Sunday School Updates

Just a quick reminder about service tonight. Children are doing new small group foundation ministry, Adults are in the middle of a series on marriage and our teens are digging into making right choices. One of the prayers I pray each day is that my children will get into the word today so they can make wise choices tomorrow. It is the choices that we make every day that lead up to what we call the “big choices in life”. Services begin at 6:30 tonight!

This Sunday night at 5:00 we have our first Navajo Mission meeting. If you are interested in attending a trip this summer please attend Sunday evening if possible. Also at 5:00 this Sunday Carlos will be heading up a team to work the kitchen at UGM. If you are interested in attending please let Carlos know or be here before 5:00 on Sunday.

For those of you needing a stronger foundation a maybe honestly you do not have any foundation at all concerning the things of God, I encourage you to attend the start up of the PURPLE BOOK class. It is a powerful foundation series that we have been doing for years. Through our church ministry, missions, home groups, and individuals we have helped over 1000 people experience the PURPLE BOOK over the past 8+ years.

Phil Eaton will be leading the PURPLE BOOK class starting up Sunday February the 19th. It will be held during our normal Sunday School time beginning at 9:30. If you are new to following Christ or have been away for a while I highly encourage you to focus on the basics of a Godly foundation. This class will be a great start.

Great things are happening in Sunday School for our children as well.
Missionator Kids grades 1-6 are starting a new series themed "Camp Missionate". This 13 week series follows the life and teaching of the apostle Paul with a focus on evangelism.....or what we like to call missionating! We have moved to classrooms upstairs in the Family Life Center giving us plenty of room for games and activities. We continue to meet downstairs on the gymnasium floor before class and will go upstairs together very promptly at 9:30. If you arrive after 9:30 please bring your 1-6th grader upstairs to the classroom.

"Camp Missionate" promises to be an exciting curriculum to learn the lessons of Paul! New students are always welcome, and current students love to bring friends! We also welcome the addition of Griselle Zapata to the Missionator Kids Teaching Team. Stop by the new classrooms to introduce yourself or just say "hi".

The group studying "Community" (6-8 grade plus) will continue meeting downstairs while work continues on the final classroom.

It is awesome to see all of the heart and work going in to fulfill scripture in the process of making disciples! We are thankful for all and to all that “do what they do” for the body of Christ.

On a final note I want to encourage you today to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and be mindful of the nation of Israel. We are instructed by scripture to acknowledge the people and the nation. God declares He will bless those that bless and curse those who curse His people. Iran is getting closer to a nuclear capability to launch against the nation of Israel. We know that the nation will not be destroyed because we have already read the back of the book, but we also know they will come under attack. Three main factors in the whole process is Religion, Oil and the city of Jerusalem. In the upcoming presidential primaries it would benefit you to look into the candidate you would vote for and where they stand as it relates to the nation of Israel, and the city of Jerusalem.

Scripture teaches us that when satan knows his time is short, he begins to pour his wrath upon the earth. Things in our culture are going absolutely crazy. I am not sure I have ever heard of so many spouses killing each other, parents killing their children, and other children doing such violent and gruesome things. While we have craziness in world culture we also have Godly men and women carrying the gospel to all nations and specifically to regions that have never before heard. When the gospel has been preached in all nations… then the end will come.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem and prepare your heart, and family to walk the narrow road in the days to come. Redeem the time for the days are evil! Jesus is Lord!

Have a blessed day!!!

-Pastor Randall

The Man in the Arena

Tonight is our Men’s Ministry night at the UGM Shelter in Dallas. I ask that you pray for us to be able to have favor and continue relationships as well as reach men that have never been reached. We believe nothing takes the place of the anointing. Nothing happens without His touch. We need the power of the Holy Spirit in every aspect of ministry and everyday living. Pray that we may preach the word tonight with grace and boldness.

Attn: MEN...This Sunday night is our night to work the kitchen at UGM. If you are a guy and interested in going to help prepare food, set tables, and encourage the men at the shelter we would love to have you attend. Carlos Denton will be heading up the crew. They will be leaving at 5PM and would love to have you attend.

Tomorrow night we continue in Youth with our series called BLACK and WHITE. It is a series about wisdom and how to make the right choices in life. We have challenged all of our teens to read through the book of wisdom (PROVERBS) in the month of February as we do this series.

Jeremy Coddington will continue his series with the adults “MARRIAGE POSSIBLE!” – and this week’s title is “Marriage on LIFE Support”.

We have several couples from the church attending the Jimmy Evans marriage conference at Gateway Church this weekend. We pray their lives and marriages are refreshed and renewed in a powerful way this week. Keep those families in your prayers!

There are two Ladies conferences coming up in back to back weeks. Some ladies will be attending the Women of Faith “ONE DAY” conference in Dallas on February the 25th and another group will be going to the “HEALED, WHOLE AND HAPPY” ladies retreat the first weekend of March. Both of these conferences are full, but the ladies will be attending the “FOREVER NOW” Pink Impact conference at Gateway Church April 26th-28th. Please contact Kimberly if you would like information on these times of ministry.

