October In This Issue

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1 3950 Wyoming, Kansas City, MO (816) October 2018 Worship, Sun: 10:00 am Bible Study, Sun: 11:00 am Tues: 6:30 pm As I was growing up, I always looked forward to October 31 st because it meant receiving lots of candy and some specially made popcorn balls from neighborhood people. I didn t know anything about the roots of Halloween and, as young child, I didn t care. All I was concerned about was having fun dressing up in a costume and getting candy. It could just as easily have been dressing up for the 4 th of July, as long as I received candy. When I became an adult and had children of my own, I still didn t think about the roots of Halloween or whether I should let my children participate. I simply followed what I had done as a child because, as a child, I had enjoyed it. But then I learned that Halloween originated from Celtic festivals honoring the god of the underworld and traditionally included divination to determine events of the future like who your spouse would be or how many children you would have. The ceremonies also included inviting dead spirits to participate in the activities. I also learned that Wiccans celebrated it as a festival of darkness and death honoring the god of death. The church my family and I attended at that time had formerly held a Halloween party each year, but when the congregation learned the roots of Halloween they decided not to have a Halloween party but to have a harvest party where everybody came dressed up but not in any costume honoring Satan, demons, or witches. That s when my wife and I decided our family would not participate in Halloween in any fashion not even in a harvest party. So, when the children s school classes celebrated Halloween, my wife and I would take them out of school and do something with them to honor Jesus. After my children were all grown and after I had attended seminary and learned to use situations to reach out to people with the good news about Jesus, I discovered something that I should have known ever since I learned the roots of Halloween. I should have known that most people don t know that Halloween is a festival made for honoring Satan and his evil spirits and inviting them to participate in the life of those people celebrating Halloween. I felt compassion for the people who didn t know what they doing when they celebrated Halloween, so I began looking for a way to use the situation to share Jesus with the children and their parents. I found handouts produced by the American Tract Society that use everyday situations, including Halloween, to share the good news about Jesus with people. I decided to give those tracts along with some candy to all the children who come to my house on Halloween. I expect their parents to check the candy they have received and know they will see the tract, so In This Issue Continued on page 2 The Great Pumpkin 3 Spotlight on Missions 4 Library News 5 Kid s Page 6 Pray for our Missionaries 7

2 2 Continued from page 1 Halloween I pray God will use it to teach them about Jesus and draw them to himself. Some churches have found other ways to use the Halloween time to reach children, their parents, and even teenagers with the story of what Jesus has done for everyone who will believe that he is God and, based on his sacrificial death, accept his offer of a right relationship with the only Creator of the universe. Some churches have what they call trunk or treat where members dress in costume as a biblical hero and hand out candy treats and tracts from the trunk of their cars while parked in the church s parking lot. Some churches also provide games and activities that honor Jesus so the children and their parents can enjoy those along with the trunk or treat. Other churches present a haunted house type of event for teenagers that they call a judgment house. Actors, who are members of the church, present scenes that display the scary truth of the future that awaits people who don t accept Jesus death as the way to have a right relationship with God. Everyone who attends the judgment house is given the opportunity (but they are not pressured) to believe that Jesus is God and accept his offer of a right relationship with the Creator. The Bible tells us that the universe has a spiritual realm just like it has a physical realm. When man was first created, he was created in God s image with a body (physical realm), a spirit (spiritual realm), and a soul (mind, will and emotions) that tied the body and spirit together and controlled them both. But Adam and Eve listened to the temptation of Satan that they could be like God by disobeying his command not to eat of one particular tree. Satan twisted God s word to try and convince them that God wouldn t really cause them to die if they disobeyed his command, so Adam and Eve ate fruit from the tree. God didn t immediately cause them to die physically, but he did cause them to die spiritually by separating their soul from control of their spiritual self. That s why the Bible says, The word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit. (Heb 4:12) God also separated them from himself and from the garden paradise he had given them, causing them to have to work to obtain the food they needed to live. As a result they would eventually die physically as their bodies wore out from age. This separation, or spiritual death, created a loss for Adam and Eve that is inherited by every person. The loss feels like an emptiness to our soul and we seek ways to fill the emptiness by contacting beings from the spiritual realm. Many people don t think it is possible to contact spiritual beings or think that they don t exist. Others don t think it is harmful to contact spirit beings. But the Bible tells how the Witch of Endor was able to contact the spirit of Samuel for King Saul. (1 Sam 28) So it is possible to contact the spirits of dead people (when God allows it for his purpose) and, therefore, other spiritual beings (demons). The Bible also says that our struggle against Satan s schemes is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Eph 6:11-12) I believe handing out candy and tracts to children and their parents at Halloween is a way to struggle against spiritual powers that tempt us not to believe Jesus is God and try to get us not to accept his offer of a right relationship with the Creator of the physical-spiritual universe. But I still believe that dressing up as Satan or a demon or even a witch who contacts Satan s spirit beings is wrong. It is the wrong thing to do because it glorifies those spirit beings who oppose God and tempt people to continue to disobey him rather than believing in Jesus and trusting his death to give them a right relationship with their Creator. Dr. Alan Cobb, Retired Pastor If you would like to know more about what the Bible says about the spirit realm and resisting the schemes of Satan, I invite you to visit the Church and join us for Bible study each Sunday morning. Our worship and study times are shown on the front of this newsletter.

