Pleasant Times

News from Mt Pleasant Christian Church - http://mychristianchurch.org - February 2011

A Second Glance…
by Cortney Walcott

When you think of February, you think of Valentine’s Day and love stories. Jane and Carl Kale have a
love story of a different type: The month of February is a special month for them because it is the month that they
came to know the love of Jesus Christ. They came forward on a Sunday evening at Mt. Pleasant Christian
Church on February 21st in 1971. At the time Mt. Pleasant didn’t have a baptismal so Jane and Carl were
baptized the following Sunday at Ellettsville Christian Church on February 28th. Jane grew up attending Ellettsville
Christian Church but they began attending Mt. Pleasant sometime in 1970 when Carl’s sister, Dorotha (Prather)
and her husband Bob invited them one evening. They have called Mt. Pleasant their home ever since!
Jane came to know Carl at a young age, but
they didn’t share their first date until she was about 13
years old. Carl’s dad owned a coal and ice business
on Vine St. in Ellettsville, just down the street from
where Jane grew up. She also became acquainted
with Carl because he was friends with
her brothers. They finally shared their first date by
double-dating to a movie with another couple. They
dated off and on for a while and on Christmas day of
her junior year in high school Carl proposed to her.
They were married about six months later in Cornith,
Mississippi on July 27, 1957. Jane and Carl knew two
other couples that were married in Mississippi, so they
chose to exchange their vows there as well. Carl was
afraid of needles and Cornith was the place they knew
that didn’t require any blood tests before they would
marry you! So they drove down to Mississippi with
Jane’s oldest brother and his wife and they were married in the town Court House. Jane still wears her original
diamond that Carl gave to her the day he proposed.
Carl graduated from Stinesville High School and went to work for RCA, where he worked for 34 years until
he retired. Jane attended Ellettsville High School; however, she did not graduate because she was married just
before her senior year. Like Carl, she also went to work for RCA where she later earned her GED when she was
60 years old!
After 37 years of employment, she also retired from RCA, which was also known as Thompson at the
time. Jane and Carl are the parents of three children, Marcella (Kale) Landreth, Tony Kale, and Carla (Kale)
Pruett. They have seven grandchildren (Amanda, Tiffany, Bobby, Taylor, Derek, Josh, and Joey) and four great
grandchildren (Alexis, Gabe, Madison, and Mason).
Unfortunately, the month of February also holds a sad memory for Jane. When she thinks of Valentine’s
Day, she remembers her younger brother that she lost on February 14th in 1962. Tommy Gillespie was only 20
years old when he died. He was putting up a radio antenna at a house in Ellettsville when it fell into a power line
and electrocuted him and another man.
Return To Your First Love
by Pastor Jon Miller

February is one of the favorite months for floral shops, the Hershey
Chocolate company, and the greeting card industry because February is the
month of love. The history of Valentine’s Day actually predates Hallmark and
Hershey and goes back over a thousand years in history. In our modern time
we have chosen chocolate and flowers as a way of sending the message that we care (enough to send the very
best) and that the spark in our relationship is still alive.

Whenever a couple is having difficulty in their marriage a strategy used by some counselors is to have the couple
talk about how they met and grew to love one another. This helps the counselor to see if there is a spark of hope
that can be fanned into a flame. In the book of Revelation our Lord had John write a letter to seven different
churches. In the letter to the church at Ephesus, Jesus called this church to use this same strategy. He said, “You
have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the
works you did at first.” (Revelation 2:4-5.) The church in Ephesus got busy going through the motions, but the
flame was dying out and they needed to be revived.

I believe that the church in America

today, like the church in Ephesus,
needs to return to its first love. We
have a lot of good works being done
by the church throughout the world,
but somewhere along the line we
have forgotten the motivation and the
passion that used to drive us to do
those good works. Thankfully there is
still a spark, which means there is still
hope for a flame to burn again. In this
passage in Revelation Christ even
told us what we need to do in order to
get the flame back. He said, “Repent
and do the works that you did at first.”

When I first started working at KFC at

the age of 15 they made most of their
food from scratch. In the morning
before we opened we made
homemade coleslaw and biscuits. As
time went on in order to save time
and money the company started to
use frozen biscuits and more
prepackaged foods. The result of this
move was that sales went down and
more customers complained about
the quality of the food. In answer to the customer complaints the corporate office came out with a campaign they
called “Back to the Basics” during which time they went back to the old way of doing things simply because it
worked and the pay off was larger. What Jesus told the church in Ephesus and is telling us to do today is to
return to the basics -“The first works.” It's that old time religion that we sing about. It worked for the Apostles and
the early church therefore we can conclude that it will work for us today.

In studying the book of Acts we can see the church was started under very simple terms. There were no mega
buildings, no large denominations, no robed choirs, in fact the church didn't even have bylaws! The church had
four very basic works that they did and it was a huge success. Thousands of people were saved and lives were
changed through the gospel message. By studying the early church we can see the first love that the church
abandoned and we can also see the first works that we must return to in order to have revival and get the flame
burning again.

