OA:sis Finale  - The current OA:sis (Wednesday night) season ends this week.   Come on 5/1 for our last meal of the spring and final activites.   Note:    PrayerForce and LIGHThouse will continue meeting through the summer.   The following will pause until September:  Supner, Clubz and LGe.  

Ladies' Brunch - Saturday at 10am is a brunch for all gals.  Invite a mother, daughter, sister, friend.  .  .  all ladies are welcome!   There will be food and a fun game.  Try to come dressed in or wear something with teal.  

David Reilley shared of his grandmother's run-in with squirrels.  In three generations of offering free meals, she noted that they went from wild animals able to forage to animals dependent on humans for their survival.  The call is for each generation of Christ followers to ensure that the next generation wholeheartedly follow Jesus...  we must help those next generations to not be drawn away by the ways of the world.  

The message in 1st John 5:14-15 asked "if we ask for guidance according to his will he hears us."   God's will in guidance is that we be saved and that we share Christ with others.  He wills that we follow Him and be led by His Spirit (be in the Word!).    We considered the way of the shepherd leading in Psalm 23.  God desires to led us to good pasture.  But, there will be valleys as well.  He leads us through.    Let us ask for guidance according to God's will and make good, godly decisions!  

I can only think of a few times that my older brother tried to kill me as a child.   Thankfully, he was never successful.  To be fair, I don’t think it was always intentional.  Scott is seven years older than me.  These incidents all qualify for a “do not try this at home” warning:  

Scott was kind enough to pull me behind him while he drove the three-wheeler several times one snowy winter.  He strapped a long rope to the back that was then tied to an inner-tube (thinking back, I believe he may have even coated the tube with wax).  He particularly enjoyed swinging me down along the side of the irrigation ditch where he could then speed up, thus yanking me out in a way that caused me to go airborne.   Probably not trying to kill me but, still, one wonders.  

I can recall another time when he was throwing knives at me in our basement.  At first, he was really just throwing the steak knives at my feet (sort of a bizarre “dance” similar to cowboys shooting at feet).  At some point I did get scared enough to run upstairs.  The stairway went up about six steps to a landing and then the remaining six steps were to the right… after rounding the corner at the landing, I heard a thump as a knife stuck into the back wall of the stairs behind me.  Benefit of the doubt… not intentional (perhaps just trying to maim me).  

The last example I will give is the time we were playing a sort of “Russian roulette” with a bow and arrow.  I refer you again to the fact that I was seven years younger – he was maybe 16 or 17.  Out in the field, Scott would shoot an arrow from the compound bow straight up in the air.  A few times, we would just stand in place… he could watch the arrow going up and coming down, knowing it would miss us.  I recall one sticking to the roof of a garage.   I was the one who climbed up on top to get it out and I never could dislodge the tip… I had to unscrew the arrow.  The last arrow I remember him shooting up, though, I clearly recall him yelling “RUN!” – he’d lost it!  It landed within ten-feet of us.  

Not often does one look back on his childhood and recall God’s grace in saving him from his brother’s mischiefs but I had some close calls.   Yes, my brother likely should have been in a “home for wayward boys” - he is doing much better now.  He hasn’t tried to kill me (intentionally or not) for several years now.  Of course, I’m wiser now as well.  Each of us can recall “close calls” in our own life where God spared us (perhaps not from a “loving” brother).  Even so, each next breath is significant and we should praise Him.  We should also be mindful of God’s call on our life… thinking of Paul’s words here:  “But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”   I wonder if Paul had an older brother?