P A S T O R. Holly Tree Chapel Newsletter May Contact Us South FM 2869 Holly Lake Ranch, TX Pastor: Dr.

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1 Contact Us 1620 South FM 2869 Holly Lake Ranch, TX Website: hollytreechapel.com mail: Pastor: Dr. Tim Mink We seek to glorify God as the Gospel of Jesus Christ transforms our lives, our church, our community, and our world. Holly Tree Chapel, Holly Tree Chapel Newsletter May 2018 As I reflect on the month of May, thoughts come to mind about my late wife, Hope, and my mother and grandmothers. Mother s Day is the highlight of the month, and a time to celebrate what mothers and grandmothers have meant to all of us. P A S T O R Hope wrote her master s thesis at Dallas Theological Seminary on Proverbs 31, which describes an excellent woman who fears the Lord. Hope was the embodiment of the woman described there. She is described as excellent (verse 10). The word "excellent" is the Hebrew word which means "strength, or efficiency." To illustrate this word, it is helpful to see how it is used and translated in other passages of Scripture. In the New American Standard translation, it is able" (5 times), "strength" (10 times), "army" (82 times), "valiant" (over 40 times), and "capable" (3 times). In the context of Proverbs 31, it refers to moral strength, but also to domestic ability and efficiency. Five qualities of an excellent mother or grandmother are identified: 1. She is a devoted wife (vss. 11, 12, 23). She is one who has the confidence of her husband, who seeks his welfare, and enhances the reputation of her family. 2. She is a diligent partner (vss , 18b, 19, 22, 24). As a woman with God's biblical worldview, she is a willing worker, a wise shopper and planner who is able to minister to her family because she keeps herself spiritually and physically fit (cf. vs. 18a, 25). 3. She is a dutiful servant to the needy and the poor (vs. 20). She has a vision for ministry not only to her own family but also to her community and society. 4. She is a dependable mother (vss. 15, 21, 27). She is devoted to the needs of her family. She is well groomed, attractive, organized, and disciplined; she is a testimony to her children. They love her and respect her. 5. She is a doctrinally sound woman (vs. 26, 18). She is a woman full of God's wisdom, spending time daily reading His word, and praying diligently for her husband, children, and community. Continued

2 Maybe you are saying, This doesn't describe a woman, it describes superwoman"! Perhaps! It certainly describes a woman who is living in a supernatural way with a supernatural God who strengthens her. Mothers, we bless you. Pastor Tim W O M N S F L L O W S H I P

3 M M B R N W S Anniversary Russ & Jeanette Bruner 5/7 Robby & Gale Tucker 5/24 Birthday ric sser 5/6 Diane Bowman 5/7 Chesnea Countryman 5/9 Nance Wilson 5/11 Aaron Miller 5/16 MN S FRIDAY BIBL STUDY Men s Bible Study begins each Friday at 7:50 a.m. The men are currently studying the gospel of Luke Gentlemen of Holly Tree Chapel Our usher teams are in need of assistance. We are looking for men to usher on Sundays. If the Holy Spirit moves you, and you could pre-dedicate one Sunday or more a month to help us it would be a blessing. For information on joining the usher team, please contact us: Usher Captain Leon Ward Usher Captain Jim Armstrong ADULT SUNDAY SCHOOL We invite you to join us each Sunday morning at 8:45 a.m. in the Fellowship Hall for spiritual growth and fellowship. Holly Tree Chapel 2018 Board of Deacons Jeannette Pyle Secretary Francine vans - Treasurer Suzan Armstrong Dennis Bowman Nancy Weaver Dr. Tim Mink, Pastor

