Through the years, Kathy and I have always used Christmas Eve as a special night to focus our family on the meaning of Christmas. After the usual Christmas Eve service at church, we sit down to a bowl of Cajun red beans and rice. Yes, this helps us focus on the real meaning of Christmas. We read the Christmas story and share our thoughts about what it all means. And every Christmas Eve, we give our two sons a gift to encourage their spiritual growth. Sometimes, it has been a symbolic gift. Other times, it has been a letter describing what we see in them and how we see God shaping them.
 
A few years ago, the gift I gave Andy and Adam was a booklet with my top 100 Bible verses. This had meaning for me because Scripture memory has been the most impactful thing I’ve done in my spiritual life. So, I challenged my sons to memorize these verses and allow God to shape them from the inside out.
 
I want to share this list of top 100 verses with you. It would be great if you committed to memorize them, but even if you don’t this is a great list to turn to when you need a word from God.
 
Monty
 
 
Genesis 50:20 God Works in All Situations
Deuteronomy 31:8 His Presence
Joshua 1:8 Meditate on His Word
Joshua 24:15 Commitment
Job 19:25-26 Eternal Hope
Psalm 1:2-3 Rooted
Psalm 5:1-3 Pray in the Morning
Psalm 8:1 God’s Majesty
Psalm 25:4 Direction
Psalm 37:4-5 In the Lord
Psalm 42:1-2 Longing for God
Psalm 46:1 Our Refuge
Psalm 46:10 Rest
Psalm 62:8 Pour Out Your Heart
Psalm 81:10 Anticipate His Blessings
Psalm 89:15 His Presence
Psalm 91:4 God’s Protection
Psalm 94:19 Confusion
Psalm 103:1-2 Praise
Psalm 116:1 God Hears
Psalm 139:1-3 God Knows
Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust Him
Proverbs 4:23 Guard Your Heart
Isaiah 40:31 Soar
Isaiah 41:10 Never Fear
Jeremiah 9:23-24 Boast in the Lord
Jeremiah 29:11-13 God’s Plans
Jeremiah 33:3 Call On Him
Lamentations 3:22-23 God’s Faithfulness
Micah 6:8 What God Really Wants of Us
Habakkuk 3:17-18 Regardless of Circumstances
Matthew 5:16 Let Your Light Shine
Matthew 6:19-21 True Treasure
Matthew 6:33 Priority
Matthew 7:7 Just Ask
Matthew 7:12 The Golden Rule
Matthew 9:36-38 A Heart for Evangelism
Matthew 11:28-30 Rest
Matthew 20:26-28 A Servant Heart
Matthew 21:21-22 Praying with Faith
Matthew 22:37-40 Love God, Love Others
Matthew 28:19-20 The Great Commission
Luke 9:23 Follow Me
Luke 14:25-27, 33 Nothing Before Him
John 3:30 Humility
John 3:16 The Gospel
John 14:1 Don’t Give Up
John 14:15 To Love Is To Obey
John 14:27 God’s Peace
John 15:4-5 Abide in Him
Acts 4:19-20 Take A Stand
Acts 24:16 Integrity
Romans 5:8 Grace We Did Not Deserve
Romans 8:31-32 God Is For Us
Romans 12:1-2 God’s Way is the Best Way
Romans 12:15 Caring About Others
Romans 14:8 We Belong to God
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Honor God
1 Corinthians 9:27 Self-Discipline
1 Corinthians 10:13 Overcoming Temptation
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Love Is
1 Corinthians 15:58 He’s Worth Serving
2 Corinthians 3:4-5 Our Competence in God
2 Corinthians 5:7 Walk by Faith
2 Corinthians 5:14-15 Live for Him
2 Corinthians 12:9 My Weakness, His Strength
Galatians 2:20 Life in Christ
Galatians 5;22-23 Fruit of the Spirit
Galatians 6:7 We Reap What We Sow
Ephesians 2:8-9 Grace
Ephesians 2:20 Created for A Purpose
Ephesians 4:29 Watch What You Say
Ephesians 4:32 Forgiveness
Ephesians 5:15-17 Will of the Lord
Ephesians 6:10-12 Spiritual Warfare
Philippians 1:6 God Is At Work in You
Philippians 2;3-4 Never Selfish
Philippians 2:9-11 No Higher Name
Philippians 3:13-14 Press On
Philippians 4:6-7 Pray
Philippians 4:13 In His Strength
Colossians 3:2 Perspective
Colossians 3:23-24 Do It for the Lord
2 Thessalonians 3:3 God’s Protection
Hebrews 10:24-25 The Body of Christ
Hebrews 11:6 Faith
Hebrews 12:3 Endurance
Hebrews 12:12-13 Strength
Hebrews 13:5 Contentment
James 1:2-4 Enduring Trials
James 1:19 Patience
James 4:10 Humility
1 Peter 1:15-16 Holiness
1 Peter 2:24 Christ Died for Us
1 Peter 4:10 Use Your Gifts
1 Peter 5:7 Anxiety
1 John 2:15-17 Do Not Love the World
1 John 5:14-15 Confidence in Prayer
Revelation 2:4 First Love
Revelation 21:3-4 ​Heaven

