RCC Newsletter February 2023

February 2023

A NOTE FROM THE PREACHER

I pray you enjoyed and were edified by our just completed series on " The Names of Jesus." I can tell you that I was blessed by our study. I pray that we all grew in the grace and knowledge of our Lord, just like Peter exhorted us at the end of his second letter (see 2 Peter 3:18).

May this prayer, entitled "Christ Alone" and found in that classic work by Arthur Bennett, The Valley of Vision, provide a fitting "final word" to our study:

O God, Thy main plan, and the end of Thy will is to make Christ glorious and beloved in heaven where He is now ascended, where one day all the elect will behold His glory and love and glorify Him forever.

Though here I love Him but little, may this be my portion at last.

In this world Thou hast given me a beginning, one day it will be perfected in the realm

above.

Thou hast helped me to see and know Christ, though obscurely,

to take Him, receive Him,

to possess Him, love Him,

to bless Him in my heart, mouth, life.

Let me study and stand for discipline, and all the ways of worship, out of love for Christ;

and to show my thankfulness; to seek and know His will from love, to hold it in love, and

daily to care for and keep this state of heart.

Thou hast led me to place all my nature and happiness in oneness with Christ, in having

heart and mind centered only on Him, in being like Him in communication good to

others.

That is my heaven on earth, but I need the force, energy, impulses of Thy Spirit to carry

me on the way to my Jerusalem.

Here, it is my duty

to be as Christ in this world,

to do what He would do.

to live as He would live,

to walk in love and meekness;

then would He be known,

then would I have peace in death.

May every member of our church family, and each and every one of our children and

grandchildren, know this glorious peace in death that only comes from knowing Jesus.

God bless you, church family. I pray you will continue to grow in the precious knowledge of God the Father and His son Jesus, for this eternal life (see John 17:3).

Pressing on with you, with our eyes on Jesus,

Pastor Butch

Elder Meeting Summary

The elders met on January 17. The highlights of that meeting are as follows:

Pastor Mark opened the meeting in prayer.
We met with Gerald Hinesley to move toward finalizing the 2023 budget, which will be presented to the church family at next month's Annual Meeting. We finished 2022 in very good shape financially, and we praise God for His goodness to us through the generous giving of His people. Thank you, Lord!
We scheduled our Annual Meeting for Sunday, February 12.
We met with Duane Turner and Bryan Kirkland, who want to teach a young adult Sunday School class. We thank God for this initiative, which will begin on April 2nd. We pray that He will bless Duane and Bryan as they teach and that the class will be source of faithful discipleship for our young adults.
We discussed the prospect of the elders attending the National FIRE Conference in Laurel, Mississippi, in May. We have also been invited to attend this year's G3 Conference in Atlanta at no cost, courtesy of Virgil Walker and Darrell Harrison, who will be speaking at the conference we will be hosting in the fall. More details on that later.
We discussed a few church membership concerns. We thank God for our church family and pray that His grace will abound to every covenant member.
The meeting was closed with prayer.

Pressing on with you, with our eyes fixed on Jesus,

The Elders of RCC

Memory Verse for February

" O you who love the LORD, hate evil! He preserves the lives of his saints; he delivers them from the hand of the wicked."

Psalm 97:10

Book of the Month:

Habits of Grace

by David Mathis

Start your year off exploring the spiritual disciplines.

The everyday routine habits of Bible reading, prayer, and fellowship are the pipeline through which God's love and power flow—including the greatest joy of all: knowing and enjoying Jesus.

Habits of Grace presents these three categories of spiritual disciplines as "means of grace" that strengthen your daily life as a believer. When you read the book, you’ll learn practical and accessible tips for creating sustainable lifelong habits. These habits can be adjusted based on the season of life you’re in so that the spiritual disciplines become a joy rather than a duty.