4 Celebrating our Father on Mother s Day Mother s Day can be a difficult holiday to navigate in the church. While Pastors desire to honor the godly mothers in their congregations, they are also sensitive to the hurts that exist in the hearts of other women and men in the body who are unable to have children, have lost a child, have lost their Mother, who never knew their mother, have a lousy relationship with their mother, single women, and even those couples who remain childless by choice. What started out, by Anna Jarvis, as a simple way to show honor to her mother soon became a commercial nightmare that she worked to change the rest of her life. Today Mother s Day can either be a source of joy or sorrow for many people, and each year when the holiday rolls around people prepare themselves for the joy of a large family dinner and gifts for Mom or a heart wrenching day of pain and grief, or anywhere in between these polar emotions. The wonderful personality traits that we love about our Mothers, whether it be a kind manner, selflessness, or a great sense of humor, have their origin in the divine creation of man. God choose to make us in His image. He choose to make a distinction in gender making one female and one male. God imparted to each gender traits that, when combined together in a family unit, can reflect a whole picture of His image. We are designed to reflect God s personality traits. So what we love about our Mothers can also be found and enjoyed in our Creator. God provides pictures of Himself in scripture acting as a mother would which gives insight into His character and personality. The tenderness He feels for His children can be seen in Hosea 11:3-4 Yet it was I who taught phraim to walk, I who took them up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love. I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks. I bent down to them and fed them. Remember how you have felt when you have lifted an infant to your cheek you feel the soft smoothness of their skin and marvel at the sweet scent and innocence. You can t help but kiss them because your feelings of love have to express themselves in some tangible way. God lets us know that He feels the same tenderness for us, and He has gifted us with the ability to experience that part of His character through our human relationships. God compares His devotion to us with the devotion of a nursing mother in Isaiah 49:15 - Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? ven these may forget, yet I will not forget you. In Isaiah 42:14, God compares Himself to a woman who can no longer hold her tongue the pain of silence can no longer be held in; just like a woman in labor For a long time I have held my peace, I have kept myself still and restrained myself; now I will cry out like a woman in labor, I will gasp and pant. If we struggle to relate to God s character using human relationships, don t worry, His traits are also reflected in nature. His anger toward those who seek other gods is vividly described in Hosea 13:8 Like a bear robbed of her cubs, I will attack them and tear them asunder. Continued

5 Most sensible people know not to mess with a mother bear! His tough love and faith building is seen in how an eagle teaches her young to fly. Deuteronomy 32:11 Like the eagle that stirs up its nest, and hovers over its young, God spreads wings to catch you, and carries you on pinions. If you study how eagles teach their young to fly, you find that one day everything changes for the eaglets. Mama returns to the nest without any food, she hovers above the nest instead of landing and feeding. Once she lands she starts to push one of the eaglets close to the edge of the nest and she doesn t stop until the baby has been pushed all the way out. The eaglet is not capable of flying at this time so it free falls until the mother swoops down and catches the baby on her back and deposits the eaglet back in the nest. The mother does this over and over again until the baby learns to fly. She doesn t stop there as at some point she starts to dismantle the nest knowing that if the babies are comfortable in the nest, they will never learn to fly. Jesus also uses the picture of protection offered by a mother hen to her chicks in Matthew 23:37 and Luke 13:34 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing. One of the counter-cultural ways Jesus describes the gospel, compares God to a woman looking for something lost: Luke 15:8-10 Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost. Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. God s creative ways of showing us aspects of His personality through vivid and tender images of mothers, both human and animal, shows us His divine nature is not manifested in disconnected ethereal spirit matter but is manifested in relationships that we understand with our mind and connect with emotionally. He visibly reveals the truth of His divine nature in tangible ways so that we can understand elements of His nature and character and understand how to connect and relate to Him. Our current human condition guarantees, that for some people, Mother s Day will be painful. Only God has the answers to the tough questions asked by couples who cannot bear children of their own, or comfort those who have lost a child or parent. He offers assurance in His word that He has been in those exact situations, and knows the hurt of broken relationships, wayward children, tough love, physical and emotional pain, faithfulness in the face of rejection and separation by death. On the other hand, our current spiritual condition opens the door for emotional health and healing when in relationship with a loving, faithful, tender, fierce, righteous, protective God who can be both father and mother to us. The celebration of Mother s Day can take on new meaning as we not only celebrate the joy found in our relationships with Mothers but also as we celebrate the characteristics of the divine creator of all relationships. Jeannette Lewis

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8 But when the perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, Prayer Blanket Ministry DATH IS In 2017 the PBM distributed 73 prayer blankets SWALLOWD to UP family, friends, and some to those we do not IN VICTORY. know, who needed encouragement in the face of O illness DATH, or death. 73 lives have been touched and comforted WHR by IS YOUR the kindness of this ministry and your prayers. VICTORY? So far this year we have sent out 8 blankets. O DATH, WHR IS YOUR Thank you Diane & Dennis! STING? (I Cor. 15)