January 30, 2015 Volume 15, Issue 5 PUBLICATION OF THE MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR MEMORIAL BAPTIST CHURCH MONTHLY SCHEDULE ~SUNDAY~ Sunday School 9:30am (Every Sunday) Worship Service 8am & 11am (Every Sunday) Men's Dept. Meeting (3rd Sun) After 11am service Youth Service– Every 3rd & 4th Sunday (11am service) WWAP Meeting(3rd Sunday) After Service ~MONDAY~ Minister Meetings (3rd Mondays) 7:00pm ~TUESDAY~ Sunday School Meeting (1st Tues) 6:30 pm Trustee Meeting (2nd Tues) 6:00 pm Board of Christian Education(2nd Tues) 6:30 pm Usher Board Meeting(3rd Tues) 6:30-7:45pm ~WEDNESDAY~ Bible Study 12:00pm and 7:00pm (Every Wednesday) ~THURSDAY~ Voices of Praise Choir Rehearsal 6:45pm ~FRIDAY~ New Members Meeting (2nd Fri) 11:00am ~SATURDAY~ Diaconate Meeting (1st Sat) 9:00am AGAPE Choir Rehearsal (1st & 2nd) 1:30 pm Little Spirits (1st & 2nd) 12:00 pm Margie Williams Helping Hands (Every Sat) 8am-11pm Rites of Passage Boys & Girls (2nd & 4th) 1pm-3pm Rev. Herbert J. Carey, Pastor Page 1 Brothers and Sisters in Christ: Read Ephesians 1:15-23. A little while back, a small airplane crashed in the mountains of South Dakota and everyone aboard was found dead. One young boy’s body was found lifeless near the plane. Upon taking an autopsy of the young boy it was discovered that he had not died from the impact of the crash. What he died from was starvation and lack of water. What blew everyone’s mind was not the fact that he had survived the impact of the crash, but that he died of thirst and starvation, even though, right next to his body was a survival kit that came with the plane. The survival kit had in it freeze dried food and bottled water. And yet he died from thirst and starvation. In a real sense, he died because he didn’t know what he had going for him. Instead of emerging victorious from a plane crash, instead of rising from the ashes of that crash and sharing his ordeal, he perished because he did not know what he had going for him. Of course, there were speculations and thoughts as to why the young man died from starvation and hunger, even though water and freeze dried food was found in the survival kit next to him. Most thought that he, perhaps, found himself so traumatized from the plane crash that he couldn’t get over it enough to recognize what he had going for him. With that being said, and most likely being true, it can also be said that, if you and I are not careful, you can have something traumatic happen in your life and the trauma from that drama can influence your behavior. It will dictate what you will and will not do. Even though, it may have happened in the past. You went through it; but it’s not through with you. It was traumatic back then but you are still feeling it right now. Many of us in the early years of our lives grew up under a cloud of neglect which has shaped us into being the insecure person that we are. Others of us grew up with your body being abused. You grew up feeling that your body is the only thing of value that you have going for you. If you are not careful, what traumatically hit you back then will hinder you right now. If you are not careful and move beyond your yesterdays, you will find out that what you went through is still not through with you. It happened back then but it still hangs over your life right now. Perhaps, you have tried to sweep it under the rug and move forward. After all, there is no use crying over spelled milk. But stuff sweep under the rug will eventually surface. It won’t hide itself forever. If you don’t deal with it, it will eventually deal with you. It will order your steps and create some problem situations along the way. The young man died from hunger and thirst because he did not know what resources he had. He died even though he survived the impact of the crash. He should have emerged victorious from what he been through. He should have emerged the one who had come out on top when everybody else had perished. And that is what God is saying to all of us. That trauma that you’ve been through, you survived it. You are still breathing. You are here right now. You should be the one emerging, rising from the ashes. But if you don’t know what you have going for you, you will discover that what you went through is still not through with you. The young man in the plane crash didn’t know what he had going for him. Could it be that that is the problem with many of us? We just don’t know what we got going for us. Some of us don’t know what we have going for us because we are prisoners of our