First Friday, December '08

The First Friday for December turned out to be a successful one, as usual. By success, I mean there was prayer, fellowship, and a message from God's word. That is always a success, and that should always be our goal. 

Attendance was down a little bit from previous months, but that can happen and is probably expected this time of year.  With the inconsistency we've had with First Friday dates (no FF in July, for the 4th, and no FF in November for the church-wide Faith Retreat), and with this being exam week for many schools, absences will be accepted, this time! ha. 

Coop brought us the message out of 1 Peter:4, and we talked about suffering for Christ's sake, and dying to ourselves, and stepping out on faith that the Lord is faithful to provide us with all we need for His purpose. There were card games played, fellowship, and prayer on the evening. 

We should all be in prayer for our church, our ministry, and our fellow saints who are dying for the Faith and the Lord abroad, as these things are good for unity and growth within our body.  Be sure to check out the upcoming events list to the left of the postings, so that you can mark them on the calendar and plan accordingly. I am planning on starting a HBC YAM group on Facebook soon, to make the communication of events and updated posts on the blog more conveniently communicated. Grace and peace, hope all is well with everyone. Stay on top of your studies, do well on your exams, and suffer for the sake of Christ this week. You will be blessed.

Wednesday and Friday (December 5,6)

It's time for an update on this weeks events in the HBC young adult ministry. Wednesday was a blessing, as Bobby brought a word from the Lord out of Exodus. We talked about the holiness of God, and the way we often just disregard that with our lives (that was one point among many others.)  We had a few announcements, most of which were echoes of things we talked about Sunday. Katie reminded us of her Christmas project for a family in need, which you can see her desired gifts on one of the comments of Monday Night visitation/evangelism (12/1/08). That is the post directly under this one.

   Also, this is a plug for First Friday, which is today, this Friday. We will be hosting it in the fellowship hall of the Old Worship Building (downstairs, by the nursery, same building we meet in on Wednesday Nights.) It will be held tonight at 8pm, we will have free coffee, some finger desserts, and a message from God's word brought to us by Coop. Bring a friend. Grace and peace. -Bubba.

Monday Night Visitation 12/1/08 and Bonus info.

In an unprecedented event, I am going to post the 5th article on the blog in 2 days. After several weeks of  flakiness and one and two post performances, things are back on the rise in the Editing Dept. of the HBC YAM.  

  Back to the purpose, the report for Monday night visitation.  This week, instead of going door to door as we would on a normal week, we were invited over to Brenda's house for dinner (Barbara and Grady's daughter, mother of Nikki and Cassie) and a time of fellowship.   Some people had school work, prior engagements, or feeling under the weather, and some other things (but we need not get into everything!),  but we had 3 go over for the evening. Cassie was in town for Thanksgiving, and as always, our visit over at their home was a blessing. We should continue as a ministry to be in prayer both for Cassie (she is getting ready to be on phase 2 of 4 at House of Hope in Clayton, which means she can come to church on weekends.), and for Brenda and Nikki as well, just for their family to grow in the Lord and be blessed by His grace.

  Also, I write this particularly for the women, I would encourage you to befriend Cassie at some point while she is home over Christmas, if you haven't already. She should be moving back home sometime next summer (May-June, I think), and when she does she will be a member of the College/Young Adult Ministry. She loves the Lord, loves sharing the Gospel (Grady's grand-daughter loves sharing the gospel, go figure), and I think it would be a mutual blessing for anyone to bond with her and help to welcome her into our ministry (as well as the other people coming up, but with her not being at home all the time, it makes it more of an obstacle to really create a relationship there.)

    In other news, Here is a list of supplies needed for the Special Needs Ministry  -  

 1. Craft Kits- 6 of a kind

2.Pipe cleaners, multiple colors

3.Craft sticks - tongue depressors, doctor office size

4. Tempora Paint- primary colors

5. Glitter glue- gold, silver, green, red

6.White plain paper (copier paper)

7. Reusable clay- NOT playdough!

8. Wooden and clear/clean plastic shapes to paint

9. Washable markers

10. "The Jesus Storybook Bible" - just 1 copy, bye Sally Lloyd Jones, Zonderkids publish

11. Heavy construction paper

*All items are relatively inexpensive, and any donations will be greatly appreciated. Contact Bubba for more information, either by cell or facebook. I would post my cell on the blog, but that is just creepy. Grace and Peace, and God be with you all.  Be sure to read all of the posts this week. We are trying to keep up with the pace of some of the other bloggers in our ministry.

