Lime Springs United Methodist Church
Our Sunday School lesson focused on “Revelation 6 and the Four Horsemen.” Bro. Shannon discussed the characteristics of each horse and the past, present and future ramifications of each.
Our morning service focused on the words of Paul in 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15 and the importance of staying away from those within the church who are lazy. He spoke about laziness being a sin against God, as an idle body is in direct contradiction to how God created us (Genesis 1:28). He reminded us that laziness is a form of stealing, as idle members within the body are still blessed by association, even though they may not deserve a blessing.
Idleness often leads a person toward other forms of sinning, such as being a busy body. Idle hands and idle time lead to idleness, which is dangerous! Finally, Bro. Shannon reminded us that laziness is contagious. Being around a lazy person can rub off on us and cause us to become idle as well.
We are encouraged by Paul in 2 Corinthians 6:17 to “come out from among them and be ye separate.”
Bro. Shannon closed the service by reminding us of how God needs laborers, not lazy people, as recorded in Matthew 9:37. Indeed, let us not be weary in well doing.
Our evening Bible study focused on the elements of an effective, fervent prayer life.
Our service times are as follows: Sunday School at 9:30 a.m.; Sunday morning worship at 11; evening Bible study at 5:30; and Wednesday night prayer meeting at 6:30.
For more information concerning Lime Springs, please call 646-2399 or 755-4950.

Christ Independent Methodist Church
Dr. Mac Stinson was back in his pulpit at CIMC Sunday morning, and we are so glad that he feels able to come minister to us.
He preached on the subject of encouragement based on scripture from the book of Hebrews. Perhaps that book more than any other book in the Bible gives so many dynamic examples of men who did great things for God. Some of the faithful mentioned in Hebrews are Noah, Enoch, Isaac, Joseph, Jacob, Moses and Abraham, among others. Then there are those among Jesus’ Disciples who lived by faith in God’s word. Among these followers are Abraham and Moses, who appear as the greatest examples based on their willingness to leave home, family, property and friends repeatedly to lead their people through unmarked lands to unknown locations.
Special prayer is requested for Dr. Stinson, Mable Mitchell, Wilma Ellison, Opal Miller, Horace Carden, Bro. Mike Weldon, Bro. George Creel, Mae Hunnicutt, Harry Collins, Major Rowland, all members of our military and their families, our country, church and each other.
Homecoming at CIMC is coming up on the third Sunday in September. There are family connections with CIMC scattered among many other churches in our area. We invite you to come visit with us on this occasion. There will be more to come later.
Our “Month of Fridays” or SWAG Nights (standing for Study, Worship, it’s All Good) is simply a series of nights to study, worship and fellowship. Last week’s meeting concluded with a stop by Subway. If you are between the ages of 6 and 18, come join us from 6-9 p.m.
Our Wednesday night study of the book of Revelation is interesting and keeps me eagerly looking forward to the next study. We invite you to join us at 7 p.m.
Tuesday night is Ladies Night Out for food and fellowship at Calera’s Cracker Barrel restaurant.
Have a blessed week.

Mt. Carmel No. 1
Our Sunday morning message was taken from Luke 13:10-17 and entitled, “Are You Loosed?” Before Bro. Derrell brought the message we had special music by Tammy and Lilly Jones. Their song was entitled, “Lord, Please Forgive Me.” It is a very heartwarming song, and this touched some to bring on a testimony service.
Bro. Cecil Franklin testified and praised the Lord for his blessings as he celebrated his 64th birthday as a Christian, a servant of the Lord. Others testified and praised the Lord for all their blessings. Let go and let God have his way. Time spent in church with brothers and sisters in Christ is good.
“Four Strong Anchors for Life’s Stormy Seas” (Acts 27:14-29) was the message for our Sunday night service. Paul said “Be of good cheer, fear not,” for Paul had these anchors in his life. They are: 1) the presence of God, 2) the promises of God, 3) the providence of God and 4) the performances of God.
Church events: Sunday morning, Aug. 22 we will have our baptizing service. We welcome you to come be part of this beautiful service of the Lord.
A baby shower will be held for Erica (Lowery) Jones on Sunday, Aug. 22 from 2-4 p.m. It’s a boy! See Holly Smith or Debbie Lockhart if you would like to help.
En Fuego will be Aug. 28. Youth, you are invited.
Please remember these as you pray this week: Johnny and Ruthie Jean Giles, Robert and Minnie Childress, Cecil Franklin, Steve Liveoak, Kevin Davenport and J.W. Campbell. We have many other prayer requests, and God knows every name and need.

