LIGHThouse Girls' Study - 6-12th grade girls' Bible Study is Tuesday night at 6:45.  
OA:sis - A meal at 6pm this Wednesday night.  Between 6:45 and 7pm, Clubs (5th grade and younger), LIGHThouse (6-12th grade), Prayer Force (adults) and Wednesday night Life Group (adults) all begin.    Join us!

Men's Breakfast - The monthly men's breakfast is this Saturday at 7:30am.   Join us for a hearty breakfast followed by a speaker.   Prior to this, at 6:30am, you might also join a men's Bible study.

Dr. Mark Christian - This event with Dr. Mark Christian was postponed to THIS Sunday night, the 21st.    He'll be sharing about Israel, Gaza, and Islam.   He was a former Muslim who grew up in Egypt.   This will be from 6:00 pm to 7:30ish.  

We sang of victory in Jesus and His blood... nothing but His blood, that can wash away your sin.   We proclaimed in song how wonderful the name of Jesus is - He who silenced the boast of sin and grave.  No rival, no equal, and raised to life again is our Jesus.  We crown Him with worship - glory in the highest.  Thank you to our faithful worship team members that lead us week after week.  

The message from 1 John 5 highlighted the faith in verse 4:  And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.   Faith in faith is nothing.  Our faith must be in God, rightly understood from Scripture. God moves the mountains!  Our faith is dependent on the object of it.   How much faith we have is dependent on how well we know that object... how well we know God.  We must know God, study, learn, read, and obey Scripture!   Finally, our real faith is proven by our works.  Works do not save but they are an evidence that we have real faith in God.  

A man hiking in the Alaskan mountains failed to make it back to camp before nightfall and a blizzard hit.  He quickly got lost in the blinding snow and was forced to hunker down in a snow bank.  There would be very little chance he could survive the night.  

Laying in the snow, he heard a small crying voice.  Unsure if it was just wind howling, his mind told him this was the whimpering of a puppy.  Crying out repeatedly, he worked to crawl towards the sound.  His instincts were right, it was a dog, a small puppy that had gotten separated and was freezing to death.  The man went to work rubbing the dog’s fur to get blood circulating.  He warmed the dog with his breath and spent the night doing everything possible to keep this little puppy alive.  The next day, they were found alive.  In the man’s efforts to keep the dog alive, he had kept himself alive.  

God has given us one another in the church.  Serving them is truly about serving Christ.  What we too often forget is that we also benefit from serving others.  We grow to be more like Christ.  Think of the fruit of the Spirit:  “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal 5:22-23).  Fruit is grown for the benefit of others.  The fruit tree benefits when the fruit is given away (or taken).  Fruit left on a tree will rots inviting pests.   It is healthiest for the fruit to be given away.  

If you find yourself spiritually empty, you might find the best solution is to stop thinking about yourself and give yourself away.