Brethren,
This past weekend, Cool Springs PBC was blessed to hold her March Meeting beginning on Friday February 27th, and continuing through Sunday March 1st. While many meetings get a boost in the days and weeks leading to them, we received an added boost for this meeting through the addition of another member to our body. My natural daughter Elisabeth came forward expressing a home in the church on Sunday February 15th, and I was blessed to baptize her on Sunday February 22nd. Having a “lead-in” to the meeting like this indicated that God had great things in store for us. That hope was not disappointed as the meeting was richly blessed from on high.
The Church invited Elder Phil Jones to come and preach this weekend. Brother Phil has laboured and served the Lord’s people in the vicinity of Kansas City for many years. It had been close to 30 years since he had travelled in the state of Georgia, but he and Georgia interacted sweetly. His preaching was both needful and gracious, but the messages this weekend were touchstones of what is needed at this precise time. They were as timely as I have ever seen in recent memory. Brother Phil immensely enjoyed his stay, though he was subjected to the current chaos that accompanies the Conley house with 4 young children. However, Brother Phil’s kind demeanor and grandfatherly deportment was an instant magnet with my children. Our two year old Chloe took to him so quickly that she wanted him to help her put on her boots and other things throughout the weekend.
We were blessed with many visitors from our sister churches and were encouraged by their fellowship and worship. We hope and trust that they were as blessed in our services as we felt to be. Tears of joy were shed throughout the weekend, hearts overflowed from the grace of the gospel of Christ, and spirits were revived for the wonderful cause of Christ that we strive unto. The singing was above average, and we appreciate our brethren and sisters putting forth so much loving effort in worship. One of the main themes throughout the weekend was what real love is and looks like. Another main theme was the fruitfulness of the gospel beyond organized church assembly. Please pray for us that we would take what we have heard this weekend and apply love and the joy of the gospel more and more in our lives. Truly, God is gracious and has been so good to us. It is our desire that we do more for Him. The meeting is already a precious memory from our experience, but we pray that it grows into heavy and mature fruit that glorifies our father in heaven. The sermons will eventually be posted to our website at: http://coolspringspbc.org/.
Friday Night
Prayer: Elder Dan Bryant
Preaching: Elder Phil Jones – “The Day Approaching” Brother Phil examined the context of Hebrews 10 leading up to verse 25, which deals with not forsaking the assembly. He then examined several days approaching that we need to keep in mind while we live our lives here.
Prayer: Elder Michael Green
Saturday Morning
Prayer: Elder Jabin James
Preaching: Elder Phil Jones – “David and Abigail” Brother Phil examined the portion of I Samuel 25 that dealt with Abigail keeping David from going down the wrong path and correlated the lesson to us loving one another and helping one another in the family of God.
Prayer: Elder Michael Hataway
Saturday Night
Prayer: Elder Stephen Dyar
Preaching: Elder Phil Jones – “The Kingdom of God” Brother Phil gave a spectrum of experiences in how the kingdom of God may be enjoyed and the possibility of losing wonderful experiences in God’s kingdom.
Prayer: Elder Franklin Bryant
Sunday Morning
Prayer: Elder Philip Conley
Preaching: Elder Phil Jones – “Ruth: Showing Our Love” Brother Phil brought a message of how love can come in unusual and unexpected ways. We should love our Lord as He has loved us, which will be unexpected by worldly standards.
Prayer: Brother Jim Wilkinson
Sunday Night
Prayer: Licentiate Win Kuck
Preaching: Elder Garry Hall – “Going the Extra Mile” Brother Garry brought out Christ’s command in Matthew 5 to show that attitude and action need to be coupled in kingdom service. Only then can our service reflect our love to God rather than the obligation of our service.
Prayer: Brother Charles White
In Hope,
Bro Philip
