Good Morning! (Welcome Message)
…or, better said; good afternoon! I hope all is well in your neck of the woods. Everything is great in mine. Lori is doing well and the baby planning is going on like Donkey Kong! This year is truly going to be a whirlwind kind of year.
The church is wonderful and as you can see, in our on-going plan to make life as simple as possible, we have come up with our latest time and money saving solution for the church. We are not going to be using constant sontact for our email list any longer pending this test. So, let us know if you want to be removed from the Thread events and encouragement email weekly. We have built our email list into our church weblog and now, everything is a one step process, not to mention the money we are saving.
Some of our plans this year include:
1. Changing our venue for our Tapestry Sunday Nights
2. Along with that, changing our time to a more cool and classy time that’s a bit more culturally relevant to our area.
3. Start a NEW Sunday Morning Service by summer. (Planning is happening right now). This service will NOT replace the current Tapestry Service (MY FAVORITE TIME). Instead, it will be a new service purposely aiming to reach a new morning family crowd, effectively reaching out to the 10:30-11:30AM crowd.
4. Continue the plan with the Reserve, building our refreshing center, placing it in trust and finsihing the financing project.
5. Have one BIG family FUN event every month!
6. Keep doing GSF every second Saturday of the month.
7. Have an amazing summer with the cookout series and much more.
8. Send out up to 5 mission teams with GSF and COF.
The goal for the year is to have fun and reach out to others all year long while truly pursuing the PRESENCE of GOD.
I think we can do it. And I must say that I am so happy that all of you are along for the journey!
Let’s chat later…
Inspire! (Quote of the Week)
“The greatest discovery of my generation is that we are unique. The greatest discovery of the next generation, I pray, is that we are one.”
-Thomas Leonard
Encourage! (The Story or Thought of the Week)
Title| “Choices”
Author| Byron Pulsifer
Credit| Wow4U
Choices. We all make them everyday. Some are good, and some are not so
good. You can surrender your destiny to the desires of others, or you
can make your own. The point is that we can make choices that help us
to move forward through adversity, or we may make choices that assist
others to move beyond or through some of life’s issues.
“Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice;
it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.”
William Jennings Bryan
Choices are within everyone’s command. No one has to do, or is
obligated to live their lives as others live.
On the other hand, inevitably at some point in our lives, we witness,
first-hand, choices that other people, friends, family members or
colleagues make that we can clearly see are leading them down a
slippery slope to either immediate devastating consequences, or a
future that can be potentially harmful.
As caring people, we probably have all made efforts to try and assist
other individuals to change or alter a choice so they won’t
experience what we feel will be negative reactions, rejection, or,
worse still, criminal prosecutions. While there is nothing inherently
wrong or misguided about our good intentions, the ultimate choice
people make is entirely up to them. We can’t live other people’s
lives for them; we don’t want to put ourselves in any position that
appears or demonstrates that we own their problems or own their
choices. These people own their own lives; they make the choices, good
or bad.
“Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anyone else
expects of you.
Never excuse yourself.”
Henry Ward Beecher
Choices. We make hundreds of choices in our lives. Other people make
hundreds of choices. We might wish and hope that we can change other
peoples’ choices so they can avoid potential problems be that drug
abuse, alcohol, relationships, parenting and on and on. But, we cannot
make choices for others – what we can strive to do is offer
constructive opinions or suggestions, when asked, or referrals to
professionals who can assist in one’s decision-making. A quote by W.
Clement Stone may help you, or may help others keep moving forward
through the never-ending maze of choices:
“You always do what you want to do. This is true with every act. You
may say that you had to do something, or that you were forced to, but
actually, whatever you do, you do by choice. Only you have the power to
choose for yourself.”
WORDS OF WISDOM IN THE FORM OF QUOTES:
“We design our lives through the power of choices.”
Richard Bach
“And if I may be so bold to offer my last piece of advice for someone
seeking and needing to make changes in their life-If you don’t like
how things are, change it! You’re not a tree. You have the ability to
totally transform every area in your life-and it all begins with your
very own power of choice.”
Jim Rohn
“It is always your next move.”
Napoleon Hill
“You don’t have to buy from anyone. You don’t have to work at any
particular job. You don’t have to participate in any given
relationship. You can choose.”
Harry Browne
“When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that in itself is
a choice.”
William James
Word! (Verse of the Day)
Motivate! (News You Can Use)
Title| New Contest in Search of Best Soul-Winning Method
Author| Audrey Barrick
Credit| Christian Post Reporter
Date| Mon, Jan. 22 2007 01:19 PM ET
A new contest has kicked off to find some of the best methods of evangelism.
The purpose of the contest is to encourage all believers to take part in the Great Commission and lead people to Christ. The man behind the contest is an average Christian who doesn’t know much about how people are saved other than to cheer during altar calls and occasionally help lead someone to Jesus.
Donald Mitchell is a 60-year-old strategy consultant in Boston. He is also a minor celebrity among book buyers and writers for his online book reviews, as Forbes magazine described him.
