Friday, May 17, 2019

Dear Church Family,

Words worthy of our reflection:

You will be in constant peril until you understand the true force of the will. You may believe and promise all things, but your promises or your faith are of no value until you put your will on the side of faith and action. If you fight the fight of faith with all your will power, you will conquer. Your feelings, your impressions, your emotions, are not to be trusted, for they are not reliable, especially with your perverted ideas; and the knowledge of your broken promises and your forfeited pledges weakens your confidence in yourself, and the faith of others in you.
But you need not despair. You must be determined to believe, although nothing seems true and real to you. I need not tell you it is you yourself that has brought you into this unenviable position. You must win back your confidence in God and in your brethren. It is for you to yield up your will to the will of Jesus Christ; and as you do this, God will immediately take possession and work in you to will and to do of His good pleasure. Your whole nature will then be brought under the control of the Spirit of Christ, and even your thoughts will be subject to Him. You cannot control your impulses, your emotions, as you may desire; but you can control the will, and you can make an entire change in your life. By yielding up your will to Christ, your life will be hid with Christ in God and allied to the power which is above all principalities and powers. You will have strength from God that will hold you fast to His strength; and a new life, even the life of living faith, will be possible to you. But your will must co-operate with God’s will, not with the will of associates through whom Satan is constantly working to ensnare and destroy you.

Testimonies for the Church. (1855). (Vol. 5, pp. 513–514). Pacific Press Publishing Association.

In the news:

The young adult group will meet again tonight at the EVEC conference room at 7:30pm.
This Sabbath we will continue our series on the Exodus with a look at the rebellion of Korah. The message is entitled, “Beware of Sinkholes.” A very helpful resource for me in this series has been Taylor Bunch’s work from I believe the 1930’s or so. His series of lectures can be accessed via this link where you can access the PDF file. As I said last Sabbath, there are a lot of SOP quotes regarding the story of Kadesh Barnea and 1888. I was only able to share a few last Sabbath.
Last Sabbath we featured Linda Moro during our Getting Acquainted segment. Here is the video for those who missed it or couldn’t hear it last Sabbath.
There will be a fellowship lunch this Sabbath following the service.
Evan Fox is organizing a Sabbath afternoon GLOW tract outreach for the Iris Festival downtown this weekend. Perfect for families & friends, this is an effortless and yet powerful way to share beautiful Bible truths with others. We’ll meet in the foyer at 2pm. If you stay for potluck remember to bring a change of clothes.
AYA will be at 7 p.m. this Sabbath and will be held at the GAA gym. A church social will follow with games and food provided.
It is hard to believe that the last day of school is today. Last night we celebrated the accomplishments of our 8^th graders who graduated and are now officially Freshmen.
Just a reminder that camp meeting is set to begin in just over a week. Many like to visit the Carolina Camp meeting at Lake Junaluska and of course there is our own Georgia-Cumberland Camp meeting at Southern where Pastor Alex & I will be serving.
The annual church camp out to Cades Cove is scheduled a week earlier this summer due to VBS. The church campout at Cades Cove will be July 19-21. To reserve your space, visit this link and we usually cluster around sites B1-B19 and on up as necessary.
Mark your calendars for Vacation Bible school this summer. The dates are July 21-26 and the meetings will be in the evenings. Watch for more details to come.