SABBATH ANNOUNCEMENTS & REMINDERS 

United Church of God, an International Association

North Canton & Youngstown, OH; Pittsburgh, PA; Wheeling, WV Congregations

SABBATH, JUNE 29, 2019

Youngstown –1 p.m.                Pittsburgh – 2:30 p.m.

North Canton – 2 p.m.            Wheeling – 10 a.m.

Greetings brethren,

The Black Hills of Dakota are an inspiring silhouette only 20 miles to the west of where our family farm was located many, long years ago. Last night we watched the sunset directly into the Buffalo Gap of the Hills. In years of yore that was the pass through the hills that lead the buffalo to the rich, grazing grounds of the prairie plateau of southwestern South Dakota.

This is one of the wetter years on record for South Dakota. My brother Marshall and I went out to a cliff overlooking the Cheyanne River on his property this afternoon. Our family has lived next and grazed that property along the river since 1960 at least. The average rainfall is about 14 inches, but we’ve never seen the beauty of a wetter year this one! 

The sweet clover is as high as a horse’s eye (maybe not a really tall draft horse, but a regular pinto, appaloosa or thoroughbred for sure)! The yellow sweet clover blankets the river bottom flats and the hills around it with its golden glow. Within the sea of yellow some darker green patches are white clover which will bloom in the next ten days.

Suffice it to say, the scene of the sea of yellow blossoms and many shades of various prairie grasses makes you think of the beauty of the land in the incredible World Tomorrow! 

What we within the true Church of God call the World Tomorrow is of course the worldwide, millennial rule of Jesus Christ when the Kingdom of God becomes the government over all the nations. What a wonderful, exciting and magnificently beautiful time of history that will be!

Yet today in the Devil’s era (he is the “prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience…” as in Eph. 2:2) there exists but very little true beauty. And that small beauty is steadily decreasing as more people give themselves over to the intense, godless immorality (sexual and otherwise) that is beginning to gain revolutionary, political clout.

That beauty-bereft immorality will gain more momentum. The reason: Satan has power—power he is unafraid to use to morally decay and spiritually destroy as much of mankind as he can. 

The only sure way to neutralize the Devil’s distortion of physical and moral—that is—spiritual truth is to resist his evil ways of thinking. That means to buck the current tide of society’s value-less thinking. It means we must recapture the true values of God’s way of living and God’s way of thinking. Then learn or re-learn to think like Christ thinks. That divinely directed thinking will lead us to right opinions, right words and actions of faithful obedience to our great Father in heaven. 

To have everything coming up like beautiful, yellow or white, sweet clover calls for us to pray much more, and more fervently for God’s guidance and inspiration in our lives and in the work of His true Church. Draw some of that inspiration from the marvelous beauty of God’s creation.

Note: Our journey continues westward to Montana on Sunday. We wish you all a very thoughtful and inspiring Sabbath.

Keep the true faith—and spread it,

Randy Stiver, Pastor 

Pastor’s contact information:  PO Box 1474, Massillon, OH  44648.  Home phone: 330-809-0566, cell phone: 740-739-7248. Email addresses: randy_stiver@ucg.org  or rpstiver@gmail.com (both come to the same location). For emails regarding scheduling (church events, visits or counseling), please copy my wife Linda ldstiver@gmail.com. Announcements should be sent to my email and copied to our daughter Amanda at anstiver@gmail.com as she helps process them each week.

1.    Church Circuit Calendar 

June 29	Sabbath service	Youngstown – 1 p.m.; North Canton – 2 p.m.; Wheeling – 10 a.m.; Pittsburgh – 2:30 p.m.
July 6	Sabbath service	Youngstown – 1 p.m.; North Canton – 2 p.m.; Pittsburgh - ??:??; Wheeling – ??
July 13	Sabbath service	Youngstown – 11 a.m.; North Canton – 2 p.m.; Pittsburgh - ??; Wheeling - ??
July 20	Sabbath service	Pittsburgh – 10 a.m.;  Wheeling – 2:30 p.m.;  Youngstown – 1 p.m.;  North Canton – 2 p.m.;  North Canton Bible Study – 12 noon
July 26	Bible Study	7:30 p.m. EDT  –  Title to be announced  https://www.ucg.org/congregations/north-canton-oh/webcast

 

LOCAL PRAYER REQUESTS: (*new or updated) 

·        Steve Richmond – (North Canton & Cambridge): No update for this week, but Steve has been diagnosed with stage four colon cancer.

·        Linda Szalankiewicz – (Pittsburgh area) At last report the cancer is continuing to take its deadly course.

·        Dale Harman – (North Canton):  Repeat announcement: Dale has been moved to the Youngstown area near his niece. New address is:  Sunrise Senior Living of Poland, 335 W. McKinley Way, Poland, OH 44514; room #207; phone:  330-707-3207. Am sure he would be happy for visitors, cards or calls. 

·        Neal Warner – (North Canton) Dealing with intense leg pain.

·        Jim Kocher – (Wheeling elder) – for healing of a severely detached retina.

2.    THE NEXT NORTH CANTON SABBATH MORNING BIBLE STUDY – JULY 27 – AT 12 NOON

Until Daylight Savings Time changes back to standard time this fall, the third Sabbath morning of the month Bible Study will start at 12 noon at the Global Gateway hall.

3.    FRIDAY NIGHT BIBLE STUDY – SUMMER CHANGE

Our regular Friday night Bible Studies will be only once-a-month through the summer on the Friday night before the 4th Sabbath of the month for July & August. On those evenings it will be webcasted at the usual time of 7:30 p.m.

4.    NORTH CANTON TRAFFIC ADVISORY –  for this SABBATH, JUNE 29

North Canton brethren, please be advised that on Sabbath, June 29 the local FreedomFest will draw large crowds across Hwy 241 at Boettler Park will be. The traffic for the event typically slows down Massillon Road considerably near the entrance we usually use to drive in to Global Gateway Conference Center. For those coming from the north, it is recommended that you turn east on Greensburg Road at the main intersection in Greensburg. Go east about a third of a mile and turn right onto Global Gateway. That will bring you south to the Conference Center for church services. For those coming from the south, please allow a bit of extra time or find an alternate route to the hall.

5.    MEN’S LEADERSHIP NEWSLETTER – SUMMER 2019

The latest MLN is now available. This one is a little shorter than past issues with only one main article. If you can print your own copy, please do so. Otherwise, each church can print copies for those men who need them. 

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