December 8, 2024

Sunday Worship

Bible Study 10:00 A.M.

Morning Service 10:45 A.M.

Wednesday Worship 7:00 P.M.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Hurricane-Road-Grace-Church

Our messages can be heard on www.hurricaneroadgracechurch.com

CALL TO WORSHIP

Blest Spirit Own This Sacred Hour

Words by Don Fortner

Blest Spirit own this sacred hour;

Enflame the preacher’s heart;

Let every hearer feel Your power,

Ere from Your house we part! (repeat)

Direct Your arrows to the souls

Of unconverted men;

And while Your servant truth unfolds,

May some be born again! (repeat)

O give Your saints a foretaste sweet

Of their eternal rest;

Each seeking soul be pleased to meet,

And make each mourner blest! (repeat)

(Tune: “Majestic Sweetness Sits Enthroned” p. 52)

DECEMBER BIRTHDAYS

14^th Ralph Brown 24^th Nancy Hogsten

25^th Alexis Baldwin 26^th Beckett Baisden

31^st Sabrina Keesee

Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit

“Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (Eph. 4:3)

I have seldom had my feelings hurt by people in the world (angered, but not hurt) because I don’t have any expectation of kind or considerate behavior from the unregenerate. I have, however, had my feelings very hurt a number of times by believers. There is a reasonable expectation for believers to be loving and considerate. It is hurtful when they act otherwise. It is disappointing and hurtful when believers do not act with love or consideration for others because this is how believers are supposed to conduct themselves (Phil. 2:4).

What then are we to do when we are treated this way by other believers? We are to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit by “let(ting) all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.” (Eph. 4:31-32)

Putting the needs and desires of the flesh in the trash and putting the cause of Christ first will solve every problem the church on earth faces.

Pastor

SPIRITUAL WARFARE

“Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life.” – 1 Tim.6:12

The saddest symptom about many so-called Christians is the utter absence of anything like conflict and fight against spiritual apathy in their Christianity. They eat, they drink, they dress, they work, they amuse themselves, they get money, they spend money, they go through a brief round of formal religious services once or twice every week. But of the great spiritual warfare – its watchings and strugglings, its agonies and anxieties, its battles and contests – of all things they appear to know nothing at all. Let us take care that this case is not our own.

J.C. Ryle

ACCEPTED

“To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.” – Ephesians 1:6

God accepts the believer in His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And being accepted in Christ, we can never be unaccepted. God would first have to reject His Son before He rejects His people. And since He is well pleased with Christ, He is well pleased with those who are in Christ. Can a child of God be any more accepted than in Christ? My relationship to God is not determined by what I do, but by what Christ does for me. Jesus Christ is responsible for all His people and He will not fail to present them back to God, who entrusted them into His hands, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Christ even now appears in the presence of God for us. Christ represents His people before God. What a comfort to think that Jesus Christ will answer for me, and God accepts me for Christ's sake!

Pastor Larry Criss

Many of us don't know God well enough to trust Him. Are you persuaded that God has complete control in reference to the things which excite our anxiety? Are you persuaded that He will use this control in the best way, as far as we are concerned? If I am to cast my cares on Him, I must know Him to be my Father; I must know Him to be my friend; I must know Him to be my protector, my shepherd, my guide, my righteousness and my salvation. I must believe His testimony that he loves me for Christ's sake. He careth for you. It's a small thing for God to care for us. He provides for the cattle on a thousand hills, all the wild beasts, and army of birds, fish, and insects. Your needs and mine are scarcely a crumb from God's table. If He says, "I will care for you," then don't give it another thought except to sing, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want."

Scott Richardson

We will not have peace of mind unless and until we come to believe that salvation is, indeed, entirely a matter of God’s grace from beginning to end. This is why the judgmental are always so fearful and angry and never at peace – one simply cannot be judgmental of others while relying entirely on the grace of God for himself.