3 Been Thinkin About The Great Pumpkin 3 Have you ever seen the cartoon special called It s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown? Some TV network airs it every October just before Halloween. It is the story of a little boy named Linus van Pelt. Linus thinks that the Great Pumpkin is a lot like Santa Claus. So, every year he sits in a pumpkin patch on Halloween night waiting for the Great Pumpkin to appear. According to Linus, the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch that he finds to be the most sincere. The Great Pumpkin then flies through the air delivering toys to all the good little children around the world. The problem is that the Great Pumpkin only lives in Linus imagination. There really is no such thing. Everybody sees Linus as acting silly. Some people think believing in God is also silly. They say, No one can see God, so how do you know he s real? Here s a really great answer for that question. A long time ago God, the Father, sent his one and only Son to earth. He caused a young virgin girl to give birth to him as a human baby and told the mother and her husband-to-be to name the baby Jesus because he would save his people from their sin. God also said people would call his Son Immanuel, which means God with us. Jesus grew up into a man and many people saw him, talked with him, touched him, saw him perform miraculous healings, watched him walk on water and calm fierce winds and turbulent waters, and came to believe that he was God in the flesh, Immanuel. Stories about his life are written in the Bible and other history books written near to that time also tell about him. One day, Jesus did something really, really amazing. After he had been nailed to a cross and had a spear thrust into his side, he died and was buried in a tomb with a one-ton rock covering the entrance. Then his body came back to life and he exited the tomb without removing the rock at the entrance. He did this just as he said he would and just as ancient Jewish prophets had proclaimed that God s Messiah, the Savior of his people, would do. Thus, Jesus proved that he is God. Even though we can t see him, we can still talk to him by praying and hear his voice by reading what eyewitnesses recorded in the Bible that he said in their presence. We can also learn about Jesus by listening to amazing stories of how people s lives have been changed after they have decided to believe he is God and follow his teachings. You probably don t believe in the Great Pumpkin, but I hope you believe Jesus is Immanuel, God with us. He is very real and actively working in the lives of those who believe and follow him. If you want to, here s how you can know God (Jesus). 1. Admit that you are not perfect. You make mistakes and do things that God doesn t want you to do. This disobedience is called sin. Everyone sins and that keeps them apart from God. The Bible says: There is a problem your sins have cut you off from God. (Isaiah 59:2 NLT) 2. Know that sin deserves to be punished, but that God loves you so much that he came up with a way to take of that for you. The Bible says: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son (John 3:16 NLT) 3. Believe that Jesus, God s Son, was punished in your place. When he died he took your punishment and everyone else s on himself. Then he rose again to have eternal life (eternal means forever) with God, the Father, and he will share that with you if you ask him. The Bible says: everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16) 4. The moment you believe in Jesus and ask him to give you eternal life, he takes away all your sin and you are forgiven. Then he sends God s Holy Spirit to live in you forever and you will be with him eternally.

4 4 Spotlight on Missions Pantry Pleas And Thank You Thank you for your response to our pleas for September. We hope you will help us with some of the following items for October. Dear Friends, Here we are at the beginning of the Fall of the year and looking forward to many great mission activities. In September we supported the Rheubin L. South Missouri Missions with a special offering. Now in October we are going to support the Samaritan s Purse outreach to children around the world by filling shoeboxes with gifts for children of different ages. We will dedicate them on Nov 11 and then take them to a collection site where they will begin their journey with boxes from other individuals and churches until they reach a child in some far-away place along with the message that Jesus loves them. You can read more about this ministry at the website listed on the very back page of the newsletter. We invite you to participate by filling a shoebox and bringing it along with the $9 shipping cost to the church and we will include it with all the shoeboxes we fill. Also in October, we have the opportunity to visit with missionaries from Southeast Asia who will be sharing stories of their ministries with people at First Baptist Church in North Kansas City. We will also join with other churches throughout Missouri in collecting an offering to help ease hunger throughout the state. In November we will collect canned and boxed foods to be used for Thanksgiving bags / boxes for people needing a little extra help this year to have an enjoyable Thanksgiving meal. We will also collect gifts for teenagers which will be taken to the Children s Home in Peculiar as Christmas gifts. In December we will prepare and take a Christmas blessing bag to the employees of businesses along 39 th Street to share the love of Jesus with them. Finally, we will begin a project to share the love of Jesus with all the homes in our ZIP code. Since there are 11,000 homes in the area, it means we could use some help taking the DVD we have to each home. Please contact us if you can help. Love and blessings, Alice Claire Butler 1. Salad Dressings 2. Crackers 3. Flour and Spices 4. Canned Fruit JOIN US Meeting: Oct 14 Carry-in lunch: Noon Mission Study: 1 p.m.

