Beatitudes for the Family

Here are a few selections from Leland Foster Wood's Beatitudes for the Family, published in 1955 by Round Table Press, and now out of print. Some good, practical wisdom for the home life.


HURTS

Happy is the family
In which unkind words are held in check;
And sharp retorts remain unspoken;

Whose members learn the art
Of healing the hurts of life,
And refrain from wounding the spirit,
As they would abhor hurting the body.



BANISHING WORRY

Happy is the family
Whose members lessen
The worries of one another,
And do not increase care
By a gloomy disposition
Nor by blaming one another
In time of misfortune.

They see the bright side of life,
And keep their spirits
Even in the midst of trials.
They divide worries
And multiply joys
By sharing them together.



BEING AGREEABLE

Happy is the family
Whose members help one another
By being agreeable and entertaining;

Who tell one another
Of pleasant and interesting things
Which they have seen or heard.

They shall be good comrades,
For each shall appreciate all things the more,
Because he can share them with the others.

A Life in the Spirit - Part 2

They say a schedule is made to be broken. Hopefully that's true, because ....

We'll be ignoring the dates on our study schedule and continuing this Sunday with a second week on the Christian life as a Life in the Spirit, from Galatians 5:16-26.

"If the Holy Spirit is in you, let Him have control. If He lives in you, then take orders from Him." – David Wilkerson

"Walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh." -- Galatians 5:16

Music in the Barn

Hey Friends,

This Saturday night is Music in the Barn! Everyone is invited to bring an instrument, a music stand if you have one, a covered dish or two to share, a chair and several copies of a song you would like everyone to play. We will have a beginner guitar section this time also.

Mark Travers will be leading us once again. If you don't play anything, please come anyway to cheer them on and enjoy the music! We will get started at 5:00. Feel free to pass this on to anyone you think might be interested.

Please RSVP so we will have an idea for the paper products and drinks.

Blessings,
The Bailey Bunch

A Life of Walking in the Spirit (Galatians 5:13-26)

We continue this Sunday (July 26) with our series of studies on the believer's life in Christ. We'll be looking at one of the grand chapters of the New Testament, Galatians 5, as we explore the subject of walking in the Spirit.

Life in Christ is meant to be a supernatural walk, not an exercise in human wisdom or will power.

"Walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh." (Gal. 5:16)

We can walk in the guidance, power, and blessing of the Spirit of God. We can be free from bondage to sin in the flesh!

Study, pray, and join with us in this study. May God teach us what it means in simple, practical terms to "walk in the Spirit".

A Life of Overwhelming Blessing (Eph. 1:1-23)

As we begin our series on the believer's life in Christ, this Sunday (Jul 19) we are in Ephesians1:1-23.

This is a chapter of truly overwhelming blessing and abundance. It describes the believer's inheritance in Christ in such a way that it ought to take our breath away just to read and ponder it

Unfortunately, these things can easily become old-hat and overly familiar to us. When that happens, we may find ourselves no longer living in the power of them or reveling in the blessing of it all.

Moving from defeat to victory in the walk of faith absolutely depends on an understanding of the blessings flowing from the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Come Sunday prayed-up and studied-up, and let's explore this together.

May God (as Paul prays in this very chapter) give us the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, that the eyes of our hearts may be enlightened, that we may know what is the hope to which He has called us, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe!

A mighty work of the Holy Spirit in ... Iran?

Wouldn't it be remarkable if God were more powerfully at work today in "radical Muslim" Iran than in "Christian" America?

This is from the Mideast coordinator of HeartCry Missionary Society:

Back in March, when I spent a few days in Turkey (one of Iran's neighboring countries) I met a few Koreans who were serving in Iran and Turkey as missionaries. If you know anything about South Korea, one element that will certainly stand out is the rapid growth of Christianity within its borders over the last 50 years. South Korea now sends out a large number of missionaries, most of whom are radical witnesses of the Gospel. These that I met were no exception. While I won't go into detail about their ministry, I will say that they are being greatly used to help the underground church in Iran.

The Korean brother told me one very encouraging statistic about the church in Iran that came as quite a shock. I know that statistics can often be misleading, however, I think this gives us a bit of insight as to what the Lord is doing in Iran.

Last year there was a large gathering of Iranian pastors in Turkey. The meeting was promoted through the underground house church (really the only kind in Iran) network and as many of these pastors as could make it made their way across the border and into Turkey.

During the course of the meetings that took place, a census was taken from all of these underground pastors in order to get an idea as to how many Christians there were in Iran. The Korean told me that he would have guessed that there were probably about 1 million Christians in the entire country, a number not much bigger than the Christian population of Iraq. However, the initial figure that was produced unveiled over 7 million Christians in the country!

To avoid an inflated number, for the sake of accuracy the census takers rounded the number down to 5 million, thinking that most likely several people were doubly represented. My Korean brother told me that he disbelieved the number at first, but said that the more he is in Iran, the more he believes the number is accurate.

Just think, almost one tenth of this radical Shiite Muslim nation is now a believer in Jesus Christ!

LINK TO FULL REPORT

Admittedly, these are very informal statistics ... but praise God for the progress of the Gospel in Iran!

New study schedule: Life in Christ

Sensing our deep need for spiritual revival and renewal as individuals, families, and as a church, we are beginning this Sunday a study on the Christian life as it is presented in the New Testament.

We cry out to God to give us "the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him" ... to open our eyes to the Christian life as it was meant to be lived, not as a series of drab duties but as an outflow of blessing and victory from Christ Himself.

Here's the schedule. Come prepared to seek the Lord together!

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Life in Christ!

Breaking free from mediocrity to embrace the real thing

Jul 19 - A Life of Overwhelming Blessing (Ephesians 1:1-23)

Jul 26 - A Life of Walking in the Spirit (Galatians 5:13-26)

Aug 2 - A Life of Overcoming Faith (Ephesians 6:10-18)

Aug 9 - A Life of Fervent Love (1 John 3:10-24)

Aug 16 - A Life of Treasuring the Word (John 8:30-32)

Aug 23 - A Life of Answered Prayer (Luke 11:1-13)

Aug 30 - A Life of Joyful Worship (John 4:19-24)

Sep 6 - A Life of Extravagant Giving (2 Cor. 1:1-15)

Sep 13 - A Life of Radical Holiness (1 Peter 1:13-25)

Sep 20 - A Life of Triumph over Trials (Romans 5:1-5)

Sep 27 - A Life of Powerful Testimony (Acts 1:1-9)

Special Guests: Steve and Laura Morgan

We are delighted to have Steve and Laura Morgan and their family with us this Sunday!

Steve is associate pastor at Community Presbyterian Church in Moody. The Morgans are preparing for missionary work in Ireland with World Harvest Mission.

Steve will be preaching during our ministry time, and after lunch Steve and Laura will be sharing about their work and missionary calling.




"If anyone had ever asked us if we would one day be missionaries, we probably would have thought it just about as likely that we one day might be astronauts — completely outside the realm of anything we ever thought God might do with us. But in mid-2007, a retired Presbyterian pastor challenged us to lay down our lives and relinquish all restrictions on our life of ministry – to go anywhere, at any time, at any cost for the sake of the Gospel...."

Read more at morganwhm.com