This Sunday we will finish our series on the MAIN SQUEEZE. We will be dealing direction with the schemes, tricks, and strategies of the enemy in spiritual warfare. Do you know your weakness??? The lying/defeated devil does and he will use those weaknesses against you and the body. We are going to get in deep this Sunday! Come ready to get your fight on!

ATTN PARENTS:
Starting Sunday March 4th we will no longer be dismissing children from the second service to KIDS WORLD. The Children will go directly to their service (Currently held upstairs in the FLC). We will be checking the children in for their services, but it is not necessary for you to check them in. We do encourage parents to see their children to their room, but it is not mandatory for the parent to check them in. Children attending first service will attend Missionator Sunday School as usual.

This past Sunday, the New York Giants won the Super Bowl. They had a 9-7 regular season record and if you follow football you know they made the playoffs by the hair of their chinny-chin-chin! Midway through the season the Giants were talked about as a mediocre team at best. People (football experts and “fans”) were calling for the coach to be fired. They were saying their quarterback was not great or ELIte. For two months they fought attack from the outside and the potential of being eliminated from playoff contention. Meanwhile in the Giants locker room and inside the individual players they had faith. The believed in themselves and their ability to play championship level football. The owner believed, the coach believed and the players on the field believed. Sunday they won the title with the worst regular season record in the history of Super Bowl champions...but they were champions!

Many times in our lives the “experts” give up on us, count us out and even call for our resignation. The good news is that our owner has a plan and has confidence in us. There were plenty of people that abandoned ship with the Giants this season. Many said they were done. The owner believed, the coach believed and the players on the field believed. In the long run those talking about you, cheering you on or booing you will not have the final say. It is the play by those on the field, directed by leadership that makes the difference.

I encourage you to pay less attention to what “they” are saying and direct your ears to what your owner (Father God) says about you. He believes in you. Your coach believes in you and your real teammates believe in you. You are intended to win the Championship. One of my favorite writings is by Teddy Roosevelt. It is called "The Man in the Arena". I pray it will bring you encouragement today.


THE MAN IN THE ARENA

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Look Forward to What Lies Ahead

We had a great baptism last night! What excitement and Joy! What a testimony! It was certainly a great way to start the month of February!

We ended January with seeing 17 people say yes to Jesus! Excited that Jesus is being lifted up!

We are getting about six weeks away from starting our 21 day time of fasting. We will take a couple of weeks prior to the fast with special ministry concerning it.

FRONTLINE is this Friday night. Bring a friend with you. We will start eating just after 6:00 and will be upstairs in the youth room for our ministry time. After the ministry time we will have a great time of fellowship and sports activities. The men’s activity is just for men and teen boys. There is no childcare or nursery available. Bring your bible, gym shoes, and your big boy shorts it’s going to be a great night!

Parents please take note that Acquire the Fire registration and ticket payment is due by March 1st. I highly encourage all of our teens to go if possible. If you need to make special arrangements or anything, please let us know.

The High School will be using our facility on March 22nd to hold a UIL competition. They are requesting that we do concessions. If you would like to help with those concessions please let me know ASAP. Proceeds will go toward our 2012 Navajo Summer Missions. This will be occurring during our fast so please be mindful of that.

Take time today to catch up with someone you have not seen in a few weeks. Tell them all of the great things God is doing in your life, then invite them into it!

Philippians 3:13…”No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead.” The devil and those influenced by him will always try and remind you of your past. They will gossip about your past, email about your past, Facebook about your past, and day dream about your past. Satan wants to keep your past in the minds of others so they will not be about finding what God has for their future! Know this…. IT'S UNDER THE BLODD OF JESUS! Same goes for us. Do not waste time squeezing a juicy rumor when you can be squeezing the Truth of Christ and in turn squeezing your purpose for all it has. It's always better to be active in what God has called YOU TO, instead of what others are going THROUGH.

Hope to see you men tomorrow and everyone else on Sunday for the MAIN SQUEEZE!

God bless,

-Pastor Randall

We choose to go higher!
We walk in the higher ways of God, we will not wallow in a pit with the bottom feeders, but will follow Jesus in His invitation to go exceedingly abundantly beyond what we can ask or think. We will go higher in love, generosity, obedience and conversation.

Squeeze the Day

Good morning church family and friends!

Let me start out by encouraging you to SQUEEZE the day! Yes, after you seize it go ahead and squeeze it!

How do we go about “squeezing the day”?

First step is we get a word from God. Before my feet hit the floor today my Father spoke to me Ephesians 5:16 and he said “Redeem the time, make the most of every opportunity because the days are evil”. That is the Father speaking to me. Reminding me that I no longer have “all the time in the world” to do what needs to be done. Time is precious. Time is a high value commodity. He told me to Redeem the time. To me that speaks to get back what I have lost, make the most of what I have starting TODAY. Then He said SQUEEZE THE DAY.

