Christmas Play!

Mike Sullivan

For more info and to keep up with Mike go HERE.

Can Food Drive? Ends This Sunday!

This is from the AZLE NEWS
This is who we are helping.
Azle angels get their wings at Mission House
Friday, December 14, 2007
Gail Gilmore

Wanda Grayson

If the classic movie It’s a Wonderful Life has it right, there are little bells ringing all over Azle as angels get their wings this Christmas season.
Wanda Grayson, director of Castle Hills Mission House food pantry, hears bells almost every day – but she’s also hearing the phone ring frequently as people in the area turn to her for help.
Tuesday morning while explaining to a visitor about how Mission House collects food all year, and Christmas gifts at this time of year, she took a call from a woman who needed help with groceries.

She also needed some laundry detergent. Grayson asked her to come by shortly for a box of food, which she would collect from the shelves of Mission House.
The laundry detergent wasn’t on hand, but Grayson said she could get the woman a jarful from Mission House’s supply.
One woman who counts on Mission House is a grandmother who took in her three grandkids but has only her kitchen for them to sleep in, Grayson said.
“Sometimes I just sit and cry with them,” she said of the people who come to her for help.
She also dispenses hugs freely as she listens to problems, challenges, mistakes and – most of all – dire needs. The kids in the kitchen, for instance, aren’t expecting Christmas, she said.

“They’re just glad to be in her kitchen.”
These kids and hundreds of others are getting Christmas because of Mission House, its volunteers and, most of all, the generosity of Azle area residents.
“Azle is a wonderful place to live,” Grayson said. “I know this will all be taken care of.”
Grayson, perfectly sized to be one of Santa’s elves, has a serene smile on her face, but she’s surrounded by partly empty shelves, even after at least three trips to North Texas Food Bank since her last pantry day.
There are 24 businesses in Azle that have angel trees up with children’s wishes.
Some of those businesses have called several times since the trees went up around Thanksgiving, Grayson said.
Their trees have been emptied and re-filled several times. Grayson and her volunteers have hauled out presents to make room for more.
The deadline for having gifts under those trees for Grayson to pick up is Nov. 19. There are 350 children whose Christmas wishes can be found somewhere around Azle – including area restaurants, banks, the Chamber of Commerce and the Azle News.
Grayson helped 161 families on her November pantry day. But she helped 385 people throughout the month because she comes through whenever someone in need calls.
Her next pantry day is Dec. 20. Mission House has peanut butter, but no jelly or bread.
There’s a shelf of salad dressing. But the shelves dedicated to pasta and sauce are empty.
The pantry needs cereal, macaroni and cheese, and cornbread stuffing mixes, among other family or kid-friendly foods that are non-perishable.
An angel arrived early this week and wrote out a $150 check so she can buy some of those things, at regular price if need be, she said.
Grayson and Mission House volunteers (about 10 “regularly” and another five she can call on) order from the North Texas Food Bank’s inventory list that’s sent out each week. They travel to near downtown Fort Worth each week and pick up supplies they can buy for as little as 18 cents per pound.
NTFB doesn’t always have what Mission House families need. And even with only one pantry day each month and four trips to the bank in between, the emergency calls continue all month.
And now Christmas is right around the corner, too.
Contact Mission House at 817-237-7086.

Build the Fort Today!

Years ago, I attended a seminar for teacher training. One of the sessions was taught by Jim Kern. He told us a story of a man how came home from work one day and his son said

"Daddy can we build a fort today?” And of course the dad says "Not tonight, I am too (insert your word)"

This goes on for several days until one day the boy stops asking, and his dreams of having a grand fort build by his dad are crushed.

Just think about what this means.

It means that the boy no longer has faith in his dad and the boy knows that he does not rate very high on dad’s priority list. How sad this is, these moments come, and if we let too many of them go we have in essence let the child go.

I became convicted of this today as my youngest son ask "dad will you play trains with me" And of course what did I say "In a minute"

Two hours have past, why am I still sitting here? I have to go play trains now, what do you need to do?

GO BUILD YOUR FORT TODAY!

Be present today; make today count, because tomorrow will be here soon.
MC

Holy Moment

Ever have a holy moment; A moment in which the world stands still for a minute and you have a "matrix" like view of the world in suspended animation?

That happened to me today at school. I seem to be having that happen daily. I have learned to listen to these moments. They seem to be happening in greater frequency and I seem to be more aware of them when they happen.

