BUNCO NIGHT

We all enjoyed ourselves so much at our recent Bunco night. I had played Bunco once, so I think we enjoyed the biggest laughs as we were trying to figure out the game, and then trying to figure out how to move. But the entire point was to have fun, and to fellowship and as a brand new church service to get to know one another, and that's exactly what we did. So much fun, in fact that we're planning to have another Bunco night on Friday, May 4th at 7:30pm. This time, instead of Pizza, we'll be having dessert (home made by yours truly). So, if you like to laugh, and you like to eat dessert please join us. We also have fun games, food and prizes for the kids too!

Story Time

This month I've been reading about the great leader Joshua. What a mighty man of God he was, especially considering he had to follow Moses. He had big shoes to fill, but he followed after God in leading the Israelites into the promise land. But then...Joshua died. And there's a very sad verse in Judges that follows the death of Joshua...

Judges 2:10,12,17 "After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what He had done for Israel... They forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers who had brought them out of slavery.....they...prostituted themselves to other gods and worshipped them. Unlike their fathers they quickly turned from the way in which their fathers had walked, the way of obedience to the Lord's commands."

WOW! After all of the triumphant battles, after receiving their inheritance of the promise land...the next generation lost out with God. But why???

My Quest study bible puts it this way...

How could a whole generation not know the Lord?

• The Israelites had failed to teach their children. God intended for parents to pass His laws and moral values along to the next generation. Gradually influenced by the surrounding paganism, however the Israelites surrendered to the prevailing cultural and social values, despite explicit warning.

This sounds like our society today. As people...as parents, we have to be extremely cautious about how much of this world's prevailing cultural and social values are coming through our front door into our hearts and the hearts of our kids.

We MUST be intentional about telling our kids stories of God's faithfulness, of His provision, of His great love. Sure, nursery rhymes are fine...but don't forget to pass down those first-hand encounters of God's incredible work in your family.

Paganism is EVERYWHERE. BEWARE!

Nuts or Sane? Check the Ear

I was out the other day, and I spotted someone seemingly talking to themselves. Then I discovered she had a hands-free cell phone ear device. Suddenly, I no longer thought she was nuts, she suddenly became a normal human being.

I'm sure you have had similar experiences. It's the "new normal". People seemingly talking to themselves used to be disturbing. Now days, we just assume they are on the telephone.

My daughter, who works at a grocery store said she was ringing up groceries for a customer the other day and the lady said something to her, and she responded back. My daughter thought she and the lady were having a conversation, but they weren't. The lady finally realized that my daughter was responding back to her, and seemingly annoyed, pointed to her ear.

I sometimes wonder what those people who really do talk to themselves think about those who use the ear phone device. They probably think they're nuts too. Who knows...when you think about it...we've come to a place in our society where we can't leave our homes, our cars, our jobs, even go to the grocery store or a restaurant without a phone hanging off of our ears...maybe we aren't so sane afterall...

Mark 4:9, 24 - Jesus said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Consider carefully what you hear"

My Heroes

Well, this is it. Our brand new, never before, first time ever Contemporary service begins this Sunday at 8:30am. We are so excited. We took a group of 23 out last Saturday who helped us pass out 3500 of our 10,000 postcards. Did I mention most of these precious people were seniors? What an encouragement they have been. I am so thankful for each of them!

We had a precious mom and her daughter visit our core team breakfast for the very first time a couple of weeks ago, and they came to help us pass out postcards too! What a day it was.

Then there's Elena. She is legally blind, yet still passed out postcards on her block. WOW! What a fantastic woman of God she is!

Today, my own wonderful Gary passed out over 2300 postcards all by himself. What a wonderful man God blessed me with 25 years ago!

Not only were these postcards hand delivered, but each one of them was prayed over that the people receiving them would be open to the Gospel.

Luke 24:1-6, "1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee."

HE IS RISEN INDEED!