December 2011 Blog Posts (13)

Greetings in The Name ofJesus,The Son of God,Who died that we may live,Who Lives that we not die.

I a new here so i will start slowly,as The Holy Spirit Leads me.

May we all have His shalom.

I experienced a  childhood (which went into adulthood) of hating to have a birthday so near to Christmas. Now I have the greatest of appreciation for sharing my birthday with celebrations of Jesus' birth. As a Christian, Jesus lives  in my heart so of course it makes sense we would share in celebrations. If a Christmas party happens to fall on my birthday I no longer feel robbed of having the spotlight for the day or evening. I am now in full recognition of the gift He gave to me that is so…

He was amazed at how quickly he disappeared when he first sat down on the corner. He learned quickly that it didn’t matter what he said, how well or how loud he played that old drum, no one could be bothered to do any more than glance in his general direction, and any who made accidental eye contact, looked away as quickly as possible.  He assumed his presence made them uncomfortable, knowing they lived in a world that is okay with a ten-year-old being forced to survive by playing a drum on…

Late last night fourteen of us gathered in a seminary parking lot to pray about the opportunity to share Christmas gifts with the community. Sounds like a normal church outing, but there was nothing normal about it.

The group was not a church gathering, but a gathering of the larger Church that included family members, friends, former church friends, and seminary students.

The gifts were just plates of cookies covered appealingly in clear wrap and…

"He was in the world – the world came to be through Him -

yet the world did not know Him.

He…

While waiting for a recent meeting to begin a couple co-workers and I began talking about our sons.  One explained her theory that every boy is either fascinated with balls, trucks or action figures, and asked which category our boys fell into.  Another guy with a son about six months older than mine said that his son is a ball kid.  He went on to talk about how much his son loves sports and hockey in particular.  They take him to games and are starting to get him on the ice.  My…

Greetings in The christ Jesus.

I am new here,so please bear with me a bit,thank you.

I have been in a Word-study this day,faith is that word

Let us go from here and obey Matthew

28:19_20.http://http://tedrarose.blogspot.com/2011/12/john-316-17-for-god-so-loved-world-that.html

Shalom

After facilitating strategic planning at several churches over the past 5 years, it never ceases to delight me when this happens. A church works through the strategic planning process, beginning with "What is our purpose?" then core values, then vision, then mission, and eventually working their way down to where the rubber hits the road -- "What is the most important thing that we need to do over the next year to move toward our vision?" They brainstorm a long list of possibilities, then…

If you had the other teams play-book, and knew in advance when they would execute those plays, you certainly would have a great advantage.  When it comes to discipleship, discipling, being a discipler, or the overarching subject of making disciples, many presume to have the playbook.  In fact, there are many play-books, and many…

My son goes to college in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. In order to get there we have to drive over the mountain. On both sides of the mountain are valleys. We spend more time in the valley than we do on the mountain.

I was reminded this morning in the story of the widow at Nain, that pain and suffering are pervasive in this life. I know this comes as no news to most people. However, we often think about our Christian life as reaching the top of a mountain. We create our own…

After facilitating strategic planning at several churches over the past 5 years, it never ceases to delight me when this happens. A church works through the strategic planning process, beginning with "What is our purpose?" then core values, then vision, then mission, and eventually working their way down to where the rubber hits the road -- "What is the most important thing that we need to do over the next year to move toward our vision?" They brainstorm a long list of possibilities, then…

"For everything there is a season,

a right time for every intention under heaven -

a time to…

Every year, my Sunday School class adopts some people to provide Christmas for. In the past, we've focused on children. But, this year, we adopted two senior adults who are often overlooked. Someone bought the gifts for us while I was in Israel. I wrapped them all yesterday to get them ready to deliver today. Their "wish lists" remind me that God is our provider . . . even for the little things.

One of the ladies, Bessie, wanted a warm jacket, a new set of sheets, pjs, kitchen…