*** DELETE THIS SECTION BEFORE PUBLISHING ***
TO BE ADDED OR NOTED IN FUTURE SSB WEEKLY EDITIONS

  • Support a Nigerian Missionary (Al's info below)
  •  “Four the Master” to “For the Master Music Ministry”
  • July Business Meeting on 7/27
  • Info class on July 13, 20, 27


NIGERIAN MISSIONARY:
Some of you may recall that when Al was here, he spoke of his return to Nigeria.  He grew up there when his dad was a missionary.  One interesting comment on Nigeria:  90% of all Christians killed in the world are in Nigeria.   Al shared with us the great news that they have 1,000 men and women trained and ready to be sent as missionaries.  They just lack funds.   What is amazing is the price tag to send just one is $600... ANNUALLY!  I suggested we might have a few folks interested in sending a missionary outright.  He has given me the following information:

To support one of these Nigerian missionaries, send your $600.00 check to:  Mr. Tony Rondinella, Box 5310, Glendale, CA 91201. Make your check out to Global Teaching Network and ear mark your check EMS Missionary support. They will choose your missionary and send you a tax receipt, bio of the missionary, tribe where he or she is from, and where they will be sent.   You will not be able to be in contact the missionary at any time for security reasons.  They do ask that you pray for your missionary every day.

STANDING STONE BIBLE

WEEKLY

Tuesday, July 22, 2025

A Point from pastor

Annually, we have a cookout at the end of July coinciding with "Gretna Days."   Join us Friday night at 7pm!   There will be grills ready for you to cook up your brats, hamburgers or hotdogs.  Bring your own meat and buns.  We'll have condiments and a desert.   Kids (and the kid-at-hearts) can also plan a few yard-games to play. Also, plan on hanging out until dusk - We should have a good view of the fireworks towards the northeast.  You might bring a few lawn chairs or blankets.   Join us!!!

Sunday morning, after the service will be a July business meeting for SSB members.  We will get a money update and discuss the storefront and Jaime.   Plan on joining us.

---
Last week I spent the week in Branson, Missouri with Whitney's family.  22 of us under one roof.  It went well.  The kids really enjoyed the day on the lake (a pontoon rental for 12-hours) - with some tubing, cliff diving, swimming, and a few attempts at skiing.  Lots of smiles!   I appreciate being able to take some "time off"!  Although I join many of you in coming back from vacation at times more tired than when I left.  This was possibly one of those.   Thus, why Whitney and I sometimes go away on our own.  For a more relaxing and restful trip.   May we not have to get away to enjoy rest but find rest in Jesus ...  as He promised us, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest... and you will find rest for your souls" (Matt. 11:28-29).   We also know that there is a future rest in store for each of us:  "There remains a Sabbath-rest for the people of God... Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest."  (Heb. 3:7-4:11).   I am thankful for God's rest!   

Church Notes...

The Funeral for George McFarling will be Saturday morning at SSB, 10:30am.   It will be followed by a luncheon with the internment at the Omaha National Cemetery.  

THIS WEEK

Here are the highlights of classes and events THIS week

TLT, Teen Life Truths - This 10-week study of basic life principles for those entering 6th grade is Wednesday nights, from 6:30 to 8:00pm.  Older grades may also join in.  After TLT, they will join with the LIGHThouse.

For the Master - Ministering tonight at 6:15pm (Remington Heights).  Also, upcoming in July:
  • July 24 @ 3:30pm - Marquis Place
  • July 31 @ 2pm - Echo Hills

Parenting Class - Working through Tedd Tripp's updated video teaching, "Shepherding Your Child's Heart," on Saturday mornings Saturdays - 9 to 10:30am.  These six sessions will be continue through August (no class on 8/9).  Childcare will be available.  Do make every effort to attend this as a blessing to you and your kids.  

Information Class - This info class continues Sunday during the SS hour (8:45 am).  

July Business Meeting - This Sunday, after the worship service, is a brief business meeting for SSB members.  Agenda items:  Money update, storefront & outreach update

upcoming events

Make note of the classes and events available in the near future

Baptism Class - You?  We are wanting to offer a baptism class in the near future if there is interest.  Let one of the pastors know of your following Christ this way or just learning more.

But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

- Isaiah 40:31

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

- Romans 15:13

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

- 1 Peter 1:3

the Lord's day

Pastor Tim opened the service with talk of Creation Days and the importance of God's Word being "in hand."  God's Word is your foundation... or your life is easily shaken.

There was singing!  Singing of "Victory in Jesus"... singing of "Waiting here for You" (Jesus we adore, the Author of Salvation!)...  singing of "Springtime" - how we will sing a new song as God's love is like springtime.... singing of "Even If" - God has been faithful and good even in the trying times.   It is well...  the final song was "It Is Well With My Soul."   May peace, like a river, overflow in your life no matter the trials and troubles!  

