PRAYER LIST: Jackie Howell, Carla Nault, Pat Tackett, Y’Vonne Johnson, Frances Simmons, Joy Mahan, Brenda Brown, Vivian Thornhill, Oree Ashberry, Martha Tyner, Kimberly Bassett, Sandra Carter, Callie Robinson, Effie Calico, Beverly Harris (Cindy Carter’s mother), Jim Willis, Bonnie Murrell, Christi Whitten (Fred Williams’ niece), Chandler Russell (friend of Prestons), Cindy Williams, Pete Godfrey(friend of Ty Sharp), Dwayne & Nancy Brown (Brenda Brown’s relatives) Don & Rudy Williams (Fred’s brothers), Dorothy Carrell, Shelly White (friend of Williams), Eva Lansdale, Ann Duke (friend of Hemuses), Linda Branch (Mike Branch’s sister-in-law), Camelia Pace, Andy Guinn (Patrick McCary’s uncle), Jeremy Cotham, Ted Carroll, Emma Scott, Nicky Decker, Holly Spencer, Carol Morgan, Jessica Flat (Vivian Thornhill’s cousin), Gwyneth Schafer & Julie Smith (friends of Chris V), Ann Jones (friend of Fred & Jennie Williams), Lisa Averill, Lleyton Johnson..

SERVING OUR COUNTRY: Trey Garza, Kiefer Bounds, Bret Henson, Elena Williams, Gabriel & Windie Villanueva, Kevin Hoechendorf, Joel Terry, Kyle Davis, Jared Anderson, Zack Phillips, John Aston, Matt Eastwood, James Cox, Glen Pugh, Phil Fry, Wayne McDonald, Clint Korenek, Travis Korenek, Ronald Newton, Jeremiah Stossel, Jordan Martin, Drew Tackett, Sarah Gibson, Becky Stinsky, Josh Odom, Taylor Rex, Tyler Brown, Shayne Brown, Dustin Stanton, Deirdre William, Landry Campbell, Alden Curnutt.

UPDATES: Imogene Pentecost suffered a fall last week, but nothing was broken.// Sandra Carter had surgery for a broken leg last Saturday.// Isaiah Welch is now at home after being in the hospital with an infection in his blood.// Casey Williams, Fred & Jennie Williams’ niece, will have brain surgery, followed by plastic surgery.// Tim Williams, Fred & Jennie Williams’ son, will have oral surgery Monday.// Walter, the father of one of Summer Brown’s friends, has cancer and is only expected to live 3 to 6 months.// Tommie Churchman, Jr., Tommie & Earline Churchman’s son, has been experiencing personal struggles and is in need of prayers.// Ione Fouts is feeling better.// Please keep the mission work in Niteroi, Brazil in your prayers, as they are having their inaugural Sunday worship service in their new building today.// Alice Stanglin had tests run and is doing well but has a sore throat as a result of the test.

MNFTM: We are in need of help in three areas: 1. Someone to coordinate child care; 2. Someone to help with a study hall; 3. We also need more people to do visits. If you can help, see Chris.

GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER? Please sign up in the foyer if you would like to either host or participate in a dinner fellowship this Friday, March 12 at 6PM. Hosts and guests will be matched randomly in groups of 6-8 people. Today is the last day to sign up. If you have questions, please see Lane or Mary Brown.

RELAY FOR LIFE: The Chandler St. Relay for Life team will be having a garage sale and bake sale on Saturday, March 13 at the Kilgore Lions Club building from 8AM-2PM. Please contact Sharon Patterson (903-643-7278) or Melinda Sloan (903-988-0933) if you would like to donate garage sale items, baked goods, or if you would like to help. Please bring garage sale items as soon as possible to the church garage, so it can be priced early next week.

WEDDING SHOWER: There will be a wedding shower brunch for Rebecca Wulff, bride-elect of Luke Vidacovich, on Saturday, March 20 at 10:30AM in the GO Center. Selections can be made at: Target, Wal-Mart, The Gift Gallery (in Henderson) and Amazon.com.

