Everybody is worth dying for...what does this mean?

The long awaited rain brought life back into our withered lawns today just as Jesus quenches our thirsty souls as we gathered together in His name. I am beginning to sense that we have grown beyond the gates of our "nicely painted pickett fences" and are stepping into a deeper understanding of who we are.

We began our evening sharing our week's worth of victories and set backs and all the in -betweens before we gathered to worship our King. The words in the music of 'Trading our Sorrows" seemed to melt away the world and all it's turmoil and soften our hearts in preperation of the evening studies.

We focused on the first core value of our church which is Everybody is worth dying for. We went into the Bible verse which supports this in John 3:16 which says God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that who so ever believes in Him shall not parish but have ever lasting life.
What does this mean for us? We discussed this deeper and realized that Jesus' answer was clearly "yes"! What does that say for us and how we live our lives? What sort of value does our lives have to the eyes of Christ who knows what sins our hearts carry! It holds our lives accountable to eachother and to Christ who choose to lay down his life so that we could have life as God intended it! In Matthew 10:38-39 it says And who ever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Meeting highlight of May 23!

At our last Saturday's house meeting, we gathered after dinner to ponder on the scriptures led by Mark Myher. We focused on the topic of "STRESS" and how Jesus understood this consuming emotion that can come in and like a thief, overtake our minds and darken His Light.

Jesus asks that we invite Him in to lift this burden from our souls. We do this by taking heed to His instructions and applying them to our lives daily. We listened to the words of Jesus Himself in Matthew 11:28-30 which says Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Today in our world, we are facing many challenges that effect how we respond to our families and towards one another as our problems and burdens become the focus of our attention. We were never created to live that way so why is this such a struggle for us? We went into further discussion on how God has worked with us through difficult situations and saw us through. after sharing our lives experiences, we were encouraged by the reminder that Jesus is reaching out His hand in truth from His Word and through the works He does through our lives. What a gift we have in one another whom Christ dwells within to walk with in this journey each week!

We Meet Again!

It was a blustery chilly day outside but the "Son" was very present inside our home on Saturday as we met together once again! Our meeting began with lighthearted laughter and talk as we gathered together around a feast of home cooked comfort food's of fried chicken, fresh salads and vegetables and of course dessert!
Afterwards we settled in the living room with the children and included them in on the devotion discussion that began with the heartwarming book by Max Lucado called Just The Way You Are which illustrated the truth of how we are Children of the King who seeks out to find us and His intentions are not to be impressed by what we have to offer Him but to understand that He loves us for who we are. We went on to read Romans chapter 12:1-3. Sometimes we tend to limit ourselves in thinking of things we can do in our own power instead of putting our faith in God that He can do extraordinary things through us when give Him our willing hearts! After this discussion, we stood together to worship our Lord through song's of praise and even attempted the song You Are Holy which called for a men's part and women's part singing different verses at the SAME TIME! Not bad for beginners I'd say!! :)
After worship, Sondra took the children aside for a special teaching on being mindful of our words in how we speak to one another! She is also beginning to teach them about sharing of one an other's needs and praying for each other. Us parents will be implementing this for our Children during the week as discussed.
The remaining of our time was spent getting to know each other more deeply and sharing some wisdom we gained from life experiences. We decided to stay together to cover our prayer needs.
The night was relaxed and intimate with the spirit leading our hearts. As we parted ways at the end of the evening, my heart was feeling lifted and satisfied and my prayer was that other's left feeling the same way - and wanting more next week!

THE GROUP IS BORN

We have now branched out into three smaller groups within our Church. The process wasn’t as painful as I had thought it might be; Everyone seemed to fall into place peacefully. I envisioned our Father being right there conducting our placements as He wanted it. What an exciting opportunity of faith this is for all of us to experience. We honor God when we trust in Him to build His church.
We are welcomed into the journey in this opportunity to walk with Him along with our brothers and sisters in Christ who also choose to jump in running when we heard Him calling our name! How exciting it will be to see what lies beyond the horizon! I look forward to learning about each other and discovering how their piece will be placed with one another.
I was hungry and you fed me; I was thirsty and you gave me water; I was a stranger and you invited me into your homes. (Matthew 25:35)
So far our green group consist of…
Scott Elliott
Tammie Elliott
Charolett Salo
Murrrel Veres
Mayerlin Challander
Leonie Rhodes
Mark Myhrer
Jeff Ruis
Sondra Ruis