During this year’s VBS we focused on three stories where anonymous people stepped forward to demonstrate their faith in God. The first story being the servant girl in 2 Kings who believed that the prophet Elisha could heal Naaman (2 Kings 5:1-14). The second story being the Roman centurion who believed Jesus could heal the centurion’s servant without being there in person (Matt 8:5-10, 13). The final story was Jesus feeding the 5000 when a boy gave up his own meal (John 6:1-13).
Participating in VBS was hard work but satisfying. Look for the big VBS post that has a selection of photos from Saturday.
Sermon: The Shoes of a Superhero (Marion Brown)
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
9:24 Do you not know that all the runners in a stadium compete, but only one receives the prize? So run to win. 9:25 Each competitor must exercise self-control in everything. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one.
9:26 So I do not run uncertainly or box like one who hits only air. 9:27 Instead I subdue my body and make it my slave, so that after preaching to others I myself will not be disqualified.
Prayers
There were no new additions to the prayer list this week. New prayer concerns can be sent to feedback at christianheightsumc dot org or leave a comment below.
These are photos of the Hero Headquarters skit on Sunday that closed out VBS.
Vacation Bible School: July 23 1:00 – 6:00 PM If you wish to participate please pre-register ASAP.
Sermon: Oh The Places God Goes (Marion Brown)
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
28:10 Meanwhile Jacob left Beer Sheba and set out for Haran. 28:11 He reached a certain place where he decided to camp because the sun had gone down. He took one of the stones and placed it near his head. Then he fell asleep in that place 28:12 and had a dream. He saw a stairway erected on the earth with its top reaching to the heavens. The angels of God were going up and coming down it 28:13 and the Lord stood at its top. He said, “I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham and the God of your father Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the ground you are lying on. 28:14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west, east, north, and south. All the families of the earth will pronounce blessings on one another using your name and that of your descendants. 28:15 I am with you! I will protect you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you!”
28:16 Then Jacob woke up and thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, but I did not realize it!” 28:17 He was afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! This is nothing else than the house of God! This is the gate of heaven!”
28:18 Early in the morning Jacob took the stone he had placed near his head and set it up as a sacred stone. Then he poured oil on top of it. 28:19 He called that place Bethel, although the former name of the town was Luz.
Prayers
Added Daisy Boggess (light stroke)
Added the Amish family killed/injured in wreck
Added Gary Dixon
Added Jim Bick’s aunt (turning 97)
Added Ramona Harris
Vacation Bible School: July 23 1:00 – 6:00 PM If you wish to participate please pre-register ASAP.
Sermon: Listen (Marion Brown)
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
13:18 “So listen to the parable of the sower: 13:19 When anyone hears the word about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches what was sown in his heart; this is the seed sown along the path. 13:20 The seed sown on rocky ground is the person who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. 13:21 But he has no root in himself and does not endure; when trouble or persecution comes because of the word, immediately he falls away. 13:22 The seed sown among thorns is the person who hears the word, but worldly cares and the seductiveness of wealth choke the word, so it produces nothing. 13:23 But as for the seed sown on good soil, this is the person who hears the word and understands. He bears fruit, yielding a hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown.”
Prayers
Added Hayden Stewart (eye surgery)
Added Michael Litchfield (appendix, better now)
Vacation bible school has been set for July 23. Contact the church if you want to register your children to attend.
Sermon: Do You See What I See (Marion Brown)
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
1:17 All generous giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or the slightest hint of change. 1:18 By his sovereign plan he gave us birth through the message of truth, that we would be a kind of firstfruits of all he created. 1:19 Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters! Let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger. 1:20 For human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness. 1:21 So put away all filth and evil excess and humbly welcome the message implanted within you, which is able to save your souls. 1:22 But be sure you live out the message and do not merely listen to it and so deceive yourselves. 1:23 For if someone merely listens to the message and does not live it out, he is like someone who gazes at his own face in a mirror. 1:24 For he gazes at himself and then goes out and immediately forgets what sort of person he was. 1:25 But the one who peers into the perfect law of liberty and fixes his attention there, and does not become a forgetful listener but one who lives it out – he will be blessed in what he does. 1:26 If someone thinks he is religious yet does not bridle his tongue, and so deceives his heart, his religion is futile. 1:27 Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their misfortune and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
Prayers
There were no new additions to the prayer list this week. New prayer concerns can be sent to feedback at christianheightsumc dot org or leave a comment below.
