Our Christmas Party, Friday

Our Christmas Party is this Friday, the 17th.

Starts at 7:00 p.m. at the Maynards.

The plan is to have finger foods at the Maynards, maybe do some silly stuff, and then go see the Christmas Lights in Kokomo.

Bring Finger Foods. Here is what the Maynards are bringing:  Sausage balls, Pigs In Blankets, Layered Dip and Chips, A Cheeseball, and drinks. Maynards will have the plates, cups and plastic ware, etc.

Post what you are bringing in the comments below to help others plan, just in case we all don't want to bring the same thing.

Can't Wait - Will Be A Blast!!!   Help us make sure everyone in our group knows.

Temptation, December 5, 2010

Temptation
Kent did a fine job leading our discussion on Temptation.  We studied several verses that address it. God will allow us to be tempted, but not more than we can stand. We need to lean on each other. When we realize the power of our enemy, it will help us trust Christ more. Here are the verses Kent led us through:

• Matthew 4:1-11
• Hebrews 4:14-15
• James 4:7
• Genesis 39:12
• Ecclesiastes 4:8-12
• 1 John 1:9
• Psalm 51:1-12

Matters of Business

• Restart of Life Group.  Other than our upcoming Christmas Party, we will restart our Life Group after the holidays on January 16.

• Christmas Party. We will have our Christmas Party on December 17 in the evening. More plans will be forthcoming. Part of our plan will be going to look at Christmas Lights.

• Our Kids. While our kids enjoy their time to visit during life group, we agreed that we want them to be learning some of the stuff we are learning. We also value their time to play and visit with each other.  Be thinking about this. We can either have all the kids join us at the beginning for a few minutes and then let them split out. We also think the older kids will benefit from our studies.

• Study of Islam. Our next few sessions will be working through the topic of Islam. Rusty is to send the lessons he received from our friend in Europe to Alan. Alan will make sure any links or other stuff are removed, and then we will post the info to this blog for easy access. Josh may join us who is Madoyln's fiance. He grew up in Jerusalem - so we hope we get to visit with him soon.

• Location. We are freezing in the Cafe, so next session will be back upstairs. This will also make it easier for the little ones to be next door while we study.

Our Skype Meeting On November 21

We had a very informative evening last Sunday. We Skyped with a church friend in Europe who is an expert on Islam, as a former Muslim. He helped us understand some of the thinking behind the Islamic terrorist and how to represent our Master, Jesus to a Muslim. It is very concerning to see the direction and the lack of true info on Islamic beliefs. We will continue to study Islam over the next few weeks through lessons our friend shared with us. Then we plan to call him back. Do be in prayer for these people as they share truth with a world very misinformed and prejudiced against it.

NO LIFE GROUP ON NOVEMBER 28

Next Life Group is December 5
We did not get anyone signed up for food - so we need to figure this out before our next meeting.

November Life Group Calendar

Life Group for November 14 (special 4 Next Week!)

Kent did a fantastic job leading our group last night, while tackling a difficult topic. The focus was on how we as Christians should respond to the growing gay movement in our culture. We established the homosexual choices are sinful - just as any other sin. However, no more deserving of confrontation than other sins. There is a push in society to normalize homosexual choices - however, each person should be treated with compassion and kindness.

We visited 1 Corinthians 6:9 and following and see homosexuality the a list of sexual sins. So, it is wrong. However, there are a bunch of things we can struggle with in that list as well. Also, we find hope in the verse that says, and so were some of you...  there is hope for everyone to change.

We consulted Romans 1 which speaks directly to how God created us and that he will give us over if we choose to reject him. As is any sin, homosexuality is rooted in the rejection of God. There are serious consequences downplayed by many forces in media to those who participate in this lifestyle. However, there is forgiveness in the blood of Jesus - that's the great news!

We also visited John 13 where Christ tells us to love one another and that is how people will know that we are followers of his, when we love one another. We must speak the truth in love.

NEXT SUNDAY -- November 21 -- we will have lifegroup at 4:00. Please arrive a bit early. We will be having a SKYPE conference with a friend from Europe on the topic of Islam.