God is speaking to us in those times like He's revealing what we need to do. It is usually very simple. Today He said "go sit and eat with those kids over there". I did, I obeyed, this is what obeying God is all about. It's not the things we once were told. I was told obeying God is going to church, sitting in a pew, listening to a boring sermon week after week, taking Communion, prayers, singing, being there when the doors open. . . Is this really it? Is that what the great heroes of the bible did? Or did God call them, ask them to do something and they did it?

Which one are you, a pew warmer or someone that listens to the call of God.

You have listened to those moments?

If you have that is a God moment.

It all reminded of this song

Matt Redman

This is a holy moment now, something of heaven touches earth
Voices of angels all resound - we join their song
Let this be a holy moment now

MC

Can Food Drive?

NEXT SUNDAY
I will have my car parked in front of the entrance of Reno City Hall before and after services.

Can we fill it up?

Church up, (kinda like man up) the next 3 Sundays and see if we can fill up my little car.

Are you up for the challenge?

My car will be waiting.

Thanksgiving and Church

With Thanksgiving coming up around the corner, be thinking about the kind of life Jesus lived. Who did He hang out with? Who did He help?

Look around you, you may see some people you know that have no place to go for Thanksgiving, no family that will have them, family too far away. . . Invite them to your table to dine with your family. Are they not already family, after all aren't we all God's children?

Lets be so careful not to define ourselves by what we are or are not on Sunday mornings. In the end it matters not what kind of service we had what songs we sang, what we did with our hands...

If church is only about the style
the message
how it made me feel
Did I feel the Spirit. . .
MEMEMEMEME!

I want NO part in that! Count me out! It is MUCH bigger than that, I pray that we never get hung up on this but instead focus on how we are all God's Royal Priesthood.

What matters is this, Do we love people the way Jesus loves them, do we serve others they way He did, Do we reach out to the outcast and make them feel welcome?

Undefeated!

I love the lines to this song. I think it is so fitting for where we have been and where we are headed. I love being a gypsy and rolln' with my friends, my friends that have stood behind me no matter what.

When trouble comes into our lives, it has a way of scattering "so called friends" like roaches scatter in the light.

Stick with your Friends and FIGHT BACK WITH LOVE!

Song by Audio Adrenaline -

Like a band of gypsies we go rollin' down the highway,
I've come a long way ridin' with my friends.
They stand beside me when the world's not goin' my way,We may be losers but
we're winners in the end!

We are, undefeated, and we're, still believin' in the one thing that has
gotten us this far!
And we, can't be beaten, and we're, standin' on the shoulders of the ones
who went before us, and we'refighting back with love!

MC

From Life Church TV

-

Do know anyone that is always negative? Someone that always says, "That can't be done!" People like this always seem to be seeing things from a negative perspective. People like this bring me down if I listen to them. Pretty soon I find myself doing and saying the same things. When I see myself falling into that I try to run away from them and keep myself away from them.

Sometimes we just look for the negative, we are a people that watch NASCAR for the crash, watch the news to see the train wreck. . . Why do we seem to be so drawn to the train wreck? What is it in us that make the negative so attractive?

I think actually I may know. It is the flesh within us that wants to live by sight. The world is easier to deal with when we can classify everything by what we can see. The bible tells us to live by FAITH not SIGHT!

If we will become people that are able to live by faith, we will be able to move mountains! Think about it, do you really believe that? Or are you letting your sight control the way you see the world.
MC

Angry Man

Have you ever seen someone throw a fit in a public place? I mean really throw a fit? Raise their voice, turn red, and threaten to take away business? Demand to speak to the manager? Have you ever done it? You really don't have to answer that!

I saw this the other day; a man next to me did this kind of rant for a good 15 minutes or so! It was because someone asked him to confirm his Identity. They were trying to protect him! I was so embarrassed for him; he was angry and looked foolish. The manager was flustered and tried his best to explain why this was done. I didn't know what to do. Should I say something? I wanted to jump in the middle of it and tell him to chill out. Something told me not to, so I listened to that. Instead I prayed for the both men.

I prayed that the one man would find out what makes him so angry and take steps to deal with it. The other man I prayed that he would see this was not a personal attack on him, and that he would be able to pick himself back up and help the other workers that had to listen to this.

Then it hit me... I wondered if the angry man was a Christian. Then I thought I hope not! It is easy to judge him, but have we not all done this at least one time in our lives?

Don't be that angry man, its ugly. God wants more from you. So stop and think next time you demand you way and your rights have been trampled on, and remember the angry man and make sure that is not you!
MC

Living Stones

The words from 1 Peter 2:2-10 are so powerful! Aren't you glad that God chose to use living stones instead of dead stones!