poor self image and perception of ourselves. We have been locked up in jail behind the bars of low self esteem. We are sentenced to life in prison because of our own insecurity. You see, insecurity and low self esteem are demons that will destroy you from the inside out. Many of us are living beneath our possibility, our purpose and our potential, because we don’t know what we have going for us. But you can’t know what you don’t know when you are incarcerated by insecurity and locked up by low self esteem. Page 2 In the book, “Healing For Damaged Emotions”, David Seamons the author references Maxwell Malts on several occasions. Maxwell Malts was a famous plastic surgeon. He wrote a book in the 1960’s called “New Faces, New Futures.” He was inspired to write such a book to share the success stories of people that came to him looking to alter their faces. He maintained that once they had a new look, they would have a new future. But what he discovered was startling. Many of his patients would come back to him not to thank him for their new look, but to complain to him with their same old outlook. They had a new look on the outside; but loathing and contempt for themselves was still on the inside. So, they came back to him over and over and over again. They would complain and blame him for not changing their nose, their chin, their eyelids, for not changing their skin, for not removing the wrinkles. But he had removed the wrinkles; he had changed the nose, the chin, the eyelids; he had lifted their faces; but they still saw themselves as flawed unattractive persons. He had changed their look; but they still had the same outlook. He had changed them on the outside; but they were the same old folk on the inside. There is someone in church today; I don’t know who you are. But if you are not careful, you will miss out on what Dr. Maxwell Malts learned. And that is that, in this life, all of us have an internal face. Your personality, your behavior, and your disposition have a face. What is on the inside of you has a face. I don’t care what you look at in the mirror; it’s the face on the inside that will determine how you live on the outside. And please remember this or write it down, you always live according to what you think you deserve. You live according to what you think you deserve. That’s why some of us keep on getting into jacked up, controlling, and abusive relationships? Because there’s a face on the inside that says that’s all you deserve are these types of relationships. Then there are others who keep on ending up in dead end jobs or you feel the only way you can make a living is to get your hustle on. So you do whatever comes along to make ends meet. Well, if this is you, you’ve got something on the inside that has convinced you that you do not have a meaningful purpose in this life. You are here; but you’ve not here. There’s an ugliness on the inside that causes you to live your life according to what you think you deserve. But you don’t know what you’ve got going for you! In our scripture text, the Apostle Paul is writing this letter from prison. He starts out in the opening verses of this letter praising God. Paul refuses to let what he’s going through and what he’s been through to stop him from praising God. This letter is a source of encouragement and strength for those who are down on themselves for where they are and who they are. What Paul essentially says is that there is no reason for you to be locked up and bound by the predicament that you find yourself in. Because you have a lot going for you. You are a child of the King! But that inner face deep down on the inside of you keeps telling you that you are a nobody. So we don’t do what we are capable of doing and we don’t live up to our best. As a matter of fact, we gave up on our best a long time ago. I keep on getting into stuff that drags me down! I even know why. I get into stuff because I don’t feel like I deserve any better. But sense, you told me pastor that it’s not my looks that count but my outlook, show me what I got going for myself. Ok, let’s go to our text. Paul says beginning in verse 15: “Ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better.” The latter part of the verse says that you may know Him better. The word “know” in the Greek translation of this text is not talking about head knowledge. It is talking about intimately knowing someone. For example, the Bible says that Adam knew Eve. That’s the type intimacy that gives birth to something. Adam knew Eve and then they gave birth to