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Announcements Plus Devotional Aids

HAPPY 250TH BIRTHDAY, USA! Thanks be to God!

Let's Learn a Bible Verse!

"The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity."
--Proverbs 11:3 (NIV)

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Contents

Announcements

August Newsletter is now online.

Community Fun Day - August 22

We are preparing for our annual Community Fun Day set for August 22nd, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Hotdogs will be served with chips and more, brownies and cookies for dessert, plus ice cream.

Activites include petting zoo, reptile zoo, bouncy house, water slides, both for very young children (small slide) and older children (larger slide), storytime, music, and more. For those who plan to use the water slides, please wear appropriate swimwear and bring a towel. Children should be accompanied by a responsible adult.

Also, school supplies will be given away. First come, first served until gone.

Enjoy this last blast of summer before school begins. Everything is FREE!

All-American Sunday, July 26, 10 AM

We celebrate the USA again on Sunday, July 26 in our worship service, which will start at 10:00 a.m. A free All-American lunch will be served afterwards with hamburgers, hot dogs, and all the fixings, and homemade desserts. Sunday school classes will not be this Sunday. We return to regular worship time next week at 9:00 a.m.

 

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Quote to Ponder

"The church’s, in order to keep the flock “entertained” have become little more than circuses. Most people cannot remember the sermon, but they remember the music and the rest of “the show” they sat through on Sunday morning.

At one time, Americans went to church in record numbers because they needed God’s help in physically surviving this world. Since the government has taken that threat away, The Great Society programs, all people want from churches is to be entertained or to agree with their latest social fad"
Comment from Grandpa says at American Thinker.com.

 

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For Meditation

"Many of us live in a media-inspired, AI/hi-tech, feelings-culture that has led to the gradual closing of the mind in the 21st century. For many, especially atheists and happy-clappy, kumbaya Christians, the world revolves around the Self and what feels good. And as for some people who call themselves Christian but err on dogma, I’ll leave the last words to St Augustine of Hippo. He said: “If you believe what you like in the Gospel, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the Gospel you believe in, but yourself.”

Kenneth Francis.

https://mindmatters.ai/2026/05/understanding-the-atheists-mind/

 

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Mini-Bible Lesson #105: Birth of the Church

References: Acts 2:1-13; Interpreter’s Bible: Acts. Romans.

All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.  –Acts 2:4 NIV

The Christian Day of Pentecost coincides with the Jewish Pentecost or Harvest Festival, which was 50 days after Passover. It was also called the Feast of Weeks as it was seven weeks after Passover. It came at the end of the barley harvest and the beginning of the wheat harvest. It was a Pilgrimage Festival. Jews from around the Roman Empire would make a special trip to Jerusalem for worship. Because of what happened so spectacularly on this day, it became a popular time for baptisms in the Christian Church. Because of the white robes that baptism candidates wore, the Day of Pentecost is also known as Whitsun or Whitsunday (White Sunday) among Methodists and Anglicans. It also became a holiday because this was the first day of the beginning of summer vacations in many countries.

Pentecost may not have been the first time that these early believers were given the Holy Spirit, but it is the first recorded time that they were given the power of the Holy Spirit and felt it surge through them and then outward in witness. Did the presence of the Holy Spirit in the converted combined with prayer, fellowship, and worship with other believers lead to this moment when the full power of the Holy Spirit came pouring out so strongly?

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. –Acts 2:1-3 NIV

The wind was the breath of God blowing away the chaff in their hearts and minds. The fire symbolized the burning of the chaff, or judgment and God’s power. The “fire” appears on the head of each person, male and female, instead of a column of fire leading the corporate body of the Hebrews on their way to the promised land. So today, the corporate Church rises from the individuals, not from a designated community or nation.

Pentecost is the revelation of the supernatural, the unseen, non-material taking over a person, who then does extraordinary things. It is comparable with the athlete who catches the wind and runs farther and faster than he ever has before, the dancer or figure skater who gives the performance of a life time, a musician who plays a piece of music with perfection and passion, a man who lifts a car with his bare hands to save someone trapped under the car, a warrior who defeats a hundred men with the jawbone of an ass.

There are times when we can be “in the zone” where nothing goes wrong, where everything falls into place, where we pull from inside ourselves power and strength and courage that we never thought we had. These people at Pentecost felt that kind of power when God’s supernatural Spirit took hold of them and they let that Spirit control them completely and freely.

They had prayed together for days that God’s will be done. They emptied their hearts and minds of themselves, and God came pouring in to give them power to do extraordinary things. Is this the problem of the church today—we are not willing to let God come in and take over everything? To let God be the owner of all we are and all we have?

They came together as individuals, but became a corporate body through corporate prayer, worship, and fellowship. Then they were able to spread the good news together in power, but still as individuals (each person spoke a different language to those to whom they witnessed). This is why Christians should not neglect corporate, in person, worship and study of God’s Word. Church attendance keeps our minds on Christ and gives us the power and courage to face the outside world and its problems; plus providing us with the knowledge of God’s Word to make us good witnesses of the Good News. See you in church?

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Special Resources

The picture below is our new Resource Room with books, dvds, videos, and a TV screen (not shown in photo). Individuals are encouraged to take resources home for Bible study or reading; and classes can use the room to show videos related to their studies. We would appreciate donations of books or dvds, especially for young children for this collection.

 

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Ongoing Collections - Updated - 8/5/2025

CCC & TI Food Pantry Collection - Yearly in April

Throughout the month of April, we will be collecting single serve, microwaveable or ready-to-eat items for students at Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute. Suggested items: single serve Ramen Noodles, macaroni and cheese, crackers with cheese or peanut butter, cookies, single serve canned meats, etc.

Oakhill Backpack Ministry

We are beginning to collect single serve, easy to microwave or use food items to send home with needy children, such as, fruit cups, mac and cheese, snacks, noodles, etc. The children will receive a backpack of these items to take home on the weekends, and use for themselves and their families. Put the items in the old fellowship hall. We thank you for helping.

Local Schools Supply Closet

We continue to collect items for our local teachers.This ministry provides items for teachers and their students that they cannot obtain through the regular budget.

They include the following: Clorox wipes, hand sanitizer, hand soap, paper towels, facial tissues, sharpies, dry board markers highlighters, black/blue/red ink pens, colored pencils, glue sticks, composition books and notebook paper (wide and college ruled), crayons, scissors (children's type), index cards, construction paper, pencil sharpeners, sheet protectors, file folders, large and small legal pads, white out, paper clips, staples, pencil pouches, markers, rulers, ring binders, card stock white/assorted, 3 ring note books, large and small pencil top erasers, and post it notes.

South Caldwell Christian Ministries

August is our month to help resupply the SCCM Food Pantry. Canned meats and vegetables, rice and cereral, canned beans, soups, canned fruits, Instant Variety Packs of oatmeal or grits, peanut butter, crackers, and other non-perishable items.

We are collecting non-perishable food and clean used clothing in good condition that will be taken to South Caldwell Christian Ministries. You may leave the items at the church on Sundays or during normal office hours (8:30 to 1:00 p.m., Monday-Friday).

We thank you for helping us to minister to the needs of our community.

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Contact Information: 828-396-2214 or emcdudleyshoals@yahoo.com;
4948 Burns Rd., Granite Falls NC 28630