Ken Clipperton brought the message... sharing some of what he learned in jail about the gospel.    Sharing about his work in jail ministry.  Gospel lessons from prison:  * You matter to God.   Ephesians 1:7, In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.  "My identity is in Christ," said Adam, one man in jail.   * You are by nature an object of God's wrath.   That's the bad news.  All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).   But there is good news!   Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Romans 10:13).   Christ died for the ungodly, for sinners such as us.  * No one is beyond the reach of God's love and salvation.  1st Timothy 1:15 says Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.  * God rejoices over each sinner who repents.   (Luke 15:7 & 10).  More than merely accepting, God rejoices over each one.   Has God rejoiced over you?  

Did You Know?

The Youth begin their summer hours this month.   LGt will meet from 6 to 9pm beginning this Sunday.  LIGHThouse (not meeting this Wednesday night) will meet from 7 to 9 beginning on June 11th.  TLT will still meet on June 4 at 6:30pm.

Who is Worthy?

Hosea, the son of Beeri, was the first of the minor prophets.   He preached probably beginning around the mid 700’s BC and prophesied for over 50 years.  At God’s command, he took Gomer, a harlot, as his wife.  They had two sons and a daughter.  Yet, Gomer was unfaithful.  She became an object lesson to Israel illustrating their infidelity to God.  Israel’s relationship to God was like a marriage and Israel had been unfaith to Him - an adulteress.  Hosea calls Israel to repentance but it is clear he knows there will not be a positive response.  Judgement will come!   God’s punishment would certainly fit Israel’s crimes but, in God’s mercy, each punishment was disciplinary – God’s desire was to turn Israel back to Him.   Just as Hosea could be reconciled to his wife, so can Israel be, ultimately, restored.  God is willing to take back even the most wayward one… Yes, this includes you and I.  He has loved us with an everlasting love.  God is worthy! 

This Month in Christian History

July of 1934
Yin Renxian was born in Hunan, China, in 1887, to a family of high status. He studied classical Confucian teachings and English at home. After his first wife died following the birth of their fourth child, Yin left his children with relatives and pursued studies in economics in the U.S., earning degrees from Western Reserve University and Harvard. He later worked at the First National Bank of Boston before returning to China in 1919 to help develop the national textile industry.

Initially skeptical of Christianity, Yin's views changed through the influence of his Christian cousin and the example of missionaries. He married Faith Suyun Ding in 1924, the daughter of Christian leader Ding Limei.

As the four children by Yin’s previous marriage were beginning to grow up and attend high school and college, another son, David, was born to them. One afternoon, his parents found him drowned in the deep ditch that surrounded the house. After consolation from a Christian doctor, Yin went to his room upstairs and knelt down to pray, asking for God’s saving grace.  On the very same day, Suyan was consoled by another friend, who used a touching illustration of a shepherd who cares for little lambs. They both began to embrace Christ personally.
 
They began studying the Bible together and hosting Bible study meetings.  In July of 1934, two of Yin Renxian’s adult children, recently converted to Christianity through his witness, were blown up by a bomb while traveling on a train. At their funeral, Yin spoke to the assembled Chinese about the power of Christ to save from sin. He and his wife Suyun, after years of tepid Christianity, had devoted themselves wholeheartedly to Christ with the result that a house church has formed around them. Yin eventually became a Christian educator.

He continued to held influential government positions, including Director of the Tax Bureau in Henan and Commissioner of Finance in Hunan. Despite the challenges of war and corruption, he maintained integrity, refusing to compromise his values. His leadership during the 1938 Changsha fire relief effort led to the governor’s conversion to Christianity.

In 1943, Yin founded Holy Light School in Chongqing, a Christian school for refugee children, which became a model institution for Christian education. After the Communist takeover, the school was forced to close. Yin spent his later years in Suzhou, focusing on ministry and writing about his spiritual journey. He died in 1964 at the age of 78. Yin’s legacy includes his leadership, faithfulness in adversity, and influence on China’s Christian community.

Be the Church

We Must Suffer

We must suffer.  Luke writes that Paul and Barnabas, teaching in Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, was “encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22).  Every one of us is chastised by God – it is to be His child (Heb. 12:6).  When you and I suffer, it is at the very hand of God.  Job could not see what we can read in Job 1.  God set that whole thing up.  And Job was one who “was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil” (Job 1:1).  Should we be surprised that we will suffer in this life?   Satan means it for harm, but God means it for our good (Rom. 8:28) and for the good of those around us.  Your pain can bless others through your faith, humility, and willingness to grow and be used by God through it.  Do not waste your suffering.  Be the church!  

BIG Words

Immutability

 See Numbers 23:19; Isaiah 40:28; Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8; James 1:17.  “Immutable” means “unchanging” or “unalterable.”  God is immutable.  Perhaps immutability is best expressed this way:  God is the same.   Charnock wrote “He could not be the same if he could be changed into any other thing than what he is.”  You are the same, and your years have no end (Psalm 102:27).  God’s immutability is an expression of His perfection.   Change implies something might become better or worse.  Although we might see in Scripture that God “changes his mind” (Gen. 6:6; Exo. 32:14; Jonah 3:4), these are examples of anthropomorphism (see “Big Words,” SSB Weekly, Jan 30, 2023).  These are human characteristics applied to God that we might better understand Him (e.g. when we read of God’s “hand”).  God adapts His treatment of us in response to our variation, our actions and character.  Thus, God was to destroy Nineveh in 40-days but they repented.  God’s character remained immutable throughout.  God is the same!