Dear church family,
I want you to know that I count it a privilege to serve you. You are a priceless treasure in my life! Your faithfulness in humbly serving God and being an authentic witness in your sphere of the world is inspiring to me.

I have been told that I am a gracious man and quick to give people the benefit of the doubt. I do believe this response to people is from the heart of God. However, people’s strengths can be vulnerable to weaknesses. At the same time God is immeasurably patient with me and offers His amazing grace, I am glad God is holy and is equally serious about my sin. God stings my heart when I drift from Him. It hurts but I am eternally grateful because my sin is diametrically opposed to God’s purposes for my life!

I know you sin just as I do. You will continue to as long as you are on this side of heaven. But that doesn’t mean that we should resolve ourselves to sin, believing, “Well, that’s just how I am”. I plead with you to read this prayer that I shared last night at our Concert of Prayer. I believe God could use it to bring you closer to who He wants you to be.

By God’s grace,
Donnie
Elder and Discipleship pastor

The Journey to Godly Sorrow

Dear God, may we be a people of Godly sorrow, not worldly sorrow!! Not be a people of worldly sorrow which is:
· Quick and trite
· Groans, “I feel bad because I got caught” or “I am going to be inconvenienced for awhile”
· Void of empathy for You and others
· Clueless of the wake of destruction left in its path
· Filled with rationalizing, minimizing, justifying, defensiveness, and pride
· Never leading to true and lasting change

People of Godly sorrow:
· Who encompasses the character to ask, “God, what do you think and feel about my sin?”
· Who take full responsibility crying, “I did it! No excuses! I was wrong!!”
· Who regretfully say, “It breaks my heart that I grieved your heart”
· Who with conviction declare, “It rips me apart that I was not in the center of Your will”
· Who are saddened that they were participating in shrinking the KOG not expanding it feeling the sentiment, “Oh God, what opportunities have I missed?
· Who are filled with disgust realizing they are hurting the very people they were called to love
· Who have confidently come to believe, CHANGE nothing short of change is the litmus test of repentance!

I know Your Word declares, “If” my people will turn from their wicked ways, THEN you will hear and heal our land, our very lives. It’s only a 2 letter word, “if” but it carries such significance…
We pray for revival. We plead for Your Spirit to fall upon us but we soon forget that sin is the greatest:
· Spirit deflector
· Revival distinguisher
· Intimacy killer
· Joy destroyer

Dear God, we pause right now asking you to shine your holiest light upon our hearts. Reveal what You want us to see about ourselves. We commit right now to express Godly sorrow to You, realizing that time will show if we truly meant it or not!

1. That we would not just share joy in what we witness, but we would find joy in sharing our witness.
2. That we would not just seek to be taught the scriptures, but we would also seek to taste the scriptures. 
3. That we would spend less time worrying about looking clean to each other and more time trying to get dirty by washing each others feet.
4. That we will not create a kingdom of activities for people, but we would activate people for God's kingdom. 
5. That we would not try to promote ourselves to sell Christianity to the lost, but we would lose ourselves to promote Christ through our Christianity. 
6. That our focus would not be on the songs we sing but the God we sing songs to. 
7. That we will not just pray when we see we need more, but that we would see our need is to pray more.
8. That we would not just be blessed by receiving what we are given, but we would know it’s more blessed to give than to receive.
9. That we would be less focused on us doing a work for God, and more focused on allowing God to do a work in us.
10. That we would not hope to know the future, but we would know the hope our future brings.
11. We would do more than take in the word of God, but we would also take God at his word.
12. That we don’t hope people would love to know us, but that through us they would know love and hope.
13. That a love for shaking hands would continue into us holding hands in love.
14. That our goal would not be to go to church, but our goal would be to be the Church.
15. That we will not try to have a picture perfect family, but that our family would paint a perfect picture of Christ.
16. That we would not worry about the world magnifying our weaknesses, but we would know that Christ is magnified to the world through our weaknesses.
17. That the gospel of Christ would not just be the start of our faith, but that it would be the very heart of our faith.
18. That our church would be more than just filled with people, but that our church would be people filled with the Holy Spirit.
19. That our hearts for the people around our table would increase to include people around the world.
20. That I would know that I can’t start this, but pray that God would start this in me!

