A Great Place To Grow in Christ For the Entire Family

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1 A Great Place To Grow in Christ For the Entire Family January 6, 2018 This Weeks Events Today: 10:00AM: (Grange) 1 Corinthians Pastor 11:00AM: (Grange) Bible Reading (John Chapter 7:37-53) Rev. Wasilausky Message It s Not God s Fault Pastor 2:00PM: (Fir Lane) Shut In Saints Matthew Coale 6:00PM: (Grange) NO EVENING SERVICE Pastor Upcoming Events Jan 13, 2018 NOON: (Grange) Church Business Meeting Pastor Feb 3, :00PM: (Fir Lane) Shut In Saints Matthew Coale Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17 THIS IS BETTER THAN THIS 2

2 Ron Coale By Ron Coale Use the Book 2 Timothy 4: For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. 5But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. We all know that things are getting worse than ever. That is not to difficult to see. I wonder how many believers throughout the history of Christianity have felt the same way as we do regarding the degradation of society? I am sure that when they saw their fellow brethren being eaten alive by lions in the roman coliseum that they thought things were coming to a close. During the Spanish inquisition I am sure that believers thought the end was near. The escape from England for religious freedom may have inspired thoughts of the last days. Each generation of Christians has been able to think of the impending end of all things when regarding the moral degradation of the society in which they lived. God tells us that the end will be accompanied by a wholesale move towards teaching that tells us what we want to hear rather than what we need to hear. In other words, the 3 teaching will make us feel good about ourselves by saying only positive half-truths that stimulate our egos instead of our minds. Of course, sound doctrine will be something that they will approach as if it were something they had to endure. I am sure that we have all taken a class or joined in a conversation that was about something we had no interest in at all. When we can t get the subject to change, we have to keep listening even though the subject is simply boring to us. We will be enduring the conversation (or class) just to get through with it. In like manner will people treat the teaching of God s word. They will endure it. This very much seems like the situation we have for today. It is a similar situation that our brethren before us had to deal with. We are not to sit idle and let time overtake us. God gave us three things to do when found in such situations: Watch Endure Do the work of an evangelist. When watching, we are not to sit back and be an observer. We are to watch in the sense that we are to protect others. We are to be diligent and aware of what the devil is trying to do in our life as well as the lives of (Continued on page 4)

3 (Continued from page 3) others. As a vigilant guard on duty, we are to keep watch for anything wrong or out of the ordinary. When we see something out of place, we are to sound the alarm, communicating the type of threat as well as from which direction it is coming. There are times when Christians get involved in dangerous things. Things that will destroy their relationship with God and show their children a wrong example of how to live for Christ. Satan never decorates a mud pie with muck. He covers it in things that look wonderful. In this way, he traps many Christians leading them away making them ineffectual for Christ. He always offers a lot of truth with his lies. Watch out. When you see it, sound the alarm! We endure when we go through some kind of affliction. Sometimes the endurance of a thing or situation is the affliction itself. When we endure something, it is continually on our minds because it takes effort to endure. But endurance is its own reward. What is the reward for endurance? It is the end of the affliction. When a person is being tortured, the end of the torture is a reward in itself. The fact that it has ended is the reward. 4 For the Christian in this life, remaining true to your faith until the end of the afflictions this world brings (death, destruction, despair, etc.) is a great reward. It is a new life in a new place with a new body, name, ruler and home. This is why the saints of old endured being mocked, scourged, tied up, imprisoned, stoned, sawn asunder, slain with a sword, wandered about barely clothed, destitute, afflicted, tormented, lived in deserts, mountains, dens and caves. They knew that this Satan never decorates a mud pie with muck. He covers it in things that look wonderful. world was not where they belonged. God was providing some better thing for them (Heb. 11:34-40). So, the best thing that their endurance could bring was finality of life here so they could begin life there. Hey! This world is not my home, I m just a passing through. The work of an evangelist will keep us focused. It keeps our mind stayed on the right thing. If we are busy at something, our minds are focused on it. It is only when we are idle that our minds tend to wander and daydream. Our focus should always be on soulwinning. We must take the initiative and DO SOMETHING for God. Christians who justify their inactivity towards soulwinning have (Continued on page 11)

