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
This World is Not My Home
Have you ever wondered what your thought pattern is going to be when you come down to the end of your life? Will you be like Paul and say “For I am ready to be poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.” (II Timothy 4:6-7) Do you long to hear the words, “Well done good and faithful servant?” I always talk tuff and say that I’m ready to go, but when it comes down to it we’ll see where my faith lies!
But remember the old song, “This World is Not My Home?” it’s true that we are just foreigners here and there is a promised land waiting for us in Heaven! That’s real folks! Life, at least to me, is great down here on this earth, but can you imagine what Heaven is going to be like? And we have a promise that we will be there if we know Jesus as our personal Savior! Paul writes in I Corinthians 15:19, “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.”
So then, we have Faith to trust Jesus as our Savior, we have Hope that we are going to make Heaven our home, and then we have that agape Love that allows us to treat our neighbor as we would treat ourselves. And the best part of all of that is the fact that it all comes through the grace of God! We get God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense! We don’t have to work for it folks! We just get it because our Heavenly Father loves us so much!
Please let me know if you need anything. Naomi and I love you all.
-Pastor Steve
Hubbell Family Benefit
