CALL TO WORSHIP

(Tune: "Jesus the Very Thought")

Approach my soul, the mercy-seat,

Where God will hear our prayer,

There humbly fall before His feet,

For none can perish there.

Thy promise is my only plea,

With this I venture nigh;

Thou callest burdened souls to Thee,

And such, O Lord, am I.

O wondrous Love! To bleed and die,

To bear the cross and shame;

That guilty sinners such as I,

Might plead Thy gracious name.

The hearing ear, the seeing eye,

The contrite heart bestow;

And bless us with Thy precious Word,

That we in grace may grow.

"I am the good Shepherd: the good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep." (John 10:11)

Hope is never vain when well grounded in Christ and the merits of His Person and work.

MORNING WORSHIP:

10:00 Bible Study: Video sermon by Bill Parker

11:00 Service: Speaker Mark Pannell, Eager Ave. Grace Church

Radio Broadcast: Sunday morning at 9:30am on 98.7 FM -WISK

Lord Save Me Ere I Perish

But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand... Matthew 14:30-31

When the terrors of the night set about you, in your distress of mind will you cry Lord save me ere I perish or will you languish in the knowledge that you have not striven hard enough and vow anew to rectify your complacency in hopes that you may not be consigned to that place of darkness and its terrors forever?

Blessed be The Saviour, whom alone we can look to for a ransom completely accomplished; Who else can we turn to, HE Alone...

Matthew 18:14 Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish. Note that it is HIS will, not ours, so it is by HIS grace & mercy that we may be relieved of our distress. Blessed be The Name of The LORD!

Layne Denton, Shreveport Grace Church

Excerpts from "A Sure reason to celebrate the Resurrection"

In Romans 4:25, Paul describes the Lord Jesus Christ as one "... Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification," meaning because of our justification - because God was justly satisfied with that which Christ accomplished on behalf of all He represented. So imagining that even one person for whom Christ lived and died could possibly remain unjustified before God, ultimately perish and fail to experience the resurrection unto eternal life that He merited for them is in reality a denial of the efficacy of all He came to do and did accomplish in His life and death.

Randy Wages - Eager Ave. Grace Church

What About Christ?

Some center their teaching on the blessings that men may or may not receive by their "participation" with GOD. They often promote physical and mental healing, formulas for happy marriages and life in general, financial windfalls and practical monetary advice. No benefit for men goes unnoticed and seldom any opportunities for self enrichment on the part of the "prophets" and "teachers". But some just speak about the normal blessings of everyday life which they say can be enjoyed to a greater or lesser degree based on a person's relative obedience to God's commands. These show that not only have they missed the center of the Gospel but they have missed the Gospel entirely.

Still others shift their focus to the perpetuation of religious orders and traditions which are faithfully handed down from one generation to the next; completely intact in every detail, assuming that by preserving such customs, an adherence to Gospel truth can thus be insured in the future. Some focus on the gift of "preaching" as if it was the hinge pin upon which all of the truth of GOD must turn, even sometimes denying that a person could "hear" the Gospel through the lips of one not particularly set aside for this task by some ceremony or human recognition. Or they make "priests" out of those who are mere heralds of truth.

Then there are those who delight in certain "tests" which prove whether or not a person is a true disciple, such as water baptism, the length of one's hair, head coverings for women, whether or not a person is a "Calvinist", etc. In fact some even become enamored with doctrines which may be true enough but they promote the form of the doctrine rather than the ONE who is the SUBSTANCE of the doctrine. It does not matter how straight one may seem to be in dotting all of his theological I's and crossing all of the T's of his eschatology, if the crux of all of his preaching or conversation is not JESUS CHRIST and HIM crucified, then regardless of what else he may be doing, he is merely shadow boxing. (See I Cor.9:26)

Paul continually preached one message, and HIS message was CHRIST. When he taught about the Christian's relationship to the law, his message was CHRIST. When he taught about the believer's place among the saints of GOD in the local church, his message was CHRIST. If he taught on marriage, his message was CHRIST. If he taught on giving, his message was CHRIST. If he taught on the Lord's Supper or baptism, his message was CHRIST. If he taught on walking in the SPIRIT and not fulfilling the lusts of the flesh, his message was CHRIST. If he taught about putting on the whole armor of GOD, his message was CHRIST. If he taught about the hope of the resurrection, his message was CHRIST.

If CHRIST is the center, sum, and substance of the gospel then it behooves us not only to be sure that we preach CHRIST, but that the CHRIST which we preach is the ONE of whom the scriptures bear record. "And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." (1John 5:11)