God was certainly good to us! Brother Jamey Tucker was greatly blessed to preach the Gospel to us. On Friday night, Brother Jamey preached on the good will of God toward men reminding us that all we have is a result of God’s good will toward us. Saturday morning and afternoon, Brother Jamey told us about the comforter that Jesus sent for us to teach us and to guide us.

We were also blessed to have a good number of visitors from the Lower Mill Creek Church in Statesboro. We also were blessed to have several members of the Lightsey family from the Big Creek Church to visit with us. We are thankful that the Lord blessed us with all those that came our way.

On Sunday afternoon we had a very sweet and solemn communion and footwashing service.

We hope that you will be able to visit us soon.

As I study the story of the ten lepers and their healing in Luke 17:11-19, I cannot help but be struck by the fact the Jesus makes a point of declaring that the one leper who returned to give him thanks and to praise God was a Samaritan and a stranger. I can find no other reason for making this distinction other than to conclude that the other nine were Jews. The Jews considered the Samaritans to be ignorant of true religion, yet when healed, it is the Samaritan that praises God. However, there is another lesson that can be derived from the knowledge that these ten lepers were composed of nine Jews and one Samaritan.

It was not common place for Jews to associate with Samaritans. Samaritans were so despised by the Jews that a respecting Jew would not even travel through Samaria. However, Jesus finds these ten lepers together. In spite of the fact that one of these lepers is a Samaritan, the Jewish lepers do not shun him. What is it that causes these nine Jews to ignore the fact that this one man is a Samaritan? It is leprosy. In spite of their differences, the leprosy that they have in common now binds them together. As children of God, we can learn that it is our common adversities that bind us together.

A lot of time and energy is spent on examining differences. It is these differences that divide the family of God. We should spend more time realizing that we all have a common adversity. When we see our common adversity, which is the sin that infects us like leprosy, then we can often set aside our insignificant differences and walk together in peace. I am not suggesting that we should “throw caution to the wind” and no longer keep up certain standards in the house of God, but I am suggesting that we have often allowed minor differences to divide us when we should have been more focussed on those things that bind us together.

May God bless us to see that we are all sinners saved by grace if saved at all.

Our next quarterly meeting begins tomorrow night at 7:00pm. It is always a joy when this time of year comes around. A lot of work goes into these meetings, but the rewards are well worth the effort. This year, Elder Jamey Tucker, pastor of the Eureka Church in Chula, GA, will be preaching for us on Friday and Saturday. You can see the details of meeting times on our news page.

We are a small congregation and do not generally have exceptionally large crowds for our quarterly meetings, but the Spirit of God always seems to flow in an abundant way. It has become a bit of a tradition for us to take some time during the Saturday morning meeting to allow various members of the congregation to share reports of praise. The idea is to encourage one another to tell what great things the Lord has done for them. We have often seen this time culminate in much rejoicing with tears being shed throughout the house. Through this, we are reminded of what the Lord has done for us, and our young children get to hear the good things of the house of the Lord. This has become a great time of encouragement for me as a pastor.

If you can come, I hope you will. If you cannot attend, please pray that the Lord will be present with us in this meeting. Pray that Brother Jamey will bring messages that are needed by our little congregation and that the Lord will work in our midst in a mighty way.

We hope to see you there!