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Announcements Plus Devotional Aids

Barbecue Friday and Saturday! See Announcements below.

Let's Learn a Bible Verse!

Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring. Let another praise you, and not your own mouth--a stranger, and not your own lips.
--Proverbs 27:1-2 NRSV

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Contents

Announcements

Golf Tournament, September 30

We are sponsoring a Golf Tournament at Granada Farms Country Club on Saturday, September 30. Please see the September Newsletter for all the information. Forms may be picked up at Ebenezer UMC.

Businesses and individuals can sponsor a hole for $100. Signs will be provided to honor our sponsors.

Please register by September 23. Contact Kim at (828) 499-0886 to register or pick up forms at our church.

Proceeds will help fund our disaffiliation from the United Methodist Church process and costs. We thank you for your support.

Barbecue Fundraiser, September 22-23

Mark your calendar now! We will be serving up mounds of barbecue in September. We deliver to local area businesses for lunch time on Friday, September 22. Get your order in now.

Eat-in or take-out. Friday, September 22, 11:00-7:00 p.m. and Saturday, September 23, 11:00 a.m. 'til sold out.

Adult plates are $10; children's plates are $5 with barbecue, sauce, slaw, baked beans and roll. Eat-in and take-out plates picked up at Ebenezer include a choice of dessert, and eat-in plates include a beverage.

Also on sale: Whole cooked Boston Butts for $35, and Chopped BBQ for $10 a pound bag. Please order by September 18.

For business lunches, Boston Butts, and bagged barbecue orders call:
(828) 896-7368 or (828) 499-0886.

All proceeds go toward the disaffiliation from the United Methodist Church process costs and fees.

We thank you for your support and prayers.

Called Charge Conference - August 27 - Report

There were 59 full members present for the vote on Sunday. The motion to disaffiliate from the Western North Carolina Conference (United Methodist Church) passed with 54 "yes" votes and 5 "no" votes. No one abstained. Our Board of Trustees will be representing us in the disaffiliation process.

After that vote, we had another church conference and voted on a motion to apply for membership in the Global Methodist Church. Motion passed unanimously. The Chairperson of the Church Council will begin the process. We will be retaining the name of Ebenezer Methodist Church, dropping the United part. We are not required to and will not add Global to our name.

We thank everyone who prayed us through this decision and voted at the meeting. We ask you to continue to pray for us as we go through the process and pay the costs for leaving the UMC. We know that we have done what was necessary, because of the way the United Methodist Church is moving. We will remain true to God's Word, and thank you for any support that you can give us.

On Sunday, August 27th, starting at 4:30 p.m., we will have a Charge Conference to vote on whether or not to exit (disaffiliate from) the United Methodist Church organization. Only full members of Ebenezer UMC will be provided a ballot and be allowed to vote on this proposal. Assuming the vote calls for us to disaffiliate, we will authorize persons to represent Ebenezer in the process, and vote on whether or not to apply to join the new Global Methodist Church..

Please pray continuously for this vote and process. Our church will be open for prayer on Saturday, August 26th, 9-11:00 a.m.

 

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Quote to Ponder

Culture proclaims, “Live your truth.” But in this case, an individual’s truth relies on his feelings to determine what is true and to inform his behavior.

But feelings do not always reflect truth. Emotions change according to experience or perspective. Our desperately wicked hearts can lead us to outbursts of passionate violence, plunge us into depths of depression, and lead to inhuman apathy. And inevitably, one person’s truth will clash with another’s, creating irreconcilable chaos. We find, then, that we need objective truth outside ourselves. Unlike fickle human emotion, God’s truth is immutable, set down before humankind was created.

As we abandon our own understanding of truth and live according to God’s established truth, we testify that God reigns and that he is worthy of our obedience and worship.

--Renton Rathbun, Answers in Genesis. Org article, director of the Center for Biblical Worldview at Bob Jones University.

 

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For Meditation

We are not there yet, of course. Our task can be simply stated but impossible to achieve in perfection. In this flow of time and the moments of our lives, we are to align our lives the best we can with the perfection that God has defined. It is not our ethics and morality. It is bits of God's righteousness coming into our flow of time through us.

(American Thinker online article, July 22, 2023)

 

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Mini-Bible Lesson #74: Ending Well?

References: Judges 8:22-35; Interpreter’s Bible, Vol 2, pp. 748-750.

Gideon said to them, "I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the LORD will rule over you." –Judges 8:23

Gideon began his judgeship with very little self-confidence or confidence in the LORD’s message that he could lead the Israelites to victory over their oppressors. In the end he had enough confidence in himself and in the LORD to turn down an offer of kingship and an hereditary monarchy for this sons. If this was the end of the it, his life story would have been one to be proud of, to be honored.

Unfortunately, though he turned down the power they offered to him and his family, he did ask for some of the spoils of war. With this gold, he made an ephod—some kind of image that he set up in his hometown of Oprah. And "Israel played the harlot after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his family." So, though the land had rest from their enemies for forty years, and the Midianites were completely subdued by Israel, the stage was set for another crisis to come that would utterly wipe out Gideon’s family of 70 sons, minus one who managed to escape from the coming slaughter. (See Judges 9.)

How many Christians have lived righteously and spent years of faithful labor and giving to their Lord in the church to, in the end, turn away or fall away from that faithful service and giving? We must be diligent and wary of being pulled away from the Lord by the cares and distractions of the world all our lives—to the very end—or we, too, may falter at the last and cause great harm to the gospel message and our families.

As the Apostle Paul warns us in two passages "Do not grow weary in doing good (2 Thessalonians 3:13)." And in Galatians 6:9, he writes, "So we must not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we do not give up."

As our church, Ebenezer, prepares to enter a new phase of service to our Lord Jesus Christ, I thank God for all the members of Ebenezer who have stood with us, firm in their faith, and faithful in their service and giving. God has blessed us and will continue to bless us when we stand with him, and he will strengthen us; so that, we will not grow weary when we abide in the true vine—Jesus Christ (see John 15). Praise be to God—Father, Son, and Spirit—our one and only King!

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Special Resources

In the slide show above (not seen in the mobile phone version of our website) there are pictures showing some current bulletin boards at Ebenezer put up by the Haas Family, Tasha, Emily, and Abby, and of our new Resource Room.

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 - 08/09/2023

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

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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"In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven." (Matthew 5: 16)

Our vision is to let our light shine into the dark world so that the world may come to know The Light, which is Jesus Christ our Lord.

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