Circle December 17th on your calendars. Our 4th annual Christmas Market will be here. We will need lots of help before we open the doors, so please be on the look out for opportunities to help in the coming weeks.
We had our annual inspection from the Food Bank. Lisa informed us, we passed with flying colors. A big thank you goes out to Bruce K for taking his time to straightened out the Market. Pam W has not been around for awhile. Sorry Pam for the over sight, but please keep her in your prayers as she recovering from a knee operation. I was told it was an old football injury?! Z had the kitchen spotless, so we are good to go for awhile.
Matt, Vicki and Chuck continue their work with the young men of our basketball program. First Baptist continues to support the team, offering their court for the boys to practice. First Baptist has opened up one of their meeting rooms, so the boys can do their homework before their practices. More exciting plans coming in the future for the boys.
Our guys living outside are ok. Really it is only Turner and Joey and Jerry at the moment. Friends from one of our camps, has moved. We have not seen them in a couple of weeks.
We had a big group of men for our Tuesday evening fellowship. They have heard about Z's cooking, so they are coming! Good discussions on what God is doing in their lives.
No tutoring on Monday with the bad weather, but everything was in full force Wednesday! Good interactions going on with everybody.
Please keep Ginellen in your prayers as she continues her slow recovery. Not feeling very well yet, still in lots of pain. Her body is trying to start working again, but it is a challenge.
There will be a memorial service for Tim's step mom, who passed away this week from a battle with cancer. The service will be at Grace, Saturday morning at 10 am.
The youth from First Methodist joined us Thursday evening, leading worship in the chapel, helping serve and clean up in the dining hall and participating in our Market. We had an unusually large crowd being the first of the month. Lots of new faces from the community.
The men's group read about Simon the Sorcerer from Acts 8. Simon was good at his job of deceiving people. He was a magician, making a living doing magic tricks. Simon ran into Peter and John and the Holy Spirit. Simon saw what Peter and John were doing, so he thought he could use this Holy Spirit stuff to further his sorcery business. He offered money to buy into this scam, but Peter responded to Simon in verse 21, You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God.
We can look the part. We can do all the right things. We can teach, we can visit, we can smile, we can hug, but if it does not come from our hearts through the Holy Spirit we are deceiving ourselves and those we come in contact with. We need to all exam ourselves and understand why do we do what we do.
For the last several years, I have heard, wow, what a great job you are doing here mr brian. For a moment, my chest gets pumped out, my ego glows, my pride is full, but then I remember, it is not about me, it is not about what good I am doing, it is all about the Holy Spirit and all the work that the Spirit is doing in and through me - through all of us!
Simon realized he could not buy the Holy Spirit, so he asked Peter and John to pray for him. It does not say if Simon's heart was changed but that is not our job. We need to pray for each other to accept the Holy Spirit into our hearts. We need to get rid of our pride and egos. We need to remember whose we are. We need to remember we are in the God Kingdom building business. We are about changing hearts in our community through the workings of the Holy Spirit! Amen.
Have a great week. Stay warm and dry. See you around the center.
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