Happy Wednesday! 

The Rush Creek Christian Church Choir sang the National Anthem at the Ranger Game this evening!  It was so much fun and I might add that we did a really great job!  It was also Dollar Dog Night at the game and we had a great time. 

Prayer alert:  My Aunt Linda Helvey from Colony, Oklahoma is in the hospital in Weatherford, Okla.  I received news today that she is unresponsive and probably is not going to be with us much longer.  She is in her nineties and has always been a very special lady.  When I was growing up we always had such a wonderful time going to Oklahoma to the dairy farm she and my Uncle Arnold owned. She loved the cows and the dairy so much.  She is the wife of Arnold, one of Daddy’s brothers who passed away several years ago.  Please pray for my Aunt Linda, her daughters Debbie and Marsha and her son, Ron as well as the extended family.  Thank you, mighty and faithful prayer warriors.

“Lord, Thank You for the body of Christ.  I rejoice today in the way You created and crafted the church.  I thank You for all the people and gifts You place in it.   As the day of corporate worship approaches, I pray for our church leaders.  Bless our pastors with a relevant Bible passage and our Sunday School teachers to challenge us and motivate us to be better disciples.  Open the windows of heaven and provide for all the needs of our church. Amen.”

“For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same functions, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.”

Romans 12:4-5

How many times have we heard this scripture?  Too many to count, I would guess.  As I watch Bruce work with and advise the new leader of this Kairos Prison Ministry Weekend I am reminded of one of the most memorable moments I had in the Kairos ministry.  I was going with a group of free world folks to the closing service for the residents who had just experienced the Kairos weekend. We came in to support these men and let them know they are not alone in God’s love.  I was walking with the other free world people and I heard singing.  And not just singing.  It was the kind of singing that only a group of men can achieve that makes your heart swell with emotion and the goose bumps raise on your arms.  These men were singing “They Will Know We Are Christians by Our Love.”  A mere four days previous to that closing it would have been stretching reality to have thought that these inmates would have been singing at all, let alone together in a large group.

I have sung that song a go-zillion times since I was a kid and I finally understood the meaning of that song.  To be a part of the body of Christ means that one must have faith in Christ.  The only requirement for membership in the church is salvation in Christ alone.  We are one body in Christ. So here is the question…Are we walking in fellowship with other members of the Church?  Are we even walking in fellowship and faith with the members of our own individual churches? 

Our churches need each one of us to be a member of the body of Christ.  We have been given a task for continuing the life of the Church and have been given the spiritual giftedness to carry out the tasks.  Each of us has spiritual gifts. If you need to find out what I’m talking about, read Romans 12: 6-8 and find your spiritual gift.  Make sure you are walking in faith and obedience with God and let the Spirit of God lead.

Take joy in the journey.  Wear comfortable shoes and get some sleep. Count your blessings and say your prayers.  Love you all, Bruce, Gaylene, Geni and Travis.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com     

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am only moved by what I believe and I believe God.