Church News
THE PERKINS JOURNAL, Thursday, January 14, 2016 - A7
CHURCH
continued from page A6
is revealed. 14 As obedient children, do not conform to
the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15
But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all
you do; 16 for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."
Love=Obedience=Holiness=Love
Just a quick comment or two....When we Love Jesus
we agree to walk in obedience with Him. ,This way He
knows we love Him, for He said...."If anyone loves
me, he will obey my teaching .... and then He said...My
Father will love him, and we will come to him and make
our home with him. He who does not love me will not
obey my teaching (john 14:23-24) .... You see, when this
marvelous thing of love happens in our hearts toward
Jesus we have the desire to obey him ..... but yet another
wonderful thing happens when we obey him....He said in
verse 24... and WE (Jesus and God) will make our home
with him!....With Who? With me! Yes, that's me and
you or ANYONE else who loves and obeys....and that,
my friends, is what Peter is talking about by being holy!
"as obedient children" he says for us to be holy.
Now isn't it amazing that when we become "Holy" or
"set apart" or just plain different than the old self or the
wofld....we also find more love! Later on, Peter, (in 1st
Peter Chapter 1, verse 22) says... "Now that you have
purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have
sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply,
from the heart."
Did you catch that? NOW that you have purified your-
selves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love
for your brothers ....... WOW! When we obey we purify
ourselves (become holy) and we have sincere love for our
brothers! And Peter goes on to caution us to "Love one
another deeply, from the heart!"
Love= Obedience= Holiness= MORE LOVE! What a
wonderful, never ending circle!
Thank you Father, for being the love in us !
Come Visit us! We are located at 121 E. Stumbo Ave.
here in Perkins. Sunday School 9:45am .... Worship ...
10:45am Wednesday evenings ... meal 6pm ... Bible
classes 7pm ... Thursdays at 1 lam we meet and pray for
our country. The intemet ..... "sneak a peek and peak your
week.., www.perkcc.com
Mehan Union Church
All of us have attended a wedding or more, and always
marvel at how beautiful the bride is. Our Sunday school
lesson was from Songs of Solomon telling us about a beau-
tiful bride. Christ calls the Church the bride of Christ- as
members of His church are we trying to be beautiful for
Him? Song of Solomon, a book in the Bible, is not very
long - a good day Bible study. A celebration of love and
commitment to Christ's church.
Fill up your spare time with His word with praise and
thanksgiving, so when adversity comes you can praise
and thank Him anyways.
We send out our prayers to those facing those days when
you need strength and encouragement to find peace in
the trials.
Whatever the problems we're going thru, they didn't
come to stay: they "came to pass." Praise and thanks,
Lord F 4.,.
Diamond Valley Community Church
Sunday moming guest minister Jeff Renfro brought us
God's message, The Bridge, from 1 Corinthians 9:16-22;
Every Pair Comes
With A Warranty
Locolt'f Owned & Opemled • ¢i.~on Plons
Time for NEW GLASSES?
Buy 1 Complete
Pair of Glasses
and receive a
FREE Frame
from a select group of frames
Save time and money when
you buy from Reeser's. We
will file your insurance/
Reeser's Eyewear
372-3370
103 W. 7ih Ave
601 W. 6111 Ave
Mon-Fri 9-5 • Sat 10-2
Philippians 2:3-8 and Romans 12:3.
A Christian will either be a wall or a bridge. Wails
are built to divide and keep people out, but more often
to keep Jesus out.
God would rather we build a bridge like Paul. He doesn't
compromise his belief to help others, but he became all
things to reach them. He went into the field and worked to
share Jesus Christ; showing how our actions will bridge
the gap.
We must work to keep our spiritual pride from putting
a wall up between us and unbelievers. After all what have
we received that wasn't given to us? Tear down the walls
by looking through our lives until all have been removed.
Become a bridge builder. Never compare ourselves
to others; honestly search our life, being sure there are
no wails. Then let the Spirit of God help us to build our
best bridge by: examining ourselves and becoming more
humble: never thinking more of ourselves then we ought:
growing spiritually.
Prayer is the work of bridge building. Fellowship
strengthens the bridge to the lost world. Finding and
attending a church because we all need to fellowship of
other Christians.
Daily surrender to the Lord. God built a bridge to
humanity through Jesus. Everyone has a purpose, ask the
Lord to guide us into being a bridge building church and
then watch the work that is completed
Located at the corner of Diamond Valley Road and High-
way 51, five miles east of Stillwater. We're a non-denom-
inational congregation whose doors are open to anyone
seeking to serve a loving God, salvation through Jesus
Christ, and the Holy Spirit's guidance. Sunday School -
10:30am. Sunday Morning Service - 9:00am Wednesdays
evening service - 7:00pro led by Pastor Quincy Morris.