something new. Paul says I want you to get so intimate in your walk with God that you give birth to something new. And what you give birth to will have the DNA of God. You see, the more I get to know God. The more intimate I get with God. The more I give myself to God. The more God is inside of me. The more I’m able to bring Good News to the lest of these and love one another as God loves me. So, when you see me and I got peace; when see me and I got joy; when you see me I got a new determination because I know God Page 3 intimately. I’ve got an intimate relationship with God going for me. Next you must be aware of your “Calling”.” Verse 18 says that I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you.” You have a “Calling” on your life. You aren’t an accident. You’ve been sent here by divine appointment. You were born as somebody with possibility and potential. You were born surviving the struggle. That’s what you got going for you. You are not an accident. You are here by divine appointment. So, you ought to live your life on purpose. Every day, wake up on purpose. Drive your car on purpose; go to your job on purpose; and do everything that you do in life, do it on purpose with an attitude of joy and thanksgiving because you are not an accident! You are here by divine appointment. You have a date with destiny! So get intimate with the hope of your “Calling”. Internalize the hope of your “Calling” because there is a “Calling” on your life. If you walk with God, there is a “Calling” on your life. God will reveal what that “Calling” is. You have a date with destiny! Your life counts! If you respond to God’s “Call”, God has a “Call” for your life! You haven’t got to slit your wrist. You don’t have to go to drinking. You don’t have to get high; just respond to your “Call”. After you are alive to the “Call” that’s on your life, be aware of God’s claim on you. God has a claim on you. He says I want you to know the hope to which He has called you. The riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints. That’s the latter part of verse 18. God has an inheritance in us. Most often we think of God’s inheritance for us; because we do have an inheritance coming. We do have some good things coming to us because if you have the Son you have everything that comes with the Son. But guess what! God says that’s not the only inheritance. The other inheritance is that we are God’s inheritance. That means that God in looking forward to what God is going to get from us in the future. So all of life is not lived from the past. Life is also lived with the future in mind. Because when you know your future, it orders your steps in the present and over rules the junk in your past. In other words, I don’t care how bad your situation is. God’s got the power to get in your situation and raise up anything that died in your life, is broken in your life, marred, fractured and needs healing. God’s power is demonstrated, manifested, and shown through out our lives. Particularly, when we run into stuff that’s too much for us to handle on are own. You’ve got an awesome power inside of you. You are never powerless, forsaken, and abandoned. It’s not what you know; but who you know. With love, Pastor Herbert J. Carey Page 4 Stewardship: Time, Talent and Treasure We Have Been Blessed to Receive God’s Grace Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place--and I did not know it!” And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” So Jacob rose early in the morning and he took the stone that he had put under his head and set up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. He called that place Bethel; but the name of the city was Luz at first. Then Jacob made a vow saying, “If God be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house; and all that you give me I will give one tenth to you. Genesis 28:16-22 He had deceived and lied to his blind, aged father, and had stolen and taken advantage of his brother, yet Jacob received a personal visit from the God of heaven who promised to be with Jacob wherever he went. If anyone deserved to be where they were at the moment the events of the above scripture took place, alone and afraid, running for their lives because of their misdeeds towards those who had not done them any harm, that person was Jacob. God gave Jacob promises of unexpected blessings beyond his wildest imagination. God told Jacob that his descendants would occupy the land where he then laid his unworthy and unprofitable head. God told Jacob that all of the families of