Homecoming, Family and Friends Day

Greetings from The Springs! On Sunday we celebrated our annual Homecoming / Family and Friends Day with an attendance that overflowed to the Fellowship Hall and balcony. I must state that we all felt honored to watch our loved ones fill the sanctuary to worship with us. And guess what? We all were blessed with another great message from our watchman Pastor Robert Terrell.

There were several relatives of our long-standing family groups represented including the Brown, Lett, Durden, Hill and Hubbard families. Also we were privileged to host the Moore family, which represented the former Rev. Matthew Moore and they were the special guests of Pastor Terrell.

Many of you know B. J. Elder, our former local basketball star that went on to attend college at Georgia Tech. His mother is now a member of USBC and we have been looking for him to come. He shared that he has been playing professional basketball in Europe for the past seven years and is headed back there soon. The Lord has blessed him with a fantastic career and we pray for his continued success.
We have another connection with Georgia Tech with present student Mone't Roberts. She is the talented daughter of Allen and Lisa Roberts and the granddaughter of Tommie and Willie Ann Johnson. She will be leaving out on Tuesday to study in Paris, France. This is such an awesome opportunity for her to experience more of the world as she takes courses abroad.

I don’t know if you have an update on young Aris Hubbard so here it is. I recently told you that she was headed to Baltimore, Md. for a national track meet. Well she went and did great!

She placed 14th in the long jump against 56 that competed in that event and her relay team placed 6th against 42 teams. I am sure that all of you agree that she did wonderful to take part in this her first national competition! Also, thank her very supportive parents Johnny and Kathy Hubbard for their participation. They burned many hours on the road and it was well worth it.

Last week we were refreshed at USBC’s Revival 2012. Prophet Frederick Collins was the nightly speaker and we all should feel uplifted by his heaven sent messages. Prophet Collins had us to focus on our purpose and place especially in the church. We need to do all things with love and be aware of the Holy Spirit and let it guide us. God wants us to depend on him and when we do this we know that God’s got our back. Every night we were filled with a fresh word from the Lord.

Several local pastors and their members worshipped with us including Rev. Hoke Smith, Rev. Vincent Casey and Rev. Billingsley. Special friends of Prophet Collins that traveled to be with us were Pastor Leslie Scriven of Stone Mountain and Valeria Miles of Vila Rica. Special thanks go out to our neighbors that helped us lift up the Lord with praise. Please come again.

You will need to read Jeremiah 18:1-6 for more understanding of Sunday’s sermon from Pastor Terrell. At this point Jeremiah had preached for 40 years but his people would not repent and turn to God. Right when we wanted to give up the prophet received a word from the Lord to, “Arise and go down to the potter’s house.”

Once he got there Jeremiah saw that “The vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter so he made it again into another vessel as it seemed good to the potter to make.”  The clay in this case represents us.

Pastor Terrell told us to stay in God’s hands. Even when we mess up and our clay is “marred” we have to stay with the Lord. We need to stay on the potter’s wheel and let God work it out. In other words when we make mistakes we need to keep our faith in God and let Him smooth us out.

Mercy shows up when God shines new light on our dark situations. No matter what we are going through God can shed new light to it. Every day the sun comes up and that should remind us that God could send new mercies each day. The key is to avoid letting the enemy keep us out of church when we make mistakes. That is the same as getting out of the Potter’s hand.

Another point that Pastor Terrell made is that although God’s mercies are new daily we must not wait to repent. Remember when the clay is being shaped and molded there is a limited time before it starts to dry. In the passage referenced Judah’s time to repent was coming close to an end. Don’t let it be said that it is too late. Don’t delay in repenting. At the point that your heart towards God is dry all you can do is crumble it into pieces. Let the rising of the sun be encouragement in knowing that His mercies are new every morning. Glory Be To God!

Printed in the August 16, 2012 edition