Fellowship Discussion (November 7, 2010)

Our life group was a lot of fun last Sunday Night. We  started talking about Rich and Penny's need for our prayers and also the Edwards family is moving this week. We want to be able to give them a hand when we can. Then we talked about other stuff like... well never mind.

Our topic was fellowship with Christians. We discussed what it is and why it's important. I was really impressed with everyone's insights and thoughts. Scriptures we discussed were: Acts 2:42, Acts 11:23, Romans 12:5, Colossians 3:16, 1 John 1:17, and finished back in Romans 12.

We are still working on our skype conference with Roland Moshen on the topic of Islam. Our next discussion will focus on how God would have us respond the gay movement of our time.

For our next session, Janetta will provide the main dish, Maynards will provide sides and drinks are still open.

November 7 Get Together

Looking forward to another Life Group Sunday evening,  November 7.

Confession

Kent did a fantastic job leading our discussion this week. We looked up the following Scriptures:

• 2 Chronicles 7;14
• Proverbs 28:13
• Psalm 51:1-12
• 1 John 1:8-9
• James 5:16

We had a good  discussion with lots of participation on what it means to confess our sins, and when is is necessary and to whom should we confess our sins.  We concluded that when our sin affects the entire congregation is is appropriate to confess there. When it affects someone in particular, even a non-believer, we should confess to that person. When a struggle is on going, such as an addiction, it can be best to have a small group of the same sex to make one's self accountable. We had a large turn out and a great time in study, fellowship and fun.

We are still working on setting up a Skype meeting with Roland Moshen, mentioned elsewhere on this blog. We may need to meet earlier at that day so it won't be so late when Roland talks with us.

Also, our group wants to assist with the Thanksgiving Dinner for the MHA coming up November 15.

Marley took prayer requests and we prayed for a number of people.

Our next meeting with be November 7.

Our Discussion on Confession

We had a great meeting on October 10. Our discussion started with reading Matthew 10:32-33, where Christ talked about confessing his name before others. Our conversation went to the difficult things about confession. Soon it became apparent that there were two topics we were addressing: confession or acknowledging Christ to others and confessing our sins. We chose to focus this session on acknowledging Christ and save confessing sins for next time.

We enjoyed lively discuss of these passages: Romans 10:9-10, Romans 14:11, Philippians 2:11, and Hebrews 13:15. We talked about our fears of acknowledging Christ. It came down to this: we get excited about stuff we believe it - and that includes Christ.

In our final thoughts, we talked about that there are areas of the world that it is difficult to confess Christ. For example: talk and coverage abounds about Islam and that it's the fastest growing religion in our country. However, in countries of Muslim majority, acknowledging Christ is most difficult.

Two questions came up:

Why are people so drawn to Islam? Why is it the fastest growing religion in the US? How should Christians respond to Muslims? How should we act about the purchase of property in Kokomo to spread Muslim culture?

We have a friend in Europe who can help us answer these questions.

Our Topic for 10/10:

Sunday we plan to consider this question, "Is it necessary to confess to be forgiven?" Looking forward to the discussion.

Our Life Group So Far, 10/4

We have a great start to our Life Group.  Currently attending are Marley, Jan, Hannah & Rebekah Werner, Rusty, Kimberly, Austin, Logan & Dylan Maynard, Kent & Traci Heavilin, Gail Carter, Jennetta McVay and Brianna and Michael, and Alan, Jamie, Kellie, and Jason Edwards. Kent Heavilin and I are co-leading and Marley is taking care of prayer requests each week.

Our meeting schedule is below - it may take a minute to load. We have included the food arrangements.

Last week we talked about Bullying and how the Christian should deal with it - especially when we think out our kids -- as they grow and develop. Is turning the other cheek the same thing as being walked on? We had a great discussion on that topic.

Yesterday we talked about what the Bible says about drinking Alcohol. We had a great discussion and I think we all came away from it growing in the word and helping each other.

Next week we'll tackle another interesting topic!!

Fall Calendar