SMILE GOD LOVES YOU

I recently saw a bumper sticker which said, “Smile God loves you.” I am sure that statement is true about that person’s god, but it is not true about the God of the Bible. Scripture makes it plain that God does not love every son of Adam. God does not love the wicked. “God is angry with the wicked every day.” (Psalm 7:11) God does not love those who do not believe on Christ. “He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:36) So it is a lie to tell people that God loves all men without exception. Everyone outside of the ark would have known that Noah was lying if he had put a bumper sticker on the outside of the ark which read, “Smile God loves you.”

The Father loves the Son. (John 3:35) All of the Father’s love is found in Christ. (Romans 8:39) The love of God never fails to save the object of God’s love. The Father elected a people to save in love. (Eph. 1:4) The Son came to redeem a people from their sin in love. (I John 4:10) The Holy Spirit gives life and faith to those God loves. If you happen to own a bumper sticker that says, “Smile God loves you”, be sure to only put that sticker INSIDE the ark because God only loves those who are in Christ. God has always loved those people and every last one of them shall be saved. Pastor Frank Tate

Things that Promote Peace

“Let us therefore follow after the things which promote peace, and things wherewith one may edify another” (Romans 14:19).

1.) Be careful to LOVE one another with a true heart. “Love covers a multitude of failures.”

2.) Avoid a spirit of ARGUMENT AND DEBATE. One may win an argument and lose a friend.

3.) Beware of JEALOUSY. Jealousy destroys happiness and builds suspicion.

4.) Beware of ENVY. Let us learn to rejoice in another’s gifts, blessings, and happiness. God gives as HE will!

5.) Do not MEDDLE in the private lives and domestic affairs of others.

6.) Guard against a TOUCHY TEMPER:

“For every trifling thing to take offense

Shows either great pride or little sense.”

7.) Learn to KEEP A CONFIDENCE. “He that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.”

8.) Strive to HEAL DIFFERENCES. “Blessed are the peacemakers.”

9.) Be always ready to FORGIVE ANYTHING. “Forgive us our sins AS we forgive those who sin against us.”

Pastor Henry T. Mahan (bulletin 1985)

"My Mediation of Him Shall Be Sweet" Psalms 104:34

When you and I first came to Jesus Christ we came to a person, we believed in a person, we trusted a person to save us. Of course we believed his doctrine as he gave us understanding, but his doctrine told us of the person. It's not just the doctrine about him that is sweet but the person the doctrine tells us of is sweet. He is the Father's Well-Beloved and the Well-Beloved of the Church and the Well-Beloved of every believing soul. We love his offices as our Prophet, Priest and King, but we love them because of the person who occupies them. This is where we find the sweetness of it all. All things about Jesus is sweet because he himself is sweet - "My mediation of him shall be sweet." To meditate upon the workof our Redeemer is sweet because he himself is sweet. Christ is sweet to our affections. He is sweet to our understanding. He is sweet to our memory. He is presently sweet. My mediation of him is sweet when I think of the future, for he himself is my hope of eternal bliss - Oh, sweet bliss! O sweet Jesus

Oh, his love is sweet - it's the love of God. His blood is sweet - it's the blood of God. His natures are sweet - Jesus the God-man. Meditate my heart upon Jesus. Fill yourself with himself and the sweetness of himself will fill you.

Pastor Bruce Crabtree