Sovereign Grace Missionary BaptistChurch 1217 Dillon Texarkana, Texas 75501 December 16, 2012 Newsletter Number 396 Brother Randy Johnson, Pastor Brother Ronnie Henderson, Song Director Pastor E-Mail: pastor@sgmbaptist.com Web Site: www.sgmbaptist.com "Where The Truths Of God’s Word Have Been Taught For More Than Fifty Years”

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, Frank & Sonya Trusty, Frank & Dawana Reigel, Andrew Preston, Larry Mollette, Larry Mollette II & Family, Kerry Pennington, Kim Poole, Danny & Nita Mollette, Wendell Henderson, Judy Dunn, Martha Gray, Joshua Kidd, Matthew Kidd, Ronnie Henderson Jr. & Children, Ricky Henderson and Family, Jacie Henderson, Bro. & Mrs. Hammond, Charles, Don Hammond and Families, Archie & Barbara Griffin, Bro. & Sister Bob Keller, Mary Ramsey, Donna Johnson, Fay Johnson, James and Luann Reynolds, Timothy and Nathan Fails, Jacob Ramsey, Jerry Hughes, Sister Nita Bookout, Pastor G. L. Burr, Melody Carr, Janie Capps, Imajo Tracy, Linda Hughes, Roy Lemmon, Rosie Tomlin, Lee Mollette’s Daughter & Granddaughter Kristal, Dale Barnes – Kathy Johnson and their mother, Pat and Waymon Abercrombie, Barbara Brewer, Donna Jones, Frank Roberts, Dale and Linda Trahan, Linda Mollette – Shawn and girls, Ricky and Margaret McCoy, Brother David O’Neal, Brother Curtis Pugh, Brother Dan Sullivan and the work in Thailand, Brother Raul and the work in Romania, and Bro. Sergey Mochalov and the Churches in Russia.

A Thought From Our Pastor: Thou Shalt Not Kill!Exodus 20:13 "Thou shalt not kill." As we are still in tears about the tragedy in Connecticut where some 20 children and 6 adults were murdered; many are looking for answers. Please if I hear one more seminary educated Catholic Priest on T.V. giving us more worthless philosophy I am going to vomit. Folks this is indeed sad; and it is sad because one worthless human being took the life of 26 other souls with him as he left this world for his place in hell. It seems like every year we see several of these mass murders and it seems to be getting worse. This time he took children and not just children but 6 - 7 years old and older. Oh, how sad this is. But as always the liberal folks out there will use this sad occasion as they do with all the other tragedies every year to violate our second amendment and create more gun laws. How about we attempt to find the real cause which is sin! This young man did what he did because he was sin infested. God said "For the wages of sin is death..." Romans 6:23 not just eternal death but also physical death. God also said “…There is none righteous, no, not one:” Romans 3:10. We do not have to look far to find the cause here. The cause is a godless society and an America that basically hates God. America has tried to remove God from everything but when a tragedy like this happens we call on God for help. We cannot just cancel God from everything in our lives and call on Him when we need Him. We as a Nation must pay for our sins and of our failure to worship and serve God. I do not want to limit the sadness of this tragedy at all, but rather attempt to explain why these mass murders keep happening and are getting worse. God is not welcome in our schools but politicians go to churches in an attempt to get elected. As a nation we do not fear God but rather want to use Him when tragedy hit us. As a nation we only want God when He can give us something we need. James Madison, the chief architect of the Constitution once said: "We have staked the whole future of American civilization not on the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God." So before those liberal “more gun law” people start using this tragedy in an unfortunate way to promote their agenda, let us look to the real law, the law of God. God commanded “Thou shalt not kill." Or thou shalt not murder; now if this young man had been taught Gods law then maybe this horrible act that hurt so many families for the rest of their days would not have happened. There is a price to pay for ripping the Ten Commandments out of our schools and teaching our children that God is not real. We do not need more laws; we need God back into our lives. Folks, we ask you all to pray for the families of this tragedy. I cannot empathize with these families at all, but I can none the less pray for them. I know that we have all cried at one point listening to the news accounts of these murders. We wonder why God would allow such a thing; folk’s God has a reason for everything and there is some reason for this tragedy. There is so much that we simply do not understand and while a hundred or so doctors may try to explain this young mans actions the true reason may never be known; that is why he chose to shoot-up a school of young children. Sin is a horrible thing and its power comes from Satan, this is why it is so hard to refuse. If America children were taught from Gods laws things would be different and this is the reason America is as troubled as it is, because America has pulled herself from the laws of God.

For Our Weekly Meditation: Engrafted, Engraved, and Entrusted“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (I Cor. 2:14) Engrafted Word – “…and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.” (James 1:21) In Acts 2 we are told when they heard the Word they were “pricked” in the heart. The word “pricked” from the language means to pierce or to cut into. When a plant is grafted the branch is cut to the heart and that to which it is engrafted is also cut to the heart. This enable the sap to flow freely between the two parts grafted. As the Word is pierced or grafted into the heart it brings the flow of saving faith unto the saving of the soul. James says to receive grafting with humbleness; that is, do not obstinately strive to resist the flow of saving life. Engraved Word – “…ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.” (II Cor. 3:3) The message of Christ was clearly manifested to others by the outward lives of the church in Corinth. This was done not by simply reading the words written on a page; the message of the Gospel was lived out in the pages of their lives because of the Word that the Spirit had engraved upon their heart. It was not simply a form of masking religionism; it was truth from the heart. Entrusted Word – “…the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” (I Tim. 3:15) The Word of God grafted in unto salvation and engraved upon the heart by the Spirit is committed for guardianship unto the church which belongs to God. Unbelievers and false brethren have no part in this matter because they have not the Word in them. It is the church’s duty to guard the truth by being the very foundation and strong supporter of that truth. God has empowered His church to withstand the gates of hell, because it is built upon the chief Cornerstone. By Dr. M. J. Seymour, Sr.

The Scriptures are sufficient . . . to inform the ignorant, to confute the erroneous, to reform the wicked, and to guide and direct, support and comfort--the godly. By Thomas Brooks