Thanks Tech Ladies!
“Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!” – Psalm 107:1
To find out about the four new apps shared today, click here:
https://www.christiscentral.org/four-apps-for-your-phone-or-tablet/
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Sermon Notes – 1/24
Meat & Tators: Spectators and Agitators
After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. 2 And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. 3 Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. 5 Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” 6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. 7 Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii[a] worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9 “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” 10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number. 11 Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” 13 So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. 14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”
15 Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”
23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
https://sports.yahoo.com/miami-heat-fans-leave-nba-finals-game-6-051052669.html?a20=1
Garth Brooks Performance of Amazing Grace at the Inauguration
https://sourcingjournal.com/denim/denim-influencers/garth-brooks-inauguration-wrangler-jeans-amazing-grace-biden-country-music-256652/
Statler and Waldorf – Reference (Muppets)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSDj7bjAv2s
That all of us whose names are hereunto subscribed, protesting against the reformation, are willing and determined to rally round the original constitution and covenant of the church, which has never been disannulled, associating therewith the principles of the Union between the Regular and Separate Baptists, which was adopted by the Elkhorn Association, … thereby occupying precisely the same ground we did before the confusing system of things that has destroyed our peace and the peace of many other churches among us. No person shall be considered a member of the May’s Lick Baptist Church who will refuse to acknowledge the above and subscribe their names.”
Here with Central, we want to make disciples (participators) who are involved in Showing His Love, Sharing His Story, and Being His Family.
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New Members in January
Cameron Farris & Katie Roberts
Cameron and Katie are longtime White County residents and are engaged to be married this summer! Cameron is younger brother to Wayne Farris.
Debra & JD Prater
Debra and son JD are enjoying a renewal of faith in His Spirit!
This boyfriend and girlfriend couple are enjoying God’s blessings as Mike was baptized in 2020 and Mikaela recommitted her life to Christ! Mikaela is a niece to Wayne and Cameron Farris.
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Four Apps For Your Phone or Tablet
- The Bible App – Available in the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, Kindle Fire Store, Microsoft App Store
- This app makes it easy to read and share God’s Word, with almost 300 free Bible Versions and 200+ reading plans that help you read the Bible and track your progress. The Bible App can even read to you with Audio Bibles – all completely free!
- Connect to members at Central – You can read along and comment with other members on the Central Church of Christ daily Bible reading plan through this app.
- Connect to our 2021 daily reading plan with this link: http://bit.ly/CentralBible2021
- Instant Church Directory – Apple App Store, Google Play Store, Kindle Fire Store
- If you have an email address in our printed church directory, then you can gain access to this app which gives you full directory functionality on your smartphone. Easily email church members, call their numbers, or navigate to their address directly from this app without any copying and pasting. You’ll love how easily this app connects you to brothers and sisters in Christ!
- Create a login password using the email address you have listed in our directory.
- Central Church of Christ App on Sharefaith – Available on Apple App Store and Google Play Store
- The quick tabs allow you to listen to the latest sermon, watch the livestream, catch up on bulletin announcements, connect to our calendar, receive push notifications of events, and access our online giving portal.
- Sharefaith is a “shell app” that hosts all of Central’s content.
- Download the Sharefaith App and enter – “Central CofC Sparta TN”
- Aggos App – Available on Apple App Store and Google Play Store
- Church of Christ directory & social media app with over 13,000 Christians from 134 countries already signed up.
- “Aggos is an online connectivity platform for the global Churches of Christ. Aggos is a marketplace for everything from social networking to mission support to event promotion, a place to provide resources and seek resources, and so much more. Within Aggos you will find a safe and curated digital community that will allow for and encourage the fellowship of ideas and values that we all hold dear.”
- Aggos is built by a CofC friend of Topher’s and is managed from Nashville.
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Connecting Digitally with Family
The Covid-19 vaccines will arrive a little too late to give greater freedom for family gatherings, meaning that many of us will miss a valuable tradition this year. Here in 2020, many people are finding a first as they are forgoing the annual office parties, family meals, and New Year’s Eve blowouts. Our hearts break f
or families in this season but we take solace in the tools God has granted to still stay connected even though staying socially distant. Here is how you can host your own Zoom family gathering.
- Communicate (thru text, email, or phone) with your fa mily to decide on a family gathering time (i.e. Dec 24th at 5pm Central time). Make sure to include the time zone for family & friends that live father away.
