Bethany Baptist Church

After congregational songs and a choir special, a men’s group sang “Ten Thousand Angels.” Bro. Steve’s message was from 2 Samuel 9:1-13. He compared King David’s mercy, love and kindness toward Mephibosheth, the crippled grandson of former King Saul. In a sense we were crippled and infirmed by sin before we accepted the provision God made for us through Jesus Christ His Son for salvation. David restored to Mephibosheth his inheritance from King Saul; we also have an eternal inheritance through Jesus Christ, which will never pass away.

Sunday evening Bro. Steve chose Ecclesiastes 7:7-10 as his text about the patient spirit, the proud spirit, and the hasty spirit.

April birthdays: Ralph Wilson-April 25; April Anniversary: Carl and Ellen Gray-April 29.

Prayer list: Betty Biggs, James Bixler, Ellen Gray, Ophelia Griffin, Ernestine Hatch, Larry Miller, Billie Neeley, Lilianna Thompson, Tim Wallace, and our June VBS.

See you Sunday!

Bethsalem Baptist

Our day of worship was a wonderful day, singing and praising our Lord. We had a baptism for Brooklyn Edwards. Our special music was “In Christ Alone,” by Pastor Brad Eubank, and “So High the Price,” by the Celebration Choir.

The morning message was “For Such a Time as This,” from Esther 4:1-17 and evening message was from Joshua 1:1-18, entitled “Courageous in the Word.”

Pray this week daily for Lilliana Thompson, Lois Mims, Charles and Gladys Bryant, Debra Mims, Jeanette Smitherman, Marshal and Hazel Greene, Jim Beck, Betty Gregory, Hunter Moore, Dewey Terrell, Vickie Knight, Katie Mims, Misty Kelley, Susan Thompson, Edward Moore. James Earl Johnson, Edward Moore, James Parker, Amy Mims, Katherine Cleckley, Christy Harmon, Norman Hand and all our shut-ins.

Happy birthday this week to Betty Bennett, Hailey Edwards, Kacy Barrett, Lennia Wilson, Kim Williams. Chuck Boyles, Sally Easterling. Hayley Wright. Chris Payne, Monya Hughes, Mark Mims, Nathan Evans. Robyn Denham, Kriston Pack, Kim Benson, Brandon Wright, Danny Blaock and Colin Fulmer.

Next Sunday night our children’s choir’s will be singing in evening service.

Calvary Independent Baptist

Calvary Independent Baptist Church wants to thank our visitors for coming and worshipping the Lord Jesus Christ with us this Sunday. Bro. Matthew Brasher preached in the 10 a.m. adult worship service on fruits in the believer’s life. He used scriptures from Matthew 5, Psalms 34, and other places to show products that should be present in a believer’s life.

He challenged everyone to examine themselves to see if they are in the faith. In the Sunday evening service we had a song service, message from the word of God, and then a family night fellowship meal downstairs.

Bro. Oscar Mims preached from Mark 6 and Job 2 on how the sufferings Job went through allowed him to be a help to many people even hundreds of years after his sufferings. A broken vessel that, when we are able to lift up, eases the pain, suffering and problems that we are going through.

We want to encourage anyone who is interested in being part of an awesome bible study to come out for our Wednesday night services at 6:30 p.m. and also our 9 a.m. Sunday morning services.

Cedar Grove Church

We were blessed with a good attendance today, several visitors, looking forward to their return.

Brother Alton Russell led “The Unclouded Day,” Bro. Davis Bullard dismissed us into our Sunday School class.

The title of the lesson was “The Parable of The Tares.” The scripture came from Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43.

Golden Text: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether, it be good or bad,” from 2 Corinthians 5:10.

Happy birthday to Byron Cumming, Ralph Hayes and Jerry Giles. Happy anniversary to Billy Joe and Donna Price.

We had two wonderful sermons. The altar filled both times,

Cedar Grove is having special singing next Sunday night, special guests are coming, Brother Dennis Smith and the rest of Jacksons Chapel Church.

Come on and expect to hear wonderful singing from both churches.

May God bless, and we will try to have more news next week.

Friendship Baptist

Our choir special was “Listen to The Hammer Ring,” with the solo part sung by Mary Martin. Our message was from Acts 2:1-13, 37-42, titled “Pentecostal Power.” Bro. Ken Daniel spoke about filling of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Our evening service message was “A Time to Remember.” We discussed the 2011 April Tornadoes and how the Alabama Baptist Association helped along with so many others.

Our Mother/Daughter/Friend Banquet was awesome. We had around 81 present. A big thanks goes out to our wonderful speakers, Teresa Marcus and Shirley Bright.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6 p.m. our gym is open for men’s basketball.

Upcoming events:

April 28- Youth outing to Trussville Play Station

April 29- The children will be bagging groceries at Winn Dixie to raise money for their mission trip.

May 5- The youth will be bagging groceries at Winn Dixie to raise money for their mission trip.

(A big thank you goes out to Winn Dixie for allowing both groups to raise money at their store.)

May 19- Pancake breakfast from 6-10:30 a.m.

Jackson Chapel

Bro. Gary Fant got the morning worship service started off with “He Keeps Me Singing” and “When We All Get To Heaven.”  Bro Gary Fant sang “A Crown of Bright Glory” and Bro Dennis Smith, Angel Bavar and Wanda Chadwick sang “Right On Time” and as they were singing people began to come to the altar to pray and the Holy Spirit was present in a mighty way so because people allowed God to work through them, Bro Dennis didn’t even get to preach and we thank God for what he is doing in our church.

