"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

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.

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.

-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.

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

We've been talking about making our move, following not wallowing. When we follow, it's a path or (in a race) a paved lane. Who set it there?

Whoever set the lane in front of you, that is who’s race you are running. We too often run a race that others want us to run. The race that is set before us can be one that God created and placed there. If we chose His race, Hewill give us His grace, and we can run for first place!

1 Corinthians 9:24 instructs us to run this race in a way that we can win! Are we running with intentions on winning? Are we in it to win it?

Perry dropped out today and if you are running races and swerving in lanes God has not set before you, you should drop out too! Perry could have simply finished his race. He could have continued to invest time and money into the campaign but he would not have finished with Joy.

What race are we running today? Better yet who set this race before us? I pray we are all running the race that Christ Jesus has set before us. I pray we are running with expectations that we will win this thing! I pray we can examine if tradition, circumstances, or man’s influence has us running a race that was not created for us.

Stay in your lane! Serve don’t Swerve.

-Pastor Randall

Please do not forget that this Sunday we will be honoring Carlos Denton in the 2nd service.

This Sunday night is Family Game Night. Great time to get in a workout on the court, meet new people, and be encouraged with your church family!

Acquire the Fire registration has begun. Dates are March 30-31. Registration forms are available at the church office.

Summer Camp dates are out!!!!! Kids World will attend camp June 13th-16th and Bonafide Youth will attend July 26th-29th. You can pick up forms to reserve a spot at the church office.

Many people are asking about our 2012 time of fasting. We will begin our Church wide fast on Sunday March 18th. We will have special times of ministry concerning fasting and prayer prior to our time of fasting.

This Sunday starts a new series at FBC called “THE MAIN SQUEEZE”. Going to be a juicy series for sure!!

After service on Sunday, Sam Wylie shared a bit with me about when living on the plains he saw buffalo wallows that were a hundred years old, but the trails of the buffalo were long gone because they no longer walked the land. What an incredible analogy. So much truth in that!

Wallowing is easier, but Jesus did not call us to easy. He called us to make a move and Follow Him.

Injured people won’t follow because they can’t move. In John 5:7 the sick man said he had no man to put him in the pool. Injured people are like that. They want someone to do it for them. They can’t follow because it hurts too much to move. GOOD NEWS...We can receive healing for all of our spiritual and emotional injuries that cause us to wallow.

Comfortable people don’t follow because they can’t move. In Luke 18:18-23 the ruler had a lot of possessions and could not follow. Don’t get me wrong, millions of people love Jesus and believe in the gospel AS LONG AS THEY BENEFIT FROM IT. Millions more love Jesus and believe in the gospel AS LONG AS THEY CAN CONTRIBUTE CASUALLY AND CONVENIENTLY, but very few love Jesus and believe in the gospel enough to GIVE EVERYTHING INTO FOLLOWING CHRIST and stepping out of their comfort zone. They usually have the same reaction as the rich guy in scripture... and walk away sad. GOOD NEWS...We can get glad in the same pants we got sad in and allow Jesus to mess up our whole lives and plan!

Cold people don’t follow because they can’t move. Matthew 24:12 speaks of a people whose heart and love “waxed” cold. Wax only flows when it is touched by a flame. Blow the flame out and it becomes hard and brittle. GOOD NEWS...Jesus can baptize us with the Holy Ghost and fire and we can have a constant flow in our lives!

Scared people don’t follow because they can’t move; or at least can't move in the right direction that is. 1 John 4:18 says there is no fear in love. Fear will either paralyze us or cause us to run crazy in the wrong direction. Fear is an enemy of the move. People are afraid to let go, afraid of being rejected, afraid, afraid, afraid. That is why most people like the wallow...It is safe there for the most part. GOOD NEWS...Pperfect love cast out fear. You do not have to be afraid to follow Christ! His love will zap it out of you.

These are four of the seven things I shared Sunday in our MAKE A MOVE series. Seven "Enemies of The Move" is available to download and listen to if you missed the service.

Please do not forget that this Sunday we will be honoring Carlos Denton and his service to the body of Christ. We will do this at the beginning of the 2nd service. If you attend the first service and would like to be part of honoring Carlos you will only have to stay for a brief portion of the first service to do so.

In keeping the main thing the main thing, we can not help but to be about the ships. Godly LeaderSHIP that is passionately involved in DiscipleSHIP will produce RelationSHIP that will enable us to experience FellowSHIP that will continually lead us to the ChampionSHIP of Christ.

A huge shift in focus, resources and vision is happening at Faith Bible Church and it is with Jesus as the center and at the center of all we do.

Have a great week in Jesus name!

-Pastor Randall

We keep the main thing, the main thing.
Jesus is the center of all we do. If it is not promised by Him, commanded by Him, and commissioned by Him, it is not from Him nor will it be part of our lives or ministry.

THE TWELVE were men that did more than just believe God, they followed Jesus. THE TWELVE made mistakes, but they followed. THE TWELVE did not know all of the answers, but they followed. THE TWELVE were not always popular with the crowds, but they followed.

We are called to be followers of Jesus, and to carry on and carry out the Great Commission that Jesus gave THE TWELVE; of making other disciples.

His command to them in Matthew 28:19 was to Go into the world and MAKE DISCIPLES. In verse 20 it is detailed that they were to teach them to observe all things that Jesus commanded them.
In scripture "THE TWELVE" was a word interchanged with "the disciples."

This is our year to fully say yes to that commission and command of being a disciple and making other disciples.

THE TWELVE is not just about a belief, it's about us following to the extent THE TWELVE followed.
We have many people who believe in God, but few of us truly follow Jesus.

A rich young man came to Jesus once and asked him what he needed to do in order to have ETERNAL life. Jesus gave him the answer. Do you know what the answer was? Jesus dealt with him about his lifestyle then said there was one thing he lacked…and that one thing was following Him.

American church culture says you can look into a camera and repeat a prayer and have eternal life, but Jesus says we are to follow him. You say you believe in Him and that is all that matters? But do we believe in Him so much that we are willing to follow Him?

2012 is the Year of THE TWELVE

-Pastor Randall