Month: May 2017

MESSAGE. John Wesley in Sermons on Several Occasions, Vol. 1 XXV wrote: “The moral law contained in the Ten Commandments, and enforced by the prophets, He (Christ) did not take away. It was not the design of His coming to revoke any part of this. This is a law which never can be broken…Every part of this law must remain in force upon all mankind and in all ages; as not depending either on time or place, or any other circumstances liable to change, but on the nature of God and the nature of man, and their unchangeable relation to each other.”

MINISTRY. Ramp and Prayers. This last Sunday, a group of Godly men with willing and humble hearts were brought together at 7am and completed a wheelchair ramp for Mr. Price (see photos below). This means that for the first time in a long time, Dewayne Price will be able to easily and safely leave his home for things like physical therapy. In addition, we also had the opportunity to minister and pray for the Price family and their various physical and spiritual needs. If anyone would like to know more about their other needs, please reach out to me directly.

A BIG thank you to, Eric Ford, Edwin Reynolds, Ed Demaree, Jason Smith, Luis Rivera, Steve Kulik and Mike Haughee for demonstrating your Christ-like love through action. It may have only taken 5 hours to build, but I am confident that it has made a huge and lasting impact on the Price family.

Thank you Edymar for your inspirational leadership and this report.

Men’s Ministry breakfast will NOT be at church this Sunday. Weather permitting, Haney’s Hungry Hombres will be meeting at 8:15-8:30 am at the Harrison Ruritan car show for a tailgate BYOB (bring our own breakfast).

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The Season of Change meeting this past Thursday brought together about fourty widows. Some from our own church, others from the area churches and our community. Thank you, Lupina and your team, for your loving ministry and your caring spirit. I thoroughly enjoyed a few photos forwarded to me by Steve Bremner from the event. I am sharing these pictures with you below.

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This morning I joined Jerilyn’s parents, her husband Don, and their close friend Seth for a private graveside service. During the service the beautiful sunshine and peaceful bird songs reaffirmed our faith in the soon coming of the Lord and the glorious day of Resurrection. The Memorial service for Jerylin is tomorrow at our church at 4 pm, followed by a reception. Everyone is invited to join the celebration of Jerilyn’s beautiful life.

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Camp meeting is starting this Wednesday night, May 31. I doubt that any of you will be actually “camping,” 😃  but I’m sure that many of you will want to attend the meetings. The full schedule of the meetings is available right here MORE LIKE HIM.

There will be no prayer meeting at our church on Wednesday night. However, we’ll be open for both services on June 3. I don’t believe in “closed churches.” There will be a baby dedication during the second service. Luis and Jackie Vela are from Vermont. They have recently moved to this area and are attending our church services. They have three children, Genesis, 4, Adagio, 2, and Penelope, who is only 4 months young. Some of their family is coming to visit from VT to celebrate Penelope’s dedication. Luis and Jackie are inviting church members to join their family potluck after the second service.
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PRAYERS. Peggy Bell had surgery on Tuesday. The surgery went well, and Peggy appreciates all of your prayers and well wishes.

Please continue your prayers for Jarylin’s family.

Howard has not been feeling well lately. He is currently at Siskin hospital and needs our prayers.

Thank you for all your kind messages and prayers. My surgery went well. I was already at church (drove myself 😎) early last Sunday morning for the Nominating committee meeting. The week went well and I’m planning on preaching both services tomorrow morning. No shaking hands after the service though 😢  hugging will be alright 😇.

Happy Sabbath, my friends.

MESSAGE: Hindi Proverb: “A thief is a thief, whether he steals a diamond or a cucumber.” “No Stealing” (MSG) is God’s eighth commandment. If you trust the Lord He will take care of your needs. “If God gives such attention to the wildflowers, most of them never even seen, don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you?” ‭‭Luke‬ ‭12:25-28‬ ‭MSG‬‬

MINISTRY. OAKS graduation was the highlight of this month. Here are a few pictures from Tuesday night:

Tomorrow is a full church Fellowship meal. Everyone is invited to stay.

Our dear friend Jerilyn Faulkner passed late Sabbath night. After several months of courageous battle with cancer Jerilyn is resting. She left this world with strong faith in God’s power to bring her back to life on the day the glorious resurrection.

A memorial service for Jerilyn is scheduled for May 27 at 4 pm.

On a personal note… a couple of days ago I tore my bicep tendon. The surgery to repair it is this afternoon. I trust the Lord will help the surgeon drill a hole in my bone and add a screw to put my tendon back where it needs to be. Thank you for your prayers.

Blessed Sabbath day to y’all.