The Moral of the story

How to catch a monkey?  

Some African tribes learned to trap monkeys by using a coconut shell that has been cut in two, hollowed out, and then fastened back together with an orange inside.  The coconut then has a hole drilled in large enough for a monkey’s paw to pass through.  The hunters then merely have to secure the shell to a tree with a rope and wait.  As a monkey smells the treat, he will reach into the shell, grab the fruit, and try to get it out.  The orange, being too large for the hole, remains inside of the shell, along with the monkey’s paw.  As the monkey struggles to take the fruit, the hunter simply grabs the monkey with a net.  

The monkey only needed to let go of the orange to be free.   He cannot grasp that he is unable to have both the orange and freedom.  Dumb monkey.  Dumb humanity?  

As human beings, we as well can waste our lives trying to get the orange out of the coconut.  Jesus warned us, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matt. 6:19-21).  What the world offers can appear delicious but it often robs us of our freedom and, possibly, even our lives

• Do you not care that we are perishing?  Mark 4:35-41

Does God care that we are perishing?  First of all, He is in the boat with us!!!  Think about that.  The disciples cried out to Jesus that they were perishing, implying that He didn’t care.  Yet, if they perished, He would too!  For fear of the storm, they woke Jesus up.  Obviously, we don’t have to wake Jesus up but think how privileged we are to have no fear to approach him with our fears.  This is a God who is not afraid of the things we are afraid of.  The disciples woke Him up.  Jesus then first rebuked the storm, and second, rebuked the disciples.   God will address the things we are fearful of.  He will calm our storms and restore the peace in our lives.
 
Why were the disciples rebuked as having no faith?  Didn’t it show faith that by waking Jesus He would take care of the storm?  They didn’t fully know or trust that He could take care of the storm.  This is obvious by their great fear after He calmed the storm.  They were afraid of this power He displayed.   MacArthur wrote, “The only thing more terrifying than having a storm outside the boat was having God in the boat!”  The disciples perhaps had enough trust in Jesus that they did wake Him.

Jesus is the one who not only cares when we feel like we are perishing, He is in the boat with us.  We must trust in the One who not only delivers us from storms but delivers us through them. 

A Joyful Heart

Wives.  Your husbands do sometimes drink directly from the milk jug.  Out of either guilt or just to save you the frustration of needing to respond to it, most men only do this late at night when you are fast asleep.  You are welcome.  My wife can trust that I am an exception to this habit.  I’m just not a milk drinker.  I don’t like the taste of milk. . .  by itself.  Oh, I’ll drink it on cereal, of course.  I’m not a lunatic.

Hopefully, wives, you are not too terribly offended at your husband right now.  If he begins to drink from the milk jug while at other people’s houses, then you should say something.   In defense of your husband, the hosts probably did say “make yourself at home.”
 
Husbands.  Your wife does things you are also unaware of.  I think.  I just haven’t seen my wife do those things yet.  So, a bit of guesswork here.   She might also be a sleeper CIA agent.  In a way, we all are like that, living double lives – without the badge.

Double lives.  How many live one way at church or with family and another behind closed doors?   How many Christians are given to gossip, profanity, sinful anger, lust, gluttony or a list of other sins ?  We too often lead double lives.  This always eventually leads to pain.  James 1:8 says that a double-minded man is “unstable in all his ways.”  James continues by sharing about the sins of partiality, empty faith, poisonous talk, and worldliness.   He should know.  After all, James drank milk straight from the jug as well.   But James also gives us hope.  The hope is framed in the grace of God.  That same grace that saves us also can draw us away from sinful practices.  James says that God “gives more grace. Therefore, it says, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” (James 4:6-8).
 
God is willing to cleanse us if we draw near to Him.  As we do, the double-mindedness diminishes as our minds become like Christ.    So, drink in God’s grace.  And, men, next time, grab a glass to drink your milk. 

“You say you do not know what God's will is, but I'll tell you what it is. Above all it is that you know Christ and then that your neighbors hear about Christ.  That is His will.  So often we sit around twiddling our thumbs, dreaming about God's will in some distant future when we are not even willing to stand up on our own two feet, walk down the street, and do God's will right now.”


- John MacArthur

Prayer Prods

  1. Amy M recovering from hip surgery
  2. Joe and Elaine back from Mayo
  3. Jimmy Br recovering from surgery
  4. Peggy O still struggling overall
  5. McFarling family
  6. Jimmy Br, Mary T, and Holly's dad (Bruce) as they recover from surgery
  7. Tish Frey moves next week
  8. Isaiah M and Nancy S - surgeries this week

General Calendar