Sleepy Suday

A crisp, sunny Sunday afternoon - perfect weather for football which we will do shortly with friends - all Packers fans!   PS (the Packers won)

The week has been busy as usual, especially with many folks coming to the park - we had 148 in church this morning. Having to set up more chairs and running out of bulletins are all praises!!!

We spent yesterday afternoon bagging 6 5# pails of rice and 3 of beans for the colonias, which we will visit and distribute in early February. We still need to bag up more of each, but will see if we can obtain some from out outreach ministry suppliers. I don't worry about having enough, as God always supplies just what we need. We also delivered many cases of yogurt and small cartons of milk, along with chocolate shake mix, baby food, lentil soup mix, soda, tomatoes, and eggplant. When the weather is cooler as it has been lately, all of this food helps to keep the body warm. We thank God that He continues to keep us healthy as we work for Him.

Saturday all of us CRM Chaplains met for our monthly meeting at Mr. Gatti's - a popular pizza buffet in the area. Many kids have their birthday parties there and as we met, we heard "Happy Birthday" being sung in the room next to us - we joined in to wish the recipient many blessings. Chaplain Lee Tracey spoke to us in regards to the art of listening. I'm sure you have heard before that God gave us two ears and only one mouth - we are to listen twice as much as we speak. We listen with human ears so do not always interpret what we hear correctly. God listens to us and understands exactly what we mean, sometimes before we even express it. We need to let God work in us through our ears.

Last night was our first Christian movie here in the park - "Do You Believe?". If you have not had a chance to see it yet, I suggest that you do so. A powerful movie challenging you - asking if you believe in Jesus Christ. Be sure to bring plenty of tissues though!

Our church services today were video taped (actually just the sermon) to be placed on the web. It may be on my facebook page shortly so be sure to watch for it. Pastor Lee's sermon taken from Genesis 3:1-8 concentrated on deception and how easy it is for us to be deceived in today's world. He encouraged us to be sure to check out the words of our pastor if we don't agree with him/her by comparing his words to the Word of the Lord (the Bible). There were two trees in the Bible - the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree of life represents Jesus and the following of God's word. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil represents our evil flesh. Why were these trees so close together in the Garden of Eden??  They represented a place of temptation - do we follow Jesus or the worldly sins???  We are tempted daily by the world, therefore we need to pray and read God's word daily in order to follow Him as He commands. Don't give in to temptation, but thank God for the ability to resist. Things in life look good and tempting (like the apple) but they draw us away from God. Although Adam and Eve tried to hide from God we cannot do that because He knows our thoughts. There are 3 areas where we are deceived 1) we believe what we want to believe, 2)we believe we are OK because what we believe determines how we live, and 3) we believe we have everything that God for us. News flash - we do not have everything even when we think we are there!!! We then quit growing.
the abundant life is in God.

May this week bring you blessings beyond you wildest dreams. Put your trust in His word and continue to reap the benefits.