Thanks to everyone who helped and supported Camp Out: Learning S’More about Jesus! Counting everyone, we had over 125 participants in Vacation Bible School this year. We also were able to provide fresh water for 107 children through our VBS offering. Plus, we made 88 “GUTSY” Bears for the Henrico County Police Department to use as comfort bears.
We also had great food and so much of it we got to share twice with the local Fire Department. Everything was so much fun, especially sharing the gospel of Jesus with the children.
Thanks to Four Mile Creek for hosting this cooperative ministry!
Give thanks! Get things set on your calendar and see how you can participate by reading the newsletter. Also remember November 9, 2016 at 6:00 PM, we will have our annual Charge Conference with Dr. Peter Moon. Come and let this be a great time of praise and prayer!
Today, I and several other pastors gathered and prayed together for our Community Revival to be experienced this September 11 – 13, 2016. We know we live in times where the wages of sin’s division and bitterness are doing untold harm to our nation and to the generations that so need an awakening of grace and life. Join me in praying for that awakening to occur in Varina.
If there is to be at least one place in America that experiences a season of refreshing and renewal from the Lord, let it be here!
“Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.” (Isaiah 55: 6-7)
As we move through these last days of Lent I am struck with how the Word of God has been working in me these last few weeks, causing me to think of things in a different light. The first thing is how individualized and personalized God’s correction is. What looms large is the “beam” in my own eye, not the “speck” in someone else’s.
Is God making large the things in your life you need to correct? If there is nothing “big”, we may have to ask, am I really seeking the Lord for His correction and guidance? I put big in quotation marks because the work God wants to do in me may seem small and insignificant in someone else’s eyes, but little becomes much when God is in us to conform us into Christ’s likeness.
The second thing that has struck me this Lenten season is how intentional God’s commands are to be followed by us. Several studies show that people consider faithful attendance in church worship to be showing up a little less than half the time. Yes, our intentions may match our vows to “uphold the church with our prayers, presence, gifts, and service” but our intentional acts of obedience may not.
So, I ask you to help me conduct an experiment of Lenten commitments. Get your calendar out (whether it is on your phone or hanging on your refrigerator). Schedule the weeks when you and your family will be active in public worship with all the other members of Laurel Hill. I would ask that you commit to being here at least 80% of the time. This will allow you to schedule 10 – 12 weeks when you may be somewhere else. Being intentional in this, I believe, will put you into a place of being blessed by the Lord
For those of you who see being in worship as a weekly given for your scheduled appointments, I give thanks to the Lord for you and I will look forward to seeing you each Sunday. Look for these weekly opportunities for worship and mission in our newsletter and our March Calendar.
Make sure you are planning to be a part of our covered dish luncheon after 11:00 AM Worship this Sunday. And if you can help set up, I’ll see you Saturday at 3:00 PM. What a great time we will have together o Sunday as we celebrate Pentecost and the outpouring of God’s Spirit!
8:00 AM – Men’s Breakfast
8:45 AM – Praise & Worship, Come celebrate the baptism of Todd and Gracie Levy!
9:45 AM – Sunday School
11:00 AM Worship, featuring the Friendship Class singing for us.
Thanks to everyone who helped and supported Camp Out: Learning S’More about Jesus! Counting everyone, we had over 125 participants in Vacation Bible School this year. We also were able to provide fresh water for 107 children through our VBS offering. Plus, we made 88 “GUTSY” Bears for the Henrico County Police Department to use as comfort bears.
As we move through these last days of Lent I am struck with how the Word of God has been working in me these last few weeks, causing me to think of things in a different light. The first thing is how individualized and personalized God’s correction is. What looms large is the “beam” in my own eye, not the “speck” in someone else’s.