Mitchell usually attends internet services for Calvary Chapel in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. As a youngster, he was a “backslidder” about going to Sunday School, he told The Christian Post in an e-mail, and was regularly evangelized to return. He only began witnessing in the last year or two.
But one day in August 2006, he was moved by a Bill Keller devotional and received a new commission.
“[God] told me to launch a contest to find better ways to save more souls through Jesus by using the 2,000 percent solution process and then to publicize what is learned as widely as possible,” Mitchell wrote in his blog.
“I’m very humbled that God wants me to take on this task,” he said.
Already, numerous entries on the best and most creative soul-winning methods have been e-mailed, most of which describes programs that operate at much less than one percent of the cost of programs that evangelists “brag about” as being very cost effective, Mitchell added.
More than a decade ago, God had called Mitchell to a project to help the world make 400 years worth of normal progress in the 20 years between 2015 and 2035. Since that calling, he published The 2,000 Percent Solution which describes how to accomplish 20 times the current results with the same effort and resources – The 2,000 Percent Solution Workbook and other books on productivity.
Now, he’s setting out to co-author The 2,000 Percent Solution for Saving Souls with the winner of his newly launched contest.
The 101 next best solutions to saving souls will be selected and featured in a second book, The 101 Great Solutions for Saving More Souls.
“We tend to think of evangelists and pastors as having this responsibility,” said Mitchell, according to Agape Press, “but really it’s one that we all have.”
“If all Christians do their part, we can create an enormous spread of knowledge about Christianity and our personal experiences with Christianity . . . and allow those who then want to be saved to be saved.”
Mitchell hopes to have the books available for Christmas 2007. All profits and royalties from the books will be donated for “implementing the solutions” described in the books.
Contest entries are being accepted until Easter.
Contest rules are available at: www.livespirituallybetterthanabillionaire.blogspot.com.
Enjoy! (Events)
the Tapestry’s Events for the Upcoming weeks include:
1. Tapestry Monthly Game Night at the Hedrick’s has been rescheduled to this Sunday, 1/28
2. Wednesday Night and Thursday Night Small groups are ongoing.
3. All Small Groups officially start NEXT WEEK!
MORE Next week on GSF, the small groups, the move, the date for the Sunday Morning startups, and our family fun event for February!
Ignite! (Heroes of the Faith – Link)
John Hyde, 1865-1912, Missionary to India
Author| Unknown
Posted on| 03.13.2003
Category| Biographies
Source| CCN
Originating Post| believersweb.org
John Hyde 1865-1912 John Hyde, better known as “The Praying Hyde,” was born in Carrollton, Illinois. His father was a Presbyterian minister who faithfully proclaimed the Gospel message and called for the Lord to thrust out laborers into His harvest. He prayed this prayer not only in the pulpit but also in the home, around the family altar. This made an indelible impression on the life of young John, as he grew up in that atmosphere. John was graduated from Cathage College with such high honors that he was elected to a position on the faculty. However, he had heard the divine call to the regions beyond, and was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. So he resigned his posi- tion and entered the Presbyterian seminary. In Chicago, he was graduated in the spring of 1892 and sailed for India the following October. His ministry of prayer in India during the next 20 years was such that the natives referred to him as “the man who never sleeps.” Some termed him “the apostle of prayer.” But more familiarly he was known as “the praying Hyde.” He was all these and more, for deep in India’s Punjab, he envi- sioned his Master, and face to face with the eternal, he learned lessons of prayer which were amazing. Often he spent 30 days and nights in prayer, and many times was on his knees in deep intercession for 36 hours at a time. His work among the villages was very successful, in that for many years he won four to ten people a day to the Lord Jesus Christ. Hyde was instrumental in establishing the annual Sialkote Conferences, from which thousands of mission- aries and native workers returned to the stations, empowered anew and afresh for the work of reaching India with the Gospel. Hyde’s life of sacrifice, humility, love for souls and deep spirituality, as well as his example in the ministry of intercession, inspired many others to effect these graces in their own lives and ministries. He died February 17, 1912. His last words were, “Shout the victory of Jesus Christ!”
Listen! (Music for the week)
Song Title| Sweetly Broken
Album| More Than Ever: Live From The Rockies [CD]
Author| Jeremy Riddle
Chords| (CLICK HERE)
Listen| (CLICK HERE)
My worship song encouragement for the week by far is Sweetly Broken. It is one of my all time favorites now and is totally rocking out the airwaves. Our radio stations just can’t get enough!
So, if I were you, I would head over to Vineyard Music and listen, read and buy!
(CLICK HERE)
Learn! (Book of the Week)
View! (Picture of the Week)
And Just to close, don’t forget, when life hands you lemons, make lemonade or better yet, lemon meringue pie! WOOT!
And as always, my prayer is that the Lord blesses and keeps you, that He shines His face upon you and that He draws you closer to others as He leads you nearer to His Presence.
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