Fall Festival

This is the time of our town's annual Fall Festival. It is a three day event! Practically every town in Southern Illinois has some sort of festival in the fall. Our festival is bigger than the County Fair. People come out to eat, visit, listen to music, and ride rides.

Over the past three years, we have grown to look forward to the Festival. A time when you know you will see people you don't normally see.

Being involved in ministry has allowed our family the chance to get to know a lot of people, and I have had the privilege of subbing in the Jr/Sr High, which has allowed me to get to know a lot of kids, also. By these means, we have been able to have the opportunity to connect people to us and to Jesus. It is great to see how the community seems to have taken us in and supports us in our work here.

We look forward to seeing the seeds grow that have been sown through our work with this community. We plant and water and God makes it grow!

Sowing seeds...

Stretched Out Love - I Peter 1:22b

"Stretch out and touch those toes...Now hold it...1, 2, 3,...Keep holding...c'mon, don't give up...27, 28, 29, 30, and stop."

For some of you there may have been a mental relapse from a time in your life you were involved in some sort of formal exercise class. You may have been straining to hold on for that entire time. It may have been an uncomfortable feeling. If you stayed with it, it may have become easier to stretch as you did it more frequently. Generally, this is the case for everyone. If we would just push ourselves past the uncomfortable stage, the end is worth it. As we looked yesterday at Peter's instruction to "love one another earnestly" we, too, are asked to stretch out our love to one another. Here are some applications to choose from to use in your life...

1. Peter challenged his readers, in the midst of major persecution, to be active in reaching out to their fellow brethren, wherever it was needed. Pray that you will be more and more willing to reach out your love to every brother and sister here. Regardless of any wrongdoings on their part, if you've been burned before, or if you just want to brush this instruction off to the side. If this is easy for you now, then pray a preventative prayer that will not hinder your spiritual relationships in the future.
   
2. Make a personal commitment that you will do whatever you can when a need is brought up. For example, that you will look at your schedule and see if you can put that off to help your spiritual family with their needs. Or you will see the need as trying something new and work through what may be uncomfortable to stretch yourself...who knows, it may become your new passion!
3. Pray for each person in our congregation, throughout a given time.
4. If reconciliation is needed, pray about it, and make a point to create an opportunity to mend fences.
5. Write a note of encouragement to each person, not just families, throughout a given time.

May we be "guy wires" for our fellow brother or sister as we are constantly stretching out our love to each other, regardless of what is given to us.

Have a great week!

Holding my own...

Monday Mentionings: Empty - Earth - Isaiah 45:18

It was a great day getting together! The warm weather made me feel a bit more excited to get out; maybe you felt similar feelings.

Yesterday we started a new series called “Empty”. This series is designed to help us understand the different ways which can be empty. We started the series by looking at the earth and how it was empty, dark, formless, and void. Here are some additional ways to remember and apply the lesson…

1. Support is necessary in just about every area of life. Whether it is physical, emotional, medicinal, etc., support is crucial. God set up the earth by suspending it over nothing. However, the earth still needed support – that being support from the Creator. You need support as a Christian – you must be connected to the Creator, too. If you’re not connected to Him, you will go down quickly! Don’t have a week of empty time without connecting to Him! Take time to connect to your Creator this week by praying to Him – give Him your concerns, complaints, praises, thoughts, evangelistic hopes, ministry goals, etc.

2. What does if feel like to you to be in the dark? The earth was dark in the beginning, but Genesis 1:2 tells us that God was still there. Look for someone this week who might be experiencing life in “darkness”. They could be going through something that day, that week, or just a time in their life that seems without hope. They may not even realize that they are living life in “darkness”, but as you recognize it, take your light to them. Your light might be a compliment, a prayer, a conversation, buying lunch, sending a card/e-mail of encouragement, etc. Regardless of what your “light” is – the main thing is to take it to them!

3. God is Good…All the Time! There is nothing remotely like our God! He is awesome! Take time to appreciate our earth and all that makes our area unique. Even in the bleakness of the winter, we can be appreciative of the area that we live in. Maybe you will want to praise God for this too, but at least take time to appreciate where you live and that it was given to you to live on.

I hope you had a great start to your week!

May you have a “vision” and an intuition for those who are walking in darkness as you go about things this week!

Taking my light ~