Peter

MESSAGE. In the seventh commandment God reveals his plan for the family He intended from the creation of the world: “Do not commit adultery.” Unfaithfulness destroyes marriages, hurts the spouse, cripples children, but mostly it distorts the Gospel. As good as marriage is, it is not an end in itself. God created marriage to show us–and His angels–what Christ’s love for His Church looks like in the visible world. To betray your spouse, therefore, is to make Jesus look like a traitor to His Bride, which He is not! “And Jesus, having loved His own who were in the world, loved them to the end.” Not until He got tired of them or bored with them or until they hurt Him. He loved and loves His Church to the end of His love, which has no end!

Marriage based on God’s eternal principles should be the reflection of Christ’s selfless Agape love. Only this kind of a relationship can secure our true marital joy.

My Sabbath morning study of the seventh commandment coincided with the celebration of Mother’s Day. I’m grateful to God for giving me a wonderful Mom, who was a loving and faithful wife to my father. I am also thankful to God for my caring and faithful wife who is a true inspiration to our daughters.  They are still learning from her how to build a happy Christian home based on Christ’s spirit of loving care. 

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MINISTRY. Last Sabbath our service was beautified by Lenea’s baptism. It was sweet to see pastor David Bissell baptizing his granddaughter. This is actually not the first time pastor David has baptized his family members. What a great way to be a missionary in your own home and to pass on the torch of faith to a younger generation.

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Thank you, Connie Reynolds, for bringing your class for the praise service. It was truly inspiring.

Thank you, pastor Aubrey, for leading out in the Youth church which met in the Fellowship hall during our second service. We have a vibrant Youth group. They are searching for creative and innovative ways of serving the community and preaching the Second coming of Jesus. We are praying for you guys.

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Sunday morning our Nominating committee met again to work on its immense task. We have a wonderful group of people selected for this job. They go through the process prayerfully and responsibly.  Once in a while they get passionate and excited, but for me this is a clear indication of their immense love to this church family. If you are contacted by one of the committee members asking you to be a part of one of our church ministries please don’t say no 😁. This church needs you. 

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On Monday we celebrated Ed and Heidy’s wedding. It was a beautiful day for a perfect ceremony. Congratulations Ed and Heidy. I’m not sure they’ll see this message as they are far away on their honeymoon ❤️ trip.

The day before his wedding Ed celebrated his graduation from SAU. Good job, Ed. Great start for a big future ahead of you.

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That same Sunday our family celebrated graduation of our “little” Dasha Victoria. She happened to be the 125th on the list of graduates and received 125 one dollar bills in honor of the 125th SAU anniversary 😄🌟 She definitely looked confused and at the same time excited when the ceremony was paused and this award was granted. Imagine our joy. She’s the last one out of four to graduate from Southern. No more tuition money 😃 no wonder we finally started building a house. 

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Ooltewah prayer warriors are calling out for a prayer Vigil tonight, May 12, for Jerilyn Faulkner. Jerilyn was diagnosed with cancer in January. She has steadily grown weaker and has recently been hospitalized. A GoFundMe page has been set up to help with her medical expenses: https://www.gofundme.com/jerilyns-medical-expense-fund. A food train is also helping by providing meals for the family. Our sanctuary will open at 7pm for intercessory prayer. Please keep Jerilyn and her family in your prayers.
Tomorrow afternoon, after the second service, I invite the church to join a baptismal service at the lake. The service will take place at 1:30 at Harrison Bay. Ben Thompson and Nathan Schwark (re-baptism) will celebrate their commitment to Jesus. 

Next Sunday the Men’s Ministry will work on a wheelchair ramp for the Price family. Here is a message from Edymar: “Please mark your calendars, 5/21 @ 7am. We will be at the Price’s home ready to knock out this ramp. Please pray that by this act of love, Dwayne Price will be given hope in life. And with that revived hope, he will desire to seek and grow a relationship with our savior and friend, Jesus Christ. Lets remember, this is not about us. This is all for the glory of our God and for the eternal salvation of Mr. Price and his family.”

The Cereal Barrel needs more cereal 😊. Without your consistent support the barrel will get empty soon. Not everyone can travel overseas to help build a church or feed the hungry. There is a way to do it right here in our own community.

John Garvin is our next missionary. He is on a mission trip to Argentina. See his brief update below:

“Hi Pastor Peter, I am excited to inform you that I am currently on my way to Argentina with a mission trip through SAU! I am currently in the Miami airport waiting to go through security, they open at 5am. … Thank you for reading, and I will be out of service until May 26. I may have WiFi. Tomorrow we will be heading to Buenos Aires, Argentina, and from there to Iguazu, Argentina to where we will take a 3 hour bus ride to our location. We will be having church with the locals there and also helping build their next classroom building at their missionary school that they are starting. If you could please keep our group in your prayers, I will be preaching with a translator this coming Sabbath so if I could have some extra prayers sent my way a little bit this week that would be greatly appreciated.”

