet in front on the parking lot in front of K-Mart. If you plan on coming I encourage you to watch this 3-minute video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyLpzNd0LV0
For those who may not know, Pastor Alex celebrated his Graduation at Andrews University last weekend. We are happy for you Pastor Alex and are thankful for both you and Surrany and your ministry here.
The audio visual room below the balcony will be used for Spanish translation this Sabbath to accommodate our Spanish speaking folks who want to hear our special guest speaker.
I attended the ASSIST program at Morning Pointe this week and was excited to see two things. First, I saw eight graders joining in to learn about the program so that they might join next yera. Second, I was encouraged to hear that Amanda Robinson is willing to lead out in this program again. While I only oversee the ASSIST program, Kezia Finley graciously leads out with it for our younger kids. These two ladies have put in a lot of time and effort to make these programs the kind of success that they are.
Last night was the end of the year program at the school. The kids and staff did an amazing job. Everyone was blown away in part because of the amazing transformation of our school band in just one years time. Our volunteer music leaders, Ann Andrus & Tom Cushing along with all the volunteers who help them have done a wonderful job. Truly, we are blessed to have such an amazing school and staff that faithfully seek to provide a strong spiritual tone.