Hello again Friends,
Thank you for your prayers for our family while we were on vacation. We had a very good time of refreshment, fun, and just spending time together. I think we may have finally gotten all of the sand and dirt out of our shoes. And I think our clothes have the campfire smell out of them now (except I put on one of my hats yesterday and relived the glorious aroma… reminded me of s’mores… Mmmmmm)! I am grateful for Tony Villanueva and David Douglass filling the pulpit admirably (as I knew they would). And I am grateful that you let me come back, and didn’t change the locks on the church doors or anything! It’s good to be back in the saddle here.
I also want to thank Gail and George Miller for graciously sharing their “playground” for our annual church picnic. It seemed like a good time was had by all. It dawned on me while we were there, “Oh yeah, I was going to practice horseshoes this year to prepare for the picnic!” Obviously that didn’t happen.
This morning we read Luke 14 in the daily reading calendar. It included verse 27 — Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. Chew on that for awhile. What does He mean? That is one of the verses we will be discussing Saturday morning with the men at 6:45. Please come and join us guys! Prayer time is 6am.
As for the upcoming sermons, starting September 8 we will be in a new series on the Spiritual Disciplines. For the next 2 Sundays I will be bringing messages from the Psalms. This Sunday we will look at a fairly well-known one, Psalm 51. This is a prayer of confession and a cry for cleansing. David wrote it as a response to the prophet Nathan calling him out for his sin with Bathsheba. To prepare for Sunday, I’d encourage you to not only read Psalm 51, but also the background of the story, which is found in 2 Samuel 11 & 12.
On Sunday night (5:30), Paul and Sheila Gunderson will be there to share with the group. Everyone is welcome to come and hear from our missionary friends. We were supporting them as they worked with a remote tribe in Indonesia. Their ministry has now taken a major turn as they have returned to the U.S. Come and hear what the Lord has been up to in their lives.
Lastly, I have heard that we have 19 guys signed up for Mens Roundup at Tadmor! That’s great! But I don’t think it’s too late for a couple more, so if you’re still interested, let me know or talk to Ivan Stutzman.
Looking forward to our time of worship and fellowship again on Sunday. We missed you!
Love From Your Pastor,
Michael