ANNOUNCEMENT BULLETIN

United Church of God, an International Association

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

 

SABBATH, OCTOBER 1, 2016

                  Services this Sabbath (10/1)                                  Services next Sabbath (10/8)

                       North Canton – 2:00 p.m.                                               North Canton – 2:00 p.m. 

                         Youngstown – 1:00 p.m.                                                Youngstown – 11:00 a.m.

                    Pittsburgh – 2:30 p.m. (at Deer Creek)                                        Pittsburgh – 2:30 p.m. 

Wheeling – 10:00 a.m. (Stone Pavilion at Wheeling                      Wheeling –11:00 a.m. at Christian Day Sch. Park)

 

                            Any last minute time or location changes will be verbally announced.

1. PASTOR’S REPORT AND UPDATES 

            There is nothing to report this week as, like you, we are busy making preparations for God’s holy days and especially the Feast of Tabernacles. 

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.

CHURCH EVENT CALENDAR

Oct 1	Sabbath	Times and locations (as above)
Oct 3	Holyday	Feast of Trumpets
Oct 8	Sabbath	Regular times and services (as above)
Oct 12	Holyday	Day of Atonement
Oct 15	Sabbath	No local services – due to pre-Feast travel
Oct 17-23	Feast	Feast of Tabernacles (holyday on Oct. 17)
Oct 24	Holyday	Last Great Day (known as the 8th Day in the O. T.)
Oct 29	Sabbath	Regular times and services (to be announced)

2. LOCAL PRAYER REQUESTS:  *new or updated

Marc Buchholz (Rochester, NY, honorary member in North Canton) – Please remember Marc in your prayers due to the ongoing health problems that accompany his quadriplegic condition.

*Joe Gabriel (North Canton) – continues to battle cancer and neuropathy. However, his neck pain from last week is almost totally gone!

Sandy Feiock (Wheeling, mother of Brent Feiock and Sue Kocher) Continues to need our prayers as her doctor is readjusting her pain medication regimen to mitigate dangerous side effects.

Wilma Hardesty (Wheeling) – She is now in hospice care after a fall that chipped a bone in her ankle and injured her shoulder.

Dale Harman (North Canton) – Dale sends his greetings and thanks to all the brethren. His nasal staph infection has cleared up and without the Chemo treatments he has some strength and energy.  

Kim Nero (niece of Freeman and Debbie Kuhns of the North Canton church) – the latest update on Kim continues to need God’s merciful intervention with the cancer diagnosis.

Regina Segeti – had a lumpectomy after a breast cancer diagnosis and is waiting for the analysis for which she requests your prayers. 

Mary Voltz (Mansfield church) – Mary has been suffering from increasing, critical heart problems, but

she and husband Clyde are in good spirits. 

Leon Wilkey (Cambridge church) – recurrence of shingles condition.

3. FEAST OF TRUMPETS:  MONDAY, OCTOBER 3 – NORTH CANTON & YOUNGSTOWN

LOCATION:  Holiday Inn Akron-West, 4073 Medina Road, (RT. 18 & 77), Akron, Ohio

44333. Hotel phone: (330) 666-4131. Maps and necessary sign-up lists are on the information table.

SERVICE TIMES: 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. As usual our holyday offering will be taken up during the morning service. 

LUNCH: If you would like to sign up for the hotel lunch, there will be a sign-up sheet at services for the next couple of Sabbaths. You are allowed to bring your own lunch, but it cannot be eaten in the hotel dining area (due to strict food service laws). There will be some table set up in the main meeting room that may be used. SPECIAL NOTE: For those planning to bring their own food for lunch, the hotel will have four large round tables set up in the meeting room for you convenience. However, they will not be providing plates or silverware so please bring your own.

HOSPITALITY TABLE: We will plan for our usual (and delicious) snack items which can be fruits, cut fresh vegetables dips, cookies, muffins, donuts, crackers, cheeses, etc. Also, we are planning a potluck of desserts for the lunch.

 

4. FEAST OF TRUMPETS:  MONDAY, OCTOBER 3 – PITTSBURGH & WHEELING

LOCATION: Chartiers Township Community Center, 2013 Community Center Drive Houston, PA 15342. Maps with directions will be available on the information table.

SERVICE TIMES: 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. The holyday offering will be collected during the morning service. 

LUNCH: There are numerous restaurants in the local area, or you can bring your own indoor, picnic-style lunch.

HOSPITALITY TABLE: Please plan for snacks plus a dessert potluck for lunch and after the final service.

5. DAY OF ATONEMENT:  WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12

            This is God’s holy day of fasting from sundown to sundown. Those on certain medications or with severe health conditions need to use caution with complete fasting. Consult your health professional if need be.

LOCATIONS & SERVICE TIMES: North Canton and Youngstown congregations will be combined at the Global Gateway hall (North Canton’s regular location) for a 2:00 p.m. service. Pittsburgh will meet at the regular Deer Creek hall at 1:00 p.m. Wheeling will meet at the Wheeling Park Stonehouse facility at 1:00 p.m. There will be a holyday offering taken up as commanded on all annual holydays.

