May 13, 2021
Dear Friends,
We went down memory lane tonight as we gathered at a special place where we held our ATM meeting on May 17, 2012. This was also a dear place to Faye. “Who is Faye?” you ask.
Before COVID, our pastor and academy students would have a Bible Study at a medical center for the elderly. Every Monday, they would bring Faye to our service. As soon as she heard the children’s voices, a pretty smile would come to her face. She would sing with us with a beautiful voice that filled the room. She loved to hear pastor’s message and she patiently waited for the children to greet her as they spoke soft sweet words and gave her hugs. Faye never saw us because she was blind. But even in her blindness she was encouraging us as we encouraged her.
Taken from, “More Precious Than Silver”
When I was in Germany a few years ago to speak at a church, I was linked up with a blind woman named Elizabeth, who served as my interpreter. For five sessions we were at the microphone, me with my wheelchair and Elizabeth with her white cane.
During a break, someone placed on my lap a magazine printed in English. It looked like good reading, but I couldn’t hold it or turn the pages.
Elizabeth asked me a few questions about the cover, so I said, “Look, how about if you hold it up and turn the pages. That way I can read it aloud so we can both enjoy it.” We did just that. After a few minutes Elizabeth and I attracted the attention of her pastor, who, upon watching us, decided to use us as an illustration for his sermon on 1 Corinthians 12. In short, we all have need of each other. Imagine, just imagine, a church in which each member used his or her strength to make up for another’s weakness. Eyes see, ears hear, hands hold, and feet move the body forward. When everyone fulfills their function, the whole body benefits.
Joni
May we find strength to make up for another’s weaknesses. And in doing so… we both find new strength.
Will join you again, next fall,
Across the Miles Ladies
4-29-21
Dear Friends,
Peter wrote the letter of 1 Peter to prepare Christians for a “fiery trial” of persecution. He gave 3 instructions to follow if they (we) would experience the best blessings in the worst times.
- Cultivate Christian Love (3:8-12)
a love for God’s people
a love for our enemies
a love for life
All of us are faced with three choices
- endure life, and make it a burden.
- escape life, as though we were running from a battle.
- enjoy life, because God is in control.
- Sanctify The Lord God In Your Heart (3:13-15)
When Jesus Christ is sanctified in our lives, each crisis becomes an opportunity for witness.
- Maintain A Good Conscience (3:16,17)
a good conscience is one that accurses when we think to do wrong, and approves when we do right.
a good conscience fortifies a believer with courage because he knows he is right with God and men.
a good conscience gives us peace in our hearts to face the battles without.
a good conscience removes us from the fear of man.
May we endeavor to experience God’s best blessings in the worst times.
Barnabas Band
Pastor Paul Williams
April 8, 2021
As the deer silently edged his way on the rocky ledge… he suddenly could sense danger. He had been looking for a drink but now knew it would have to be in a different direction. Yesterday the evening sky radiated bright colors as its source of light whispered… good-night. But today he now saw a different color. It was dark… very dark… a storm was coming. Off the ledge and into the nearby forest he went… but it did not get better. A strong fierce wind tossed the towering trees. This storm was leaving its mark as branches broke off and threatened the confused one. The wind howled. It had a mighty force and the startled deer wanted to get free of its power. He was still very thirsty and began to pant for some water. It grew darker – would he find what he needed?… His Creator knew… so He guided the hurting one through the storm to a gentle brook.
He drank…
He now had strength to endure.
Beverly Williams
Dear Christian Friend,
We have enclosed a song that we will have sung at our April meeting. We wanted you to have a copy. So wherever you are serving; we, together, can sing about our shield, our strength… He who alone is our Joy-giver.
Psalms 42:1 & 2
Serving our Creator,
Northstar Ladies
Invitation
This happy Christmastide let us invite
Our blessed Lord to be the honored Guest,
Then will His heart rejoice and we be blest
In our observance of this holy night.
Let us give Him the gift that will delight
His heart most deeply and which He deems best-
Ourselves, to love and serve Him, and to rest
Upon His love, which knows no depth nor height.
Thus shall we honor Him most worthily,
Who came to earth for us to bleed and die,
That, ransomed and forgiven, we on High
Might live with Him through all eternity.
Come, Jesus dear, our doors we open wide:
Be Thou our Guest this holy Christmastide!
-Author Unkown
____________
Dear Missionary Friend,
In a recent Wednesday night series we have been looking at the Spirit-filled life. We are discovering that there are at least three results of being Spirit-filled.
*1. In our relationship to God, there will be a spirit of adoration. (Ephesians 5:19)
*2. In our relationship to circumstances, there will be a spirit of appreciation.
* (Ephesians 5:20)
*3. In our relationship to others, there will be a spirit of accommodation. (Ephesians 5:21)
With Thanksgiving here, perhaps the most common but often-transgressed command in the Bible is the command to be thankful. A carnal Christian is often grumbly hateful. The Spirit-filled Christian is humbly grateful.
This command to be thankful would not be so difficult had the Lord not said “always” and “all things.”
We thank Him for sun,
Do we thank Him for rain?
We thank Him for joy,
Do we thank Him for pain?
We thank Him for gains,
Do we thank Him for losses?
We thank Him for blessings,
Do we thank Him for crosses?
To give thanks when things go wrong, when there is personal hurt, cancer, divorce, financial reverse, or heart breaking disappointment seems so unnatural. But when we give thanks, we are not necessarily expressing approval of those circumstances for which we give thanks. We are rather announcing our faith that our God is greater than any of these items.
Let’s model the Spirit-filled life with a spirit of appreciation.
Happy Thanksgiving!
*********** The Barnabas Band
September 22, 2020
“Prayer puts the preacher’s heart into the preacher’s sermon;
prayer puts the preacher’s sermon into the preacher’s heart.
-E.M. Bounds
Dear fellow laborers in Christ,
Someone gave me a copy of this soul-stirring quote from E.M. Bounds. I haven’t been able to escape its truth and I want to pass it on to you with the prayer that it will be as helpful for you as it have been for me.
How manifold, illimitable, valuable, and helpful prayer is to the preacher in so many ways, at so many points, in every way! One great value is, it helps his heart.
Praying makes the preacher a heart preacher. Prayer put the preacher’s heart into the preacher’s sermon, prayer puts the preacher’s sermon into the preacher’s heart.
The heart makes the preacher. Men of great hearts are great preachers. Men of bad hearts may do a measure of good, but this is rare. The hireling and the stranger may help the sheep at some points, but it is the good shepherd with the good shepherd’s heart who will bless the sheep and answer the full measure of the shepherd’s place.
We have emphasized sermon preparation until we have lost sight of the important thing to be prepared-the heart. A prepared heart is much better than a prepared sermon. A prepared heart will make a prepared sermon.
Volumes have been written laying down the mechanics and taste of sermon-making, until we have become possessed with the idea that this scaffolding is the building. The young preacher has been taught to lay out all his strength on the form, taste, and beauty of his sermon as a mechanical and intellectual product. We have thereby cultivated a vicious taste among the people and raised the clamour for talent instead of grace, eloquence instead of piety, rhetoric instead of revelation, reputation and brilliancy instead of holiness. By it we have lost the true idea of preaching, lost preaching power, lost pungent conviction for sin, lost the rich experience and elevated Christian character, lost the authority over consciences and lives which always results from genuine preaching.
Pastor Paul Williams
Barnabas Band