- Create a free Zoom account. (zoom.us) Only the gathering host needs a zoom account. Participants can join the event without creating an account or downloading the software. Note that free accounts limit g
atherings to 40-minutes. - Click the “Schedule a Meeting” tab after logging into the Zoom website and fill in the appropriate information. Make sure to set a passcode that is easy to remember. Click the “Save” button at the bottom when finished.
- Copy the Invitation Invite Link provided on the page and send it to your family and friends in the group text or email. It will look something like this:
- Send reminders the day before or morning of the event to all family members and friends. Emails are easy to forget!
- Login and start the meeting on your decided day! For us, downloading the Zoom App or Software for hosting a meeting has proved easiest, so we recommend testing that out before the actual gathering. To easily find your meeting, click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting#/upcoming .
Topher’s Tips for getting the most out of your Zoom gathering.
- Choose one person to be the “Moderator” for the Zoom meeting. It’s tough to understand others when people are talking at the same time. Ensure everyone gets time to share by choosing a moderator who is always “unmuted” and has microphone control.
- Plan in advance for someone to give a musical performance or a Christmas reading. It warms our hearts
- to see a grandkid strum the guitar or one family to sing a Christmas carol. Remember, singing is laborious on Zoom due to the half second delay.
Play an easy Zoom game to enjoy with family. Some of the easiest are 20 Questions, Bingo, Trivia, Pictionary, and Charades.- Always include a prayer, thanking God for family past and present. Make sure to thank Him for the ability to meet on Zoom!
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Family Forte: Marriage GPS
Family Forte: What is Your Marriage GPS?
By: Topher Wiles
| Don’t try to drive from Lost Creek Falls to Virgin Falls on your own! |
Don’t you just love GPS? I know I do. When I moved to White County a little over three years ago Google Maps was like a voice out of heaven giving me directions to all the best things in life. My GPS guided me to some of the most wonderful destinations like Bino’s Restaurant and the Trolley Stop in Rock Island where the hamburgers and milkshakes are made to perfection. Without my GPS heavenly natural sites like Welch’s Point and Lost Creek Falls & Cave would still only exist as a legend instead of the beauty that I’ve witnessed as I’ve visited them many times over. It was my GPS that let me know that I could not easily drive from Lost Creek Falls directly to Virgin Falls even though they are only 1.5 miles apart as the crow flies.
The best function of GPS is the gentle way it corrects me when I have made a mistake. Yes men, sometimes our internal cardinal direction compass proves wayward and it is that blessed GPS that lovingly turns us around. One time, when speeding on the way to a funeral up the mountain in Spencer, I hurried right past the turn for Layne Funeral Home. Grateful was my emotion when my GPS said, “Rerouting… In a half mile make a left turn…”
As grateful as I am for my driving GPS, I love more the Marriage GPS that I have which guides me to my goals and reroutes me when I make marriage mistakes. It is my Marriage GPS that has guided my wife and I on our way to financial freedom. My Marriage GPS has blessed me with 16 great years of marriage that just keeps getting better each and every year. It is my Marriage GPS keeps me going on weekly date nights with my beautiful bride, keeping the spark alive. It is that Marriage GPS that continues to guide us toward the goal of one day being old and beautifully wrinkled swinging on the porch holding hands while our grandchildren frolic all around us. My Marriage GPS even said, “Rerouting…. Make a U-Turn” when I mistakenly entertained the idea to uproot my family again and move to a distant job that recently offered me a huge salary increase. Yes, I’m grateful for my Marriage GPS.
What is my Marriage GPS that gives me directions and reroutes me when I make a mistake? Mine consists of three parts; my Bible, my church elders, and older successfully married men.
The Bible as Married GPS. The Bible is filled with great marriage advice and examples of commitment even if it doesn’t mention marriage specifically. Read your Bible every single day asking the question, “What direction does this passage give me for my marriage?” You’ll be surprised at the inspiring guidance that it gives you toward your goals. Often I’ve come to a fork in the road of life and marriage, unsure of which way to turn to reach my desired destination. Low and behold, the answer routinely jumps off the pages of the living Word of God in my morning devotional reading. Some of those beautiful instructions include:
| Good marriages don’t just happen. They need guidance. |
- “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” – 1 Peter 4:8
- “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” – Ephesians 4:32
- “Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.” – Hebrews 13:4
The Elders as Married GPS. At Central Church of Christ, we choose to practice church leadership like we read it in the churches that Paul, Timothy, and Titus guide in the Bible. In this church leadership structure, we choose multiple leaders, called elders, bishops, shepherds, or overseers instead of one singular pastor. Each one of these must possess the qualities listed in Titus & 1 Timothy: having a good reputation, married to one woman, exhibiting self-control, sober, respectable, hospitable, willing to teach faith, peaceful, gentle, not argumentative, not greedy, and having managed his own household well.
