November 30, 2014 WELCOME! WE'RE GLAD YOU'RE HERE We are a group of believers who simply try to follow the Bible as a guide for all we do. Everything done in our worship service is something for which we have a Bible basis. You are welcome to participate as much or as little as you wish. We will sing hymns together and we will observe the Lord's Supper or Communion together. We will also have an opportunity to give to the work of God in this area. This collection is for the members here, and if you are visiting you should not feel and pressure to give. Our lesson time will be divided into two groups. The young children will go to our classroom area in the basement where they will be taught the Bible at a level they can understand. The adults will stay in the auditorium for a lesson at an adult level. We do try to serve the community, and if you have some needs that we can help you with, mention it to one of the members. Thank you for worshipping with us.

POTLUCK NEXT SUNDAY: Remember to bring a dish and an appetite to services next Sunday. It will be the first Sunday in December and we always enjoy a time of good food and good fellowship at this monthly event.

CHRISTMAS FLOAT: We will have a Christmas float in the city holiday parade this Friday. We will have song sheets for us to sing as we greet our friends and neighbors, so bring warm clothing and maybe a flashlight if you need to read the lyrics. The departure time will be 7:00, so we need everyone on the hay bales by 6:45. We are usually towards the end of the parade, so finding us should be easy. We should have a float number today.

CONGRATULATIONS: We rejoice with Richard Hoyt and Tina Nemethy at their marriage yesterday. We know that their union will be a blessing to the Lord's work.

CANCELLATION: If bad weather makes it dangerous to hold classes or services we will cancel them. Call Bill Gibson at 782-4564 if you have doubts. Remember that we have people coming from great distances, so where you are may affect this.

TODAY'S LESSON

THE WOMEN IN THE LIFE OF JESUS
John Clayton

The mess in Ferguson, Missouri, this past week reminded me of the past. My father taught in Talladega, Alabama, in a college that only black people could attend. I was the only white kid in my school, and I can remember when I had my tonsils taken out. The doctor wheeled me out on a blood-soaked gurney and yelled at my mother, “Here nigger lover, you clean him up,” and left. Not long after that when I was 7 years old, I remember a cross burning in our front yard.

All of that was long ago, and through the years there has been incredible change, but the shadows of the past still surround us. I do not have any idea what really happened when Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown, but what happened when the verdict was announced and the attitudes shown on all sides by leaders and even ministers shows us how far America has drifted from the teachings of Jesus and the principles of Matthew 5 – 7.

Racial hatred is rooted in feelings of insecurity rooted in an evolutionary “survival of the fittest” moral code. There are still whites who feel blacks are an inferior evolutionary mistake, and fear animal-like acts by all blacks. There are blacks who feel their only hope of success in life is to exploit whites and force whites to give them their fair share of America's wealth.

Nowhere have I seen prayer on either side or a search for unity and forgiveness. Violence begets violence, and survival of the fittest seems to be the only solution being entertained by either side. Our lesson this morning deals with prejudice against women; but the final passage in Galatians 3:26 is the one thing that, if both sides in Ferguson believed, would bring an end to the violence and hostility.

— John Clayton

Our sign by the street!