A short message from Compassion International

Thank you to Marc, Wendy, and Lindsay for all your help this morning. Because of ya'll and the UMW, this service today was a huge success, and because of this, 5 children received sponsors. Today, we changed the lives of 5 children. Thank you all so much.

Prayers

Got this message about Dale's nephew this morning and wanted to share it with you all.

We talked to Gary last night. I cannot remember if I told you that they'd discovered this week that Sage has a micro-bacterial infection in his lungs. At this point the doctors have said that there is a 95% chance that it is not TB....something less serious.....but precautions are underway until they're sure. (Results of further tests should be back by the middle of this week.) His medications have also been adjusted; I think Gary said that 2 or 3 (out of 23 he's taking) have been eliminated or replaced....one of which is the phenergan that they were giving him for nausea. (He seems to be responding better to a different anti-nausea medication.) He has now had two days off oxygen; the night in between he was on a low percentage. His enlarged liver also appears to have less swelling. At least the last few days have finally held a little encouraging news; the doctors, Gary, and Ginny all think that he's actually looking better. So...please continue to take a few moments to remember him in prayer in your Bible study group, and Gary asked me to thank you and the others.

I pray that Compassion Sunday reached some hearts today and we will see you all this evening!

Word Puzzles

From a blog I read: (Been Thinking About)

To love well, we must also learn to hate. Some of what we hate, we must learn to love. Much of what comes easy will be difficult to endure. Some of what comes with work will give us rest.

Riches are discovered in seeing our real poverty. Safety in a place of risk. More in the place of less.

To live, we must learn how to die. To find life, we must be willing to lose it. To find hope, we must learn to despair. To rise on wings like eagles, we must wait and rest.

To find comfort, we must grieve. To learn self-control, we must surrender. To win, we must put others first. To save our money, we must be willing to give.

To see most clearly, we must focus on something that cannot be seen. To make progress, we must admit defeat. To find ourselves, we must love one another.

To become wise, we must admit our foolishness. To find understanding, we must forget what we have learned.

To be strong, we must admit our weakness. To be satisfied, we must be willing to hunger and thirst.

To be great, we must serve. To work hard, we must learn to rest. To keep, we must be willing to lose. To retain, we must be willing to release.

To save the present, we must be willing to live for eternity. To prepare for eternity, we must see the importance of the present.

To find comfort, we must be willing to hurt. To be accepted by God, we must give up any hope of earning His approval. To live our own life to the fullest, we must let Someone else live His life through us.

To find safety and satisfaction, we must learn to trust a God who has a good way of calling the wicked “righteous,” and every reason to see things which are not as though they were.

Is there any wonder the Scriptures say that “the just will live by faith” (Rom. 1:17), and that the “wise” of this world will call us foolish? Is there any wonder the apostle Paul was not loved by everyone who heard him describe the people of God as those who are “deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well-known; as dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things”? (2 Cor. 6:8-10).

...And Now It's Embedded!!

I don't know why I didn't embed it in the first place. Oh well....

The Video

I've watched that video I posted yesterday (from Wendy) several times now. I keep thinking about what an accurate portrayal of the Gospel, of Jesus, that it is. We start off innocent, walking (or dancing in the video) with Jesus. Soon, however, the temptations of the world draw us away - just a little bit at first, but soon that girl in the video found herself totally separated from Jesus, although he kept calling out to her, trying to get her attention. And eventually, she tried to throw off the sins and get away - but they kept dragging her away from Jesus. In her own power, she could do nothing. Only when Jesus put Himself in between her and her sins - that's how the power of those sins was broken, only by the power of Jesus Himself. That video is a powerful portrayal of just how grace works, how we are saved. I think I'll go watch it again now!
-bj

Video From Wendy

She asked me to post this for y'all:

http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=ee73e63418003b47d7d5

-B.J.

Upload...Defraggggg

Hey,
I finally got to be a blogger!!!! I am one week away from this semester finally being OVER!!!!!
I just wanted to let you all know that and I will try to check our website at least once a week. It is ever so cool and informative.

Cya'll later
Wendy

Insights (maybe helpful, maybe not)

I think last night's bible study was very good. Great discussions, great praise music, great questions etc. I would like to suggest some things that may or may not help us. Either way, I think they are worth saying and I hope that they are taken in love.

I would like to try to steer away from such indepth analyis of all the denominations. As interesting as I think this is and I personally feel I could talk an endless amount of time about them, I enjoyed it as much as anyone, but found myself wanting to get back more to the study questions at hand.
This should probably be considered also on the fact that we should also keep in mind this type of fellowship as being an outreach as well. There may be others attend later that are from other denominations or are coming from other denominations and we do not want to be a stumbling block to them. I just do not want a person coming from another denomination to the bible study and walking away confused about their beliefs, plan of salvation, etc. I feel we need to be the mechanism for simply providing the WORD and its blessings.
All of us will have some difference on our interpretation of Scripture and denominational creed, and that is fine, but lets not focus on that. For instance, Wendy and I come from the Baptist church. There are things I agree with them on, there are things I do not. Now we belong to the Methodist church. There are things I agree with them on, there are things I do not. There are things I agree with the Catholic Church on, but there are things I do not.
I just do not want us to go down a road where we start to break down denominations and then inadvertantly start taking that mentality to each other in regards to how we interpret things in the bible, etc. Because, let's be honest, the fact is that we do not have it all figured out and the other denominations do not either. I would encourage us to stick to the questions more and analyze/examine the scriptures more in detail as it relates to the context in which it was written and how it applies to our lives now.
I hope this helps and is taken in love. This is a great group and a great bunch of committed Christians. Again, I just don't want us to go down a road of criticism that could lead us down other roads unintentionally. Again, I thought last night was great, but I just felt it on my heart to share with you all something that might help us grow more and focus more on life application bible study.

Love,

Marc

Bible Study Hang-over!

Ephesians 5:18
Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.

Well what did you think I meant LOL?
Seriously sleepy this morning but grateful to the Lord for all of you and for an evening spent growing closer to each other and to the Lord.

I was reading a devotional this morning and this quote stood out to me:

The defining characteristic of a community that is being transformed is that the socio-economic traits are being positively affected. The crime rate goes down, the economy is improved, and the number of Christians in the city increases, prayer increases, and the city leaders become Christians. It is the manifestation of Deuteronomy 28:13, "The LORD will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the LORD your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom."

The devotional was speaking about entire communities being transformed through the gospel of Jesus Christ. When you think about what happens to us as a small group and translate that to a larger community level - AWESOME!

and that's all I have to say about that!

What a great morning!

It was nice to have B.J. and Dale at our Emmaus group this morning. Its always great when we can get together in good Christian fellowship and discuss our faith. I hope to see you guys there more often. Just remember one thing:

What happens in Vegas stays Vegas!