As a minister, I serve these elders in the church. It is also these men who do regular checkups on my marriage, my finances, my health, my children, and more. These men are respected in my life and guide me along the challenging trials of marriage as my GPS. It is also these respectful men that can lovingly re-route me when my course goes astray. Just this Monday, when I let work take precedent over my wife, one of my elders messaged saying, “Stop texting me and enjoy your date night!” I encourage each of you to involve yourself in a church that has respectably married leadership that you can look to as your Married GPS.
(Read more about our elders here: www.christiscentral.org/shepherds)
Older successfully married men as Married GPS. Each month on a Tuesday I choose to go have a biscuit with this one old codger who is hilariously funny and thought provokingly pensive. We spend an hour, mostly with me listening, about what it is like to grow old, to love a woman who is aging, and to still be useful in a rapidly changing world. After each breakfast he thanks me for bringing a biscuit and listening to his ramblings to which I reply, “Brother, you don’t realize how much this benefits me.” I’m taking notes now on the directions I need to be a loving husband for 10, 20, and even 60 years down the road. Each and every married man should have an old married fella to sit at the feet of and learn from. All it costs me is one biscuit a month.
I know some men navigate their marriage the way they navigate roads in White County. They just wander around doing what feels right until they get there, give up, or run out of gas. Get the right directions, guidance, and re-routing instructions by using Marriage GPS. Grow old together, hold hands, and enjoy the blessings marriage has to offer. You’ll be glad you did.
The word “forte” comes from the latin word “fortis” meaning strength. Our weekly Family Forte article in The Expositor is the effort of family at Central Church of Christ to give your family the love, care, and attention it needs to become a stronger version of itself. If we can help you in any way, please contact us at Central Church of Christ through email, topherwiles@spartacoc.com, or through our website, www.christiscentral.org.
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Testing Announcements for 11/24/20
Midweek service is Tuesday Night at 6:30pm on livestream
http://spartacoc.com/
SOCIAL MEDIA – We post on social media nearly every single day, but we do realize some of you don’t subscribe to those networks. Here’s a little of what we post to keep you updated.
For everyone who helped with the Thanksgiving meals this weekend! You gave out 150+ bags of food, toiletries, and kids’ supplies this weekend to families that have already visited our food pantry throughout the year. You are a big part of taking the extra step of building a relationship with them to give them more than a hand-out, but a hand-up toward God!
Look at those 150+ bagged meals!
Ginger and Carolyn are organizing!
Doug Hensley did a great job honoring Jesus and honoring his grandmother at the Carlene Hensley funeral on Monday. Make sure to keep praying for Doug, Kimberly, Lilliauna and the whole Hensley family.
The Wiles family has a new (to us) vehicle! There is a great and fun God story about this car (that we weren’t actively looking for). Ask Micah about his drum set and the car story. And yes, I couldn’t find my wife in the parking lot this Sunday, but had to ask Ty Webb, “Have you seen my family in the new car?” Ask Gabriel how he’s liking the extra legroom in the 2006 Honda Odyssey. Praise God!
Ethan and Roger Mason agree, the Rock Island Trolley Stop is a great new addition to our community. Enjoy icecream and milkshakes in an outdoor setting at this great location just off the beaten path. Go to Bino’s Market in Rock Island and you’ll see the trolley right across the road. Roger recommends the blackberry cobbler ice-cream! Tell Kailyn that Topher sent you!
https://www.
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Announcements 11/8/2020
November 12th – Ladies Zoom Class at 7 pm.
November 14th – Saturday – Workday Day on the metal building from 8am – Noon.
November 19th – Ladies Zoom Class at 7 pm.
November 12th – Ladies Zoom Class at 7 pm.
Youth
November 8th -Teens 4 Christ at the Happy Haven Ogden Center. We will leave from the church building around 3:30.
The schedule for the evening is games at 4 pm, dinner at 5 pm, and worship at 6 pm. We will return around 7:30 PM.
November 21st-Thanksgiving Meal to go for the Community-If you would like to help hand out the bags as the cars pull through, please let the office know.
December 5th – Ignite Youth Rally at Willow Avenue
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Changes, Challenges, and Children
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