The Insight June 22, 2016 Volume 20, Issue 453 Rev. Jessica Gray Chris Nutt Our youth will be leaving on the Disciple Summer Mission trip to St. Louis at 7:00 on Monday, June 27. While in St. Louis we will lodge at Washington University and have our evening worship in several of the local Disciples of Christ Churches. This Sunday, June 26th we will have a special service including blessings and commissioning of those attending the mission trip. All participants are encouraged to attend the10:30 Worship Service in Kenner Hall. Please try to arrive no later than 10:15. A few of the groups we will be working with in the great city of St. Louis are: DOORWAYS is an interfaith non-profit organization which provides housing and related supportive services to improve quality of life and health outcomes for people affected by HIV/AIDS. The organization recognizes a special responsibility to respond to the poorest and most vulnerable of the community: the homeless. Many of DOORWAYS clients have no income at all when they enroll in service, yet no one is denied access to DOORWAYS housing because of an inability to pay. We will provide our services in the way of minor repairs and upkeep to the housing facilities as well as some relational activities such as bingo and arts and crafts with some of the residents. Memorial Boulevard Christian Church food and clothing pantry. We will be serving along side the urban community at Memorial Christian Church. We will be sharing meals together with the community along with working in the food and clothing pantry. There are also many work projects that we will help with to further the impact of this ministry. MBCC facilitates serving the poor and hungry in so many tangible ways through free meals, bible studies, shower and laundry facilities and job search help. Many folks in the community even use MBCC as their mailing address due to the fact that they are homeless. Webster-Rock Hill Ministries (WRHM) is a cooperative effort of many churches to fulfill their commission to serve people in need in the St. Louis community. We will be providing home repair for several individual homes in the St. Louis urban community through coordination with WRHM. We will return from our mission trip on Friday, June 1 between 4-5:00p.m. On Sunday July 3rd our Youth will share some of their mission experiences in Worship at the 10:30 Worship Service. We are taking 15 participants to DSM 2016 St. Louis from FCCLR. Altogether there will be 19 DOC churches representing 9 different states! We are so excited to see how God will work through this amazing group during this week of service. Please be in prayer for the entire DSM group during our mission week. Thank you to all of our congregation members and friends that bought cookies at our cookie stroll and to all who made special donations to help with the cost of this experience for our youth! Bonnie Hutson April Eaton Adam Ridenoure Leann Ha Becky Cornett God Bless, Rev. Jessie Gray Associate Pastor
GENESIS CLASS God s Word is so good we re reading Mark 4, 5 & 6 this morning as Mary Gray leads us into the discussion. Healing was the signature of His ministry healing bodies, minds, deliverance from evil; (definitely a healing in many ways) healing families, etc. In these chapters we find Jesus not only working teaching His disciples but healing and teaching others along the way. Also being confronted by demons in people as He delivered the man at the Gadarenes He was begged to leave their community because the man had been made in his right mind after deliverance from 1,000 s of demons that indwelt his body and mind. He gave them several parables, the Sower sows the Word, healed and brought Jairus daughter back from the dead, etc. Healed the woman with the flow of blood. He told them to NOT let the cares and anxieties of this world and the pleasures and false glamour and deceitfulness of riches and craving for other things creep in and choke out the Word, which is healing and health to ALL our flesh. As we watched the disciples we realized that they would listen gladly and seem like they really received Jesus Words but then trouble and fear would get ahold of them and the lessons Jesus had taught them went right out the window so to speak! Jesus marveled at their lack of faith and the lack of faith of the people. Jesus walks among us today are we listening to HIM? Do we follow HIS words spoken to us in our spirit? Jesus only did what and said what His Father told Him to: we are to do the same, be one in body mind and spirit with the Holy Spirit. - The Words Jesus spoke are Spirit and they are Life! Love it! See you next week, Love in Him, Anita STEWARDSHIP: Managing the Resources God has Entrusted to You One of the greatest challenges to our spiritual formation is posed by our money and possessions. Jesus warned us in Luke 12:15, Watch out! Be on guard against all kinds of greed; a man s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. And yet, who of us hasn t felt the pull and the lure to get all we can, can all we get, and sit on the can! To counter the lure of the more monster, God calls us to develop ourselves as stewards in His economy. Stewardship reflects the simple truth that God is the owner of all I have, and I am the manager of all He has given me. As such, my job is to manage His resources in accordance with His financial plan a plan which includes everything from earning money, to spending money, to saving money, to giving money. When I realize that I am simply a manager of God s resources, every expenditure becomes a spiritual decision. What I allocate to one area cannot be used in another. So, the question for each of us is, Does my stewardship of God s resources reflect God s priorities or my own? The easiest way to answer that is to take a look at your checkbook. What evidence exists that you are in touch with His kingdom priorities? Someone has said, We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give. One of the greatest signs that God s heart is being formed within us is evidenced by our giving. John 3:16 says, For God so loved the world that He gave We can give without loving, but we cannot love without giving. And so, as you use your compass this week, ask God to fashion within you the heart of a wise, loving, and generous steward.
