Each Sunday this December will have a different event in addition to the scheduled services:

Dec 6th – A Tribute To Those Who Have Gone Before Us

Dec 13th – Sign Choir

Dec. 20th – Children & Youth Drama, Christmas Dinner

Dec. 27 – Sign Choir & Youth Program

Come join us as we celebrate the Christmas season!

The crown that was placed upon Your head,
Must have hurt so much
That no words could  be said,
But You stood by Your beliefs
And kept Your head high,
For You knew for us to live
That You must first die.

The crown that was placed upon Your head,
As Your hands were pierced
And Your arms were spread,
As You hung there in anguish
And the blood that You shed,
You could have showed them all hate
But chose love instead.

The crown that was placed upon Your head,
Must have brought back memories
Of bellies full of bread,
Bellies of sinners who needed
And wanted to be led,
To the one they called Messiah
Who could raise the dead.

The crown that was placed upon Your head,
Is so powerful that even Satan
Someday will surely dread,
For even he knows You have clearly said,
You will come for Your bride
And that day we will wed.

The crown that was placed upon Your head,
Keeps me safe at night when I lay in my bed,
For I know the day will come
That this flesh will be shred,
 And I’ll see that crown
That You wore on Your head,
And know there will be no more sin
That I will have to tread.

-Sis. Misti Doorly

In flight training one of the first things you learn about are stalls and stall recovery.

In its simplest definition, an airplane stalls when the wings are no longer providing sufficient lift for normal flight operations to continue. Several conditions can contribute to a stall such as flying too slow or flying in an uncoordinated attitude. A planes attitude is defined as whatever state the plane is in at any given time (banked to the left, nose high in a climb, etc). When a plane stalls the controls become less effective because of the decreased airflow over the control surfaces on the wing and tail. The plane loses lift and starts to lose altitude, which is generally not a good thing.
 
In flight training you practice stalls at a safe altitude, not to learn how to stall an airplane but to learn how to recover from a stall should it occur in flight. Most accidental stalls happen when the airplane is low to the ground and slow, the most dangerous time of any flight. Stalls don’t just magically happen, there are factors that build up and if left uncorrected the airplane will stall. If the pilot does not recover from the stall he “buys the farm” and we have a memorial service for him some days later.

But, this is a church newsletter, not a FAA safety seminar. In our spiritual lives we experience stalls sometimes. We generally call them “slumps”. Spiritual stalls have happened to everyone at some point. Sometimes we are totally on fire about church and feel bold enough to take the world, but sometimes we feel like we are spiritually hanging on for dear life, struggling to feel anything. So that brings us to STALL RECOVERY!

Yes, you can recover from a stall! To recover from the stall the pilot MUST do two things. First and most important, the pilot increases the airspeed by adding power, and he must correct the attitude of the aircraft. This causes more airflow over the wings, allowing the wings to generate lift.
Decreased power makes it impossible for the aircraft to fly. Does your walk with God have enough power to carry you through the turbulent times of life? How do we increase our spiritual power? Faithfulness, humility, fasting, prayer, reading the Word, etc. All these things will give you a closer walk with God, resulting in a more powerful relationship with Him.

2 Peter 1:3 – According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue.

An improper attitude will cause a spiritual stall in our lives every time. We cannot backbite or carry around grudges and expect to grow spiritually.

2 Corinthians 6:14 – what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

Stalls can be scary, especially when you aren’t prepared for them. The nose pitches down and you see the ground below you getting closer. Your initial reaction is the pull back on the controls, pitching the nose up, but the plane doesn’t have sufficient power or lift and the aircraft will go into a secondary stall. But the pilot cannot give up. I have seen people that have been on fire go through a difficult time, and watched them die spiritually. Sometimes they get too discouraged because they were doing so good before they fell. Other times and more common a person gets offended, or done wrong. They carry a grudge with them and it ends up taking over their minds. If you’re in a spiritual stall, don’t just accept it and give up. DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

Micah 7:8 – Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me.

Notice the scripture says “when I fall” not “if I fall”. It’s going to happen. We all go through the spiritual stall. Your determination in stall recovery will be the deciding factor whether you survive your stall or whether it kills you spiritually. Keep the Power up, keep a good attitude and you’ll have a good flight, even if the sky is turbulent from time to time.

Food for thought: Stalls are most common in a nose high attitude…

Even more food for thought: The opposite of lift is drag, if it isn’t uplifting you then what is it doing?

- Bro. Wesley Combs

Once again, time is making a difference in our lives. Our surroundings are taking on a beautiful array of colors and the handiwork of God can be viewed everywhere your eyes can behold. It’s a time when being thankful is all around us—–always giving thanks !

Paul told us to give thanks for everything, but did he really mean “everything”?  So easily said… but so hard to do.

Jesus gave us an example to follow: in the darkest of circumstances He gave thanks for the bread and wine that He served His disciples at their last meal before His death. The bread and wine represented His own body and blood!  While they were eating, Jesus took the bread, gave thanks and broke it. “Take and eat, this is my body…” He then took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them.

How could He give thanks for His own broken body and spilled blood? The only possible way: by looking at suffering and death with eyes from an eternal perspective. Isn’t it the same for you and me?  The only way we can be thankful is to look at our circumstances from God’s perspective.
 
If David, the writer of so many psalms, were alive today, he might have penned a praise psalm something like this:
 
Praise the Lord
Praise God in the glorious sunshine
Praise Him in the freezing drizzle
Praise Him as you drive to church
Praise Him as you drive to the dentist
Praise Him in the check-out line
Praise Him in the free-way traffic
 
Praise God on the job
Praise Him on vacation
Praise Him on payday
Praise God when you open your eyes in the morning
Praise Him when you can’t shut them at night
Praise Him for computers and e-mail
Praise Him for elegant dinners
Praise Him for take-out food
 
Praise God when you are thirteen
Praise Him when you are ninety-three
Praise Him at the family gathering
Praise Him in a lonely room
 
Praise Him with  the kazoo
Praise Him with the horn and drums
Praise Him with your heart and voice, or in silence
Let everything that hath breath, Praise the Lord!
 
William A. Ward ,  a Texas newspaper editor , once said, “God gave us a gift of 86,400 seconds in a day.
 HAVE YOU USED ONE TODAY TO SAY THANK YOU?
-Sis. Davis