LADIES & GIRLS SPRING TEA PARTY: Saturday, March 27 at 10:30AM in the Ladies Room in the GO Center. Please sign up on the sheet in the foyer if you will be attending, and also if you would like to decorate a table with a partner. All ladies and girls of the congregation are encouraged to come. If you have questions, please see Mary Brown.

LADIES VISITATION: Ladies visitation group will be meeting on the first Thursday of each month at 9:30AM. Ladies are asked to meet at Burger King for breakfast, followed by visitation in teams. If you have questions, see Peggy Bassham. The next visitation meeting will be April 4.

FOR SALE: The church is selling the 2002 Ford Windstar mini van. If you are interested in purchasing it, please see Chris or Pete Jones.

TEACHERS FOR THE SPRING QUARTER (Mar.-May):

Sunday

Cradle Roll – Donna Mayo & Terri Crawford

2-3 Yrs – Robin Carrell & Teresa Odom

4yrs-K – Mary Ellen Wilson & Ione Fouts

1st & 2nd grade - Alice Stanglin & Arlene Miller

3rd-5th grade - Beverly Stanglin & Karen Aggen

Wednesday

Cradle Roll – Ty Sharp & Calvin Porter

2-4 yrs.- Jessica Minor & Brenda Brown

K-2nd grade – Sharon Patterson & Joy Wood

3rd-5th grade – Y’vonne Jones & Carolyn Preston

AREA EVENTS: Holly Lake Church of Christ in Hawkins will host a Ladies Day/Workshop on April 17.// Eastern European Mission Annual Dinner will be held on Tuesday, April 20, at KE Bushman’s in Bullard.// For more details on these events please see the news board.



UPCOMING EVENTS:

March 11 – 39ers

March 12 – Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?

March 13 – Relay For Life Garage/Bake Sale at Lion’s Club Building

March 14-15 - WYS & Lock-in in Gilmer

March 20 – Wulff/Vidacovich Wedding Shower

March 27 – Ladies and Girls Springtime Tea Party

April 2-3 – LTC Conference in Dallas

April 11 – Children’s Day

April 25 – Youth devo at Sheets’ house

April 29 - Tri-C Luncheon

Youth News

WYS & LOCK-IN: Sunday, March 14 at Gilmer Church of Christ. The van will leave at 4:15PM.



LACK OF KNOWLEDGE

“My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children. The more the priests increased, the more they sinned against me; they exchanged their Glory for something disgraceful.” Hosea 4:6-7

People today don’t go into the Word of God to find their answers, but they are willing to listen to whatever preachers, teachers, religions, or the world tells them. That is not where knowledge is found. Knowledge is found in the Word of God, and only in the Word of God.

Notice in the passage in Hosea, that it isn’t just ignorance, but it is choosing to be ignorant about the Word of God. Instead of choosing God, they exchange their Glory for something disgraceful, something ungodly. People are destroyed because of their lack of knowledge about the will of God for their lives and their salvation.

Why do people do that? Why is this world so caught up in exchanging the Godly for the ungodly? When we look at the evidence of the two, we can clearly see that the disgraceful destroys, and the Godly saves. Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22, “Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil. “

How are we to test everything? We test it by searching the Word of God to see what God says. When I preach a sermon, I want the congregation to test everything I say according to the Word of God. Our spiritual knowledge must come from God’s Word. Not only the spiritual, but we gain knowledge of how to live life through the Word of God.

In Acts 17:10-12, Paul and Silas arrived in Berea and went to the Jewish synagogue. “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.” The next verse says that the Jews of Thessalonica were “agitating the crowds and stirring them up” because Paul was “preaching the Word of God”. When we hear the Word of God and we get upset by what it says, we need to step back and examine ourselves in light of that Word.

God gives us a guideline of how to teach the Word in 2 Timothy 2:14-16: “Keep reminding them of these things. Warn them before God against quarreling about words; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. “

If we can ever all come together and decide that we are going to open up the Word and do what God says, we will have unity within the body of Christ. Not only that, if the world will ever open up their eyes and see that what they are doing is actually destroying them, perhaps they will open up the Word of God and see what can save them.

Chris Vidacovich (chrisv@cscoc.com)

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