5 5 Our Summer Reading Club has come to a close with many apples lying under the trees. You can still enjoy all the good books to read by just checking one out. Here is information about a series that you might like to read. Oct 21 October Cupcakes October Birthdays Betty Betty Wissel Business Meeting Lunch, Hunger Offering, and Church-wide Birthday Party Oct 14 th 11 a.m. 1 p.m. Zion Legacy This is a five volume series by a Jewish couple, Bodie and Brock Thoene. The first volume, Jerusalem Vigil, begins in the early afternoon of May 14, 1948 when present-day Israel officially became a nation. Caught up in this historic moment are a cast of characters whose lives we get to follow as the events of history unfold. Moshe and Rachel Sachar are two of the many characters Bodie and Brock use to help us experience the events and how they affected the lives of the people who actually lived through them. Moshe is a professor of archaeology at the Hebrew University who leads a double life as a strategist for the Haganah group that is trying to protect the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem from being overrun by Arab fighters who want to seize control of all of Jerusalem for themselves. Moshe had left his pregnant wife, Rachel, safe in Tel Aviv when he went to the Jewish Quarter, but she finds herself fleeing toward Jerusalem where she has to brave gunfire on a perilous journey through the Christian Quarter of the city. Their stories and those of the other characters in Jerusalem Vigil will capture your attention and heart as you live the beginning of the nation of Israel and you will be looking forward to reading the next four volumes. Bodie and Brock have Ph. D. degrees respectively in creative writing and history. They have written thirty-two other novels before this series and have won eight Gold Medallion writing awards. I hope this short book review encourages you to read some of the great historical fiction books that we have in our library. There are also many other fictional, biographical, historical, and devotional books in the library for your enjoyment.

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7 Please join us in praying for these individuals who have accepted Jesus Lordship and are serving him in mission work. Oct 1 8 Russell Woody Birthday: Oct 6 Russell is a chaplain for a Special Operations battalion. He went through the survival, evasion, resistance, and escape course with 50 service men and women. Each day he was able to encourage the other trainees and prepare them spiritually for the stress they would face that day. I went prepared to encourage and support those most tempted to give up, he says. He reminded many of them of lessons they had learned during previous daily Bible studies they had with him and was able to use those to encourage them. Russell says it is rewarding to have a positive impact on an individual or family simply through being there and ministering to them during times of hardship. Pray for spiritual awakening among our nation s military service members. Pray also for Russell s wife and their seven children. Oct 9 15 Anita Jordan Birthday: Oct 13 Anita and her husband, Randy, work among students at two major universities in Southeast Asia with the purpose of training leaders to start their own small groups on campus. Last year the Pray For Our Missionaries Jordans were told by the university administration that they were not allowed to meet with students on campus because it was a Jesuit Catholic University. So, now they meet with students off campus. Anita is grateful for the opportunity to invest in the lives of the young people in dgroups (discipleship groups). The Lord is raising up disciples, even if a few are reluctant at first. The Jordans two college-age children are studying in the United States. Being away from their own children as they invest in other students is difficult at times, but working with national Filipino partners to reach campuses for Christ is a blessing. Join Anita in praying for students to reach out to their friends and classmates, for new leaders and dgroup to emerge, and for their children as they seek God s direction for their future. Oct Darlene Ford Birthday: Oct 20 Darlene looked at the eight Muslim men as she considered their request. They knew her as the woman who leads Bible studies and prayer services for 7 crew members on two cruise ships. She reminded the men that she is a Christian, but they did not care. So she listened to their prayer requests and led them in prayer. After doing this for six weeks, they came with two questions: Could they call her Mommy and would she teach them about Jesus. These crew members feel so alone, she says. Several of them have testified that they had been praying for someone to come and help them understand the Bible. Pray the cruise line will provide Darlene a free cabin so she can sail with them once a week and really minister to the crew. Oct Mark Hoshizaki Birthday: Oct 27 Mark and his wife, Wendy, serve in the northeastern Japan coastal towns of Kamishi and Otsuchi. In 2011, most of the people in these areas were directly affected by the tsunamis. A number who lost their homes dwell in temporary housing units as they wait for new housing to be built. Mark is taking advantage of this waiting period by going to temporary meeting rooms and community centers and even opening their home as they try to share Christ s love through brief Bible messages. Pray for God to help them and ask that more Japanese will receive eternal life by trusting in Jesus. Pray Christian workers will persevere in ministering to a post-disaster population with little response to the gospel.

8 A Community Outreach of 3950 Wyoming Kansas City, MO We are filling shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child again this year. We filled 116 last year and would like to exceed that number this year. If you would like to help us do that, visit the Samaritan s Purse website (see below) where they will explain what can go in a box, fill a box and bring it with the shipping cost ($9 check made out to Samaritan s Purse or Roanoke Baptist Church) and we will get the boxes gathered and taken to a collection site. Or send us a donation plus the $9 shipping cost and we will buy the gifts and fill a box for you.