The Champions Spirit
Volume 68, Issue 41
Oct. 18, 2009
In This Issue
The Gospel is the greatest message in the world—the news that through the cross of Christ men can be saved from sin to spend an eternity with God! This seminar will help us share that message more effectively!
Evangelism Seminar - Oct. 25-28
Schedule
SUNDAY
- 9 a.m. Bible class: Making Disciples
- 10 a.m. Sermon: A Heart for Evangelism
- 6 p.m. Sermon: From Conversation to Conversion
- Church Fellowship following evening services
MONDAY
- 7 p.m. Man’s Sin Problem and God’s Solution
TUESDAY
- 7 p.m. Responding to a God Who Loves You
WEDNESDAY
- 7 p.m. Taking the Good News to This Community
FAMILY MATTERS...
Guests are always special at Champions! Please, come again as soon as possible.
Prayer Request: We want to continue to remember Jacqueline Thomas as she asked for special prayers in her behalf in regard to her physical health.
Terrific: As concerned Christian individuals, you gave—in addition to your regular contribution to the work of this congregation—$12,083.45 to spread the Gospel through Truth for Today. Your sacrifice will help spread the gospel message throughout the world. God bless!
This evening, Jay Williams from Sunny Glen Children’s Home will give us an update of that great work.
Congratulations: Emmett Gaines was awarded the “Making a Difference” Award at a recent McDonald’s corporate meeting. It is great to see Christians excel in their work!
Plan to be present for every service of the Evangelism Seminar! You will be blessed as you hear Jerry Tallman proclaim the Word and ways to share that Word with others! The seminar begins next Sunday and will continue Monday through Wednesday evenings.
Parting Thought: The best things in life are free—but experts are working on the problem!
HAVE A BLESSED WEEK!
Jeremy's Junction
Thursday evening, a few of the college kids came over to our house and ended up staying the night. At one point, Kendall and Derek went outside to talk. They came in right about the time I was going to bed which was about 3 a.m. When Derek came in, he sat down beside me and started talking. He talked about how he was praying a lot more and how much he enjoyed coming to church. He also spoke of his many heavy burdens. Eventually, we spoke about what it takes to get rid of those burdens. We spoke about repentance and what it means to repent. Finally, we talked about giving your life to Jesus and the role baptism has in this. He read several scriptures and decided that he needed to be baptized into Christ. Which was, as several of you know, when I asked him if it could wait till tomorrow sometime. Maybe it could wait till Sunday.
For those of you who don't know, this is a tactic that many of us ministers use to verify the person’s passion to accept Jesus. Is this just a moment of emotion? Or, if this was the moment that Derek knew he had been putting Jesus off long enough? Derek told me he couldn't wait and that we needed to do it then and there, confirming that he was truly passionate about putting Jesus first in his life.
Nathan, Kendall, Derek, and I went to the church building and immersed our friend into Christ. It was truly a beautiful moment. I think about all the things that God did to lead us to this. How for the last year He has worked in Kendall Willis' life helping him to become a strong Christian and thinking about how He has developed Nathan into a spiritual leader. I think about how He has equipped the youth and college group to be open and loving to others, like Derek. I think about how this night was a night that I couldn't sleep and decided to just stay up. So many things went into this. God’s plan is flawless. He has a plan for you. In the end, it was Derek's decision to follow God's plan in his life. Derek said yes! When God shows his plans for you in your life, what will you say?
Please keep us all in your prayers as we continue this ministry and as new Christians like Derek start their spiritual walks with God.
—Jeremy Geurin
John's Jogs
ESSAY ON ENGLISH
Perhaps English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren’t invented in England nor French fires in France. Sweetmeats are candies and sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat.
We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. One goose, two geese. So one moose, two meese? And why is it that writers write but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham?
You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out, and in which an alarm goes off by going on. And, when the stars are out, they are visible.
How can overlook and oversee be opposites, while quite a lot and quite a few are alike? How can the weather be hot as hades one day and cold as hades another. You may find a lone mouse or a nest of mice, yet the plural of house is not hice.
If I speak of a foot and you show me your feet, and I give you a boot would a pair be called beet? If one tooth and a whole set are teeth, why should not the plural of booth be called beeth? Then one may be that and three would be those, yet hat in the plural wouldn’t be hose, and the plural of cat is cats and not cose. We speak of a brother and also of brethren, but we say mother but never methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him, but imagine the feminine she, shis and shim. If quitters never win and winners never quit, what idiot came up with “quit while you’re ahead." Have you ever run into someone who was combobulated, gruntled, ruly of peccable?
And where are all those people who are spring chickens or who would actually hurt a fly? And why when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it?
(Compiled by Susan Capps in Senior news)
Many people who sit down to read the Bible without any knowledge of the style of its writing may be just as confused as this essay. Thus it behooves us as Christians to always be available to assist those people in learning what the scripture says about various topics. Notice Phillip and the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8. Always be ready to share the hope that lies within you. A good place to prepare yourself for that task is to be here next Sunday through Wednesday in the seminar with Jerry Tallman.
—John Qualls