What we are doing is messy at times. It would be much easier to go warm a pew, be patted on the back, punch our time card and go home to watch the cowboys. That's what we did for years. I have very little spiritual fruit in my life to show from this way of doing church. This yielded many superficial relationship that we not based in spiritual matters. But it was very easy and only required my warm body and not my heart.

God wants us to give HIM or hearts, then when we have done this and are fully pointing to HIM, HE then asks us to give of ourselves to others and pour ourselves into them. We are to be about people, not buildings, programs, and list of do's and don'ts.

It's hard when you get involved in others lives. We are investing in things of the kingdom. Eternal things that the GATES OF HELL can't Prevail against.

MC

Freedom 3.0

God has set us free from "man made religion." Religion often keeps us away from God. It makes it all about what we do instead of what God has done. I can do nothing to make God love me more or less. The easiest way to think of this is by thinking of our own children. We love them no matter what they do or say. God loves us and offers himself to us no strings attached. Man has come along and tied up all the strings. These strings keep us from God.

I grew up in a Church setting that taught us to doubt our self worth in Christ, causing fear and doubt. Always doubting if God would save me. Leaving many of us with a warped sense of self, beat down, and thinking we could never do enough. A "step child" mentality thinking I can never really get God's love.

It is true that we can never do enough, but we can know that we are going to be saved. We can have confidence before the throne of God. We are not step children, we are heirs! Kings Heirs!

New!!! Home Gatherings

Just arrived this week!
We started home gatherings this past Wednesday.
We have the following Groups:

1. Carr's Teens


2. Cook's Young Kids


3. The Shop Adults-in depth bible study

4. Mike and Alta's home-Video Study

Feel free to join one of these or start your own in your backyard.

What is a Home Gathering?

They all may look and feel very different. They will each be different to meet the needs of their community. They are geographically located to help us reach our neighbors and get to know the people around us and create new friendships. Right now most of them are laid back and fun, lots of food and conversation. This is an organic movement and will unfold at God's timing if we continue to bath it in prayer.

We need to bath this in prayer and see where God takes it. Last Wednesday we had more people in homes than we did on Sunday AM worship!

Freedom 1.0

As a parent, do we want our children to quake in deathly fear by our mere presence? Do we want children that don’t act until they are yelled and screamed at?

Of course not! We want children that chose our ways on their own, Children that decide on their own to follow our directives without being forced into submission.

So it is with God, He did not come down and force a lot of stuff on us. He doesn't come down here and yell and scream in our face to get us to do His will. He doesn't beat us into submission either. Instead he gives us freedom. He wants us to freely choose Him on our own.

When children chose to follow parents on their own, it shows the parents that they have their child’s heart. When a child does this on their own it makes the parents heart leap for joy at the thought of their children’s heart being so turned to their parents.

How much more does God’s heart leap when we chose His way?

Noise 2.0

"It’s so loud, Can’t you hear how loud that movie is!” This is a phrase often repeated in the Cook household. We most often have this conversation with our oldest son about the noise level of the TV. We are a family of technology freaks. We love it! The problem is it is on 24/7. We seem to always have some media going from Music, DVD’s TV, VHS Tapes (yes I must be old, I even know about Beta, 8 tracks, record players, 45’s), CD’s, Computers, WII. . . you name it, if make sounds the Cook’s listen to it loud and proud baby, loud and proud. Can you hear me now?

Where did my son learn this behavior from? I wish I could say “he’s a little deaf and has to turn it up a bit” or “Matt is a little hard of hearing and has to have everything loud.”

Isn’t it ironic so many times what we drives us crazy with our kids behavior is so often a flaw in us. Should I be angry @ my son or should I be angry @ myself? Should I desire a change from my son, or should I desire a change in me?

What about you? Too much noise in your life too?

What's in your wallet?

We have all seen the commercial; the answer for most of us is very easy; NOTHING! Our world is full of concerns about what is in or not in our wallets. We become consumed with this in our everyday life. It’s hard to live here in the states and not think about “What’s in your wallet?”

I have been thinking about “What’s in your Spirit?” This is the question we should be asking our selves on a daily basis. We live in a world full of “lightning fast download speeds.” This made me think, What is God trying to “download” into me by His Spirit. (The Spirit "Downloads" into us, we "Upload" through prayer)

What have we been downloading into our spirits? Have we been using what God is downloading, or have we forgotten where we put that file? Maybe we need to “refresh” the download and start again.

So what’s in your spirit?

