Sovereign Grace Missionary Baptist Church
1217 Dillon Texarkana, Texas 75501
Celebrating 50 years as a Church of Jesus Christ
October 29, 1961 – October 29, 2011
July 03, 2011
Newsletter Number 324

Elder Randy Johnson, Pastor Brother Ronnie Henderson, Song Director
Pastor E-Mail: sgmbcpastor@baptistsonline.org Web Site: www.baptistsonline.org/sgmbc

"Where The Truths Of God’s Word Are Still Taught"

You Were Asked To Pray For:

All of Our Military, Their Family’s & All the Civilian Workers in The Middle East, Zee Mink Fuller and Family, Her son’s Bryan Armstrong and Hunter Hackie, Daughter Shannon, and Brother Philip & Sondra Thornsberry, Virgil & Alice Hoskins, Grandchildren, and his daughters Liz Janis and Debbie Gray, Derrick & Alecia and sons Coty & Carson Clements, Frank Trusty, Bryndon Thomas, Frank & Dawana Reigel, Andrew Preston, Larry Mollette, Larry Mollette II & Family, Kerry Pennington, Kim Butler, Danny & Nita Mollette, Wendell Henderson, Judy Dunn, Martha Gray, Joshua Kidd, Matthew Kidd,, Ronnie Henderson Jr. & Son Kevin Henderson, Jim Stagner, Bro. & Mrs. Hammond, Don & Neil Hammond, Charles Hammond, Archie & Barbara Griffin & son Daniel, Bro. & Sister Bob Keller, Kathy Rosinbaum, Mary Ramsey, Donna Johnson, Fay Johnson, Luann Reynolds, Bro. & Sis. Curtis Pugh, Timothy and Nathan Fails, Jacob Ramsey, Jim & Linda Meier, Brother David & Sister Anne Shortt, Brother Manuel Seymour & Family, Letha Langford, Brother & Sister Kelley Hinson and Kelley Lee, Billy and Jo Hobbs, Jerry Hughes, Sister Nita Bookout, Justin Bookout, Pastor G. L. Burr, Melody Carr, Janie Capps, Gina Sullivan, Katie Norton, Imajo Tracy, Linda Hughes, Roy Lemmon, Marshall Risinger, Lee Mollette’s Daughter & Granddaughter Kristal, Dale Barnes, Keith Johnson, Tammy Hairston, Jack Johnson, James Thomas brother, and Bro. Sergey Mochalov and the Churches in Russia.

The Pastor’s Corner:

Where God is; There Is Freedom.
“Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” 2 Corinthians 3:17

It was July 4th 1776 when the Declaration of Independence was signed which gave those who had given their blood a glorious victory. It is because of their victory and the signing of this glorious document that allows us to have the freedom in America that we enjoy today. We sometime get so tied up in this world that we forget those who died so we could share in the freedom that we so much enjoy today. Thousands upon thousands went toe to toe with the British troop in order to deliver to us Americans our freedom from the King of England and the great persecution suffer at the hand of the Catholics and the Church of England. It is this time of year that we all should celebrate our freedom as Americans. It must have been such a wonderful feeling and glorious victory as those 56 men signed this great document. However it was the blood of the thousands upon thousands that gave their blood before this was made possible. We sometimes forget that freedom comes from the blood of those fighting the good fight to give others freedom. Today we have thousands who have given their lives to free others around the world, so if you see a soldier of our military just say thank you!

We celebrate the freedom to attend church services because of blood given by so many millions through history. It is believed that as many as fifty million Baptist and other Christians died at the hands of Catholicism and those of Reformation to continue the faith we share today. One day God will pay them back for their transgression and Catholicism shall fall for her sins. Revelation 18:20 - 21 "Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her. (21.) And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all." One day there will be a great celebration in Heaven and it will be for the fall of the New Testament Babylon; Catholicism.

We as Christians have much to celebrate today because our Declaration of Independence was signed before the creation of the world between the Father and the Son when God The Father gave His elect to the Son with the promise that the Son would shed His blood as the Son of man for our sins and He did some two thousand years ago. Again we see blood being shed for freedom but this blood frees us from the bondage to sin and gives us liberty in Christ. Our text says “…where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” Well if you are saved then He dwells in your heart and where He is there is freedom. So while we enjoy the freedom to live in the greatest Nation on this earth, let us enjoy everyday the freedom we have in Christ Jesus. It is because of His blood that we can enjoy freedom to sup with the Father. Matthew 26:28 “For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” Today celebrate salvation and the freedom you have in Christ Jesus, the one single man Who died to give millions life eternal. Acts 17:28 "For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. (29.) Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device."

The Power Of Prayer

Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, "Whatever you shall ask in my name, that will I do — that the Father may be glorified in the Son." — John 14:13

Blessed Jesus! it is You who has unlocked to Your people the gates of prayer. Without You, they must have been shut forever. It was Your atoning merit on earth that first opened them; it is Your intercessory work in Heaven that keeps them open still.

How unlimited the promise — "Whatever you shall ask!" It is the pledge of all that the needy sinner requires — all that an Omnipotent Savior can bestow! As the great Steward of the mysteries of grace, He seems to say to His faithful servants, "Take your request, and under this, My superscription, write what you please." And then, when the blank is filled up, He further endorses each petition with the words, "I WILL do it!"

He further encourages us to ask "in His name." In the case of an earthly petitioner there are some pleas more influential in obtaining a benefit than others. Jesus speaks of this as forming the key to the heart of God. As David loved the helpless cripple of Saul's house "for Jonathan's sake," so will the Father, by virtue of our covenant relationship to the true Jonathan (lit., "the gift of God"), delight in giving us even "exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think."

Reader, do you know the blessedness of confiding your every need and every care — your every sorrow and every cross — into the ear of the Savior? He is the "Wonderful Counselor." With an exquisitely tender sympathy, He can enter into the innermost depths of your need. That need may be great — but the everlasting arms are underneath it all. Think of Him now, at this moment — the great Angel of the Covenant, with the censer full of much incense, in which are placed your feeblest aspirations, your most burdened sighs — the odor-breathing cloud ascending with acceptance before the Father's throne. The answer may tarry — these your supplications may seem to be kept long on the wing, hovering around the mercy-seat. A gracious God sometimes sees it fitting thus to test the faith and patience of His people. He delights to hear the music of their importunate pleadings — to see them undeterred by difficulties — unrepelled by apparent forgetfulness and neglect. But He will come at last — the pent-up fountain of love and mercy will at length burst out — the soothing accents will in His own good time be heard, "Be it unto you according to your word!"

Soldier of Christ! with all your other armor, do not forget the weapon, "All-prayer." It is that which keeps bright and shining "the whole armor of God." While yet out in the night of a dark world — while still camping in an enemy's country — kindle your watch-fires at the altar of incense. You must be Moses — pleading on the Mount; if you would be Joshua — victorious in the world's daily battle. Confide your cause to this waiting Redeemer. You cannot weary Him with your importunity. He delights in hearing. He is glorified in giving. The memorable Bethany-utterance remains unaltered and unrepealed, "I know that You hear Me always." He is still the "Prince that has power with God and prevails" — He still promises and pleads — he still He lives and loves!

By John MacDuff, 1858