168 Colonial Drive, Jackson, MS 39204
Senior Adult and Education Ministries
Dr. Page surprised us and came to the church business/prayer meeting on Wednesday, May 24. It was very good to see him and visit with him. He shared his appreciation for the church increasing the AWBC scholarship fund at Mississippi College for students who are going in to the ministry to over $100,000.
He also gave us an update on Ann Graham, Annice’s mother’s condition and that of Dr. Wayne van Horn’s wife, Terri. He also told us that because of Dr van Horn’s physical condition, he had been asked to step into his place temporarily.
Celeste Felten's Funeral Service will be at Chancellor Funeral Home, Tuesday, June 6 at 11 AM. Visitation will be at 10 AM.
In the early days of the church when faith in Christ was fresh, some of the disciples who had been close to Jesus have quoted him as having said, "As you see me now in the flesh, I will leave you, but I shall return in the same manner as you have seen me leave." Many thought He would return as victor over evil in their lifetime. Many of us may have thought the same thing when we began our walk with him in faith - that we would enjoy a life of peace and joy without conflict. But Satan and the evil that reigns in our world has other ideas. Satan brings violence, riots, wickedness, prejudice, and chaos. He ignores the rule of law. And government does not seem to care to protect the God-given freedoms of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Hunger, homelessness, and poverty plague our nation and other countries as well. There seems to be no way out of the human misery we all are experiencing. BUT GOD CARES and one day He will end all the evil in the world. Jesus promised to return and bring peace to the world. How much we need Him now more than ever! But He is on God's timetable and until then, we'll continue to trust Him and serve Him as long as He give us breath. One day the dawn of a new day and a new world will burst on the scene and we shall be changed and shall be like him. What a glorious day that will be!
Remember...
Isaiah 55:6-9 Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,”declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."
I encourage you to go to the church website and see some of the activities of AWBC recently. (altawoodsbaptist.org). On the home page you will find the most recent, however, if you will go to the right in the menu bar at the top and click on more, you will find activities and pictures that we have archived all the way back to 2019. Enjoy!
There are people in our world today who will say that they know God but have never confessed Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Is that possible? Can you truly know God without knowing Jesus Christ? John wrote to dispel the notion that a person could know God without knowing Jesus Christ, in his writing of 1 John. The Bible says in 1 John 2:23 that whoever denies the Son, the same does not have the Father. John is writing to "enlightened Christians" - enlightened because they have come from the darkness into the light of Christ's life and freedom... and the faith of these Christians was always on display. John says a few verses earlier... v.18, as you have heard that the antichrist shall come, even now there are many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. There are many antichrists in our world today who say they have faith in God (lip service only) but do not have faith in God at all, because they have denied that God sent his son Jesus Christ to die so that we may have fellowship with God through our faith in Jesus Christ and in our worship and service to Him. John was saying that before the end of time, a principle or person of evil will come to resist God's truth. Sadly, there are people in our world today who claim to know God but do not believe God's Word and are false teachers or false believers and deny the truth about this in the Scriptures.
William Barclay writes - "So John condemns the man who claims that he is so far advanced in knowledge and spiritual truth, that sin for him has ceased to matter; He condemns the man who evades the responsibility for his sin, or who holds that sin no longer has an effect on him; he condemns the man who has never realized he is a sinner. The essence of the Christian's life is, first, to realize our sin; and then go to God for that forgiveness which can wipe out the past, and for that cleansing which can make the future new." Christ is coming back on the Father's timetable.
May God help us to never feel that we have arrived at being so spiritually mature.
I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. Galatians 2:20