the earth would be blessed through him. God told Jacob that he would be brought back to the land, in peace, from which he was now fleeing for his life. What is indeed ironic and strange about the divine visit to Jacob was not merely the fact that Jacob was undeserving of it, but Jacob was not even seeking, praying, asking, or expecting it. Jacob was not pleading for God’s mercy, forgiveness, assistance or protection. Jacob was not worshipping God when God showed up and spoke favor into his life. In other words he was the recipient of God’s grace. Grace is the unmerited, unsought, and unearned favor of God. Grace is what God does without our asking or seeking. The visit of God to Jacob along with the accompanying promises of God was an act of grace. When one looks at Jacob’s past and Jacob’s character, the grace he was given in the scripture was truly amazing. We TITHE, because like Jacob, we have been blessed to receive God’s grace- - -God’s unmerited favor. Like Jacob, we can look back and even around and recognize instances in our lives in which we deserved to be punished but we received pardon. We deserved fire but we received favor. We deserved grief but we received goodness. We deserved forsakenness but we received forgiveness. We deserved the horrors of a living hell but we received a glimpse of glory on earth. When we think about how richly, how freely, how abundantly, and how ungrudgingly the grace of God has been poured out into our lives, then even ten percent, even the TITHE, is a paltry minimum gift of praise and thanksgiving for all of the grace God has shown towards us. When we think of God’s grace and how that grace has been poured upon our lives in times when we were least and most undeserving, dare we give any less than the TITHE. . Page 5 Deacon Ida Burd (206) 722-1090 Deacon Eleanor Lockett (425) 204-8708 Congregation: Deacon Lavern Peterson (425) 255-8486 A-F Deacon Chris Vinson (425) 235-0082 Deacon Rose Filgo (425) 204-6062 Deacon Dwight Graves (253) 863-0423 Congregation: Deacon Cheryl Graves (253) 863-0423 G-M Deacon Donald Jackson (206) 772-4552 Deacon Mavis Corsey (206) 723-9736 Deacon Trolice Flavors (206) 722-3146 Congregation: Deacon Lee Lawrence (425) 277-1392 N-S Deacon Adrienne Lawrence (425) 277-1392 Deacon Alene Stephens (425) 641-1207 Deacon McClain Cloy (206) 324-0691 Deacon Bobbi Sims (206) 772-5172 Congregation: Deacon Annie Smith (206) 592-2886 T-Z Deacon Rick Wells (206) 723-5958 Diaconate Chair Carl Vinson Page 6 (425) 235-0082 Time Change JOIN THE HOUR OF PRAYER Hosted by Pastor Herbert Carey Every Friday from 7-8 p.m. Conference Access Number is 1-567-704-0264 Conference Passcode is 897700# You will receive instructions once you have accessed the prayer line. ************************************* High School Seniors do you need help searching for Scholarships: Meet at the MLK Jr. Learning Center 2nd and 4th Friday Starting January 2015 2:00 pm—3:30 pm ************************************* Blanket Drive for the Homeless It’s getting cold outside !! - We are in need of Clean Blanket & Sleeping Bags. Contact persons: Jeanette Frazier 206-722-0785 or Barbara Jenkins 253-852-5399 Make arrangements for drop-off. Please do not leave blankets at the church. ************************************* WWAP are collecting donations for the Bridge Project. The program is in need of your support to help the young women as the cold winter season approaches us. We are asking that you help us with donating the following items: Scarves, caps/hats, socks, gloves. They are also in need of toiletry items. We are asking everyone to make a donation to support these young women. Page 7 Coming Events Sunday, February 15 After 11 a.m. Service African American Reach & Teach Health (AARTH) Wednesday, February 18 Ash Wednesday Service Sunday, February 22, 3:00 p.m. Church Anniversary Rev. Kenneth Ransfer and Mt. Baker Baptist Church Will be our guests Saturday, March 14, 9:00 a.m. Quarterly Church Meeting Page 8 Online Giving You may now pay your tithes/offerings online with your debit card through Pay Pal. Simply go to the churches’ website and click on the Online Giving Tab and you will be directed on how to give your gift. Lost and Found Are you missing any items? We have several items in the office that are missing their owners, please check with the office to see Health Education Ministry Mrs. Angela Youngblood graciously volunteered her services in ministry for the Lord under the newly added Health Education Ministry. If YOU would like to work with Angela in