Sunday's Coming

Good Morning,

We are busy preparing for Christmas, sermon for Sunday, a Christmas Eve Eve service Sunday evening, caroling in the park on Saturday, and Christmas Day Dinner. Wow, I'm tired already.

I pray each of you have a great Christmas and thanks for being there for us during this year.

In my reading this week I read from The Sower:

PLANNING AHEAD
It was the Sunday before Christmas and the teacher of the fifth grade class was reviewing the details of the birth of Jesus. With carefully chosen words she talked about the difficult journey to Bethlehem. Then she said with sadness, “And when they arrived, there was no room for them in the inn.
Wasn’t that terrible?”
George, after thinking for a moment about the vacations his family had taken and the plans they made said without thinking, “Why didn’t Joseph make a reservation?”

There will be many around us during this holiday season who will make no room - no reservation - for Jesus to be with them once again this year. We often remind each other that “He’s the reason for the Season” but do not take time to explain to what that reason is. We are quick to condemn those who want to take “Christ out of Christmas” but do not take time to plant the message of Christ in their minds and hearts. We place the manger scene under the tree, cover it with presents and then wrap it back up and forget about His birth and its significance for another year.

Hanging next to Jesus on a cross was a thief who was dying for crimes he committed. In his final moments he turned to Him and said, “Jesus, remember me.”
And Jesus said, “I will. Today you will be with me in paradise.”


Today is the best day to make your reservation to be with Him if you have not done so.

Scripture for Today: Luke 2:1-7 So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

LaVon and I love you and are truly thankful to God for each of you. Thank you for your continual support and interest in our ministry by investing yourself in many ways as partners with us: by prayer, e-mails, phone calls and your financial gifts. Without any of these we could not continue what God has called us to do and that is to share the Living Water with the world through the RV ministry..


Have a great day, love you, pass it on.

Don

PS. Just wanted to share a beautiful gift that we received from God, our Creator, last evening...

Sunday's Coming

Good Morning,

We continue our work here in Apache Junction, Arizona and God continues to be faithful. We had around 50 in church Sunday, praise the Lord. Our thanks to each of you for you prayers and support.

My sermon this week is on Hope.

Christmas Gift Revelation

In his book, Dare to Believe, Dan Baumann illustrates the unique experience of knowing that something is ours, yet longing to enjoy it more fully. He explained that at Christmas time he would always do a lot of snooping, trying to find the gift-wrapped presents and figure out what was in them.
One year he discovered a package with his name on it that was easy to identify. There was no way to disguise the golf clubs inside. Baumann then made this observation: "When Mom wasn't around, I would go and feel the package, shake it, and pretend that I was on the golf course. The point is, I was already enjoying the pleasures of a future event; namely, the unveiling. It had my name on it. I knew what it was."

But only "Christmas would reveal it in its fullness."

The glories that await the Christian defy our comprehension. What we can grasp about them, however, fills us with great anticipation. We look longingly to that day when we shall enjoy heaven in all its fullness.

Colossians 3:1 - 2 (ASV) 

1 If then ye were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God. 

2 Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are upon the earth.

LaVon and I love you and are truly thankful to God for each of you. Thank you for your continual support and interest in our ministry by investing yourself in many ways as partners with us: by prayer, e-mails, phone calls and your financial gifts. Without any of these we could not continue what God has called us to do and that is to share the Living Water with the world through the RV ministry.

Have a great day, love you, pass it on.
Don

Sunday's Coming

Good Morning,

We continue our work here in Apache Junction, Arizona and God continues to be faithful. Still experiencing small crowds in worship service on Sunday morning, but we trust that God will give the increase and we trust that those attending are being encouraged and challenged.

My sermon this week is on laughter. I think during the stressful time of the season we need a little laughter.

THE HEALING POWER OF LAUGHTER

Norman Cousins tells of being hospitalized with a rare, crippling disease. When he was diagnosed as incurable, Cousins checked out of the hospital. Aware of the harmful effects that negative emotions can have on the body, Cousins reasoned the reverse was true. So he borrowed a movie projector and prescribed his own treatment, consisting of Marx Brothers films and old "Candid Camera" reruns.
It didn’t take long for him to discover that 10 minutes of laughter provided two hours of pain free sleep. Amazingly, his debilitating disease was eventually reversed. After the account of his victory appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, Cousins received more than 3000 letters from appreciative physicians throughout the world.

"In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed." ~ Kahlil Gibran

 A glad heart maketh a cheerful countenance; But by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken. Proverbs 15:13 (ASV)

LaVon and I love you and are truly thankful to God for each of you. Thank you for your continual support and interest in our ministry by investing yourself in many ways as partners with us: by prayer, e-mails, phone calls and your financial gifts. Without any of these we could not continue what God has called us to do and that is to share the Living Water with the world through the RV ministry.
 
Have a great day, love you, pass it on.
Don

Sunday's Coming

Good Morning,

We had 42 in church Sunday. God continues to be faithful. Our thanks to each of you for your prayers and support.

Our computer has been ailing again so this post is a little late. Forgive me. I pray you all had a great Thanksgiving.

In my reading this week was this:

God's Love

TO WHOEVER FINDS THIS...I LOVE YOU

Several years ago there was a girl in an orphanage. She was unattractive and had mannerisms that were not very attractive either, and so she was disliked and shunned by the other children and was not liked by her teachers. The head of the institution looked for a reason to send her off to some other place.

One afternoon the opportunity came. She was suspected of writing unapproved, illicit notes to someone outside the institution. One of the little girls had just reported, "I saw her write a note and hide it on a tree near the stone wall."

The superintendent hurried to the tree and found the note. He then passed it silently to his assistant. The note read, "To whoever finds this, I love you."

In essence, someone else also wrote a note and put it on a tree outside a city wall at another place a long time ago. Of Him, too, it was written "He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men" Isaiah 53:2, 3, NIV.

They sought to get rid of Jesus. They took him out to Calvary’s hill where they crucified him. They nailed him to a tree. But when men get there, they find a note on that tree that reads, "To whoever finds this, I love you."
 
LaVon and I love you and are truly thankful to God for each of you. Thank you for your continual support and interest in our ministry by investing yourself in many ways as partners with us: by prayer, e-mails, phone calls and your financial gifts. Without any of these we could not continue what God has called us to do and that is to share the Living Water with the world through the RV ministry.

Here's a picture of the clubhouse on Thanksgiving Day as we all got together and shared a Thanksgiving meal.  I was asked to bless the meal before we ate.

Here's LaVon and Ann, who sat by LaVon. They are now friends.  Ann loved having her picture made with LaVon and was very impressed that LaVon took this picture.

Have a great day, love you, pass it on.
Don