Slime Time Family Fall Festival

  Slime Time is the Ridge's alternative Halloween event at the Carthage Community Center.  Slime Time will be open from 6-9 PM.  Games, treats, and the message that "God loves you" will be given out all evening.  Volunteers can always be used to greet families from the neighborhood.  Donations of treats and cookies are also needed. 

Sunday AM Discipleship

  Sunday morning discipleship groups are available for all ages.  The adults are using curriculum from Saddleback Church in California.  All adults are invited to attend this challenging study.   Groups are also available for all children through the Camp W program. 

Community Ministry

      The Walnut Ridge Food Pantry is open on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of the month from 8-10 AM.  An appointment can also be made with Robin if assistance is needed at other times.  Distribution from the Food Pantry has skyrocketed in the last month.  Bring your donations to the church at any time OR volunteer one Saturday morning to pray with a family.

 Women's Ministries

   Chick Flicks............ December 11!    The December edition of Chick Flicks will be announced shortly.  Take a break from a hectic holiday season to hang out with "the girls".

 Men's Ministries

  Men's Bible Study meets on Wednesdays at 8 PM at the church.   The Beverly Hillbillies is the current curriculum...............

Midweek Bible Study

  A midweek Bible Study group meets on Wednesdays at 6 PM in the fellowship hall of the church.  The group is open to anyone wanting to learn more about the Characters of the Bible.  Pastor Bruce leads the group.  Call the office for more info.

A Note From the Pastor

Live Life Backwards

Whatever is going to be important then, make it important now. When you stand before Christ at the end of your life, there will be no remorse or regrets. That thought alone ought to motivate us to introduce a lost person to Christ.

Have you ever noticed how much we grade people on the basis of their performance? Our whole society does it. The better we perform, the higher up the ladder we go; the more we make, the greater the privileges we receive or the fewer penalties we suffer.

I’m convinced that this emphasis on performance is one reason non-Christians may find it hard to grasp the grace of God and His free gift of everlasting life. They try to understand God’s love by comparing rather than contrasting it to human love.

No verse of Scripture could make it any clearer that a right standing before God has nothing to do with our worth, merit, or work than Romans 4:4&5 which says, “Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,”

Paul illustrates the difference between faith and work by describing the process of employment. An employer does not call an employee’s wages a gift; instead, the workers earn what they receive. The employer is obligated to pay for work that has been completed. The wages are the agreed-upon amount, not a gift. If a person could earn right standing with God by his or her works (doing good, obeying the law), salvation wouldn’t be free; it would be God’s obligation, like payment for our efforts.

Imperfect people that we are, we cannot pay for our own sins. Only the perfect Son of God could do that. Since He has died on a cross for our sins and risen victoriously, we simply need to believe---Christ alone to save us. God will justify or declare us righteous, not based on what we’ve done for God, but based on what Christ did for us.

The reason is that, as we read in Romans 4:5, ‘his faith is accounted for righteousness.’ That simply means that when we commit our trust in Christ, God takes the perfection of His Son and places it over us. Therefore, when He looks on us, He no longer sees our sin; He only sees the perfection of His Son. We are forever accepted by God, not based on our performance but based on His.

The awesome recognition of the depth of the grace of God ought to affirm our commitment to Him and to move us to tell somebody else.

Through our commitment to Christ let’s consider priorities. Priority is such a frustrating word, isn’t it? Yet it’s the one that will determine whether or not we have lived a worthwhile life. What sadder experience could there be than to come to the end and discover that we have lived for things that are going up in smoke. And what more exciting experience could there be than to realize we have been faithful and lived for things that really count.

Imagine that you have just died and are standing face-to-face with Jesus. What will you wish had been the most important items in your life? Will they be the TV and the VCR, the new house or expensive car, the golf course or the swimming pool? Or will it be what it was for Paul the apostle---the ones he had led to Christ and the ones God allowed him to disciple?

As Paul said to the Thessalonians, “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? For you are our glory and joy.” Paul had been instrumental in leading many of them to Christ and then caring for them as a nursing mother does her own children to help them grow. Because he lived for people, not things, the day he anticipated seeing Christ face-to-face was to be his most exciting moment ever.

The Earl of Rochester lived a wealthy but wicked life. When he came to the end of his life, he exclaimed, “Would to God I had been born a blind beggar or a foul leper rather than to have lived and forgotten God.” What appeared to distress him as his life came to an end is that he had lived for all the things that really didn’t matter. If we are not careful, even though we are believers who worship the name of Christ, we can live for all the things that, when we are face-to-face with Christ, won’t matter, instead of for the people who will.

Again I say, live life from heaven backwards. Whatever is going to be important then, make it important now. When you stand before Christ, there will be no remorse or regrets. That thought alone ought to motivate us to introduce a lost person to Christ.

Think carefully. Is there someone in whose life you were a messenger of His saving grace? Do you have someone who is your “crown of rejoicing”? If evangelism is one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread, why not direct non-Christians to the buffet?

Once we come to Christ, how quickly we forget the depth and the freeness of our salvation. We need to ask God to remind us of the supremacy of the grace that brought us to the Savior. Out of gratitude for His love, we need to tell someone about Him. Make a list of what should be most important in your life as you anticipate seeing Christ face-to-face. Then take that list and, in prayer, ask God to help you master your priorities until you come to a point that God’s priorities have mastered you.

What will that moment be like when you meet Jesus face-to-face?

In Christ,

Pastor Bruce