Lime Springs United Methodist Church

Our Sunday School lesson focused on Revelation 11.

Bro. Shannon brought the morning message from John 1:11-12. He spoke about the importance of adoptions in the world. He mentioned some of the more famous people who were able to make an impact in this world because of being adopted. He then reminded us we are not members of God’s family by natural birth. The only means of becoming a member of the family of God is by adoption. However, whereas parents choose whom they wish to adopt, we must choose to be adopted by God. It comes as a result of choosing Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

The benefits to being adopted by God are the promises that come with the change in our name. We have the promise of being an heir, being led by the Spirit in this world, and being glorified with Christ in heaven. Again, all of these promises come to those who choose to be adopted by God.

Bro. Shannon reminded us that the greatest pleasure we can have is being able to call God “Abba.” This is a term of endearment similar to “Daddy.” The invitation to being adopted by God into his family was given at the end of the service. We closed the service by coming to the Communion table as the family of God.

Happy birthday to Elijah Crawford and Kenny Bates.

Happy anniversary to Angie and Kenny Bates.

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.

Bethsalem Baptist Church

The morning service began with ministry opportunities and welcome. The Celebration Choir sang “Amazing Love.”

Bro. Brad Eubank brought the morning message, “The Call to Stand: Be Unashamed” from 2 Timothy.

Jenny Mallory joined our church by baptism Sunday morning.

During the evening service, Bro. Brad preached from Titus 1-9 on the picture of a leader.

Cleve and his father brought special music, singing “Can He, Could He, Would He.” All ordained men lay hands on Cleve and Jenny, and Bro. Brad presented a Bible and certificate to Cleve.

A fellowship and housewarming was held after the service. It was a time of great fellowship.

Join us for our 40 Days of Prayer Sept. 27 through Nov. 5, and for our 48-hour revival and friendship connection Sunday, Nov. 7.

Wednesday night is family supper at 5:30 p.m., prayer meeting at 6:30, choir practice and programs for children and youth.

Pray for James Moore, Elaine Hayes, Ashton Moats, Terry Johnson, Jacob Wright, Don Knight, Cathy Patton, William Jacks, Kacy Barrett, Thomas Jackson, Nancy Deavers family, Lanell Johnson family, Debbie Culp family, Thomaseen Johnson, Charles Bryant, Gladys Bryant, Candy Cleckler and Sue Bradberry.

Happy birthday this week to Theresa Price, Barry Reeves, Kent Willis, Alan Rice, Anniston Tanner, Taylor and Thomas Payne, Hunter Moore Jr., Cooper Johnny Kelley, Angie Smith, Dale Scott, Justin Corn, Cotton Chison, Hazel Green, Kim Carroll and Austin Barber.

We welcome all visitors. Come and get connected in Sunday School and Life Tracks.

Christ Independent Methodist Church

Traveling to church Sunday, one could not help being aware that seasons are transient. Tree leaves that have been green for several months past are now becoming arrayed in brilliant colors while brown grasses provide a drab background. Goldenrod, so named by an English king because it reminded him of his royal scepter, changes the countryside into a golden garden.

This spectacular plant show each year brings to mind the scripture that states Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like the lilies of the field. The same could be said of the goldenrod’s extravagant display.

Dr. Mac Stinson took his scripture from Luke 17:11-19 in the New King James Bible. We had begun our service by singing the old hymn, “Faith is the Victory,” which proved to be the perfect introduction to his sermon. The scripture tells us that as Jesus passed through Samaria, 10 men who were lepers stood at a distance and called out to Jesus, “Master, have mercy on us.” It came to pass that Jesus cleansed the 10. It also points out that only one of the men took the time, or made the effort, to thank Jesus. Does that sound familiar?

We all pray and ask for blessings and hopefully take time to thank God for granting the same. He does take notice. He did of the nine who failed to thank him.

Special prayer is requested for Dr. Mac Stinson and wife, Glenda; his mother, Adell Edmondson; Opal Miller, Wilma Ellison, Cindy McCavitt, Jean Gilmore, Kelly Parker, our military and their families, our country, church and our members that will be traveling during this time.

