Month: October 2014

“Come out to meet the Bridegroom” – is my sermon topic for tomorrow morning. Please, read Matthew 25:1-13.

“All the Christian world is represented in this parable. The bride constitutes the church that is waiting for the second appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Some who have a nominal faith are not prepared for His coming. The oil of grace is not feeding their lamps, and they are not prepared to enter in to the marriage supper of the Lamb. The representation is such as to call forth our earnest study, that we may know what preparation we who are living in the last days are to make, that we may enter in and partake of the marriage supper of the Lamb. We are to accept the last message of mercy given to a fallen world: “Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” (Manuscript, V.16, page 268)

After the OAKS week of prayer over 35 students asked for Bible studies or for a baptism. I need your assistance now in helping our children with Bible studies. God’s Spirit is surely working on the hearts of our students at OAKS. Thank you, dear school staff and teachers. Let the Lord bless your efforts.

PATHFINDERS are camping this weekend at Cohutta Springs. Is this the reason it’s getting SO cold outside? 🙂 I am not sure I would want to spend this night in a tent ;-). I invite you to pray for our Pathfinder camp. Let the Lord give them safety and protection.

NOVEMBER 8 SABBATH. Next Sabbath Elder Steve Bremner is preaching for the 8:55 am service. The 11:25 am service will be presented by the students, teachers and the staff of our school. You will be blessed with lots of great music, scripture readings, puppet children’s story and a message from God’s Word. A lot to look forward to!

LOCAL BUDGET. Let the Spirit of the Lord inspire you through the month of November to continue to support our local church budget generously. We want to see our church ministries well funded. Thank you for your faithful stewardship.

MISSION TRIP. On Sunday afternoon Galena and I are leaving for a mission trip. The main objective of this trip is to preach a series of the revival messages and to prepare our churches in Odessa for the full scale evangelistic event in May of 2015. We count on your prayerful support. Thank you for embracing this mission as your own. We’ll be your ambassadors in the Gospel proclamation for the people of the former communist countries. We keep being amazed by God’s blessings as funds for this Light of Hope Mission trip are coming from Alabama, Georgia, Washington, California, Florida, and of course from our own Ooltewah.

MINISTRIES SHOWCASE. Thank you Lucas, Lisa and your boys, for putting together an excellent vespers program last Sabbath night. Seeing your family working together on hotdogs, fries, desserts and drinks deeply touched my heart. What a wonderful example of the church ministry in action! The stories featured in the film that night definitely motivated me to be a more caring and serving person. I trust that many of our church ministries were able to recruit more volunteers for their programs and activities.

SUNDAY WORKBEE. Thank you, dear church deacons and other volunteers (see a photo below) for showing up early Sunday morning for a workbee on the church property. It was a long day for many of you. A lot was accomplished because of your heard work. I am sue that the Lord will richly reward you with His blessings. Church members, please, remember to hug our deacons and to say sincere Thank You!

MEMORIAL SERVICE. Susanne Brude, a former member of the Ooltewah church and a charter member of the Harrison SDA church passed away this week. The Memorial service will take place at our church tomorrow, Sabbath afternoon at 2 pm. Everyone is invited. The service will be followed by a reception in the Fellowship hall.

PRAYERS are needed for Evan Spicer’s farther who had a heart surgery on Wednesday. Let the Lord grant him full and soon recovery.

Prayer are also needed for Beth. She is still wearing a cast on her leg. Phone calls, cards and visits will be greatly appreciated.

See you tomorrow morning. It will be warm in the church. 🙂

Your friend and pastor

Peter

Dear Ooltewah church family,

World events point to the soon return of our Savior. Let the blessed hope give us courage as we face our daily battles. Listen to the inspired words of Ellen White taken from the Great Controversy:

Throughout the unnumbered host of the redeemed every glance is fixed upon Him, every eye beholds His glory whose “visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men.” Upon the heads of the overcomers, Jesus with His own right hand places the crown of glory. For each there is a crown, bearing his own “new name” (Revelation 2:17), and the inscription, “Holiness to the Lord.” In every hand are placed the victor’s palm and the shining harp. Then, as the commanding angels strike the note, every hand sweeps the harp strings with skillful touch, awaking sweet music in rich, melodious strains. Rapture unutterable thrills every heart, and each voice is raised in grateful praise: “Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever.” Revelation 1:5, 6. (GC, 646)

SABBATH SERMON. My Sabbath morning message is based on  Romans 15:12-13 “The Root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; in him the Gentiles will hope.” May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

CHURCH MINISTRIES EVENT. This Saturday there will be a “Ministry Vespers” program from 6-8 p.m. in the social hall. We will have a light hotdog supper and present a 45-minute film (“Unconditional Love”) that showcases four nonprofits–including some in TN and AL–and explores the motivations behind their compassionate actions. We hope it inspires you to become even more involved in the ministries of our own church!

Unconditional Love (trailer)

PATHFINDERS. Pathfinders Induction was an absolutely wonderful event last Wednesday night. Thank you, Earl, and your team! At the closing of the Induction program Earl announced that he had accepted a call to serve as one of the Pathfinder Club coordinators on the Georgia-Cumberland Conference level. I have no doubts that the Conference will benefit greatly from your leadership role. We’ll miss you at our club, but I am sure that you have a special place in your heart for the Timberwolves!