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6 Buenas Días, mis Queridos Hermanos, (Good Day, my Dear Brethren,) Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone! It s the close of 2018, and another year to reflect and ask ourselves; have I done my best for Jesus? Unfortunately, I believe I always come to the same answer of no. There is always room for improvement, and there is al-ways more that we could have done, so let s learn, grow, and move forward for the Lord. God has given us some great encouragements this month, and we are very appreciative. The singing time has improved greatly every week! We have a lady from Alaska that has been working with us every week to improve our hymnal. The only thing we have had is guitars, so hearing the piano again has been very refreshing. Also she has been helping the guitar players learn more hymnals so that we have more variety. The bilingual preaching has also been improving every week. It has really helped me in sentence structure, which has in turn helped me a great deal with speaking off script. I appreciate the prayers with this, because when I think about it I can t believe that I am preaching bilingual only after a year and a few months! The weekly ladies bible fellow-ship has been going great; this is the first month. My wife has been leading that in both languages as well. It has been great to bring the ladies of the church together, and teach them great principles on the fruits of the spirit. There has been a lot of great feedback from that. This month we did an outreach ministry to a small village in the mountains in Zapotan. A couple from Canada bring down donated money for food and blankets, which is something they have been doing for a few years now. So the contact that we have in that town gathered all the senior citizens and we had a church service. It was a great time of singing, giving testimonies, and I preached a message on the gift of God. Afterwards we had a time of fellowship and gave out a bunch of tracts in town. There seemed to be people who were saved in the last couple years that they had been going, but there was one lady who received Jesus Christ as her personal savior after a one on one witness! One is worth the time and effort, along with the seeds that were planted for those who don t know Jesus Christ. This town could use a bible believing missionary to start a work in this area as we are about two hours away from there and their only option is the catholic church. We continue on with our local weekly outreach every Wednesday. We have finished up Lo de Marcos, and I am now looking to the next town over, which is only two minutes away. With everything that we have going on, we are seeing fruit little by little. We see people saved, there are still visitors coming to church, and there is spiritual growth with the people in the church. I am excited to see everything that God is doing, and I look forward to more. Besides my personal emphasis in learning the language more fluently, the next big thing for the church is eventually obtaining property or a church building. The place that we rent every month is already too small for us; which is a great problem to have! We have been searching for the Lord s will in which town we should settle the church in, as well as looking at properties in all these towns. There are pros and cons to all of these towns, but ultimately we want the Lord s will to be done. Please pray with us in this matter of where, along with the financial provision for it. One thing I do know that the Lord desires is an indigenous local church that will continue on long after us; for that, they will need their own place to call home that will not be taken away from them. We deeply appreciate your continued prayers for our family and all that God would like to do here in this area. We know that it wouldn t be possible without the whole body functioning together. Thank you for everything! Brothers and sisters keep up the good fight! God bless- The Russell Family Adam, Sarah, Cristian, Kendra, Braden 7

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9 Send a card. Encourage a friend. 10 Answers from last weeks puzzle

10 PRAYER REQUESTS 607. Pastor Souls saved in Shelton Matt Savings Account (Building fund) to reach ($10,000) Sally Brother Nathan called to preach. Strength & direction Sally Jonny seeks God s will in making decisions for future Dee Protection for Stephanie working as a nurse Duane K. Ben s Salvation Machen 6 year old Azreal s brain tumor surgery Sally Mr. Johnson recovery from stroke Machin Ariel Marrero diagnosis for cause of pain Duane Azriel s comfort/strength for undergoing chemo Pastor Judy Carr s quick healing from back surgery Duane K. Jordan will see God s presence during the rough times he is in Pastor Michael, whom I witnessed to, mother would recover from stroke Pastor 2 Jehovah s Witness, whom I witnessed to would see the error of their gospel and get saved Pastor God s will for his life Pastor Thanks to God for taking 90 year old saint home. (Continued from page 4) a hard time reading, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. (Rom. 1:16). They know that Jesus said, For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father s, and of the holy angels. (Luke 9:26). Many times, have people left my church because all they ever heard were messages on going soulwinning. When asked what happened on the last time, they went to try to lead someone to the Lord they said, Well, we haven t gone yet, But we are planning on it. Every generation of Christians has used this formula to deal with the demise that the last days has brought upon them. Are we using it? Are the last days truly upon us? Do we have it better or worst than those before us? Where do we see the church going? Are the members watching, enduring and doing the work of an evangelist? When the times get so clouded that you don t know what to do, use the book. Do what it says instead of complaining about how messed up society is. ~ 11

11 NOTES: Mailing address: PO Box 1025, Shelton, WA address: Internet address: Face book address: Office Address: 1701 E. Agate Loop RD, Shelton, WA 98584, Meeting Location: Agate Grange Hall, 1631 E. Agate Loop Rd, Shelton, WA. 12