Recap of the Guys Sunday School Class on 11/30/08

It was great being with all those who came to Sunday School yesterday. It is always a joy when we get together. I wanted to summarize what we talked about, for the benefit of all who care to read it. We looked at the first passage in Matthew 18, which was the discussion of Jesus and his disciples about "who was greatest in the Kingdom." We talked about several different things. 1. We discussed the need for humility when approaching God. We are all sinners. The Bible teaches us that we all fall short of the standard that God has set, which is perfection. When we accept the free gift of salvation, we accept it as people who are in desperate need. We have nothing to offer God, and that is just the way he wants it. For us to accept the benefits and truth of the gospel, we must first understand the depths of our depravity. We have nothing to offer to God. Praise God for his free grace that cost so much to Christ! 2. Humility should be one of the defining traits of our life. We should have humility towards one another that exalts Christ. 3. Lastly, we talked about the seriousness of our sin in light of all that God has done for us. We must be willing to maime ourselves rather than fall so easily into sin. We talked about removing the things from our lives that tempt us to sin. Those were the main points. I hope that helps solidify these truths in your hearts. Keep fighting the good fight.

BD

Hanging of the Greens 11/30/08

   There has been some interest amongst HBC YAM members as to the purpose or meaning of our annual ceremony known as the "Hanging of the Greens." There is a picture taken from an LG Envy in the post just below this one taken at the Hanging of the Greens this year, 2008. 

   This was my first  experience in the tradition, so as far as history, relevance to the birth of Christ and other information will have to be individually researched by anyone interested. I can describe tonight's ceremony, and that may clear up any confusion.

  As should be expected from a Christmas related service, there was the singing of Christmas season songs. This I thoroughly enjoyed, as I really love Christmas songs. Many of them I find relevant all year long, and think it would be great to sing Hark the Herald or Emmanuel or O Little Town of Bethlehem all year round (not all the time, but randomly).   As you can see from the picture, we had a packed house, including several people in the lobby and many lining the back walls. It is always a blessing to be in that atmosphere with believers worshipping the Lord, and it only multiplies the excitement when it is with your closest friends and family of the Spirit.

In between songs and different passages (read from several places, including Isaiah, Luke, and Acts) of scripture, different ornaments and decorations were placed up on the stage of the sanctuary, candles lit around the room in window sills, and eventually a conclusion with each person holding a candle (my assumption for this was that it was to signify us being the light of the world, or Christ, who is our life, coming into the world and being the Light of the World. Sadly I missed this.)  The wreaths were hung across the stage at one point... their greenness signifies the newness of life, particularly portrayed in the birth of our Lord, and also the newness of Life given to us by the Spirit our our sovereign God.  The evergreen (Christmas tree) is a symbol of everlasting life, based on the tree being green year round, never dying with the rest of nature, staying strong and weathering the cold. This is symbolic of God's everlasting presence, and the preeminence and eternity of God our Saviour, and our eternal life given to us by His grace.

The evening was concluded with a message from Pastor Aaron. Many groups sang in the service, including the children's choir, a few solo's by various people, and several congregational songs. I am glad to see the interest that was generated about this year's ceremony, and look forward to the possibility of having a larger crowd next year. 

  In other announcements (these may be posted later, or removed if deemed irrelevant), today was a very significant day for the YAM of HBC. Last week, Brooke went forward to join the local body of Hephzibah, and this week Coop and Elizabeth announced their intentions to get married to the congregation, and asked that we all be in prayer for that, and whatever the Lord will have them do in a life of ministry together. Also, Scott and Brianna (sp?) announced that they will be leaving us within the next year or so to follow the Lord's calling in their lives to do campus ministry up in Pittsburgh, PA. May we be in prayer for all of these things as a ministry. I strongly urge us to commit time daily to prayer for our fellow saints in our body of believers at Hephzibah. We should hold one another accountable to just this. Grace and Peace, and God be with you as we go on with the week. Also, exams are coming up, so pray for guidance and that our college students will give efforts that glorify the Lord in their studies, and the Lord bless them so that they are equipped to do His work.   -Bubba

Hanging of the greens

Announcements

HERE ARE THE ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR THIS WEEK:

Christmas party Dec. 20th @ 5pm @ at HBC fellowship hall. If you have the spiritual gift of decorating, just kidding, if you would like to decorate please contact Bobby 906-3947...

Bring gifts for Christmas presents for Elderly people, male and female... ASAP. They should be good for a male or female. This is for the Christmas celebration for the elderly brothers and sisters.

PRAY for a family that a young woman at church has been led to bless in a special way... if God would have you buy gifts there is a list to come.

List of supplies to buy for the Very Special People's class to come give gifts to Bubba to pass along.

FIRST FRIDAY this week 8:00 12/5

1 John 3:17-18

BD
906-3947
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Sent from the all black LG EnV2