Well my brothers and sisters here we are 3 weeks into 2016 and from the surface it sure doesn’t look like much has changed around here but please hang on! Change is coming soon! The leadership is busy working on the new building and it’s progressing in a behind the scene manner. Very soon folks we are going to see progress at the new Property and we’ll be meeting there before you know it. But there is a lot of paperwork and things that need to be taken care of first.
Dennis and Juli should be in tonight some time! That’ll be a fantastic blessing and a giant leap forward on the building project. It is exciting to me to see a young couple feel God moving in their hearts enough that they will pack up and leave the comforts of home and head out West on an adventure that they have no clue where it will land them in the end. It’s pretty much like a New Testament missionary journey where the missionary’s feel God pulling at their heart to go minister to a people group so they get up and go! Remember when God told Abraham to “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about (Genesis 22: 1-2).” The Bible says that Abraham got up early the next morning and set out to do what God had asked him to do! No hesitation, no whining and no arguing with the Lord, he just did it.
Would you be willing to do that? Would you be willing to move out if God asks? Are you willing to get out of your comfort zone and do something that God wants you to do? I’m not saying that you need to kill your kid or move across the Nation, but how about teaching a Sunday school class? When we move to the New Property in a few months we are going to need folks to step up and help out in that manner because the church is going to grow and we will have an opportunity to change these kids’ lives.
We need to teach these young people folks because they are our future! All I’m asking for you to do is pray about it and let Him lead you!
Please let me know if you need anything. Naomi and I love you all.
-Pastor Steve
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year You All! Wow! I haven’t seen most of you all year. And you look as good as you did last year!
Well here we go into 2016. Can you believe that we’ve been alive this long and that God is still able to use us in His work on this ole earth? My heart’s desire is to see Him do some fantastic things in each one of our lives. Because when He starts working in our lives there is a ripple effect that spreads to others and the Kingdom of God expands.
I have seen so many of you all grow in Him and in your relationship with Him and it’s been so fantastic! God is moving and hearts are changing. That’s what this whole Christian experience is about. Our lives being changed and others observing that peace in our lives. They then want what we have and the lost coming to know the amazing grace that He gives so freely. What a great time to be alive and to serve a Risen Savior that is in the world today! Please, let’s allow Him to work in our lives and not allow our flesh to cloud our judgement and take away from what He is doing.
Dennis and Juli will be here in about 7 days (Give or take a day), and then we’ll start working on the new building again. We have the money in hand to get the building finished and then we’ll move from The Old Canelo School House to our new facility. I know from talking to some of you that you are not looking forward to the move, but it’s a necessary thing if we want to have the church keep on growing. Please be in prayer about where God can use you in the building process and where you can plug in to help with the move.
I am just as sad as any one that we’re needing to move! I love this old building and so many memories have been made here. But it’s a great growing pain that has been a long time coming. I really truly never envisioned all of this when we first planted this church in 2006, but it’s been His plan all along. We just need to plug-in and see where He takes us as a church and as individuals! Let’s all cinch up tight and let Him lead us wherever He wants us to go! It’s going to be fantastic! Happy New Year!!
Please let me know if you need anything. Naomi and I love you all.
-Pastor Steve
Praise the Lord!
I sure hope everyone had a great week and was blessed. We are one day closer to Christmas and you know what a wonderful time that is around here with the Christmas Eve Candlelight Service and all of that! Good times are ahead for us folks!
And the loan for the new building will close this week sometime we’re hoping! Praise the Lord! How wonderful will that be! Dennis and Juli have their house on the market and they will be out here the first week of January Lord willing. Then we’ll get started on the new building and rocking and rolling there, so maybe we can be in there by our 10th year anniversary in April. Wow, a dream is fixin’ to come true, for me anyway!
As we near the season that we celebrate our Saviors birth I sure hope we can all look back and see how far the Lord has taken us as a church in the last year. We’re growing in numbers and growing spiritually. We’re going to be in a bigger place Lord willing this year so we can go back to one service and all be a family again! It’s just so great to see how God has answered prayers and how He is shaping things around here so He can grow the church and us as His children!
