A Word from the Pastor……
It is hard to believe but
Easter is almost here. This is another
holiday in which people have lost sight of why it is really important. There is nothing wrong with the Easter bunny
or an Easter egg hunt, but we must remember why we celebrate Easter. The true meaning of Easter is celebrating
the resurrection of Jesus. I love the
way Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 15 when he says, “And if Christ is not risen,
then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty, If, in the manner of
men, I have fought with the beasts of Ephesus, what advantage is it to me? If the dead do not rise, “Let us eat and
drink, for tomorrow we die!” (1 Cor. 15:14, 32). Our hope and faith rests on the work of Jesus Christ not only on
the cross for the forgiveness of our sins but also in the resurrection that
when we pass from this earth we will be raised from the dead to live with God
for all of eternity. This month we are
going to look at ways to have revival in our churches as well as a special
sermon on Easter Sunday morning. I
believe the cross still speaks to us today almost 2,000 years after the
crucifixion of Christ. I hope will
invite your family to come out and join us for the Easter egg hunt on the 15th
of the month. It is being sponsored by
our evangelism committee and the gospel will be presented on a level that the
children will be able to understand and accept Christ if God is drawing them to
Him. Then I hope you will make plans to
join us for our Easter sunrise service at 6:30 here at the church. We will have breakfast right after the
service. Then you get to go home and
relax until 11:00 when we will have our regular worship service. There is going to be powerful music and a
powerful message. I believe that God is
up to something big here at our church and in our community. God has placed a burden on my heart for this
year’s Easter service and I would like to ask you to pray for it so that we may
see God move in a powerful way as we celebrate together the resurrection of our
Lord and Savior.
Prayer Concerns
Be a Prayer Warrior….
“Lord teach us to pray” Luke 11:1
Shut-Ins: Frances Beard
Hospital: Keith Mullinex, Steven Perdue,
Ethel Huddleston
In Care Facilities: Tommy Patsel,
Gerald Lamb, Connie Newman,
Helen Moore, Lola Hudgins
Home Recovering from
Surgery or
Hospital stay: Ruth Martin, Jimmy Collins,
David Bishop, Melissa Carper,
Jewel Booth, Fred St.Clair
Happy Birthday To…
Pat Harper 03/30
Shannon Karnes 03/19
Carrie Martin 03/30
Lois Martin 03/28
Tillie cassell 03/29
Anniversaries
Tim and
Pat Harper 03/04
Diana and
James Hyler 03/30
Justin
and Diana Likens 03/19
Cheri and
T. G. Williams 03/08
Ask The Pastor……….
Question: Does the Lord see you as a wicked person if you have
file for bankruptcy?
Answer: This question comes as an interpretation of Psalm
37, specifically verse 21 which says, “The wicked borrows and does not
repay….” There are other religions that
use this verse and others to say that you should never borrow or that God never
intended you to borrow from someone.
Their opinion is that if you can’t pay for it right then, then you
should not buy it. If we were to match
up their opinion with the rest of Scripture we would see that they
unfortunately do not have a correct interpretation of this verse. I will deal specifically with this
verse. This is a psalm that was written
by David that contrasted the wicked with the righteous. If you read the entire psalm you will see
that the wicked do something, but the righteous do something else. And so when we come to our verse David is
speaking about borrowing. David says
that the wicked borrow money and do not repay it. A better way to think about it is, the wicked borrow money and
have no intention of paying it back.
While the end of the verse says that the righteous shows mercy and
gives. The interpretation of that is
that the righteous see a need and they freely share what they have. This matter as with most every other one is
an issue of the heart. The wicked
person in God’s eyes borrows the money and has no intention of ever paying it
back. We would not call this borrowing,
we would call this stealing and we know what the Bible says about
stealing. On the other hand the
righteous is not concerned about whether or not the person is going to pay them
back, they are giving their money to people who have a true need and they are
giving it with a cheerful heart. Now
onto the question before us, what about a person who has to file
bankruptcy? The simple answer to this
question is that you must look into the person’s heart and intentions. Did they ever want to pay it back or did
they want a handout and then get in over their head? No one disputes that people lose their jobs or that health
emergencies come up. In today’s world
that can put even the most stable financial family onto shaky ground. I will try to explain it with two
illustrations. A man goes to the bank
and wants to buy a house and a nice car but knows that he is going to lose his
job very shortly and he has no idea how he is going to pay it back. Do you think God would see this man as a
wicked person? Absolutely, because he
is going to take advantage of the bank and take money that he really has no
idea or intention of paying back. Now
let’s say that a man has saved his money but still needs to take out a loan for
a house. He is getting ready to start
making his payments to the bank but suddenly he has a heart attack. Now not only does he have a loan note to pay
back but he also has thousands of dollars of medical bills. Because he had a heart attack he is no
longer able to work and he has to file for bankruptcy. Do you think God sees this man as
wicked? I do not believe so because he
was borrowing in good faith with every intention of paying the loan back. I guess I can sum it all up by this final
sentence. You are wicked if you file
for bankruptcy and you have the ability to pay your loans back, but you are not
wicked if you have to file for bankruptcy due to unforeseen circumstances that
prevent you from paying the loans back.