6. FEAST OF TABERNACLES:  MONDAY, OCT. 17 THROUGH MONDAY, OCT. 24

            God’s great autumn festival is the Feast of Tabernacles and it pictures the millennial rule of Jesus Christ and the resurrected saints on earth. The first day of the Feast (Mon., Oct. 17) is an annual holyday. The Feast officially begins at sundown on Sunday, Oct. 16 when the opening service of the Feast begins. The final annual holyday is the Last Great Day (in the Old Testament called “the 8th day”) which comes immediately after Tabernacles on Monday, Oct.24. There will be no local holyday services on either of the two holydays.      Those who are unable to attend the Feast or who will begin Feast travel after the Sabbath to drive to one of the Feast sites can log onto the webcast from Cincinnati, and likewise for the Feast services. We’ll provide a list of sites that will be webcasting. Regular, local Sabbath services will resume on October 29.

7. FEAST OF TABERNCALES YOUTH AND TEEN BOOKLETS

The United Church of God has produced Youth and Teen Festival Booklets to be picked up at the Feast of Tabernacles. These are divided into four grade categories: K-1, 2-3, 4-5 and 6th through teen. The youth booklets contain many activities, pictures and family discussion points that will spark much discussion in regards to the Holy Days and Feast of Tabernacles. The teen booklets contain thought provoking articles, artwork and family discussion points as well. 

These booklets may be picked up by the parents at the information table at each feast site. If you would

like to see a digital copy of these booklets in advance they will be available at feast.ucg.org website during the week of October 3rd. To access these booklets click on the resource tab and then Festival Youth Instruction. Then click on your child’s particular grade level of the Youth Festival Booklet.

 

10. HOLYDAY ABSENCE FORMS FOR SCHOOL OR WORK

            If you need a holyday absence form for school or work, please let Mr. Stiver know. He will have some with him or can email a signed copy for getting time off for the fall Feast days. For Wheeling and Pittsburgh, Keith Wilson can provide you with one as well.

 

~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~

SABBATH FOCUS

 

WHEN TROUBLE COMES – WHAT DO WE CLING TO?

 

Randy Stiver (10/1/16)

 

In Europe the Deutsche Bank is staggering up and down. Some compare the potential economic fallout to the collapse of the American financial services firm of Lehman Brothers in 2007 which led to the huge recession of 2008. Take your pick in politics. In Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Africa or even both of the Americas— nobody’s voting for political stability. And about the only area where military muscles aren’t being flexed is the United States and northwest Europe.

The shakiness of the early 21st century should give religion a great resurgence. Unfortunately, the false “doctrines” including socialism and evolution have left so many with so little truth to cling to.

Meanwhile, God is standing by with the very thing to which we need to cling: truth, the truth. 

God’s game plan

It isn’t merely a game. God has a clear and true plan for all humankind. Look at the big picture…

God the Father and Jesus Christ are the family or Kingdom of God and are eternal. We do not dwell in eternity, not yet. But we can choose to be part of that incredible, divine, family Kingdom. First we must change our ways from the wrong ways of this world:

“Therefore ‘Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty” (2 Corinthians 7:17-18). 

“Sons and daughters” of God means family! That alone is powerful truth.

But how, when and where?

Approximately the last half dozen millennia have been the age of man. God intervened strategically by choosing a model nation: Israel (not just the Jewish people, but all 12 tribes of ancient Israel), to set the example of how to live by God’s wonderful law. Unfortunately, Israel failed more than it succeeded as a good example.

From Abraham on, God sent his prophets to warn Israel – and the other nations of the consequence of their failure to live by His divine law. Mostly the prophets were ridiculed or rejected. So God sent Jesus Christ as His own Son to teach the truth to all mankind. 

Obviously, they also rejected Christ – as would have any other nation on earth. Jesus taught God’s spiritual law which defines how to live in harmony with our fellow people and in loving harmony with Christ and the Father. But human nature and divine law don’t mix well: “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be” (Romans 8:7).

Violating or transgressing God’s law is the definition of sin (1 John 3:4) and all humans have sinned (Romans 3:23). Since the penalty or “wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), then somebody has to die so humans can, when they do understand the truth, repent, and be forgiven. Then they can live forever in God’s family Kingdom. That’s where Jesus Christ’s first coming and ultimate sacrifice comes in. 

Why such a failing world today?

Why didn’t the world get better after Christ’s ministry, death and resurrection? Because of Human nature. The world continued with its false religions, including a Christianity that used the name, but rejected the teaching and example of Christ. 

The few who truly repented and followed the teachings of Christ became known as the true, historical Church of God. It has been a church that never grew large, yet, as promised, never died in 2000 years. 

Cling to this…

Christ is returning to the earth as “King of Kings and Lord of Lords.” He will then rule the earth for 1000 years. God’s law will be the law. God’s Church will be the church. God’s truth will be universally taught. Human society under God will reach its incredible, human potential. It will be the ultimate age of true liberty and justice for all.

The Millennium will be the Kingdom of God on earth. And there’s more… God will reach back in history and bring to life every human who never fully knew His truth. They will live a second life when they will be judged – as we must all be judged – fairly and lovingly! 

Those who knowingly refuse God’s truth and way will suffer His merciful consequences. No one will be forced to live forever in anger, resentment and hatred. 

Our present, evil world will continue to degenerate and disintegrate. But very soon God through His Son and our great Lord Jesus Christ will dramatically intervene. It starts with Christ’s second coming and the neutralizing of powerful, evil fallen angel, Satan the Devil. 

The marvelous truth we can cling to is that God will leave nothing undone. In fact, He laid out His great autumn holy days: Trumpets, Atonement, Tabernacles and the Last Great 8th Day to anticipate these unfolding events. God’s dynamic plan for His divine Family expansion will continue forever – and we shall be His spirit sons and daughters!

END