Hello Folks,
Resurrection Day was wonderful here at Greeneville First Church of God! Our worship was amazing, the choir gave marvelous praise to the King of Kings and the attendance was very good with 686 here to worship. I met two new couples who came to our Easter Worship because they had been at the Drama and decided that they wanted to come to see what we were like as a congregation in our worship. God has used the Drama to reach people for Him and to help those who are here to grow in Him and in our love for each other. He is absolutely amazing and He always does far more than we think can be done!
I want to ask you to pray for a friend of mine by he name of Ed Long. Ruth worked with him a number of years ago when she drove a school bus and I was privileged to lead him to Lord when he was in the hospital with throat cancer. Over the last 15-18 years he has battled with that cancer as it reoccured in his life. It appears that he has come to the last miles of life here but due to his commitment to Jesus he can look forward to an eternal home where he will never deal with cancer again. Unless the Lord intervenes and heals his physical body he will be going to his eternal home soon. Pray for him and his family. Ruth and a woman at our congregation in Illinois, Becky Dixon, were used by God to lead his wife, Toddy, to the Lord.
Pastor's Fellowship is coming next week so I will not be writing a blog on next Tuesday. I always look forward to Pastor's Fellowship and believe that some of the best preaching in the Reformaiton Movement takes place there. As part of that ministry a new magazine has replaced Reformation Witness with the name Truth Matters. The first edition has come out through Reformation Publishers. The new editor is Jeannette Flynn and I believe we will have an opportunty to do some things that will have real impact upon the Kingdom. By the way you can go on line and read the magazine by going to Reformation Publishers website and if you want a hard copy you can also order through Reformation Publishers. For those who are part of this congregation Anita Miller has an article in it about how truth matters to teens.
You folks have a great week in the Lord.

Yours in Christ,

Pastor H. G. Rudd

Hello Folks,
If you were not you should have been with us this week here at Greeneville First Church of God. The Drama "The Life of Jesus" was tremendous. The local body of believers presented this dramatic presentation from Thursday night through Sunday night. There were over 20 people who were saved that we know and, obviously, the Lord was with us. That then translated over to our Sunday a.m. worship and God spoke to people and we had a man recommit his life to Jesus. You should have been here and sensed the wonder of Gods presence among us.
This coming Sunday is Easter and I am praying that God will anoint what happens here and that we will see a great harvest. It is as if our congregation is expecting God to be among us and that they are praying that He will have His way. I know that we have different groups of people meeting to pray and I believe that God has decided that the time is right. Our hearts are seeking and He is giving us a good harvest. Counting the Drama in last 4-5 weeks we have seen between 30-35 people saved. In our fiscal year there has already been about 45-50 saved. There is a great desire to see people disicpled and people are getting ready to work with others. God is certainly great!
There are certainly still great needs that we have here. There are people who still need the Savior and there are ministries that we are not getting done right. Keep praying for us that we will hear God's direction for this congregation. Also pray for me that I be the man that God would desire and that I give leadership in this congregation. Undoubtedly there will be great challenges that rise in the weeks ahead but pray that we fight the fight! May Jesus be praised in it all.

HGRudd

Hello Folks, Last week was a very good week. There were people saved by the grace of Jesus in from Wednesday through Saturday. We had a young person saved here at the church, a teen saved off premses and a woman who was saved at the Women of Promise Convention. This took place among our ladies in their room on Saturday night. What a great harvest the Lord is allowing us to see start among us. Keep praying that there will be more of the wonders of God work among us. The Easter Drama begins this Thursday night and will go through Sunday night. Every time I watch this congregation put forth their effort to do something for the kingdom i watch as you give yourselves to do it with excellence. What a joy it is for me to get to pastor this congregation. God has been really good to me. My son James came in for a few days and we got to spend time together turkey hunting. For the past 9 years he has been able to come and stay a few days with me and we get to spend a lot of time together going out in our search for turkeys. This year we harvested 4 birds in just two days. As I go out to hunt with him I am reminded that I am getting older all the time and that I cannot keep up with him anymore. He had to stop and wait on his old Dad to catch up to him on more than one occasion. What a pleasure it is to be with my son and spend time with him. You folks have a great day and may this spring bring the glory of God to your lives. HGRudd

Hello Folks, My youngest son, James, has been in town to visit and we have been doing some turkey hunting together. It is always a joy to get to spend this kind of time with him. Since he lives in Indiana we only have a few times in a year when we even see other and during turkey season is when we spend a lot of time with each other. Of course, since he is 20 years younger than I am I find myself being much slower than he is climbing the hills and walking across the fields. We laugh and enjoy each others company during these few days and I am thankful that I can do this. We have started a series of sermons this April titled: "The Hands of God" and Joe Kilday has painted some art that is absolutely wonderful. I hope that you get a chance to see them while they are on display in the Welcome Center. What an amazingly gifted man Joe is and I am thankful for his willingless to use it to make what we do here more effective. For those who do not know it we have seen about 7 people saved over the past 3 weeks. God is moving among us and I ask you to pray that we will do the work here that God has called us to do. We must make disciples! Matt 28:18-20 is the Great Commission that tells us what disciples really is: Go, teach and baptize and the three legs of the stool of discipleship. I want to be used by God to fulfill His will among us. Pray that we do exactly that. Have a Great One, Pastor Rudd