One of the ways He grows us as His children is to allow us to go through hard times. It seems we are more open to His leading and we have a tendency to call on Him when the hard times hit, so He goes ahead and allows them in our lives. I want to be closer to Him but that doesn’t mean I enjoy the hard times. But I know I need them. It’s a catch 22 because I know I need them but I don’t like them but I need them and…so praise the Lord, He’s in control! All we need to do is make Him the center of our world and He can handle the rest!
Please let me know if you need anything. Naomi and I love you all.
Happy Veteran’s Day
This is a tribute to all of our veteran’s in the Canelo Cowboy Community.
Vets
We was gathering cattle on the Concho, but right now we was camped underneath the stars,
We’d followed the wagon out three days ago, we’s along way from pickups and cars.
I can’t believe I’m working on a wagon! Heck, I’m 19, I’s just a kid!
Not many outfits used wagons now days but I’s sure glad I worked for one that did!
But I guess it was in my blood to be part of the chosen few.
My Daddy had worked on a wagon, and my Grandpa and great Grandpa too.
And I was sure enjoying my freedom! Punching cows in the good ole US of A!
I didn’t have a care in the world and I figured it’d stay that way.
I had just crawled into my bedroll; it was cold so I was snuggling down there real deep,
Thinking about the next days gather just about off in my sleep,
When I sure thought that I seen something, but like Saint Peter I’s off in a trance’
Then I knew I saw someone standing there in green Army fatigues, and somehow I knew he was somewhere in France.
And somehow I knew that it was my Grandpa, though I’d never met him before,
They said he was one of the first to off load those boats on D-Day, and he’d died there on that Normandy shore.
And he was lookin’ right at me, just like he knew who I was too,
Then he started talking to me just like I’m talking to you.
He said, “Son I know you’re enjoying your freedom, cuz I’ve been were you are tonight,
Working on a wagon in the American West sleeping under a billion stars given’ there light.
But for you to be enjoying your freedom, some had to fight and some died,
And thousands more was willing to go, and hundreds of wives and golden star mothers have cried.
Well your Great Grandpa fought in the trenches in WW1, and I died under this Normandy dam,
Your Uncle fought in Korea, and your Daddy fought in Vietnam.
Even ole’ Cookie fought in Vietnam, you’ve heard him talk of his beloved Marine Corp.
But he got shot up when he was over there and he can’t set a horse no more.
And them kids you went to school with that joined the military, their fightin’ in Afghanistan and Iraq,
Tryin’ to extend the American dream, and we don’t know when they’re coming back!
All for the right of your freedom so’s you’d have the right to choose,
So’s you could stand up and say what you want, and boy that’s something you don’t wanna lose!
So while you’re enjoying your freedom, I want you to thank a Vet.
They’re the ones that bought it for you with their blood and their tears and their sweat!”
Then just like that my Grandpa was gone, I guess he went back to his grave,
But I’ll never forget that nights visit, and all of the wisdom he gave.
And God Bless all of you American veterans! My hat is off to you!
I want to thank you for all that you’ve done, and all that you were willing to do!
Oh Say Does that Star Spangled Banner Yet Wave
Over The Land of The Free, And the Home of the Brave?
© Steve Lindsey 2003
Forgive as the Lord forgave you!
Colossians 3:12-17
“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
Wow! This is a great passage of scripture that tells us just what church should be! Now I think, and maybe I’m wrong, but I think that church should be a place where we as Christians (believers in the salvation that Jesus Christ gave us through His death on the cross), can come and be encouraged in the Lord! Where we as believers want to come and change our way of life and desire to make a difference in the world around us! If we are going to do what Paul is telling the church at Colosse to do and our desire is to “clothe ourselves” with these things then we need to put off our flesh and put Him on! I hope our church can be a hospital for sinners, not a hotel for saints.
We love you, let us know how we can serve you. Pastor Steve & Naomi