Luke records in the book of Acts, “And they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and fellowship, to the
breaking of bread and the prayers.” (Acts 2:42.) These four reasons are why the church existed. As time went on
man complicated it and in man’s complexity and tradition the first love has been abandoned. Let's take a brief look
at each of these first works that Christ calls us back to in order to stir up the fire within us.

First, the early followers of Christ came together for instruction. They didn't just
come together for it but they “devoted” themselves to the apostles’ teaching. This
implies (strongly suggest) that they came together to hear the Word of God and
then they put the Word into action. James says that we are to be “doers” of the
word and not hearers only. (James 1:22.) In order for us to return to our first love
and rekindle the passion of serving Christ we must do the work of teaching and
preaching the Word of God. It is also necessary to put the truths that we learn
from God’s word into application in our lives outside of the church.

The second basic of the early church was fellowship. They came together for
teaching and fellowship (Acts 2:42). The first thing most church people think of
when they hear the word “fellowship” is food. Unfortunate to some that is not how
the word is used in this verse. Fellowship for the early church meant being
involved in the lives of one another. If one was hurting they hurt together, if one
was rejoicing they rejoiced together. It meant helping one another through the
hard times by pulling their resources together. The needs of members in the early
church were met by those who had extra. (Acts 4:34).

Another work of the early church was the breaking of bread. When the scripture uses this phrase it is referring to
the Lord's Supper, the time when we take the bread and the fruit of the vine to show the Lord's death until he
returns. To return to our first love we must never take the bread and the juice out of habit. We need to pause and
remember the great sacrifice of love that was made for us by Christ on the cross. The Apostle Paul told the
church in Corinth that this was also a time for each member of the body to examine themselves to evaluate their
relationship with God. (1 Corinthians 11:28.) If the spark is going to reunite it’s going to have to start with each of
us looking inside so that we get an honest analysis of our current spiritual condition.

The Lord also calls the church to return to the work of prayer. This should be self explanatory. When the disciples
saw Jesus heal the sick and turn the water into wine and make the lepers walk again they asked him to teach
them how to pray. (Luke 11:1.) The disciples knew that prayer was the answer. We forget our first love when we
neglect to pray. Any time in history there has been a real revival it was always preceded by God’s people
praying. If we want the passion of serving God to return it’s not going to be found by the church becoming more
politically active or even socially involved. In a marriage where the flame has burned down it is usually traced
back to a communication problem. When we neglect to pray we have a communication problem in our
relationship with God.

Finally, let's make 2011 the year that we as a church go back to the basics of Christianity. The year we go back to
our first love, Christ, and do the “first works” that Jesus talked about in the book of Revelation. Let’s redefine our
mission as being a people who come together to teach the Bible, break bread, fellowship, and pray. These four
basic works were good enough for the disciples and the New Testament church and I believe that they are still all
we need today. We also need to notice that the Bible says they continued in these works. The remained faithful in
doing them. Just as faithfulness is essential in our earthly relationship with our spouse to keep the flame alive it is
of the utmost important in our Christin life. The first works are not a one-time event - we need to continue doing
them until the Lord returns. Keep the flame alive!
 Anniversaries
Birthdays
Phi Wampler February 2nd JR & Amber Ludlow February 22nd
Walter Wampler February 2nd Lonnie & Joyce Anderson February 22nd
Jacob Jones February 4th
Ruth Olsen February 9th
Erma Hovious February 16th
Tyler Cadwell February 17th
Ann Acuff February 21st
Charlie Scott February 21st
Joyce Anderson February 21st
Dorothy Elliott February 22nd
Rodney Day-February 23rd
David Neal February 28th

Love Before and After Marriage Before - Charming and Noble

Before - You take my breath away
After - I feel like I'm suffocating
Before - She loves the way I take control of the
situation
After - She says I'm a controlling, manipulative
egomaniac
Before - Saturday Night Fever
After - Monday Night Football
Before - The Sound of Music
After - The Sound of Silence
Before - Is that all you're having?
After - Maybe you should just have a salad, honey.
Before - Wheel of Fortune
After - Jeopardy
After – Chernobyl
Before – Idol
After - Idle
Before - He's completely lost without me
After - Why won't he ever ask for directions?
Before - Croissant and cappuccino
After - Bagel and instant
Before - You look so sexy in black
After - Your clothes are so depressing
Before - Candy hearts and flowers
After - Onion rings and antacid
Before - He makes me feel like a million dollars
After - If I had a dime for every stupid thing he's
done...

Before - Nothing is too good for you
After - You spent *how* much??
Before - Turbo charged
After - Jump started
Before - We agree on everything!
After - Doesn't she have a mind of her own?
Before - I can hardly believe we found each other
After - I can't believe I ended up with someone like
you
Before - It's like I'm living in a dream
After - It's like he's living in a barn
Before - Lucy and Ricky
After - Fred and Ethel


Mt. Pleasant Christian Church
3191 W. Burma Rd.
Gosport, IN 47433
812-876-9149