Thought for the week: Character is the kind of person we really are.

Reputation is the kind of person that other people believe we are.

There will be no evening worship service on Oct. 24.

There will be a one-dish dinner following the morning service Oct. 24. We hope that all church family members can be present for this fellowship meal.

Have a blessed week.

Mt. Carmel No. 1

Our special music for the morning service was a beautiful song entitled “Healer” sung by Holly Smith.

The message for this Sunday was taken from Genesis 5:21-24, “A Good Exit Strategy.” How will you exit this walk of life? Do you have a strategy to exit from this walk of life? Enoch walked with God. Enoch knew he had to keep his heart tuned in with God, and God took Enoch.

Exit this walk of life saved. Plan to leave this life suddenly, for we know not the hour or place the Lord will call us.

We know prayers are being answered at Mt. Carmel. We were all blessed to see Johnny Giles able to come and worship the Lord with us this Sunday. A praise report is given for Paul Levering’s mother — at the time of this writing, our prayers are being answered in the life of Vickie Levering. She is far from being well but doing much better. Remember these as you pray.

“Will You Pray for Me?” was the title of the message Bro. Derrell brought Sunday night from Romans 15:30-33. Paul requested prayer for the church: “I beseech you, brethren, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me.” We must always remember the importance of prayer.

A light supper for the Mustang football team and their coaches will be served Friday, Oct. 15 at 3 p.m. A devotion and prayer will be given before the supper. If you can help with this service, it will be appreciated.

Prime-Timers supper will be Nov. 6. No plans have been made at this time, but we are working on it.

October is the month for world hunger. There is a box in the foyer for food collection for the Emergency Assistance Center. Please bring items to help with this project.

Start filling your shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child soon.

Adult choir members, remember choir practice is held each Sunday at 4 p.m. Our Christmas cantata is being worked on, and the Christmas season will be here soon. Come join our church.

Oct. 29 we will host Trunk or Treat here at the church. Come join the fun for the children.

We serve a mighty God who loves us. Only God knows what we need. Pray daily for our church and those on our prayer list. Pray for us, and we will be praying for you. Come worship with us at Mt. Carmel.

Bethany Baptist Church

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! (Psalm 133:1)  Two days of meetings sound boring?  Well, you can’t say that about our annual state association meeting.  Bethany hosted the meeting this year Friday and Saturday.    The times of showing hospitality, of sharing testimonies, and of enjoying great music and great preaching also included the necessary business.  And we won’t forget the good food.  We also heard good reports from our state missionaries.  Most of our church members were present for all the meetings, and I am sure received a blessing.  Bro. Billy Quinn, Missionary at Haleyville’s Heritage Mission, in his message on Saturday used 2 Thessalonians 2:3-10 as his text.  He reminded us of the conditions of these times and some of the signs of Christ’s coming again.

Sunday morning Jean Gray and Elaine Staton sang a special, “My Tribute.”  Bro. Aubry’s message was taken from Galatians 6:14. The Apostle Paul had much that he could boast about, but he said he gloried only in the cross of Jesus Christ.  Without Christ’s suffering and death on the cross, we would have no hope, no grace, no mercy; without the cross there would be no forgiveness of sins, and we’d have no access unto the throne of God.

Happy birthday this month to: Jean DeLoach (10th), Shirley Wallace (16th) and Barbara Miller (22nd).  Happy anniversary to James and Jean Gray (23rd).

Prayer list:  Lillian Burkhalter, Sherry Cooper, Lela Mae Courtney, Mildred Crawford, Ashley Friday, Jack Friday, Ernestine Hatch, Gloria Headley, Mary Knight, our military, Nell Mims, Billie Neeley, Pvt. Josh Pepper, Aubry Wallace and Shirley Wallace; rain, revival in America.

See you Sunday!

Rocky Mount United Methodist Church

Sunday we sang praises to God in new ways to us.  We have so much to sing praises for, and wasn’t it a gorgeous day to shout our praises from the mountaintops!