getting something started for MLK in the way of a Health Education Ministry, this would be a huge blessing to our aging congregation!!!! Angela’s email is [email protected] Thank you all for allowing the Lord to use you in service to His people. May God forever bless you! Special Movie Nights To Be Announced...Our Monthly Friday Night Movies Start In March. Page 9 Michael P. Anderson Memorial Aerospace Program Saturday, February 7, 2015 For more information please contact: Rev. Larry Harris Page 10 ~2015~ Little Spirit Ensemble Rehearsals 1st & 2nd Saturday @ 12:00pm Youth Coordinator: Elenora Northington Assistant Coordinator: Deacon Trolice Flavors AGAPE Youth Choir Rehearsals 1st & 2nd Saturday @ 1:30pm If you have any questions please contact Sis. LaHoma Thomas Youth Service is held on 1, 3, & 4th Sundays during 11:00 a,m. service. Believe Mime Team PRAISING GOD IN DANCE The vision of BELIEVE Mime Ministry (BMM) is to spread God's word throughout the community! Our mission is to minister to the other Christians and non-believers and tell them all of the wonderful things about Jesus Christ as we bring this non-traditional art of Miming into God's house to spread his word on every occasion we get. If interested, please call Deacon Rose Filgo (Mime Team Coordinator) 425-204-6062 Page 11 Let’s keep the church secure by following these simple instructions: Only people who have been assigned both a key and a key code have permission to open and lockup the church. If you feel you need a key please see me or Deacon Carl Vinson. will be honored. Not all requests for keys Please have your key code readily available when opening and locking up the church. Check all doors to make sure they are closed. doors to make sure they are properly closed. This may involve opening and closing some Always make sure the kitchen door to the outside and all the Fellowship Hall doors are secure. Make sure you set the alarm when you leave. then go silent. The alarm will beep a series of times and Please do not give your key or key code to someone else. If you should have questions or concerns regarding these instructions and/or need training on how to work the key pad please contact me at (425) 443-2875 or in person. Remember we should treat the church no different that we treat our homes (i.e. safe and secure). Thanks, Deacon Cheryl Graves, President Trustee Board Page 12 Pastor Carey & Diane Carey Youth of MLK College Students Barbara Clark Mother Louise Martin Mother Young Mother Joseph Mother Holland Mother Versie Hill Mother Coleman Sis. Princie Smith Jarelle Marshall Delores Baskin Bobbi Pines Sandra Hawkins Barbara Williams Willie Winston Annie Laurie Peterson Rev. Larry Harris Rev. Shirley Harris Enoch Robertson Milton Ward Sr. Betty Harris Karen Grant Angela Dampier Jewell & Graves Family Cynthia Rice and Family Ben Geyen Sis. Holmes & Sis. Scribes Mary Trueblood Penny Jenkins Minister Leonard & Jan Hamilton Darius Johnson Deacon Rose Filgo & Family Darnell Parker & Family Mary Franklin & Family Willie Winston & Family Pat Lewis & Family Deacon Trolice Flavors & Slade Families Deacon Deborah and Treasure Robinson Minister Michael Thomas Cheniqua Tappin Deacon Phil Jones Edwardo Taylor Jean Johnson Jerel Curl DeVon Burton William Curl Joseph Gillis Edith Curl Terry Northington Rev. Ken Curl Gila Burton-Curl Rev. Willie Crockett & Family Yonna Berry Jeanette Ward LaHoma Thomas & Family Islamah Rashid Betty Adams Page 13 Visit us on the web at ea-abc.org EVERGREEN NOTES Evergreen Association of American Baptist Churches Evergreen Notes, the newsletter for member churches, ecumenical partners, national affiliates, and friends of the Evergreen Association of American Baptist Churches, is published monthly. To read the Evergreen Notes: please type the following address in your browser: http://www.evergreenabc.org/ Office Hours for Pastor Carey “Please Call for an Appointment” Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Baptist Church 4519 NE 10th Street Renton, WA 98059 Mailing: P.O. Box 2145 Renton, Washington 98056 Phone (425.255.1446) Fax (425) 255.1632 Email: [email protected] Website: mlkbaptist.com Please remember to have all announcements for The Vine & Bulletin into the office no later than 3:00pm on Wednesday. The Vine is a communication tool of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Baptist Church Family. The intent is to keep our members informed of the many exciting things that are happening at our church. Page 14
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