Amber B. joined the church today. She was raised at Christian Heights. We are pleased to say “Welcome Back!” :-)
Vacation Bible School will be July 23, 1:00 – 6:00PM
Sermon: Untitled (Matt Davis)
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
37:14 “Pay attention to this, Job!
Stand still and consider the wonders God works.
37:15 Do you know how God commands them,
how he makes lightning flash in his storm cloud?
37:16 Do you know about the balancing of the clouds,
that wondrous activity of him who is perfect in knowledge?
37:17 You, whose garments are hot
when the earth is still because of the south wind,
37:18 will you, with him, spread out the clouds,
solid as a mirror of molten metal?
37:19 Tell us what we should say to him.
We cannot prepare a case
because of the darkness.
37:20 Should he be informed that I want to speak?If a man speaks, surely he would be swallowed up!
Prayers
Added Rev. Marion’s father (surgery) PTL!
Added Dr. Terry Fuqua (recovery from accident)
Updated Bob Humes (moved to regular room) PTL!
Updated Shirley Pritchett (coming home) PTL!
Vacation bible school has been set for July 23. Contact the church if you want to register your children to attend.
Sermon: Voices of Witness (Laura M, Hoge G, Karen B, Marion Brown)
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was fully God. 1:2 The Word was with God in the beginning. 1:3 All things were created by him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. 1:4 In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind. 1:5 And the light shines on in the darkness, but the darkness has not mastered it.
Prayers
Added Family of Tiffany Rodriguez and son (fatal car wreck)
Added Family of Alice Fowler
Added Larry Stewart (kidney problems)
Added Ashlyn Grace Prater (infant baptized previous Sunday)
Added the upcoming VBS
Updated Bob Humes (pneumonia)
Updated Lena Sturgill (back at church) PTL!
Updated Shirley Pritchett (heart attack, stress)
The middle photo below you see Rev. Marion deciding whether she wants to eat a “toxic waste” sour candy. She did eat it. I think it just about knocked her off her feet.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
2:1 Now when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2:2 Suddenly a sound like a violent wind blowing came from heaven and filled the entire house where they were sitting. 2:3 And tongues spreading out like a fire appeared to them and came to rest on each one of them. 2:4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them.
2:5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven residing in Jerusalem. 2:6 When this sound occurred, a crowd gathered and was in confusion, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 2:7 Completely baffled, they said, “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? 2:8 And how is it that each one of us hears them in our own native language? 2:9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and the province of Asia, 2:10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, 2:11 both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs – we hear them speaking in our own languages about the great deeds God has done!” 2:12 All were astounded and greatly confused, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 2:13 But others jeered at the speakers, saying, “They are drunk on new wine!”
Prayers
There were no new additions to the prayer list this week. New prayer concerns can be sent to feedback at christianheightsumc dot org or leave a comment below.
Baby Ashlyn was baptized today. I’ll post the best photo I have on Facebook.
I put together a video over a week ago. I took some photos from 2009 and set it to music. The video fits very well with Pentecost Sunday. I would like to hear any comments you have. Especially if you want to see more videos later (or not, I won’t be offended if you don’t like it).
No photos this week but I would still encourage everyone to contact me to receive the password for Rev. Marion’s sermons.
Sermon: We are the Ones (Marion Brown)
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
1:6 So when they had gathered together, they began to ask him, “Lord, is this the time when you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” 1:7 He told them, “You are not permitted to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the farthest parts of the earth.” 1:9 After he had said this, while they were watching, he was lifted up and a cloud hid him from their sight. 1:10 As they were still staring into the sky while he was going, suddenly two men in white clothing stood near them 1:11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking up into the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come back in the same way you saw him go into heaven.”
Prayers
There were no new additions to the prayer list this week. New prayer concerns can be sent to feedback at christianheightsumc dot org or leave a comment below.