I pray that this Sabbath the Lord will impress each one of our members to support our local church budget! This will be the last Sabbath of the month and we need to reach our  goal. What a wonderful way to support local needs, our school and many of our church ministries.

PRAYERS AND HELP NEEDED. Our dear sister Beth Best needs our constant prayers, visitations, phone calls and daily bread. If you are able to help her with bathing or a lunch dish at least one time please contact Nancy Smiley or myself. Your prayers and help are greatly appreciated.

OAKS Grandparents Day was a true blessing. Click here to see many photos taken on that day. The password for the picture gallery is ooltewahchurch .

You can more find announcements and ministry updates on our church website at http://www.ooltewahchurch.org

Your friend,

Peter

Sabbath Blessings to you, my friends!

A DOUBLE BLESSING. “[God] blesses man upon every day, but he has blessed only one day, and that is the seventh day. So when man, upon whom the blessing of God already rests, comes to the seventh day, upon which a blessingrests, there are two blessings, and both of them for man; and so it is possible upon the seventh day of the week to enjoy a blessing which cannot be enjoyed upon any other day because it is not there.” (Christ and the Sabbath, p.20)
HOLY COMMUNION. Tomorrow morning I invite you to remember and celebrate our redemption. We’ll gather at the Lord’s table and will partake of the symbols of His broken body and of His cleansing blood. The Communion service will take place during both 9 am and 11:30 am services. My message from the Word of God will be based on Hebrews 4:15.

PRAYERS NEEDED. Your prayers are needed for our sister Beth Best. She fell early this week and broke a bone in her foot. Please, contact Nancy if you would be available to help Beth at least one day next week with food or assist her with bathing.

Our extern and elder Daniel De Silva had to see a cardiologist last weekend due to some unusual pain in his chest and high blood pressure. After a few doctors’ visits Daniel is doing better but still needs our prayers.

OAKS. On Thursday morning I had a privilege of speaking for the OAKS Chapel. What a wonderful group of children we have at our school! They expressed their passionate desire to be Christ’s ambassadors in this world. After the Chapel some of the students shared with me their personal experiences of how they traveled or lived in different countries of the world where people didn’t know about Christ. I pray that we teach our students to be missionaries for the Lord wherever they may live after they leave OAKS.

PRISON MINISTRY. We have many wonderful ministries in our church. One of them is the Prison Ministry. Our Head Elder Steve Bremner and Paula Wolfe visited a local prison last Sunday.  Here is their story in Steve’s own words:

“The fire alarms went off just as the guard brought out the prisoners and we entered the prison hallway.  When the alarms stopped the guard let us know that he had to leave and someone else would bring the key to open the classroom.

After some time had passed Paula Wolfe said it looked like we had been forgotten. She began to play her keyboard and we started the song service in the hallway.  We sang a few songs when a guard came and unlocked the classroom door.

I began speaking on Isaiah 43:1-4 when suddenly guards went running past the classroom.  We had been told that when that happens something is very wrong and we are to leave the prison immediately. I glanced at Paula and she said she was fine. I continued speaking only pausing as the guards ran back and forth three more times. Each time I looked at Paula and each time she gave me a great big smile.  I said, “it’s very hectic out there but in here with the word of God it’s very peaceful.”

Isaiah 43:1-2 (NKJV)

But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob,
And He who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by your name;
You are Mine.
² When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.
When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned,
Nor shall the flame scorch you.

PATHFINDERS. Many of our Pathfinders are camping at Cohutta Springs this weekend. Let the Lord give them safety and good weather! We’ll certainly miss them at church tomorrow morning.

Be blessed. I hope to see you tomorrow at the Lord’s table. Christ would not want to see your seat empty.
Pastor Peter

Dear church family,

I trust your week was good and you are happy to welcome a new Sabbath Day!

Last Sabbath Bettie Chastain’s granddaughter Stacey had twins. The babies and their Mom are doing well. Thank you for your prayers.

Nancy Smiley is feeling stronger after the incident in church last week. She is sincerely thankful for all the messages and phone calls. She told me that she is blessed to belong to such a Caring Church. I hope to see Nancy in church tomorrow.

Rick Banks sent me a message on Sunday saying: “I am going home today. I still have some healing but doing much better. God is good!” We are praying for your full recovery, Rick.

Our  Prayer seminar went really well last Wednesday night. I am very encouraged to see a great number of people who attend the seminar weekly. Next week we’ll learn how to pray about spiritual victories.

If you have not yet seen pictures of the Pathfinders and Adventurers camp you can access them by clicking here.

Many of you were out of town last week and did not have a chance to receive the September church Newsletter. You can access it by clicking here.

Tomorrow morning the OAKS band will play for both services. I am sure that you will not want to miss that. My sermon topic is “The Joyful Church”. Please read John 15:9-11

October 11 is the Communion Service Sabbath. We will Celebrate God’s love during both services. This will be a time of singing, praises, testimonies and a message from God’s Word. I expect Oct 11 to be a high Sabbath at our church. Happy Sabbath day to you. Please, remember to call or visit each other. Let the love of the Lord keeps us united in the joyful ministry to each other and to the community around us.

Your friend,

pastor Peter