A message of Thanksgiving for Crittenden County

A message of Thanksgiving for Crittenden County

‘ Thanksgathering’ crowd urged to come together as a community

news@theeveningtimes.com

What are you thankful for? This time of year many pause to ponder this question around our national Thanksgiving holiday. Certainly the food in the family feast will be prayed over in many homes with sincere thanks offered to the Almighty. Many will remember they were blessed with a place to live, warm clothes for the coming season, transportation and a job. More than two hundred congregates from a variety of local churches assembled to thankfully reflect, pray and provide for the West Memphis and Marion Ministerial Fellowship community benevolence fund.

Mike Seal hosted the Monday evening gathering at the Missouri Street Church of Christ which featured Grace Baptist Church Pastor David Young preaching.

“We thank you father to be together as one,” prayed Seal.

Brother Gary Hair of Calvary Baptist Church explained the purpose of the offering taken on behalf of the fellowship.

“With this benevolent ministry we try to help folks that are traveling through and we try to help people that are local,” said Hair. “We try to be discerning and prayerful about who we help and how we help. Consider in the old testament feast of tabernacles they not only brought their tithes and free will offerings, vows, they also brought food to the temple treasury and it was to feed the poor. People need help.

Give cheerfully.”

Young delivered a heartfelt sermon on Psalm 116. He preached that God hears, heals and helps us. He began with a rhetorical.

“For what are you thankful,” said Young. “We usually talk about things that are very much temporal and may quickly pass.”

Young urged the congregation to be thankful for more than health, family, or friends.

“Those things can pass away as well,” said Young.

“We can all be thankful for something that is eternal, that never fades away, like the psalmist who turned his attention upward to the Lord. Our thanksgiving is not found in stuff, but is found in our standing in Christ Jesus.”

The preacher used the life of is father who had recently

passed away as an

example of how the Lord hears, heals, and helps. He shared the touching testimony of life and death, providing the key to eternity for which he was most thankful, an occurrence all to rare today.

“A country preacher shared the gospel with him on the side of the road,” said Young. “Dad in faith and repentance trusted Christ as his Lord and Savior and the Lord healed him spiritually.”

Young concluded with his hopes that the gospel fellowship of Bible believing churches would make a difference for eternity in Marion and West Memphis. He wanted others to share the good news so others, like his father, could be saved from sin for all eternity.

“My prayer is that we come together to impact our community with the gospel as only the Christ can change the hearts of men. We have the one thing the world needs. We have the true message of salvation. We need to take that around the globe and we might as well start right here in West Memphis.”

By John Rech