Category: Canelo Cowboy Church

Naomi and I want to say “Thank You” to each and everyone of you who helped pull off this last Resurrection Day Sunrise service! Some folks started on Friday decorating, an army of people showed up on Saturday and so many more pitched in on Sunday! The decorating crew, the set-up crew, the tear-down crew, the band, the sound guy, the cooks, the servers and so many more. Thank you each and everyone of you! I will not try and name names because I will miss someone, but the Lord knows and He is going to reward you abundantly!

Oh, and I was informed that even though it is our 13th year it is our 14th Sunrise Service. My math skills are a little bit lacking. But we did have the most people in attendance that we have ever had, somewhere around 240. Amazing, and at 5:45 in the morning!

Naomi and I love you all!

Pastor Steve

Good Afternoon,
As you all know our Resurrection Day Sunrise Service is going to take place this Sunday at 5:45 in the morning! I am excited to see what God is going to do. I know that we will all be blessed beyond measure, so please plan on coming and bringing a friend…or enemy because we all need Jesus!

And because of what is going to transpire on Sunday we have a lot to do on Saturday to get ready. We need to mow, move chairs and a multitude of other things. Now here is my dilemma. All of the deacons will be MIA on Saturday morning except Dave Stiffey and even pastor Cisco won’t be there because he is headed for San Antonio as I write this for a family emergency. So I would like to ask you, if you can help please do so.

We will be there Saturday morning at 8:00 and if there’s enough of us working we can get it done quickly!

Thank you, God Bless you and we love you.

Pastor Steve and Naomi

Words from the Pastor
I read this quote today from Brothers in Christ Outdoors: “Don’t pray for an easy life, pray to be a stronger man.” Isn’t that great? And it went right along with my Bible study that morning in the book of Daniel chapter 3. If you haven’t read this story in a while, I will challenge you to read it. It’s the story about when king Nebuchadnezzar had an image made and then commanded everyone in his kingdom to bow down and worship the image. Well, the 3 Hebrew boys, who were serving the true and living God, wouldn’t do it so king Nebuchadnezzar threatened to throw them in the furnace! And this is how the 3 boys responded to him: “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “’King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up (Daniel 3:16-18”).’” They knew that God was able to defend, but even if He didn’t, they were not going to bow down to a graven image. That, my friends, to bow down to an idol, REALLY went against their religion! They would rather die then do something that would go against what the Lord had shown them to do. I don’t know about you, but I usually want to take the path of least resistance when it comes to things that could hurt me. I am a big chicken! But not these three. They were ready to die for their faith if that was what was required of them.
Can I believe this same way Brothers and Sisters? Can you believe this same way? I read somewhere once (And I talked about it in church last Sunday) that when we buy a jigsaw puzzle we trust that the puzzle manufacture people have included all the pieces in the box to complete the puzzle, but it is hard for us to trust that the Creator of everything has all the pieces in place to complete our lives. That when things go wrong, we somehow just know that our Heavenly Father has forgotten about us. Somehow, we just know that this situation can’t be His will for our lives, but it is. Even if we have done something really stupid and even sinned horrendously in the process, our Father can use it for good, because He is that kind of Savior (Romans 8:28). Now don’t get me wrong, we are still going to have to suffer the consequences, but our Father will make it work for our good, somehow.
Paul finished up his first letter to the church at Corinth with this: “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love (I Corinthians 16:13 &14).” So next time it seems like the world is crashing down around you and it feels like the world is wanting to throw you into the fiery furnace, be on your guard, see if there is something you can do to help change your circumstances. Then, stand firm in the faith. Don’t do anything that will compromise your Christian standards or values. Be courageous, be a people that has the courage to know what you believe, why you believe it and stand strong in your beliefs. Be strong, don’t bend because the world wants you to bend and compromise your faith. And finally, do everything in love. Remember, it is always right to love.
Please let me know if you need anything. You pray for me and I’ll pray for you. Naomi and I love you all. -Pastor Steve

