Newsletter of Bliss Missionary Church 231-537-4986 March, 2017 blissmissionarychurch.org Missions Trip Planned Emily Karkow, Pastor s daughter, is planned to help on a medical mission trip to Guatemala at the end of March. She will be working with Greg Miller Ministries and her co-workers from Otsego Memorial Hospital. They will work at a health clinic in Zacapa, Guatemala. If you wish to help financially, please send donations made out to Faith Baptist Church, 616 West Lincoln, Cheboygan, Mi 49721. Please include Guatemala Missions Trip in the memo line and say the donation is for Emily Karkow. Women Continue Work The WMMC ladies will continue their Work Days, Tuesdays 9:30-noon through the end of April. They will be making crib sheets and new quilts. To continue to raise money for missions, the ladies have 1st and 2nd editions of the Bliss Cookbook and RADA cutlery for sale. If you wish to purchase any of these items, please contact Verna Fay at 231-537-4683. The women wish to thank all who donated clothes for the Baptist Children's Home in Florida. Seven boxes were filled. WMMC is done collecting clothing for now. Tired of brown, grey and blah? Add Some Color! Ladies Night Thursday, March 16-6 pm Youth Study Miracles of Jesus The Youth have just completed a study of the miracles of Jesus and how they apply to our lives. The rooms where the youth meet, in the upper part of the Alpha, have been renovated with new paint, shelving, lighting, and the addition of equipment for games. The youth group is under new leadership as Hunter Kilpatrick was appointed as Youth Director for 2017. Bruce Byard has been the Youth Director for the past many years. Hannah Kilpatrick, Brad Byard, and Phil Kilpatrick are also involved in the youth program, assisting Hunter. The Youth meet Wednesdays at 7:15 for a lesson and activities. All ladies, teens and girls are invited to a Ladies Night, March 16 at the Alpha. Pages of decorative or quilt designs with scripture quotes will be provided, along with colored pencils to share. If preferred, fine-line markers or paints for personal use may be brought. Designs vary from simple to quite intricate. Blank card stock will also be available for those who would like to design their own page. Ladies are encouraged to invite friends and bring a snack to share.
From Pastor Rob A Call To All As you may be aware, the theme for 2017 is Live Like a Disciple of Jesus. What does that mean? What does that look like? How does one know when they are living in this manner? All great questions and they are unbelievably difficult to find an answer for. There are many different schools of thought on this subject, so much so, that anyone who has been pursuing answers to this question will find a plethora of books, websites and podcasts that raise more questions than giving clear answers. So how then are we, Bliss Missionary Church, going to navigate through all the possibilities to find the right answers for the questions? First and foremost I am making a call to each of us to pursue the call Christ made to his disciples, come follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Secondly I ask that we all take a good hard look at the gospels to see how Jesus lived, talked, acted and especially trained those early disciples to be more like him. The way that we live out the Bible in our lives will guide us to look more and more like Christ. It is not a choice, it is not an optional way of life but it is required if we are going to say we are Christians. To be a Christian means to be Christ like. That is the definition of a Christian, to be like Christ. To say I am a Christian is to say my desire is to look so much like Christ that everyone who sees me, sees Christ in me and through me. The reason that this should be our focus is twofold. First John writes in 1 John these words. We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, I know him, but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did. The Bible tells us that if we claim to be his Disciples we MUST live as Jesus did. Secondly, our desire needs to point others to Christ. As I mentioned earlier Jesus told his first disciples these words when he first called them. Come, follow me, Jesus said, and I will send you out to fish for people. In order for us to actually reach others Jesus calls us to follow Him and to do this means we need to continue to grow to look like Him in all areas of our life. The only way we can learn to follow call of Jesus is through the Bible. He is not here to guide us personally, only through what he left behind for us through His disciple s writings. We can read books on discipleship, we can learn from trainings and conferences, but we MUST weigh what is taught through the Scriptures to make sure it lines up with what Jesus lived and said. Jesus put out a call to follow him, that call is to all of us and we must realize what that call entails to look like Christ and to point others to Him. It is an honor; it is an exciting life when we follow this calling, when we learn to examine the Scriptures and apply the aspects of Christ to our lives. It is a call to all that continues for a lifetime. Pastor Rob
