Bulletin Bloopers

We have to smile from time to time when we read the bloopers that have appeared in church bulletins:

Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands. 

Don't let worry kill you off - let the Church help.

Miss Charlene Mason sang 'I will not pass this way again,' giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.

For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs.

Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the choir. They need all the help they can get.

Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days.

At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be 'What Is Hell?' Come early and listen to our choir practice.

Eight new choir robes are currently needed due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones.

Remembering 9/11

Last Sunday marked the 10^th anniversary of an event that forever changed the history of our great nation. Many of us remember what we were doing that day 10 years ago as we witnessed the horror of the terrorist attacks on our own soil.

Last month the mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, decided not to include clergy in the 10th anniversary remembrance of the 9/11. This reminds me of the verses in Ecclesiastes 9:13-18 where no one remembered the wise man who delivered the city.

“But I say that wisdom is better than might, though the poor man's wisdom is despised and his words are not heard” Ecclesiastes 9:16.

Fernando Cabrera, a pastor and New York City council member, made a statement to the Wall Street Journal of the response of clergy to the attacks, "This is one of the pillars that carried us through. They were the spiritual and emotional backbone, and when you have a situation where people are trying to find meaning, where something is bigger than them, when you have a crisis of this level, they often look to the clergy."

Spend a few moments today remembering the lives that were taken and those heroes who risked it all to save others. And let’s continue to pray for our leaders, our soldiers, our country, and our enemies! 

Why I trust in the Bible?

• Its unity. A book with 40+ authors, written over a period of 1500 years, by men of different occupations living in different countries, under different circumstances and conditions, yet the Bible has one overarching theme: Jesus Christ and His redemption.

• Its preservation. There are some 24,000 copies of the Greek New Testament (5300 Greek manuscripts including Latin, Coptic, Syriac, etc). Second to the Bible, we have a whopping 643 copies of Homer’s Iliad!

• Its claim as the divine Word. “All Scripture is God-breathed…” 2 Ti. 3:16.

• It’s historical accuracy. Prior to 1993, no extra-biblical material mentioned the name of David. To many scholars, he was a myth or legend. That all ended in 1993 when archeologists discovered a 3000-year-old inscription on black basalt in the town of Dan, a little north of the Sea of Galilee in Israel mentioning the king of the “House of David”.

• Its honesty. Many a book “whitewashes” the details of an incident so that it is not shown in a negative light. Not so with the Bible! The Bible describes the individual and situation with “warts and all.”

• Its prophetic fulfillment. There are some 300 prophecies of the first coming of Jesus Christ (born in Bethlehem in Micah 5:2 and born of a virgin in Isaiah 7:14). The chance of Jesus fulfilling 8 of these prophecies is 1 to 1017. Yet He fulfilled them all!

• Its scientific reliability. For many years man believed that the earth was flat, but the Bible has said all along that the earth is round. See Isaiah 40:22.

• Its Christological endorsement. Christ gave full weight to the authority of the OT. “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished” Matthew 5:17-18.

• Its power to change lives. One of the greatest reasons I trust the Bible is when I see what it has done for you!