General

I just wanted to share a big milestone in Betty Lou’s life. Just yesterday ole Betty Lou rolled over the 100,000 mile mark in her life’s journey. Now let’s all hope she doesn’t decide she needs a new belt for her wardrobe anytime soon until we can get her a shopping appointment.

I’ll make this a brief entry for now but I was in the store last night with Justin and was suddenly overwhelmed with this feeling of disgust. I told Justin I was anti-Santa Claus this year(not to take that away from little kids) because that seems to be all that Christmas has come to be. It’s either “Happy Holidays” or “HO, HO, HO, I’ll bring you video games”. What are we teaching our children? What are we as Christians allowing this Awesome Day of Jesus’ birth to become?

This year (and every year) I truly encourage you to go out of your way to tell someone….everyone, MERRY CHRISTMAS! or HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS!

Christmas shouldn’t be about getting presents, it should be about celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, our savior. This is the most special day of all! Without Jesus we would be nothing and Heaven would certainly not be an option. So instead of reading “The Night Before Christmas” this year. Read the Christmas story straight from the Bible.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

I know it’s been awhile since I’ve really sat down and updated this thing. I finally have a few minutes between supper and laundry to tell you about this year’s revival at Crestview.

November 6th Morning Service:
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
Title: We preach Christ Crucified.

For some reason I didn’t really take any notes on this sermon. I was probably just trying to adjust to his style of preaching and got caught up listening. I really like the first verse of the passage, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” Wow! How true is that? Then it goes on to say…well I’ll just let you read it…but check out verses 22-25. I definitely have to put 25 here, “For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.”

November 6th Evening Service
Nehemiah 1:1-11
Title: We must confess.

John Bridges (the preacher) shared with us that we need to have a broken heart (verse 4) before we can have true revival. Only then can we truly confess our sins (verse 6). He talked about sins of the church (not just Crestview, but in general): arrogance, superiority, temptation, trivializing the gospel, gospel gadgetry(to excite people), power, authority, and control. We shouldn’t try to “spice up” the gospel or the church just to get people to show up. We need to realize that the jobs of the church aren’t just for the pastor, secretary, treasurer, music minister, etc., they are for all of us. We all need to pitch in. God brought each of us to our particular church not just to sit and watch but to contribute what we can bring to the table. And in matters of the church or decision making of the church, it’s not about who is bigger and better and more authoritative, but what God’s will is and how we are to achieve it.

My favorite verses of the passage are verses 8 and 9:
“…If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, but if you RETURN TO ME and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.”

November 7th Evening Service
Phillipians 2:1-11
Title: Humility

We need to seek to be a humble church.
Characteristics of a humble church: cooperating people, be willing to say “I was wrong” and “I’m sorry”, be able to laugh together(humor). (Of course there are more than that)

God even humbled Himself. He became human. He “did it our way” so that He could show us the way on “our terms.”

Verse 5: “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.”

November 8th Evening Service
For some reason I cannot find my notes on this night but I believe it was about encouragement…I’ll keep looking.

November 9th Evening Service (last night)
Mark 8:27-38
Title: How to get back to the cross.

3 steps: Verse 34
1) Deny yourself
2) Take up your cross (self=sacrifice)
3) ‘follow me’

Who do we say Jesus is? (with our life?, our lifestyle?, our behavior?, our worship?)
What a question to think about…Is what we do on a daily basis pleasing to God? or is it more pleasing to us or others?

Verse 35: “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.” (just something to think about)

Well, believe it or not that was the shortened version of Revival. Hopefully I’ll find the lost sermon haha. I hope I didn’t bore you too much. For those that just skimmed it, maybe you need to look at it again…read the passages. It will only take a few minutes.

Thanks all!