Step two is that I have to have permission from the Holy Spirit. Whatever consumes time today, do I have permission to invest my time into it? When I logged on to type this post, there was an interesting article relating to the Super Bowl that popped up on my Yahoo screen. Do I have permission to read it? Not today. If I am going to make the most of the opportunities that come my way today I have to ask the Holy Spirit if I have permission to squeeze those opportunities. I'm asking Him to send those opportunities today. The day is still young and I don't know all of the opportunities that await, but I do plan on squeezing each one that God puts into my hand.

Step three is to remember that I am accountable. How I spend my time affects other people. Understanding that there are opportunities today with my wife, my daughter, my son and only God knows who else, and my handling of that opportunity will affect them. If I do not squeeze the day I will have to give an account to God and possibly even those God has placed around me.

Step four tells me I have to accept responsibility. I am my brother’s keeper. One thing's for sure, and that's that people do require your time. I may need to take the opportunity to be nice and squeeze out extra love to those I come in contact with today. I'm responsible for people coming to Jesus or not, being free or not and being discipled or not. I must squeeze this day in a responsible way.

Step five just requires a simple response and bringing all of the above together for the squeeze. Applying the pressure is squeezing. Making a move is responding and redeeming the time. When all of my fingers enclose together whatever is in my grip is squeezed. That is how we squeeze the day. Applying all of the above on whatever God puts in the palm of my hand.

That all sounds like simple stuff but if you start out by letting the word squeeze you, you too can squeeze the day. God is speaking to your heart just as He is mine. He does so every day. He is faithful to give us “this day” our daily bread.

Keep it in your grip…squeeze tight…. Don’t let it slip!

-Pastor Randall

Hey!!!! This Wednesday night is an exciting night for our young people. We are starting a new series with our Bonafide youth called BLACK AND WHITE. The series will be about making wise choices in life and using the wisdom of God to do so. The world that many young people live in today blurs the lines between what is right and wrong. Wisdom uncovers, and reveals the truth to us. Who our young people will marry...what career path they will choose...how they will function in church and society...all will be determined by what foundation their choices are made from.

We are also having a baptism this Wednesday night as well! If you are interested in Baptism please contact us and let us know!

I want to invite all of the men to FRONTLINE this Friday night. We will be eating from 6:00-6:45 then we will crank up some ministry at 7:00 then finish the night with some fellowship and sports activity in the FLC. All men are invited to attend so feel free bring a co-worker, neighbor, etc. We are going to have a great time.

There are a couple of Ladies events coming up such as conferences and retreats. If you need more information please contact Kimberly or check those out on the Ladies Ministry page.

It Is In The Hands Of Jesus

Good afternoon body of Christ!

Yes we are His body. Chosen, selected and elected by the Father Himself! We are adopted into His household and made in the very image of God Himself. Yes there is a part of us that wants to rebel against God, but we also have God Himself in us. We have His Spirit, His Word, and His Love. It is in us. It is true, He is in each of us despite our faults and failures! Greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world.

You are an over comer, more than a conqueror, a CHILD of the living God. Does that mean that everything or anything in your life will be perfect this side of heaven? Nope. But it does mean that you are HIS. It means that God’s mercy and grace is bigger than any sin you jumped into, and rumor spoken against you, and opportunity lost by you!

Whatever the enemy is using to crush you today, it is only going to work against him. Make a bold confession today concerning everything coming against you! Simply declare: Jesus it’s in Your hands!

Let every circumstance and every situation be in the firm grip of Jesus today!

This Sunday we continue in our new series called THE MAIN SQUEEZE. There is something squeezing all of us. What squeezes you? We learned last week that Jesus was our main squeeze and as He entered into the garden of Gethsemane (Which by the way I was reminded by Sam Wylie after service that “Gethsemane” means "Olive PRESS”) Jesus was squeezed by the Father Himself. The weight of sin and the consequences of it squeezed Jesus in the garden to the point that it squeezed the blood right out of Him. He was squeezed on the cross to the point that His heart burst causing blood and water to flow.

Squeezing from the world will produce junk and funk in our lives, but squeezing from the grip of Jesus will produce a goodness, a sweetness and a purpose just like squeezing fruit.

We will get deeper into THE MAIN SQUEEZE this Sunday as the Holy Spirit begins to lead us through the individual things that are putting the squeeze on us!

I want to remind all of the men that on Friday, February the 3rd we will be starting up a men’s ministry called FRONTLINE! We will eat from 6:00-6:45 and then begin our ministry time. We will end the night with some FellowSHIP and sports activities. We'll be taking donations to cover the cost of the food! (We are serving burgers)

Camp dates are out for our kids and teens: Kids World will attend camp June 13-16 and Bonafide Youth will attend July 26-29. You can pick up a form at the office to reserve a spot to attend. Camp is an awesome experience and we encourage all of our young people to attend.

Remember... It is in the hands of Jesus today.

-Pastor Randall