Sovereign Grace Missionary Baptist Church
1217 Dillon Dr. (Wake Village) Texarkana, Texas 75501
December 19, 2004 
Elder Randy Johnson, Pastor                                    Bro. Ronnie Henderson, Song Director  
Pastor E-Mail: sgmbcpastor@countrybaptist.org     Web Site: www.countrybaptist.org/sgmbc
Please Pray For:
Virgil and Alice Hoskins & His Daughter Debbie Wenske & Great Grandson Chad. Ronnie & Sarah Henderson, Wendell & Hazel Henderson, Joe Henderson, Eddie & Lorain Murray, Larry & Linda Mollette, Donna Johnson, Vinson Hoskins, Rosa Graves, Danny Hammond, Bobby & Vickie Thompson and Family, Raymond Hammond, Fay Johnson, Brad Hensley, Sovereign Grace Baptist Church Mansfield, Ohio, Bro. Curtis & Sister Janet Pugh, Randy Henderson, Larry Mollette II, Zee Mink and Family, Her son Bryan Armstrong and Sister – in - law Sondra Thornsberry, Bro. Kelly Hinson, Dianna Willis, Mrs. Grace and Daughter Barbara, And All of Our Military, Their Family’s & All the Civilian Workers in The Middle East.
A Thought For The Week:

Heaven is now our true, abiding home.

While on earth we are strangers and pilgrims, far from our final rest. And while such is our condition here, should we not often think of our heavenly home? Should not heaven attract
us more and more as we journey through life?
Shall we still cleave to earth, since Christ has obtained eternal salvation for us, and passed into the heavens to prepare a way for our entrance into those unending joys in the presence of God?
Oh, let our best affections be placed on those spiritual and divine things above.
Let the noblest aspirations of our minds be after a more intimate knowledge of Jesus.
Let us look beyond this valley of tears and keep our eyes fixed on that better country where the Savior ever reigns in glorious majesty; where the fountains of bliss ever flow; where the tree of life ever spreads its delightful shade, and yields its immortal fruits; where all is unending joy,
and love, and peace, and felicity!
Let our hearts be more and more disentangled from the cares and temptations of the present life; let us live in the world as those who are not of it; as those whose treasure is in heaven, and whose hearts are
there also.
The nearer a Christian comes to heaven the less he loves or esteems this present world.
May our affections rise heavenward, endeavoring
to bring the realities of future, eternal things more
vividly before our minds, and to realize our interest
in them.
O my soul, rise above these earthly scenes; and, on the wings of faith, soar to the realms of the
blessed, where Jesus is enthroned in unspeakable glory, reigning as my life, my hope, and my treasure!

Blessed Jesus, we beseech You to show us Your glory, and to raise our hearts, our hopes, and our desires, to that blessed world to which You have ascended. O may our souls be daily rising, in holy thought, towards our home where the ransomed of the Lord shall forever obtain joy and gladness. May our thoughts become heavenly, and our hearts be attuned to those songs with
which the arches of heaven shall resound to all eternity! O my Savior, wean my heart from earth, and enable me to place my affection on things above.

By: (David Harsha, "The Savior's Ascension")
News for the week:

...The American Civil Liberties Union says it's filing a federal lawsuit against a school district that requires students to learn alternatives to the theory of evolution. Pennsylvania's Dover Area School District voted in October to mandate the teaching of "intelligent design," which holds that the universe and living organisms are too complex to have evolved by accident. The ACLU maintains that intelligent design theory is a more secular form of biblical creationism, and may violate separation of church and state. John West of the Discovery Institute says intelligent design is science rather than religion, but calls the school district's mandatory policy unconstitutional and contradictory in that it also bans teaching about the origins of life. [AP]
Source The Agape News Press

Higher Knowledge of Christ
by C. H. Spurgeon

"Get thee up into the high mountain."
--Isaiah 40:9

Our knowledge of Christ is somewhat like climbing one of our Welsh mountains. When you are at the base you see but little: the mountain itself appears to be but one-half as high as it really is. Confined in a little valley, you discover scarcely anything but the rippling brooks as they descend into the stream at the foot of the mountain. Climb the first rising knoll, and the valley lengthens and widens beneath your feet. Go higher, and you see the country for four or five miles round, and you are delighted with the widening prospect. Mount still, and the scene enlarges; till at last, when you are on the summit, and look east, west, north, and south, you see almost all England lying before you. Yonder is a forest in some distant county, perhaps two hundred miles away, and here the sea, and there a shining river and the smoking chimneys of a manufacturing town, or the masts of the ships in a busy port. All these things please and delight you, and you say, "I could not have imagined that so much could be seen at this elevation."

Now, the Christian life is of the same order. When we first believe in Christ we see but little of Him. The higher we climb the more we discover of His beauties. But who has ever gained the summit? Who has known all the heights and depths of the love of Christ which passes knowledge? Paul, when grown old, sitting grey-haired, shivering in a dungeon in Rome, could say with greater emphasis than we can, "I know whom I have believed," for each experience had been like the climbing of a hill, each trial had been like ascending another summit, and his death seemed like gaining the top of the mountain, from which he could see the whole of the faithfulness and the love of Him to whom he had committed his soul. Get thee up, dear friend, into the high mountain.

HERE I STAND: By: Don Fortner, Pastor Grace Baptist Church Danville, Ky.

When Martin Luther was called before the civil and religious rulers of his day who demanded that he deny the glorious doctrines of the gospel of the grace of God, he boldly refused. Planting his feet firmly as he stood before his detractors, he declared, "Here I stand. I can do nothing else. God help me to stand!"

In our day both Baptist and Protestant denominations have bowed to the pressures of men. The religious leaders of our day deny the very foundation doctrines for which our forefathers suffered imprisonment and death. I am calling for a return to the foundation truths of Holy Scripture, the foundation truths of historical Christianity. They are very simple.

THE BIBLE ALONE is the basis of all faith and practice in the church and kingdom of God.

CHRIST ALONE is the Redeemer and Savior of fallen, depraved sinners. Nothing but the blood of Christ can put away sin. And his blood has put away the sins of all who trust him.

GRACE ALONE is God's method of salvation. The works of man have nothing to do with salvation. It is the gift of God. "Salvation is of the Lord!"

Here I stand. It was the preaching of these three basic truths that God used to bring about the greatest revival in history. If true revival ever comes again, it will be by the same message.