The Country Baptist Church Newsletter
1 Mile south of Interstate 30 on HWY 19
January   13, 2008       
Pastor: Bro. Harace Hammond                                           Pastor E-Mail: cbcpastor@toast.net
Web Site: www.countrybaptist.org

“The Voice Of The Country Church”

You Were Asked To Pray For:

Larry Platt, Bro. Archie & Barbara Griffin, Waylon & Pat Abercrombie with their daughter and son, Randy & Donna Johnson, Loyce Smith, Junior Potts, Roberta Bruce and family, Barbara Fails, Jim & Linda Meier, Dina and The Boys, Troy Wiler, Bro. Sergey Mochalov and the Churches in Russia, Kathy Rosinbaum, Don & Wynell Hammond, Brenda Galusha, Baby Tucker Walker, Helen Stone, Bro. & Mrs. Pinson, Wanda Malone, Leta Ellis, Chet Reagan, Sidney Strawn, Amanda Tomlin, Brother Keith & Susie Kennison, Helen Rowe, Kimberlee McCool, Brother David and Anne Shortt, Jewell Mathis, Justin Horne, Janette Sims; Richard Swan, Jean and Cheryl, Letha Langford, David Ellis and family, Beatrice and Virgil Young, the family of Joe Glossup, Gwen Davis, Allison Rodgers Clay, Angela Hutson, Tiffany and Shannon Lemmon, Bob Ellis, and all of our Troops and their Families.

A Thought From C. H. Spurgeon:

Always Growing

"Thou shalt see greater than these" John 1:50.

This is spoken to a child-like believer, who was ready to accept Jesus as the Son of God, the King of Israel, upon one convincing piece of argument. Those who are willing to see shall see; it is because we shut our eyes that we become so sadly blind.

We have seen much already. Great things and unsearchable has the LORD showed unto us, for which we praise His name; but there are greater truths in His Word, greater depths of experience, greater heights of fellowship, greater works of usefulness, greater discoveries of power, and love, and wisdom. These we are yet to see if we are willing to believe our LORD. The faculty of inventing false doctrine is ruinous, but power to see the truth is a blessing. Heaven shall be opened to us, the way thither shall be made clear to us in the Son of Man, and the angelic commerce which goes on between the upper and the lower kingdoms shall be made more manifest to us. Let us keep our eyes open toward spiritual objects and expect to see more and more. Let us believe that our lives will not drivel down into nothing but that we shall be always on the growing hand, seeing greater and still greater things, till we behold the great God Himself and never again lose the sight of Him.

A Thought For The Week:

When God thwarts, afflicts, and mortifies us

Men are so ignorant of their own hearts that they are incapable of determining what is best for them. Even regenerate men are but partially sanctified and enlightened. But God searches the heart. He understands our whole case. He knows what is most for our good. He sees our strong corruptions and sad deficiencies. When, in mercy to His child, He comes to heal his spiritual maladies, He does not take counsel with human reasoning or desires. It is right, it is best that He should act according to the wisdom which is infallible. He employs the requisite remedies. Often they are distasteful to flesh and blood. Sometimes they are frightful to contemplate, and terrible to endure.

Then man, in his ignorance, too often says, "If God loved me—He would not give me so bitter a cup to drink!" But this is man's folly. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? Shall human weakness control divine power? Shall finite knowledge prescribe to omniscience? It is the height of wickedness for a worm of the dust—to revise the decisions, or pre-judge the justice of the Almighty. We would expect that God would deal with us in an incomprehensible way—if we did but remember how base, sordid, and narrow are our views and plans; and how holy, glorious, and eternal are His purposes and designs.

We are quite prone to magnify both the good and evil things of time—to the disparagement of those of eternity. But when God thwarts, afflicts, and mortifies us—He makes us look at the things which are unseen and eternal. If He racks this body with pain—it is that we may think of our house, not made with hands, eternal, and in the heavens.

The shaking of this clay tabernacle forces upon us the recollection that this present world is not our rest—and that we ought to be seeking a heavenly country. If the godliest man on earth had his own way without divine guidance—he would soon be in full march towards destruction!

How kind is God in wisely and mercifully deciding so many things for us! God very mercifully marks out our course for us. God is governor. We are servants. To us belong obedience, submission, acquiescence. It is not ours . . .

  to guide,

  to decide what is best,

  to rule the world,

  to shape the course of events.

"But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to him who formed it—Why did you make me like this?" Romans 9:20

By: William S. Plumer 1802—1880

 "THE TRUE GOD"

Concerning the character of God, what gross mistakes men make! I believe it is a mistake about God Himself which has been the root and foundations of all the mistakes in theology. My conviction is that the freewill theology of today makes God to be less than He is. The professors of that system have come to receive its doctrines because they have not a clear understanding either of the omnipotence, the immutability, or the sovereignty of God. God has an absolute right to do what He will, with whom He will, when He will. He has the power also to accomplish that will and the ransom which enables Him to be true to His character in carrying out that will. When Almighty God comes to the soul of a man in grace, none can stay His hand. The beauty is that the enemy's power is broken and the sinner is made willing. Satan cannot stay the conquering hand of Jehovah, and the sinner wants to be conquered. To see the holiness and mercy, the righteousness and grace, the justice and love of God in Christ, rising like a mighty sun, will put and end to the darkness and confusion of will-worship and modern fundamentalism. What will your God do? How will your God do what he does? Tell me who He is! If He is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient and dwells in the heavens, He will do what He pleases. If He is less than this, He must wait to see what you will do. But, the subdued king in Daniel 4:35 declared, "He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay His hand or say unto Him, what doest thou?"

By Henry Mahan

Food For Thought:

Proverbs 29:2 “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.”