Friendship Baptist Church
Our choir special was “Triumphantly The Church Will Rise.” Bro. Gene Hitchcock preached from Acts 16 on “What I must do to be saved.” This scripture covers the enlistment of Timothy by Paul and Silas.
For the evening service, we were asked to go to Clanton First Baptist to hear Dr. Bobby Welch. He is a former pastor of FBC Daytona Beach for 32 years. Also, he was the president of the Southern Baptist Convention, a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War and a powerful preacher of the Gospel.
Aug. 22: Cassie Wakefield will follow the Lord in baptism next Sunday during the morning worship service. Her grandfather, Bro. Pate Hughins, will have the privilege of baptizing her.
Aug. 22: Our youth will be sharing the events of their mission trip to “Give Kids the World” at 5 p.m. Everyone is invited. Also, our Baptist Builders will be sharing about their mission trip. Many people from the community helped send our youth on their trip. We would love for you to join us as we share precious blessings with the church.
Homecoming: Sept. 22 at 10 a.m. The singers will be Carl and Joan Headley, and our guest speaker will be John Will Wyatt.
Happy birthday: Tony Connell and Buddy Jones.
Happy anniversary: Keith and Regeana Funderburk.
Prayer requests: Dianne Varden, those traveling, our church, Edith Williams, Tracy Williams, Willodean Easterling, Renea Taylor Little and unspoken requests.

The Church of God’s Word
We sang “Happy Birthday” to Bro. Jaysen Roberson on Sunday.
Bro. Ray Edwards opened the service with prayer.
We are here to learn more about his way (Proverbs 15). Read the book of Proverbs; there are 31 chapters in it and most months of the year have 31 days. Most of us do not like correction, but if you want to do God’s will, you’ve got to learn to take correction and then you get wisdom. When everything fails, read this book. When you mess up, repent of it and ask for forgiveness. But a willing sin you still have to pay for.
We are still going from house to house with Bible study on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. If you want us to set up at your house, call Mary Jo Edwards at 755-4719 or Ruth Lewellen at 287-2558 to set one up.
Bro. Jimmy Langston closed with prayer on Sunday.

Mount Bethel Baptist Church
We started our morning worship with a song of praise followed by prayer. Then we went into our classes for Bible study.
The adult lesson for this week was on relationships and the reconciliation factor. Though wronged in many ways by the Corinthian church members, Paul was not willing to write off his relationship with them. Paul’s motivation for trying to reconcile was God’s love. Jesus’ death on the cross was so man could reconcile himself to God; Paul was following his character.
The choir opened the morning worship service with “Teach Me, Lord, to Wait” and the choir special was “What a Lovely Name.”
The Rev. Oneil Cleckler’s morning sermon was “The World in Reverse” (Genesis 6:1-8). When God finished his creation, he said it was good. Here in Genesis 6 everything was the opposite of what God wanted for mankind. God saw that every wickedness that could be imagined by man was happening. Evil was continuous. This grieved God, but he saw a spark of hope in Noah and his family. Noah lived a righteous life even in the middle of all this wickedness. The people had 120 years to repent, while Noah prepared the ark. We know none accepted God’s invitation to repent, and their end was eternal death.
In Discipleship Training class, the lesson was on sharing your testimony (Mark 5:19).
Bro. Cleckler’s evening message was from Revelation 5:7-14. In verse 7, Jesus came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. This was the transferring of power. All authority was given to Jesus because he was the slain sacrifice, the sacrificial Lamb. All were there to praise. The four beasts and the four and twenty elders all fell down, each one with a harp and golden vials full of incense to sing a new song. All the redeemed will be there in this glorious praising. In John 3:35, it says: “The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hands.”
We would like to wish a happy birthday to Gene Hucks and Larry Bussie.
Visitors are invited to join us for worship and fellowship.  Sunday School is at 10 a.m.; morning worship at 11; Discipleship Training at 5 p.m. and evening worship at 6.

Walnut Creek United Methodist Church
Our call to worship Sunday was “God Answers Prayer.”
For the invocation, Bro. Tony reminded us that in our own minds and doing things for ourselves we sometime lose sight of trusting in God. Every day we must learn to lean on God.
During our time for children, Diane Handley had a very good message about running your race; we don’t have to win the race, but with God beside us we can finish the race. It was nice to see a large group again.
Our hymn of celebration was “Beautiful Garden of Prayer,” followed by invitation and confession as we prepared for Holy Communion.
Sharing joys and concerns: Kay Wade reports a clean bill of health. So many have seen what prayer can do as we see Lavada Attaway looking so well. We see her neurologist Thursday — please continue to pray and thank you.
Bro. Jim Popwell has started a new men’s Sunday School class and welcomes all men who would like to attend.
Prayer is requested for the Johnson family, Gordon Powell, the Parker family and T.J., Ben and Thomas as they leave for college. Also remember Pam Headley’s family.
A beautiful offertory was provided by Joan McGriff on Sunday. The choir’s special music was “Take Time to be Holy.”
Bro. Tony’s message was from Romans 8:26-27. He reminds us that a prayer must be one of forgiveness and the instant we ask, it will be granted. A prayer must be from our heart — not what we think is best for us and our calling, but that which God will grant for what He knows is best for us. Let it be a communication with God. Praise Him — open your hearts.
Communion included the great thanksgiving, prayer of intercession and sharing the bread and cup.
Our closing hymn was “Because He Lives.”
We were happy to welcome Joe and Gail Nettles into our membership.
We were happy to have Martha Tremble, Debbie Popwell’s mother, as a visitor Sunday.
Happy August birthday to Jerry Wayne Tippett (4), Glenda Popwell (16), David Florea (17), Jeanette Hughes (28), Ray Enfinger (30) and Duane Jones (31).