Words from the Pastor
God’s Amazing Grace! I am not sure how many of you read the new verse this month at on the front page of this bulletin, but just in case you didn’t you can read it now! “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast (Ephesians 4:6-9).” For it is by GRACE you have been saved brothers and sisters! Not anything that we have done but it is all about Him! Jesus is the one that has brought us salvation and raised us up with Christ and seated us in the Heavenly places! Now probably there are quite a few of you that are saying, “If I am in a Heavenly place right now it sure doesn’t feel like it! Pastor, living in these circumstances that I am under feels the opposite of Heavenly!” and maybe that our problem. Maybe we shouldn’t be living UNDER these circumstances, maybe we better pray until we are living above them in Heavenly places with Christ Jesus!
I learned an important lesson this week…again. I learned, through the leading of the Holy Spirit, that it’s not all about me! Now there’s a new revelation, right? A couple that Naomi and I have known for years needed comforting and I didn’t want to go because it brought back memories of what we had been through 18 months ago when we last our daughter. But the Holy Spirit brought this Scripture to mind: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ (2 Corinthians 13-5).” Do you see what that Scripture is saying to us? God comforted us when we were going through the most difficult time in our lives, now we need to comfort others who are enduring the same thing! This abundant life that Jesus is allowing us to live in Him isn’t to be hidden under our beds, it is to be used to share with others and give them hope! Our trials and our testings are there to make us strong in our faith and once we are strong in our faith, we need to share that faith and our hope that is built on Jesus with others.
And guess what, sometimes we don’t need to say anything. All we need to be is a sounding board for others. Sometimes all they need is a hug and someone to listen to. All we need to do is to be available to go.
There’s a song we used to sing when I was a little kid and it went like this, “Lord send me here am I send me. I want to be greatly used by Thee. Across the street or across the sea here am I oh Lord send me!” Across the street or across the sea…are you willing to go and to do what the Holy Spirit asks you to do? I pray that I am.
Please let me know if you need anything. You pray for me and I’ll pray for you. Naomi and I love you all. -Pastor Steve

Words from the Pastor
And just like that we are done with March and April is upon us! The older I get the faster that time goes slipping, slipping. slipping into the future. And I know that this next statement is EGO (Extraordinary Grasp of the Obvious!), but we are one day closer to eternity than we were yesterday. Isn’t that exciting? Are you ready? Have you put your things in order down here on this earth and are you ready to meet Jesus? I hope so because I really do want to hang out with each and every one of you in Heaven! Now the only affair that needs to be put in order is your relationship with Jesus Christ. If you do not know beyond a shadow of a doubt if you’re going to Heaven or not you and I need to talk!
Talking about a relationship with the Lord, David sure had one, didn’t he? I was thinking about David’s Psalm 121. It is so beautiful. And I really like it in the KJV. It’s really lyrical in the KJV: “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.” Isn’t that amazing? David, a man’s man, a warrior, a giant slayer knew that he could not do anything if he didn’t rely on the Lord. And David also knew that the Lord would never leave him, never take a nap and would be his keeper always! And you and I can claim the same thing brothers and sisters! Jesus will never ever allow our foot to be moved!
You might say, “Well David sure messed up and David paid for it for a long time. Just read the story of Bathsheba and Uriah. God wasn’t watching out for David then!” but was that God’s fault? Did God make David look at Bathsheba and lust after her? Did God make David kill Uriah? Was that God’s fault at all? No, in no way was that God’s fault. David looked and lusted and acted on that lust. In the book of James he tells us this: “When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death (James 1:13-15).” So see, if you are tempted, just remember where your help comes from. It comes from Jesus. He is your author (He wrote your story), and He is the perfecter (He has already been there, done that and got the shirt. If we just look at Him and not on our circumstances, we will finish the race) of your faith (Hebrews 12:2). “Lord, help us to allow You to work in our lives and take control of everything that You set in our paths.” Amen.
Please let me know if you need anything. You pray for me and I’ll pray for you. Naomi and I love you all. -Pastor Steve