One would be wise to be careful when borrowing money because things do
happen, but the Bible does not specifically forbid you from borrowing
money. I hope this helps, if not let me
know and I will try again. Keep the
questions coming!
ASK
THE PASTOR ??…Many
times we all have questions that we don’t have the time or opportunity to ask
the Pastor about directly. Each month
we will select a question at random and pose it to the Pastor. Please e-mail
your questions to sdewwjd@yahoo.com;
you don’t need to include your name. There is a box on the back table in the
sanctuary if you would rather place your questions there or e-mail Pastor
Justin. Keep those questions coming??????
Easter Events
Easter
Egg & Scavenger Hunt,
Saturday 03/15 @ 1pm
Easter
Sunrise Service 03/23
@6:30am
Followed by breakfast
(sign up sheet on
bulletin board for breakfast items needed)
(No Sunday School)
Morning
Worship Service @ 11am
with Special Music
Getting
to know you …… 
We are Kersey and Annette Harper. Annette has
attended East End since
she was 8 years old and I have attended since I was
12 years old. I was saved at
age 13 and Annette was saved at age 19.We were
married June 18, 1954.We
have two sons Neil and Bruce. We have four
grandchildren and four great
grandchildren. We have worked in many positions in
the church, including
Nursery, Property, Finance and Financial Secretary.
I have been a Deacon
for 43
years. We love our church family and pray for great things to happen
at East End.
I remember watching the 1976 Winter Olympics on TV. The great
figure
skater Dorothy Hamill had just won a gold medal for a perfect
performance and was being interviewed by a young
sports writer. He asked her how
much
practice had she put in to win this gold medal. She said every day for
the last
four years. The young man almost lost it. Didn't know what to ask
next. Finally after regaining his composure he asked
How in the world
could you
discipline yourself to practice every day four years ago, when you
knew that
this day was four years off. She said that she would go to practice
every day
with the attitude that this is the last day of practice and
the Olympics
are tomorrow, Pastor Justin reminded me of this application in
one of his
sermons about a year ago when he said that Christians should
live today
as if Christ will return tomorrow. We are happy to have Pastor
Justin, Diana and boys as he leads our church
family. We love you all.
Notes
from the Editor
Got
News???
Have
anything to share, please send it to sdewwjd@yahoo.com, or phone
966-4210,
or better yet bring it with you to church, and give it to Steven or Kathy
Elkins.
Pastor
Justin Likens
Cell-
(540)312-4280
www.eastendchurch.com
Secretary: Kathy
Elkins
Choir Director &
Pianist: Cheri Williams
Deacons: Steven
Elkins, Ronnie Harper, Gerald St. Clair, Bob Flora, Kersey Harper, Oscar Fix,
Nolan Cassell
Editor: Steven
Elkins (540)966-4210
E-mail sdewwjd@yahoo.com
Come
join us………
Sunday- 9:45a.m.
Sunday School
11:00a.m. Morning
Worship
4:00p.m. Experiencing
God
Bible Study
Tuesday- 10:00a.m. Experiencing God
Bible
Study
Wednesday- 6:30p.m.
Prayer & Bible
Study
7:15p.m. Adult Choir
Practice
The Faithful Followers
Sunday School class meeting was held on Saturday, February 16th. We
had five members present and one visitor.
We enjoyed refreshments and discussed many
outreach opportunities for
our class, such as a card ministry, Easter Baskets, and a cook-out this summer.
We also made plans for a spring church yard sale (April 5th). If you are not attending Sunday School we
invite you to come and join us we would love to have you.
Teacher, Shirley Elkins
Assistant Teacher, Jean Roberts
************************************
Secret
Sisters ???????
starts
March 2nd.
We have
eighteen Ladies participating. We will reveal our Secret Sisters sometime in
May. A definite date to be announced….
Pray daily for your sister.
Shhhhhhhhhh!
Keep your sister a secret.