Our message, “The Honey Patch,” reminded us just how much we all like the sweet things in life.  God wants us in his honey patch.  God told the Israelites 17 times how he had a place of milk and honey and wanted them to be able to enjoy it.  The number of times God repeated things had significance to their importance.  For him to repeat himself that many times, it was obviously quite important.

Do you have a place to go for that sweetness in your life?  The Bible — God’s word — is available to you and is all you need.  All your answers can be found in the Bible.  We all need to remember to praise God regardless of what we face.  If you turn away when the going gets tough, you are listening to the devil more than you’re listening to God.  Who are you going to let win?

Read your Bible daily.  Pray for our church, our prayer list and the many unspoken requests.  We invite you to join us for worship services.

Samaria Baptist Church

Sunday was another wonderful day to be in the house of the Lord at Samaria.  Our prayer concerns today are Curtis and Betty McCary, and Bro. Harold McCary’s family during his passing.  Also remember Ray and Phylis Hardee, James Milford, Emily Easterling, Donnie Avery, Dot Miller, Betty and Gerald Mims, Bernie Mullins, Debbie Brooks and our Brotherhood. Our text for today comes from Romans 1:1-2.

God called us out of the darkness of our sin, and we can have freedom in the light of Him.

Ms. Carolyn Maddox blessed us with her beautiful piano playing, and we thank God for her.

Our sermon emphasis is “Our supreme responsibility is to praise God.”  The key to spiritual victory and happiness is giving all we are and have to Him. It is God’s will that we worship Him and allow Him to have control of our lives.  Our confidence has to be in the Lord God.  God wants us to be pleasing to him.  We offer sacrifices of praise, obedience and submission to a Holy God.  This is appropriate praise to God Almighty.  We become closer as we give ourselves to Him, surrendering in praise, honor and glory.  He desires our praise and adoration, and we glorify God by being Christ-like, as we are born again through faith in Him.

The key to spiritual victory and happiness is giving all we are and have to Him.  Offering ourselves in an act of worship is making us ready to be used by Him to win the world to Jesus Christ.  God bless you this week, and we always offer a special invitation to you and your family to worship with us at Samaria.

Cedar Grove Methodist-Protestant Church

When we drove to church this morning we saw the last beautiful rolls of hay for this year. To me it was always a sight to see and smell. Just a tiny bit of God’s wonders. Soon we will see all the breathtaking colors of the leaves changing.

Happy birthday to Josey Shannon, Cameron Dutton and Mary McGuire. Happy anniversary to Joyce and Douglass Scott.

“When We All Get To Heaven” and “What A Day That Will Be” were the congregation songs, and the choir sang several songs, one in particular that was really beautiful, “Greater Is He That Is In Me” with Jordan Harvely and Kip Cleckley singing lead parts. Norma Muir sang “God of the Mountain,” which was truly a blessing.

Brother Jeff is continuing his message of “Better Things.” His text came from Hebrews 8:1-13.

Sister Amelia sang the invitation song. The altar filled with people praying and being prayed for. It was a very touching time. God is so good.

We have so many on our prayer list. God knows who they are.

Welcome to our visitors, and we hope you will come again.

The evening service began with “What a Friend We Have In Jesus” and “There is Power in The Blood.” Brother Alton and Sister Amelia sang, “That’s Enough,” Sister Amelia sang “They are Only Sleeping” and Jordan Harvely sang “Shouting Time In Heaven.” That is one young man that is going places; he is such a good singer.

During the evening service, Brother Heath was absent due to moving. Brother Jeff had a surprise speaker for us, Brother Clay Collins. His message was about faith. He asked what do we think of when we hear the name Peter. Some said walked on water, some said denied Jesus three times. His text came from Luke 22:31-34, 54-62 and Acts 3:1-9. He did a good job.

Future events: Fall Festival is Oct. 23 at 5 p.m.

Oct. 24 is our regular fourth Sunday night singing. Bring a song and sing for us.

This Wednesday night is our business meeting for members at 7 p.m.

Have a blessed week, and may the Lord bring you into a deeper understanding of the love of God and of patience that comes from Christ (2 Thessalonians 3:5).

