You heard it here first!  Before the first robin is seen, before the April showers bring May flowers,     .  .  .  when a young man’s thoughts turn to love (okay, we talked about that in February).  March has the first day of Spring (March 20) and the time change (March 13).  Resurrection Sunday is also in March (this year at least).  Temperatures usually start coming up — and we get that much closer to air conditioning “season”!  Ha!

 

I’m pleased with the service projects we’ve been able to do in February.  It helps our community because most things we have done are outside the church.  It shows people the love of Christ IN ACTION!  Talk is cheap.  Living the love of Christ will always cost us something — time, resources (money, treasured things, our talents/abilities/experienced used for someone else), opening our hearts to those who might not understand or in anyway reciprocate, and more.  It’s worth it!  It builds the church because we have fellowship — it’s not just one or two people representing the Lord, but the army of God (navy of God? — doesn’t seem to work the same!  Sorry!) mobilized for action in His name.  It builds momentum — more of us can feel good about what God is doing in and through us.  We keep serving because it’s right to do, but everyone (ourselves included) benefits when the church does things God’s way.

 

I John — On Wednesday evenings (7:00) we are in I John.  We started a couple of weeks ago, so there is still plenty of time to come out and join us.  I can say that I enjoy every book of the Bible (Leviticus is probably the bottom of my list.  I Chronicles is sort of down there too!), but I John is incredible!  John, the Apostle, the one whom Jesus loved, was a fisherman.  His writing is simple, easy to understand, but has much depth.  He is fighting error that was creeping into the early church.  He helps us examine our hearts and lives, and challenges us to live in a greater way for the Lord.  We have discussion sheets that guide us (in theory they keep us on track.  Ha!).  Btw, one of the things I love about our Bible Studies (Sunday mornings and small groups Sunday late afternoons are the same) is that you can ask other questions about the Bible and our Christian faith.   We gladly go on tangents to address matters of interest and concern for those who participate.

 

We continue to pray.  Sunday mornings at 9:00 we have a group of 5 or more who gather to pray.  I know you can pray even if it’s not at that time with this group, but it is a great opportunity.  We also will continue to use the first Sunday of each month (April may be the second Sunday — we’ll see how that works) to pray as a congregation.  We are varying the way we do this — it’s a very good thing for us to be praying together.

 

Blessings!  Matt