PRAYERS. Jerilyn Faulkner needs our intersessory prayers. Her Mom Treva has been here helping Jerilyn for the last several weeks. Her Dad, Ed Sharpe, is flying today from Canada to support his daughter and her son Joshua. 

RESOURCES. Church bulletin and inserts are available on the church website http://www.ooltewahchurch.org

Online giving is also available on our site under the “online giving” button. 

See you tomorrow,

Peter

MESSAGE. “You shall not murder.” ‭‭Exodus‬ ‭20:13‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ In this commandment, God establishes Himself as the sole and sovereign giver, sustainer, and taker of life. “You shall not murder” was not designed to give His children the right to choose. Rather, it was designed to make one thing very clear: Do not kill. Murder is the taking of life! And every life, beginning at conception, is not only given by God, but also taken by God at His choosing.

“All acts of injustice that tend to shorten life; the spirit of hatred and revenge, or the indulgence of any passion that leads to injurious acts toward others, or causes us even to wish them harm (for “whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer”); a selfish neglect of caring for the needy or suffering; all self-indulgence or unnecessary deprivation or excessive labor that tends to injure health—all these are, to a greater or less degree, violations of the sixth commandment.” EGW, PP 308

This Sabbath morning I invite you to study the sacred and solemn message of the Sixth Commandment.

MINISTRY. Last Sunday delegates from the Georgia-Cumberland Conference gathered together in Cartersville, GA to hear reports from the leadership of the GCC and to elect conference administration for the next five years. This was our mini General Conference. It was good to see hundreds of our brothers and sisters from our wonderful conference. Pastor Ed Wright was re-elected to serve as the Conference president. All Vice Presidents were also reelected to continue serving our sisterhood of churches. I invite you to pray for our leaders and administrators. They carry many heavy  responsibilities and have to make important decisions about the ministry of our many churches. When I read weekly email updates from pastor Wright I get the impression that he lives out of his car or at the airport. He is always on the go. Let the Lord grant safety and wisdom to our conference leaders. On a personal note, I’ve now worked exactly 15 years in this Conference. I fell in love with it and want to retire here. 🌟👴🏻

The Wednesday night Prayer Meeting attendance was absolutely wonderful. I counted close to forty people. For the next four months the book of Genesis will be our study material for the “study” segment of the prayer meeting. I just want to emphasis that we do pray a lot on Wednesday nights. That’s why we call them “prayer meetings.” I hope you’ll also consider joining this midweek service.

Young-In-Heart Group got together for lunch yesterday at City Cafe in Cleveland. It was fun to eat with this awesome group of people who love to eat, share jokes, talk about “the best is yet to come,” and willing to encourage and support one another.

On Thursday Noah Banks asked to spend the day with me for his school job shadowing assignment. I was certainly happy to have this handsome young guy help me through the day. We spent some time in a prayer session with our church Prayer Warriors. After the prayer we packed gifts for the Hunter school teachers. After counting all our gifts we realized we were thirty short so we drove to Walmart to buy the additional ones. On our way to the Hunter school we also stopped by the Samaritan Center to staple the “blessing cards” to all these gift bags.

Following the school visit we went to Collegedale LifeCare to visit Harold Spicer and Dorothy Champion. From there we drove to Cleveland to join the Young at Heart group. On our way back my wind shield wiper broke, but we still made it safely back right in time for Noah’s orthodontist appointment. I hope Noah will still want to be a pastor after our day together. 😎

THANK YOU. Thank you, church, for your faithful support of our local church budget. We met our April budget goal! Let me encourage you to try the Lord and see how He can bless you in a marvelous way if you show faithfulness in bringing your tithes and offerings. I’d like to remind you of the challenge of contributing at least $15, if possible, per member per Sabbath to our local church budget. Think about the many ministries that will be supported by your contributions. Think about the smiles on the faces of our OAKS teachers, the happy eyes of Pathfinders and Adventurers, needy families receiving assistance from the Benevolence fund, elderly being encouraged at Change of Season lunches, etc, etc… This is just a glimpse of the many blessings you bring to this church through your faithful stewardship.

PRAYERS. Please, pray for Jerilyn Faulkner. She had to go through some tests and procedures yesterday. She’s back home but very weak.

This morning I received the following tragic news from Michaela Lawrence Jeffery, Advent House (UTK) Chaplain / Adventist Christian Fellowship (ACF) Director: “… one of our ACF members, Bridget Thompson, was involved in a car accident and passed away this morning. We ask that you please join us in lifting up the Thompson family and the UGA ACF family in prayer during this difficult time. Bridget and her sister, Brittany, were both active with ACF. Bridget’s death is a huge loss to a student community still mourning the loss of another student who died from cancer last school year.”

Blessings. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.

Peter