Jackson Chapel

Bro Dewayne Castleberry taught a good lesson entitled “Living in an Unbelieving World.”  Bro Gary Fant got the morning worship service started off with “There is Power in the Blood” and “Love Lifted Me.”  Bro Horace Wyatt sang “The Unseen Hand” and as he was singing, people began to come to the altar and the Holy Spirit was present in a mighty way.

Bro Dennis’ text came from Joshua 11:15-23 with a message entitled “Things Undone.”  If there are things in our lives that are undone when judgment day comes, we will be held accountable for them.  We need to live by the word of God daily and abide by his commandments.  We also need to make sure that the undone things in our lives are done if we want to make sure that we make it to heaven.  The service ended with several coming to pray.

Bro Gary Fant got the evening service started off with “I’m Too Near Home to Turn Back Now,” “O I Want to See Him” and “I’ll Fly Away.”

Bro Dennis’ text came from 1 Corinthians 3:5-10.  We as Christians need to work together, love each other and all pull in the same direction. If we as Christians will do this, there is no end to what God will do.  We also need to get our minds set to put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, and if we’ll do that, God will pour out his blessings on us which will be beyond what we could ever imagine.

Happy birthday this week to Nick Burnett.

Happy anniversary to Brian and Susan Cagle.

Please remember these as you pray this week – Susan Smith, Glenn, Cole and Carson Riley, Jean Mayfield, Janie Smitherman, Ann Booker, Earl Davenport, Daniel Cleckler, Stacy Atchison, Sam Glass, our lost loved ones and our service men and women.

We are located at 4020 Yellowleaf Road in Clanton.  Our service times are as follows: Sunday School at 10, morning worship at 11, evening worship at 6, and Wednesday night prayer meeting and Bible study at 7.  We also have Kid’s Club on Wednesday nights at 7 for grades 1-6.

Walnut Creek United Methodist Church

The church membership was invited to a birthday bash at Ollie Park for…yes, the church members! After the prayer, Bro. Tony said, “Everybody who has had a birthday in the last 13 months, please stand. Now, sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to yourself!”

Last week when I first heard about this, I will admit I was a little confused, but wow! What a party. As always, those ladies of Walnut Creek had baked cakes and all kinds of sides and makings for hamburgers and hotdogs cooked there on the spot by Larry, Mark, Duwane and others. The pavilion was decorated, everybody was happy like…well, like it was their birthday!

After all that food, we had a cake walk with two tables of beautiful cakes made by these same sweet ladies. I would personally like to thank everybody who had a part in this happy occasion.

Ray, Myrtice, Mark and Sara left for the mountains. Pray for their safe return and travel mercies. Happy birthday to Jace Mims. Continue prayers for Johnnie, Jamie and the whole family. Also remember Sue Belcher, Grayson Gore and Lavada Attaway, who was not able to make the morning worship but like us all we enjoyed our birthday party. Pray for those who would like to have been there but were unable to.

In Christ.

Mt. Pisgah United Methodist Church

To celebrate Children’s Sabbath, Bro. Glenn gave the message on “The Gospel According to Dr. Seuss.”  Wearing his hat like the Cat in the Hat, he preached on the biblical truths found in the book “The Cat in the Hat.”  It was both entertaining and informative.

Mt. Pisgah is now working on a number of outreach programs for the community.  We are collecting book bags and Bibles for the homeless. This project gives the homeless a place to put their possessions other than a plastic bag. This also gives them opportunity to read God’s word.

The next project we are doing is collecting food for the food baskets we give out during Thanksgiving and Christmas to those in need.

The Ladies Circle is selling cakes; you may place your order with any of the ladies at Mt. Pisgah.  We are getting ready for our Fall Festival.  We invite everyone to come out for a fun evening of games, food, chili cook-off, and cornbread contest. We will also be having a hayride.

It promises to be a fun evening for everyone. This event will be on Oct. 27 at 5:30 p.m.

Also, in October we have our annual Revelation Hayride. Join us for this special adventure as we learn more about the book of Revelation. The dates for this event are Oct. 22, 23 and 30.  The first ride departs at 6:30 p.m.