MESSAGE. “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” (Luke 2:14 NKJV). In a world broken by evil, God pronounces peace and goodwill. There was no peace on this planet from the day Adam and Eve turned away from their Creator.
The birth of Christ signified the beginning of a new era. He comes with a peace treaty signed by our Heavenly Father. We are no longer strangers to God. Jesus reconciled us to our Creator.
We do not need to live in a “war zone” with one another. His unspeakable love breaks down walls of division; walls erected by our sinful egotism and pride. We find peace in relationships with one another.
Christ’s birth is an answer to our inner battles and frustrations with moral failures. Through His precious gift of righteousness we can live at peace with ourselves. In Him we find the wholeness that we have been desperately searching for. His peace fills our hearts and minds.
Christmas is a message of God’s peace offered to this world.
I invite you to join me tomorrow morning in our detailed study of the good news of Christmas during the 8:55 and 11:25 Sabbath worship services at the Ooltewah SDA church.
Both worship services will be beautified by many favorite Christmas hymns and carols performed by our church choir.
CHURCH LIFE. The love of Christ unites our church families. It motivates us to work for Him and for the wellbeing of His children in our church and in our community. The last few weeks leading to Christmas were packed with many exciting programs and activities. I was blessed to join the Young at Heart group lunch at Souper Salad. We had an excellent Healthy Cooking class. (Thank you, Sylvia and Jennifer). The Bible Trivia night was a wonderful activity that helped our church families get to know one another even better. I feel bad that I had to leave early because of my toothache 😦 . (Thank you, Lupina (the Social committee team), Michelle and Adam, and everyone else who worked hard to make this happen. I am sorry that I cannot mention every name here.)
Feeding the Homeless at the Chattanooga Community kitchen helped many of our members to experience the true spirit of Christmas. Thank you, Lucas, for your leadership in this ministry.
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Almost every Sabbath afternoon the Bremner family lightens lives and faces of many residents of the Bridge assisted living center. They come there with words of encouragement and songs of praise. Thank you, Bremners, for your commitment in this area of service. Thank you Paula and Roger Wolf, Brent and Marichu McCutcheon for being a faithful part of this ministry team.
Our church youth has been super proactive in locating families in our community needing help during the holiday season. I am so glad that many of our church members responded in a true Christian spirit and volunteered to help some of these needy families. Thank you, Youth Team, for your caring hearts.
The social committee is inviting us all to a Christmas social party tomorrow (December 19) night. We had a great year together. Let us come and celebrate God’s amazing grace shown to us trough the months of this year.
Can you believe that we are fast approaching our Fresh Financial Start goal of $60,495? We are only $10,104.99 short before we hit the target. I pray that in the next two Sabbaths some of us bring our widow’s $0.99, and all of us together bring the rest. This is OUR church and this is OUR way of showing that we truly care about God’s work in our community. God bless you for your faithfulness!
You can read more about our church life in the freshly published December Church Newsletter. Click here to read it online
PRAYERS.
Rita Rogers and her husband Pete are traveling this weekend to be with Pete’s brother who is in a very serious health condition. The family is asking for our prayers.
Tim and Janet Goss came back from Wisconsin last Sunday after Tim’s father’s death. We missed them a lot while they were attending to the needs of their father in the last months of his earthly life. We are glad they are back! However, early this week Janet received devastating news that her sister had a heart attack and did not survive. Tim and Janet will be traveling back to Wisconsin tomorrow night to attend the funeral service. I invite every member of our church to pray for the Goss family.
Amy Goss’ father Jonny fell this week and broke his back in two places. God’s help is strong. Please, pray for Jonny.
Peggy Bell had a successful surgery on both of her knees. She is back home and the recovery is going well. Let’s remember to say our praise and prayers.
Here is a note from pastor Aubrey. We missed her last Sabbath. She was supposed to preach, but instead she was sick and had to spend the Sabbath day home alone. I am glad she is doing much better and was able to continue her pastoral duties though the past week. “Dear Church Family, Thank you so much for the prayers of healing that each of you said for me. I was sick for almost a week but I’m now feeling much better thanks to our gracious Lord. This week, I will be in Florida with my family for Christmas. I pray each of you has a wonderful Christmas as we remember the wonderful gift of our Lord! Blessings, Pastor Aubrey”
Yesterday was a big day for our extern and church elder Daniel DaSilva. He graduated from Southern Adventist university. Congratulations, Daniel. We are sincerely happy for you! Let the Lord bless you in your ministry to His church. You will get a call … in the right time and from the right church. God has a wonderful plan for your life.
Merry Christmas, my friends!
See you tomorrow morning,
Peter
35.043117
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Dear church family,
Ooltewah Seventh-day Adventist Church 