A big announcement...

     Well...I guess the big announcement could be that I had to use the tractor and snowblower for the first time this winter season and looking out the window I could be repeating it tomorrow morning.  I guess the big announcement could be some more quotes from Tim Keller's new book on marriage.  I guess it could be 3 months of daily juicing (many times twice a day) with our Hurom slow juicer.  I guess a lot but the big announcement for me is the next book of the Bible that we will be covering in church.  We are headed to the gospel book of Matthew.  Last year we covered James through Jude and then back to Malachi on Sunday mornings and we covered Galatians through 2 Thessalonians on Sunday nights.  Sunday nights now will go onto 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, and Hebrews while on Sunday mornings we will see how long it takes us to look in depth at Jesus' life through the eyes of Matthew.  


     What is ahead for us?  How about the Sermon on the Mount and the Kingdom Parables and the Olivet Discourse?  How about the Beatitudes and the Lord's Prayer and the Great Commission?  But we will start Sunday with chapter 1 and the Genealogy of Jesus Christ.  Finding out your family tree has been an obsession for quite a while but now with the internet it makes it easier to dig deeper and go further than ever before.  We typically find something interesting as we go back through the generations so the question will be, "What will we find as we go back through Jesus' family tree?"  Probably the easiest way to look at this list is to pick out the women who are named and their histories or stories:  Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, the wife of Uriah, and Mary.


     We watched the movie "Courageous" at the church on New Year's Eve and will be showing it again this Wednesday for our youth group and any others who want to see it for the first time or for a second time.  It has given me another thing to think about and pray about to implement something church wide like the concept of doing something church wide with promoting or helping the physical health of the church.  I saw "fire" in some of the guys eyes who want to make some resolutions about being better dads and Stephanie has seen some "fire" in some of the ladies eyes to taking a closer look at what is going into the mouths of their households.  Slow small steps needed to bring along as many as possible and make sure that Jesus is in the center of it all.


     Okay some quotes or points from Tim Keller's book "The Meaning of Marriage" on a section titled "Some Practical Counsel for Marriage Seekers."


"Recognize that there are seasons for not seeking marriage."
"Understand the 'gift of singleness.'"
"Get more serious about seeking marriage as you get older."
"Do not allow yourself deep emotional involvement with a non-believing person."
"Feel 'attraction' in the most comprehensive sense."
"Don't let things get too passionate too quickly."
"However, also don't become a faux spouse for someone who won't commit to you."
"Get and submit to lots of community input."

Adam


     
A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 38th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

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