IMPORTANT NOTICE!!!!!!! The church office will be moving to our new space June 30th and July 1st. We will have limited phone, Internet and printing capabilities. Please be patient during this time of transition. The former funeral doors will become the MAIN ENTRANCE. T H O U G H T S T O P O N D E R The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the One who prays. There are two ways to be fooled; One is to believe what isn t true, the other is to refuse to believe what is true. Lunch Bunch Thursday, June 23rd. Meet at the church at 11:00 AM. We will travel by church bus to Mimi s Café! Please join us...there will be a reception held on Sunday, June 26th in honor of Leann Hatley. Leann has accepted a position at Park Hill Christian Church and will be leaving us. We will miss Leann and wish God s abundant blessings on her work for Him. We will also be collecting a love offering and donations for her as a gift of appreciation for all of her years of service at FCC. 2016 ALZHEIMER S ARKANSAS WALK SCHEDULE Statewide Honorary Chair: Angela Frazier and Glen Campbell s Family Walk Date: August 20 September 10 September 17 September 24 October 8 Location River Valley L. V. Williams Boys and Girls Club 600 East 16th Russellville begins: 9:00 a.m. Faulkner County Conway High West Campus Gym 2300 Prince Street Conway begins: 8:00 am Downtown Hot Springs Exchange Street Parking Plaza 128 Exchange St. Hot Springs begins: 10:00 am Little Rock at the Zoo 1 Zoo Drive Little Rock begins: 7:00 am Everyone has to be in the Zoo by 8:15 am Van Buren County Memory Stroll and 5K Fund Run Must Dash Archey Fork Park Highway 5 North Clinton Memory Stroll and 5K 7:30 am *Pre- August 17th 1:00 to 5:00 pm Area Agency on Aging 915 S. Arkansas Ave. Russellville 2:00 to 7:00 pm September 14th Sept. 19th-21st October 5th How to Register: go to www.alzark.org/alzeimers-arkansas-walks/and download the forms and either fax to 501-227- 6303, email to: barbara.jensen@alzark.org, mail to: Alzheimer s Arkansas, 201 Markham Center Drive, Little Rock, AR 72205 or call 501-224-0021 and we will mail the forms to you. NOTE: If you register before August 1, 2016, you as an individual or each person on your team that is present on walk day will receive 1 (one) extra door prize ticket per person! * NOW IS THE TIME TO START RAISING FUNDS CAR WASH, BAKE SALE. For fundraising ideas go to our website at www.alzark.org/alzheimers-arkansas-walks/
The Gift of Forgiveness Louise Satterfield Ida Pettit Joyce Haynes Earl Beaver Jo Jo Lusk Carol Strong Barbara Bell Nora Stivers Crystal Hart Bob Waggoner Hal Cochran Marilyn Loomis Carolyn Rand Tom Curry Bob Wright Louise Pruitt Marshall Driver Jordan Gary Kay Morris Pam Ritchie Aguirre Joyce Miller Joye Henson Clara Chilcote s brother Fred Bernadette Preble (Diane Robert s daughter in Florida) Barbara Audrey Caldwell Delaine Baughtman s Mother Forgiveness seems to be one of those concepts that good people use to help themselves feel better. I forgive you for your transgressions against me and so I feel better about myself. As if I have given you a gift which you do not really deserve. And so I have been a better person by forgiving you. Forgiveness is really a gift I give myself. Forgiveness gives me the opportunity to stop judging, to stop condemning. Forgiveness offers me peace. When I believe that someone has treated me unjustly, I have placed a judgment against that person, I have condemned that person, I have placed that person beneath me, separate from me. When I make a judgment about someone, it has no real effect on that person but it does have significant effect on me. My judgments are actually condemnations. A condemnation is like a prophecy. A prophecy is defined as a verbal utterance and goes out into the universe attracting witnesses to its content. In this instance, a judgment against someone, a condemnation of someone, believing someone has done you wrong, these things are all prophecies even though they were never verbally expressed. They were thought and so they have effects just as a prophecy effects. So when I believe someone has done me wrong, I have judged that person, I have condemned that person. This prophecy may have no effect on the person to whom it was directed. It does have an effect on me, for by this prophecy I have proclaimed myself judge and jury and executioner. Forgiveness is the only way out. Forgiveness offers me the opportunity to free the world from my own condemnation of it. I am given many opportunities to practice forgiveness of others, until someday, I feel free enough to forgive myself. This is the real power of forgiveness. Forgiveness frees me from the world and the people that I have condemned by my judgments against them. As I have judged them, so I have judged myself. So, let us practice forgiveness, over and over and over again, until we get it perfectly right. And then, at last, we will be able to forgive ourselves. We will then be able to experience ourselves as it has been given us, and as we always have been and always will be and are right now. We are One with the Light of Love, forever and forever un-changeable. The silly, childish illusion in which we appeared to be different, separate us from this Truth.
DWF Circles 1 & 6 meet together for a luncheon at the Ritchie s. June 26, 2016 Communion Preparation Sarah Herring 10:30 Diaconate Dylan Chilcote Dalton Cox Oscar Cox Zoie Griffith 10:30 Elder Madeline Cox Counters Mary Elizabeth Chilcote Evelyn Baughtman Greeters Chuck Holbert July 3, 2016 Communion Preparation Margie Godfrey 10:30 Diaconate David Chilcote Delaine Baughtman Mary Elizabeth Chilcote Marshall Driver 10:30 Elder Dick Chapman Counters Fred Chilcote Oscar Cox Greeters Marilyn Loomis
OPPORTUNITIES THIS WEEK Sunday, June 26 9:30 am Sunday School 10:30 am Blended Worship Reception for Leann Hatley following morning worship Monday, June 27 7:00 a.m. YOUTH MISSION TRIP TO ST. LOUIS Tuesday, June 28 12:30 pm Staff Meeting Wednesday, June 29 9:30 am Art Club (Now meeting at Chenal Valley Church of Christ) 6:00 pm No Bells 7:00 pm Choir Thursday, June 30 Office Moving Day Friday, July 1 5:00 p.m. YOUTH RETURN FROM MISSION TRIP Sunday, July 3 9:30 am Sunday School 10:30 am Blended Worship *Monday, July 4th the church office will be closed! THE INSIGHT First Christian Church 1500 N. Mississippi Little Rock, AR 72207