Cedar Grove Methodist-Protestant Church
“Where the Soul Never Dies” was the first song of the morning, followed by “The Gloryland Way.”
Happy birthday to Russell Wyatt, and happy anniversary to Mr. and Mrs. Larry Bowman.
We congratulate Sam and Missy Price on the arrival of their daughter Kinzlee Dawn, who arrived Friday the 13th. She is the eighth grandchild  for Brother Steve and Rita Price.
We welcome all our visitors and hope you will come again.
We missed Larry Patterson; he isn’t feeling good so say a prayer for him. Pray for Hannah Vines, Ellen Scott, Dolly Price (Woodrow) and all of the spoken and unspoken requests — God knows all about it.
Brother Gary Hubbard blessed us with two beautiful songs, “When It’s My Time” and “Jesus is My Anchor of Hope.”
Brother Jeff brought a good message entitled “The Pool of Bethesda,” meaning flowing water. His text came from John 5:1-9.
Brother Steve Price sang “Wilt Thou Be Made Whole” during invitation.
Next Sunday is Homecoming. It will began at 9:45. Brother Randy Perry, our guest evangelist, will bring the message at 11. We will probably sing a few songs beforehand. We will go to lunch around 12 and return at 1:30 for the guest singers, The Kelleys. Everyone is welcome to come out and enjoy a good day of preaching, singing, food and fellowship. There will be no service Sunday night. The revival with Brother Randy Perry  will start at 7 p.m. Monday night and go through Wednesday night.
The evening service began with “Heaven’s Jubilee,” and after a few more congregation songs, Brother Alton Russell and Brother Jim Lowery sang “He’s My Best Friend.” Sister Amelia sang “I Want to Know How It Feels,” Brother Alton sang “The Sun’s Coming Up in the Morning,” and the altar filled. It is wonderful to see all the young people crying in happiness for the Lord.
We had a great surprise for worship service. Brother Pate Hudgins came and brought a wonderful message. His text came from Jeremiah 6:16. We enjoyed the sermon. For those of us who had never met him and his wife it was a pleasure to meet them and to hear him preach.
For more information, call 646-2390.

Jackson Chapel
Bro. Dewayne Castleberry taught a very good Sunday School lesson entitled “Benefits of Salvation from Sin.”  Bro Gary Fant got the morning service started off with “He Set Me Free” and “Amazing Grace.”  Misty Burnett sang “You’re Still God” and Bro. Dennis and Angel Bavar sang “Farther Along” and as they sang people began to come to the altar and the Holy Spirit was present in a mighty way.
Bro. Dennis’ text came from Numbers 32:1-15 with a message entitled “How Long Are You Going to Sit Here?”  We need to stop sitting here doing nothing and be about our Father’s business because we are in the middle of a spiritual warfare.  If we’re not careful, Satan will sift us as wheat and have us back in the world doing things that we know is not right.  If we as Christians take our eyes off Jesus Christ, we’ll end up missing out on some of the greatest blessings God has for us.  We are always so busy in our everyday lives asking God for this and that, but we don’t even take the time to thank God for what he’s blessed us with.  The service ended with several more coming to pray.
Bro. Gary Fant got the evening service started off with “Canaan Land is Just in Sight,” “I Want to be Ready to Meet Him” and “Victory in Jesus.” Sis. Patricia Cofer sang “How Do I Know” and Angel Bavar sang “It Is Well With My Soul.” Bro. Dennis, Wanda Chadwick and Angel Bavar sang “I Believe in a Hill Called Mount Calvary” and “What A Meeting.”
Bro. Dennis’ text came from 1 Peter 1:18-25. Jesus gave his life for us just so we could have eternal life.  Jesus Christ shed his precious blood on that old rugged cross just so we could have salvation and a home in heaven one day if we accept Jesus as our personal Savior.  The service ended with several coming to pray, and the presence of the Holy Spirit was surely felt by everyone present.
Happy birthday to Marie Burnett and Wanda Chadwick
Happy anniversary to Duane and Wanda Chadwick
Please remember to mark your calendars for Aug. 29 at 6 p.m. Heirline will be our special singers.
Please remember these as you pray: Ann Booker, James and Marie Johnson, Geraldine Smith, Kenny Farris, Myrtle Cleckler, Geraldine Arthur, Billy Burnett, our lost loved ones and our service men and women.