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TREASURE IN CLAY JARS
"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this
all-surpassing power is from God and not from us" (2 Corinthians 4:7
NIV).
Being a problematic church, Paul wrote his two known epistles to the
Corinthian church to correct some of the anomalies that existed in the
church. One of such anomalies was the erroneous view about the gospel
message and the messengers of the gospel. This view is that the
gospel, which is the New Covenant, is inferior to the Old Covenant
given to Moses, and so, the messengers of the gospel, or the ministers
of the New Covenant, were inferior to Moses and the teachers of the
Law. However, in this second epistle to the Corinthians, Paul
explained the superiority of the gospel to the Law. He considered the
gospel message as a treasure kept in jars of clay. Such illustration
was familiar to the Corinthians.
The gospel message is indeed a treasure that supersedes any human
knowledge or philosophy. God has kept or entrusted the gospel message
in “clay jars,” the apostles, now the preachers of the gospel. Clay
jars are undoubtedly fragile. As humans, the preachers of the gospel
are frail and weak like clay jar but the gospel message is entrusted
to them. It was not entrusted to the angels or any other super-humans.
God did this to show that spreading of the gospel message is not by
human power, knowledge or even experience, but by His all-surpassing
power. So, we must not look down on ourselves that we cannot preach
the gospel, or depend on our ability or wisdom to do it, but rely
wholly on God.
The treasure, the gospel message, has been entrusted unto you to keep
it and share it with other people. Are you jealously keeping it and
zealously sharing it with other people around you? You do not need any
special power or knowledge to do so. What you need is total reliance
on the Holy Spirit who is there to teach, guide, remind, and
strengthen you as you are keeping and sharing the treasure. No matter
the pressure around you, He will see you through. “For this reason we
never become discouraged. Even though our physical being is gradually
decaying, yet our spiritual being is renewed day after day. And this
small and temporary trouble we suffer will bring us a tremendous and
eternal glory, much greater than the trouble. For we fix our
attention, not on things that are seen, but on things that are unseen.
What can be seen lasts only for a time, but what cannot be seen lasts
forever” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18 TEV).
In His service,
Bayo Afolaranmi (Pastor).
NB
Hurrah! My new book on Internet ministry is out. To view the cover of
the book and read the book review, people’s endorsements of the book,
the contents page, and how you can get copies of the book in Nigeria,
you can visit the website I created purposely for the promotion of the
book: http://ministeringthroughtheinternet.blogspot.com/.

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To find out how you could be a sponsor an issue of the Newsletter contact Fred at 215-234-8611.  Write us at our P.O. Box or E-mail us at mjm@pagospelrider.com

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Gospel Riders Officers serving the Lord for 2009

 

President - Fred McClincy  [ Jeanne ]
Vice President - James Garrett  [ Kathy ]
Chaplain - Ralph Bainbridge [ Barbara ]
Secretary - George Kadash [ Annette ]
Treasurer - Jeanne McClincy [ Fred ]
Correspondence - 

Keep them and their spouses in prayer for God's wisdom as they serve the Gospel Riders

Devotion Schedule for 2009

January               Ralph Bainbridge
February              Fred McClincy
March                  Bob Henry
April                     Ralph Bainbridge
May                     Ralph Bainbridge
June                    George Kadash
July                     Fred McClincy
August                James Garrett
September          Ralph Bainbridge
October               Fred McClincy  
November           
December           

We have some open Dates.  If you would like to share a devotional on one of them just let me know.  

            HAPPY BIRTHDAY

September Birthdays

9/10     Bob Williams

9/15     Barbara Miller

9/21     Gary Hart

9/24     Ron Elliott

9/26     Wes Miller Jr.

September Anniversaries

9/1       Craig & Wendy Moore

9/12     Fred & Jeanne McClincy

Prayer Requests

If you have a prayer request that you would like us to post please contact us!!!!!!!!!!!!

A piece of humor;

One Sunday morning, the pastor noticed little Alex was staring up at the large plaque that hung in the foyer of the church. The plaque was covered with names, and small American flags were mounted on either side of it. The seven-year-old had been staring at the plaque for sometime, so the pastor walked up, stood beside him and said quietly, "Good morning, Alex." "Good morning, Pastor," replied the young man, still focused on the plaque. "Pastor McGhee, what is this?" Alex asked. "Well, son, it's a memorial to all the men and women who have died in the service." Soberly, they stood together, staring at the large plaque. Little Alex's voice was barely audible when he finally managed to ask, "Which one, the 9:00 or 10:30 service?

  A Major Spiritual Force

All together we Sunday school teachers – all 4.1 million of us – taught over 31.2 million students last Sunday.  We are part of the world’s largest volunteer force – and we don’t take our jobs lightly.  Each week Sunday school teachers spend 7,517,000 hours preparing our lessons.  God honors our commitment.

If we added up the teaching time of all this week’s Sunday school classes, we’d end up with 376 years of teaching time.  God’s Word is being told and studied and read.  If every student reads one Bible verse this week, the combined reading would equal 60,000 times through the Bible this year.

Piece of Humor about the Population

The population of this country is 237 million. 104 million are retired.  That leaves 133 million to do the work.  There are 85 million in school, which leaves 48 million to do the work. 

Of this there are 29 million employed by the federal government, leaving 19 million to do the work. 2.8 million are in the Armed Forces, which leaves 16.2 million to do the work. 

Take from the total the 14,800,000 people who work for State and City Governments and that leaves 1.4 million to do the work.  At any given time there are 188,000 people in hospitals, leaving 1,212,000 to do the work.  Now, there are 1,211,998 people in prisons.  That leaves just two people to do the work.  You and me!  And you're sitting reading this...........................