Sunday, February 22, 2009

This is Thursday and we just finished with the OASIS group meeting for prayer, Bible study, and lunch. And I did it again - ate too much! Sloppy joes, potato salads, jello salads, ice cream cake - now you know why I am not too hungry when I go home after these meetings. I wish every pastor had a great group of saints who look after him as I do with these wonderful friends! If you are able to join on Thursdays at 11:00 AM, please do so - you will be blest!

I would like to hope that this current "snow situation" we are going through is our last for the winter, but I won't get my hopes up too high. But Spring will be coming soon with all the chores that go along with springtime such as the one from this little story:

A prisoner in jail received a letter from his wife: "I have decided to plant some vegetables in the back garden. When is the best time to plant them?"
The prisoner, knowing that the prison guards read all mail, replied in a letter: "Dear wife, whatever you do, do not touch the back garden. That is where I hid all the money."

A week or so later, he received another letter from his wife: "You won't believe what happened. Some men came with shovels to the house and dug up all the back garden."

The prisoner wrote another letter: "Dear wife, now is the best time to plant the vegetables."

Makes you wonder how such a smart guy ended up in prison in the first place!

Here is the lineup for our services this Sunday for your planning:

9:30 AM - all classes and ABF's for all ages, including nursery.

10:45 AM - Worship service with some great music and corporate focus on God through His Word and Spirit in our lives together. I will be speaking from Ezra 5 and touching on the books of Haggai and Zechariah (which fit into the historical context here) on the subject of "Shaking Out of Spiritual Apathy and Lethargy." The nation of Israel continues the quest of building the second temple for acceptable worship of Jehovah after a hiatus due to opposition. During that time (15 - 18 years) all they saw was the foundation and nothing more. This led to much apathy and lethargy spiritually, something with which we all can identify in our day. As God shook the Israelites out of this condition, God can also do that for us today as we work with Him. If your reaction to all this is "whatever!" then you REALLY need to be here this Sunday AM.

6:00 PM - AWANA kids remember this is the final night to bring your missionary offering, don't forget. Student ministries will study from Acts 10:1 - 36 about "The Reluctant Reconciler" in the Apostle Peter's life. Adults will gather to sing and share in fellowship as we continue the study in "God Our Father" by dispelling any resemblence of our heavenly Father with a dysfunctional earthly father and ending with a look at Luke 15.

Remember that all Upward basketball games are at OUR CHURCH this Saturday, Feb. 21. Again, if anyone is willing to supply chili for hotdogs, please call Cricket Kean or Tim Cobb - these went over BIG last time! And stop in to see some of the games between 8:00 AM and Noon, they are fun to watch.

This Monday at 7:00 pm is a Men's Ministry meeting here at Faith. As we try to rejuvinate this ministry bring your ideas and willingness to work together.

I hope you had a good Valentine's Day last week. Here is how Nicholas celebrated the day with his mommy and daddy - by wearing his great - grandmother's glasses that she wore as an elementary teacher for every Valentine's Day for almost 40 years!

And Beth celebrated by coming across the "sale of the year" at her favorite store (clothing store, NOT Aldi's this time.) She used all the Christmas gift cards to it that we all gave her at Christmas, and she did very well! She is a happy shopper.

Thank the Lord for His goodness to us in all kind of ways. We show our thanks by our obedience, and that continues by attending services this Sunday. I look forward to seeing you then, or hearing about your services if you attend outside our area.

Pastor Don Workman

www.faithbaptiststreetsboro.org