St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church
By Fr. Ken Harder
Today is the last day of the Christmas sdason. The Christmas
season is the shortest one in the Church calendar. It rtms from
Christmas Eve (in the evening) until the celebration of the
Baptism of the Lord, a mere two weeks or so. The Christmas
season celebrates the beginning mystery of the grand mystery
of salvation. Christmas celebrates that God, in the person of
His Son, came to live with us as one of us. Epiphany cele-
brates that the God who is one of us came for all people, not
just a select few. This was a new way of thinking, no other
religion claimed that. The Baptism of the Lord celebrates a
time, years later, when Jesus began his public ministry. Why
is it included in the Christmas celebration? Even though the
Baptism of the Lord occurred years after his birth, it actually
marks the end of the private life began at his birth as the son
of Mary and Joseph in Nazareth. From the time of his birth
until his baptism, Jesus lived a life like yours and mine. He
lived as a member of a family in a community. He learned
carpentry from Joseph, he helped support his family. Tradi-
tion has it that Joseph died sometime before Jesus began his
public ministry; Jesus was the good son who looked after his
mother. The private, or hidden years of Jesus are a lesson to
us, that God is found in the very ordinary of human living. In
other words, God is present in our ordinary, daily relationships
and our task is to reveal him by displaying virtues founded on
love in all that we do. In the Baptism of the Lord, everything
changes in Jesus' life. Now he will begin to reveal himself
as the promised savior. This public life of Jesus is what
we celebrate in the church season we call Ordinary Time.
Ordinary Time lasts from the Baptism of the Lord until Ash
Wednesday. It resumes the Monday after Pentecost and
continues until the First Sunday of Advent. In this time, we
listen to Jesus' teaching and strive to leam more and more of
what it means to be his disciples. Why did Jesus choose to
be baptized, you might ask. Couldn't he have simply started
preaching? On a practical level, his baptism by John was a
public testimony of John that signaled others to follow Jesus.
It was John recognizing Jesus' position as a teacher. Initially,
Two Races
Since some of us "Old Timers" can't "do it" any more,
we tell stories about some of the things we did when we
were young so that our grandchildren will have something
to remember us by besides what we look like today and
what we can't do anymore. Last week I told you about a
Dust Bowl football game I played in, so please indulge me
one more time, and let me tell you about two memorable
races I ran in.
All athletic teams run laps for conditioning, and I always
enjoyed leading those laps for every team I played on.
As a sophomore in high school in 1947, I knew nothing
about track, but my math teacher was the track coach of
our team. One week when we had a track meet coming up,
he had several fellas entered in shorter distances and in
field events, but he couldn't find anyone to run the longer
races. He asked me if I would like to run the 880 in that
meet. I asked him what an 880 was, and he said it was a
half mile, two laps around the track. I said, "Sure, it
sounds like fun." But, on the day of that meet, another
one of those blinding dust storms rolled in, and sometimes
visibility was limited to about 10 yards. Having played in
that dust storm football game I told you about last week, I
saw no problem in just running in this one. After running
the first lap, I had no idea where the other runners were
because of the dust, and I could not see the finish line until
I got there. When I finished, I was told that I had won the
race, and after that I never lost an 880 race in my district.
The next year, after winning the race in my district, we
went to Dallas for the regional meet and ran n the Southern
Methodist University track. At the hotel the night before
the meet, I saw a big picture of one of the guys I would
be running against, and the article said he was one of the
best runners in the state of Texas. It had been raining,
and just as the meet was about to start, a torrential rain
blew in and there was two inches of water covering the
track, and it was held there by concrete curbing. They
thought about rescheduling the meet, but decided to let
it go on. They brought the SMU football team that was
practicing on another field to come over and break holes
in the concrete curbing to let some of the water drain off.
Doak Walker, the captain of the team, was being hailed
as the best player in college ball that year. He went on to
star in pro-ball, and there is a trophy given in his name
each year to the best running back in the league. I stood
there in awe watching him swing that hammer and knock
holes in that concrete curb.
The track was still soggy when we ran on it. At the
halfway point of the second lap of the nice, that Dallas
guy passed me, and when he cut in front of me sharply,
he spiked me in both knees and fell down. I went on to
win that race and set a new regional record, and he went
on to play quarterback for some pro-football team. I've
carded black cinder residue in my knees ever since as
proof of what happened.
John protests. He knows who Jesus is and knows that Jesus'
authority is far superior to his. Jesus responds with a phrase
that needs thought to understand. He tells John to allow his
baptism "to fulfill all righteousness." What does this mean?
Righteousness is a word we must understand. It is to be just,
to be right with others and right with God. Jesus himself is
right with God his Father in a full and complete way. He
accepts baptism that we too, might become right with God,
to fulfill the righteousness of every person. In his baptism,
Jesus accepts fully the mission for which he was born. He
is now numbered among us sinners. His baptism by John
is the acceptance of the baptism of passion and death. In
baptism, Jesus now takes on the mission of salvation for us.
His baptism gives rise to ours. In our baptism, the pouring
of water makes us a holy people of God. In his baptism he
who is the Holy One of God blesses the water that will make
us holy. Today, we celebrate Jesus leaving his private life
behind for our sake, let us learn to make our private lives
holy for his sake.
RO. Box 842 Stillwater, OK 74076-0842
405-372-3367
Safety Firsl
No Dental Insurance?
Only at Drumright Dental Center
INCLUDES TWO CLEANINGS PER YEAR
*No Yearly Maximums. *No Deductibles
*Diagnostic Exams and X- Rays
*Discounted Restorative Care
*Monthly Payments as low as $24,66
(See website for family plans)