Happy Birthday to Hannah Burnett and Joey Burnett

Please pray for these as you pray this week – Kathy Waites, The Rhodes Family, Larry Williams, Josh Williams, our lost loved ones and our service men and women.

Mars Hill Baptist

Our morning worship got off to a great start with the choir giving us “He Set Me Free.”

Then it was fun to watch the young children go to Children’s Church. They are so excited to have their own service. If only we older adults could be that excited about going to church.

Bro. William used Philippians 2:1-5 for his sermon. Here we learn that we must be of one mind, nothing should come ahead of Jesus. The born again Christian should worship God, we should know, or learn, how to pray and we need to know how to repent.

The night service came from Ecclesiastes 12:13-14. “Hear the conclusion of the whole matter.” The whole matter is where do you stand with God. Is it good or bad? Everybody needs to see Jesus in us. We should always live as if today is our last day.

April 27: Be a “Life Saver”–support Relay for Life

May 27 will be Homecoming at Mars Hill

During the month of May the WMU will be collecting items for Care Net Pregnancy Center. They need newborn diapers, blankets and bathing supplies. Please give to this worthy cause.

Starting Mother’s Day and going to Father’s Day it will be the Baby Bottle Fundraiser. This is where we fill baby bottles with our spare change. One little boy told me it was to “buy milk for hungry babies.”

June 24 will be our 125th Anniversary Celebration during the morning services.

Vacation Bible School will start at 6 p.m. on June 24.

Mt. Carmel No. 1 Baptist

Our thanks go out to the families that opened their homes this past week for us to be blessed with a week of cottage prayer meetings. Following these we had a wonderful day in God’s house on Sunday. Our morning services began with Bro. Derrell’s message to the children. He used the story of the prodigal son to explain to them how being greedy can cause problems and troubles in your life, but how a loving father forgives and welcomes us home when we are willing to repent. Dee Roper sang “God on the Mountain.” Bro. Derrell took his morning message, “Some Things Missing in Hell,” from Matthew 23:33. He emphasized the first and most important thing is that we make sure we are missing. Other things include the Redeemer, saved loved ones, relief from pain, riches, and a way out. The words of God need to shake us until we have the realization of hell and do everything it takes to escape it.

Our evening service was opened with the congregation singing some of the old songs and the choir sang “Standing on the Solid Rock.” Revival meetings started on Sunday evening with Bro. Don Vanderslice. His message to us was taken from 1 Samuel 30:1-8. We owe a special thanks to Mrs. Jan Franklin, Chad Foshee, Tammy and Derrell Jones for their help this past weekend with our youth and the youth from Shiloh. They gave their time to allow the youth to be able to enjoy the D-now weekend. A great time was reported by all that attended.

There will be a bridal shower for Pam Higgins on May 6. It will be at 2 p.m. in the church fellowship hall.

We have several on our prayer list this week that need a special touch from God. These include Ryan Scott, Cecil Franklin, Gladys Franklin, Danny Childress, Ruthie Jean Giles, Nolen Maudlin and Jacob Jones.

Mt. Springs

Services started with Bro. Kenneth Moates leading the church in the following hymns: “I Feel Like Traveling On,” “I Want to be Ready To Meet Him,” “A New Name In Glory,” and “Come and Dine.”

Bro. Ricky Bice gave a devotion from Romans 12: 1-5. We can always spend more time with God. Are you letting God shape you into what he wants you to be?

After Sunday School, Bro. Kenneth led the church in the hymns “I’ll Be Somewhere Listening” and “There’s Power in the Blood.” Sherrie Williams sang “The Great Speckled Bird” and blessed the church with an old hymnal.

Bro. Don preached from 2 Corinthians 4:5. God is the shepherd in our lives. God can do everything but one thing, and that is fail. With him all things are possible!

Sunday night’s services started with Bro. Ricky Cleckler leading the church in the hymns “It’s Different Now,” “Is My Lord Satisfied With Me,” and “Somebody Loves Me.”

Bro. Ashley Bice gave a devotion from Philippians 1:1-13. We should be obsessed with God. Is God number one in your life? Debbie Barnett sang “I’ve Made It By Grace” and blessed the church with a wonderful song.

Bro. Sam Ross preached from Mark 10:46-52. Seek the Lord when you’re discouraged. Don’t let people tell you that you are nobody because if you have God on your side you are somebody.

Samaria Baptist

Our worship began early with Don Fisher doing a recitation of “Trouble in the Amen Corner” We received a blessing from this.  Our prayer concerns continue, and we remembered: Steve Headley; Ronald Coker; Charlotte Smitherman; Norman Hand; Allison Bush; and Jack Meek.

Brother Brooks took his sermon from John 1:14-29.  He was like us on the earth, but there was no other like our Lord Jesus Christ. He came to earth as a mortal man, and lived among us from His birth, but He was still God.  None will ever match His grace, strength, power, and honor.  Peter said it was good to be with Jesus. The voice from heaven spoke, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

If only the same could be said of us today in our lives. That God is pleased with us. As Christians, we have a great burden to reach out, and let others see what is going on in our lives because He came, and saved our soul.

God knows all. He gave us all. His mercy reigns to all of us through His Word, and through Christian examples.  John the Baptist testified of Christ; he was the forerunner of Christ. Jesus lived in human form; experiencing troubles and woes as we do, that He might die and live again forever.  Making way for us to do the same when we leave this world.

We believe the Bible is God speaking to us, and imparting His will and plan to us. God has a great desire to draw us unto Him. Jesus gave His all for us. What will we do for Him?