Who Would You Call?

If you are in a life or death crisis, and none of your family members were available, who would you depend on for help? Imagine the worst situation you've ever been in in your life, there seems to be no way out.  You need someone who will put their life on hold to take care of you.  It may involve sacrifice on their part, it may even include some danger, and certainly it will require wholehearted effort for anyone to help you.  Who would you call?

You have many friends, but you really don't know the depth of their friendship.  Are they just casual acquaintances? Are they people who might turn away when things get challenging? This is a life and death situation; who would you trust? They must be bold, honest, wise, caring and courageous. When you think of a situation like that, only a few names will come to mind.

October: Pack The Pantry Month!

Galatians 6:9, 10 "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.  Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers."

It's time to pack the pantry! Every week people come to this congregation looking for food to feed their family. Our care center is open every Monday and Wednesday morning and it's time to fill it up again.  In October we are asking every member of the congregation to bring items for the pantry each Sunday or Wednesday night and place them on the podium.  We have a large stage in the front of the auditorium and we need to fill it up until the preacher doesn't have space to move.  Please plan on bringing the following items during the month of October.

A Peaceful Relationship With God

How much time do you spend alone with God? Worship doesn't count. Prayers at meals don't count. I'm talking about alone with God!

Is it true that most of your energy goes to other things and you don't have time for God? If we are going to truly have a close relationship with our heavenly Father we are going to need to invest our energy in that relationship.

If we are going to have the right relationship with God, we are going to have to invest time in communication with Him. Our personal prayer time is extremely important! We must take the time to open our hearts to God in one-on-one  conversation. Family prayers and church prayers are
important, but a close relationship demands one-on-one communication. Not only do we communicate with God in prayer, we communicate with Him when we listen to Him by reading and meditating on His Word.

How Much Time Do You Spend Building Relationships?

"Be imitators of God, therefore as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God. "Ephesians 5:1, 2

Last Sunday morning we talked about the use of our energy. Are we good stewards of our efforts or do we waste our time on things that are relatively unimportant? From the perspective of our God there is nothing more important than building loving relationships.  Jesus replied: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." Matthew 22:37-40

This week as we continue to look at finding God in our personal lives we will be talking about the importance of loving relationships. The greatest investment of your life is the investment you make in other people. Do we spend the proper amount of energy in those relationships or do we waste most of our energy in other efforts?

See you Sunday morning!

Dean