Noise 1.0

It is so nice this morning, as I sit outside and write this post. It is 60 degrees on a July morning in Texas. The birds are singing all around. Cup of coffee in hand, dog @ my feet, everyone inside my house asleep. Aw! Peace Perfect Peace! All but one thing! Someone is keeping a dozer running about 100 yards north of my house, getting a pad site ready for a gas well. The noise is only the beginning; of a month of noise as they drill on this site in the name of money.

Thinking time

My favorite place to go and think is outside on a cool morning. Hear to coo of a lonesome Dove and watch the tiny sparrows steal my dog’s food! The occasional bark of a dog, the sounds of squirrels scurrying up and down tress, but underneath all that I can still heart it. I can hear the dull hum of traffic on the freeway. Yes it’s distant and I can block it out. That’s he current of life we live in. I for a moment have jumped out of that current, it’s very peaceful, but the lure and hum of progress is always very near even when we try to get away.

So how do you get away? Do you ever get quiet enough to hear the still small voice of God? When is the last time you had the birds (chirp, chirp kind) download you their latest MP3? How long has it been since you have been alone and quiet with God?

Too long. . .

Circle

Have you ever been between a rock and a hard place? Of course we all have been there at one time or another! I suppose it is a rather stupid question to ask. When our world turns its back on us, things get ugly, messy, bloody and muddy. When the heat gets turned up we develop a few “warts” on our complexions, we become less “attractive” (no, I don’t mean like kissy face attractive) to people.

Many of our “so called friends” abandon us when times get tough. These are the times when us, our families, and God really find out what we are made of. Do we become bitter or better?

Many friends come and go, both when you have these bad times in life it has a way of refining our friendships. Discovering new friendships that have been there all along and we may not have even known it.

It pushes us to a deeper level, a more meaningful level. May we always be loyal to those new alliances we form and may we never “throw them under the bus” but make sure we have their backs all the way like they did for us.

So the question is. . . Is it better to have a wide circle of friends, or a narrow “band of brothers", or some combo in-between?





Matt

Lake Rats!

Today we had our first ever youth group outing! We had a great time together on a perfect day. A day completely filled with thrills and spills along with a few battle scars. The boys will be busy making up some good stories to go behind their battle scars.

This was all about good clean fun with your buddies. We want to teach our children to have a good time and enjoy life with their friends. No better way to do this than hanging out on the lake on a bright summer day.

Thanks to Brad and Steve for providing the gas and the boats.


We are all looking forward to many more good times with friends.

Windows

Windows are made for looking through to see what lies beyond the walls. We have window of opportunity just beyond our walls today. There is a halfway house that needs our help. The house is too small and they need to expand it to accommodate for more people. God has given them a heart to do more and help more people.

It is a very nice home and she is doing a great job of helping people get on track again while exposing them to the love of Christ.

They are in the process of locating funding from local churches to buy the materials. This is where you and I come in. We have all the building trades represented in our group. Let’s build them what they want! We can do it. Please prayerfully consider what God puts on your heart about this.
Matt

Church

Church continues to rock along.
We began one month ago on Father's Day.
We continue to meet in rented a building and soon will out grow it's capacity.

Still don't have a name, and It's OK. We don't have a list of rules about what worship is and is not. We don't have a list of can's and cant's. We have tasted the freedom of the gospel, the river is deep and full of life.

God is doing great things among us, His Spirit is alive and well here.

We are so blessed not to have the burden of a building to pay for. How much of God's money is wasted in utility bills, parking lots, buildings that are empty for 5 days of the week. . . We are not here to invest in the seen but to invest in the unseen things of God. God needs us to invest in people not buildings.

We must break free from the mindset of thinking that church is a building, or a place. It's a movement of people. It's the most radical counter culture, anti-conformity movement that has ever been on the planet. Punk's, Goth's, Indies beware, you don't have the corner on Counter Culture!

Our plan is to keep it simple as long as possible. Right now we don't pass a plate for money, we encourage people to give to people around them that need help. We have no preacher, we feel as if we don't need one provided with today's technology their is an endless supply incredible life changing messages available at our finger tips for free or very low cost.

We are a group of people that believe in the power of prayer. We are learning to pray very specific prayers, and to pray for spiritual things. We believe in the Spirit of an active God that is alive and well working through believers everywhere.

Christians Meet Here!

Hello all, isn't this what we are, just a group of Christians! We are very blessed not to have the burden of a building and the baggage that goes with that. God is stirring among us, reviving our hearts from within, creating something new.

Try this out I don't know if we want to keep it or not?

Let me know by your blog comments, or lack there of!
Matt