Jesus said, For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. (Mark 8:35). What he was saying, was that if you devote your life to pleasing yourself, you will actually destroy your soul, whereas if you place honoring God above pleasing yourself, then your soul will be truly satisfied. In his book Soul Keeping, John Ortberg explains that our souls are always searching for satisfaction, but not finding it in the world around us. He puts it this way: A paradox of the soul is that it is incapable of satisfying itself, but it is also incapable of living without satisfaction The soul craves to be secure loved significant, and we find these only in God But why? The ultimate reality behind human dissatisfaction is sinful souls that have been cut off from the God we were made to rest in. That s why we re dissatisfied. Our own attempts at soul satisfaction don t end well. An example is addiction, which is a kind of worship, although a counterfeit worship. An addict is the supreme example of trying to satisfy the soul with all the wrong things. The more it s fed, the more it craves. The paradox of soul-satisfaction is this: when I die to myself, my soul comes alive. God says the wrong approach to soul thirst is through human achievement and material wealth. So soul-satisfaction is not about acquiring the right things but about acquiring the right soul. It is not something you buy, but something you receive freely from God. The writer of Ecclesiastes mentions satisfaction, There is nothing better for a The Soul Needs Satisfaction person than that he should make his soul enjoy good in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God. This statement was borne out by a research study of happiness in the work place. The study found that the ten least happy jobs were actually more financially lucrative and offered higher status than the ten happiest jobs. Those happiest jobs provided less money, less status, but the people had a higher sense of meaning. Work is a soul function. We re made to create value. How can we resist the temptation to get our satisfaction from the things of this world? Ortberg gives two examples. Two friends of his in the same vocational field called. One had gotten a big promotion; the other was passed over for a promotion. Here s what s so cool about the appeal of a satisfied soul: My friend who didn t get the promtion threw a huge party to celebrate the good new for his friend who did. What a great example of a soul resting in God rather than depending on applause and achievement. The other example was from Ortberg s professor, a founding elder of the church where Ortberg worked. Dr. B. walked from his house to the college each day. One day he noticed his neighbor had put a beautiful, artistic, creative sign out front. Dr. B admired it (he loved beauty) and went through the stages of admiring it, to looking forward to seeing it on his walk, to wanting a sign like that for himself so the sign no longer gave him pleasure. His insight from God solved the problem, asking, couldn t you enjoy that sign without owning it?. He agreed and said to himself, I ll just admire without the need to acquire. To make address changes, call Dennis Fay at 231-537-4683, or email dennisfay@centurylink.net. The newsletter is also on the church website.
WMMC Special Projects For 2017 Eleanor finishes putting strings on pill bags. Cindy Strong took 50 of them on her missions trip to Mexico for patients to carry their pills home in, plus a New Testament. Finished Pill Bags The WMMC ladies made up these baskets of doilies, scrubbies, muffins, cookies, and fudge to show God s love to people in our community. They distributed 14 baskets prior to Valentine s Day.
WMMC Pregnancy Care Center Projects For 2017 Von demonstrates how he sewed the burp cloths. Finished burp cloths 36 of them were delivered to the Pregnancy Care Center in Petoskey. Carol cuts out crib sheets which will be sewed and then donated to the Pregnancy Care Center in Petoskey. Verna marks out crib sheets to be cut.
Alpha Rooms For Youth Get Make-Over Rooms in the upstairs of the Alpha have been refurbished with new paint, lighting, partitions, and shelving. For additional activities, a TV and air hockey game has been installed. Game Night The Fellowship Committee organized a Game Night for February. Before the games started, the group enjoyed a soup and salad meal.