By Willie Ann Johnson

I bring you greetings from Union Springs Baptist Church, which is under the awesome guidance of Pastor Robert Terrell Jr. Wednesday night’s Bible study message was entitled, “A Witness for Christ.” We all can be a witness for the Holy Spirit! God will give us the words to use and work through us as we go out and share the Gospel. Acts 2: 4 tells us that God, “Filled the people with the Holy Ghost and they started speaking with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Isn’t God good? If we pray and diligently seek Him, He will grant us the tools needed to be effective witnesses.
Following Bible study we all joined in and celebrated R. L. Terrell Sr.’s 73rd birthday. Cake, ice cream and punch were furnished by R. L.’s daughters Sherry Terrell-Alexander and Shelia Sanders. Those girls love their daddy! R. L., by the way is Pastor Terrell’s earthly father.
Sunday’s message was, “Broadway Does Not Lead to Heaven.” In Matthew 7: 12 God lays out the “Golden Rule” for us. In verses 13-14 the message tells us of the two ways to live our lives. One is by going through the “broad” way, which is wide. This is the way of the world. Pastor Terrell tells us that we used to hide all of our skeletons in the closet. Now we are bringing all the skeletons out of the closet and placing our prayers, our Bible, our church and our God back inside the closet! What is it to gain the whole world but lose your soul? Don’t follow the world. Let the world follow you as you follow Jesus!
The truly sad thing is that our youth are caught up in fads such as body piercing and tattoos and according to the Bible these trends lead to destruction. Our youth are being led by society to go through the “board” way of life. Pastor Terrell goes on to tell us of the other and the best way to live our lives. That is achieved only through the straight and narrow way. “Straight is the gate and narrow is the way,” as told in Matthew 7: 14. This way “leadth unto life, and few there be that find it.” We sure do have a great deal of God’s work to do.
On a personal note, this is my first submission to the Citizen. Sister Willie Ann Johnson asked me a couple weeks ago if I would be willing to write the Spring’s articles for the newspaper when she could not. I eagerly answered yes! Years ago God placed in my heart a desire to write and I am living my dream. Thanks Sister Johnson. Look for more to come in the future. Glory be to God.

By T. Adrienne Terrell