What are you praying for during our 30 days of prayer and fasting?

What if sharing our faith was irresistible, much like a big bowl of chocolate ice cream before bedtime? What if it was truly impossible to resist, and we could not hold back the strong urge to share Jesus with other people - no matter how hard we tried to keep from doing it? Can you imagine how many more people might be reached with the life-changing reality of Jesus Christ if we had that kind of drive, focus and conviction for personal evangelism!

On October 21, we will start learning fresh ways to be on mission, and share our faith, when all of our Adult Bible Fellowships – all 12 of them that meet at 9:30 am on Sundays – will be teaching the Irresistible Evangelism curriculum for four weeks. Irresistible Evangelism is a fun, interactive, DVD-driven personal evangelism training experience that you will not want to miss as you will learn natural ways to help open others to Jesus. It is fast-paced and will keep everyone engaged. You will want to be a part of it, and so will your Christian friends. So invite them to come.

We all need help sharing our faith. We all need help and encouragement to be on mission. The Apostle Paul knew that. He wrote letters of instruction and encouragement to the churches he helped establish. In those letters, he told believers to share the good news. And there was an urgency to his methods and his message. In Acts 4:20, Peter and John said they “could not help speaking about what they had seen and heard.” They could not stop talking about Jesus and the gospel.  

My hope, and prayer, is that those who attend and engage in this training will come away motivated to take some steps. Those steps might include: starting some new relationships with unbelievers; praying for opportunities to engage unbelieving friends in fresh new ways, intentionally having more spiritual conversations, and sharing their faith.

“I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.” (Philemon 6)

Jesus Christ wants you to experience the fullness of his relationship with you. Have you been missing out on that because you have not been sharing your faith? Hopefully, Irresistible Evangelism will help us all get on the path to experiencing His best!

As much as I hate to admit it, I know there are still people out there (and even within our church) that think when preschoolers go to their Sunday School class, it is just a time of babysitting.  As the preschool pastor, I can guarantee you there are so many incredible and life-changing moments happening in our preschool ministry.  I would love for you to come visit our ministry and see how the teaching and care that happens in our classrooms is the ultimate example of who Jesus is and His teachings.  We know that we can’t teach the little ones everything that they need to know in the three hours we have them on Sundays, but we begin that foundation that parents can use as they continue to disciple their children.  It really is life-changing, so I thought I’d share some “cool stories” with you, so you can begin to see what foundations are being built.     
 
One night recently, Alexis Drebbs (3 years old), had a bad dream, so her mom asked her if she wanted to pray about it. Alexis said yes, so they asked Jesus to protect her and give her a good night's sleep.

• Evie Zimmerman (2 years old) won’t let her parents put her to bed without hearing a Bible story first and has begun to pray on her own.  She is talking with her parents about God making things like trees and coffee.  She is also repeating Bible stories that have been read or told to her and asking her parents to pray for her when she gets hurt.  
• Ellie Brewer (2 years old) is retelling her Bible story that she hears on Sunday mornings to her Bible study teachers.  
• One of our unchurched children that attends Canyon Creek Preschool (5 years old) shared that the favorite thing that she learned this year was that God loves her.  
• Abigail Earl (3 years old) was at the table during dinner time and when her dad and mom bowed their heads to pray, Abigail put her little hands together and bowed her head, too. 
• Mercie Swartz (4 years old) While her family was doing Resurrection Eggs before Easter last year, they were discussing how the guards were gambling for Jesus’ clothes. Her mom asked her children questions instead of reading the verse and giving the answer. So she asked “What did the guards do with Jesus’ clothes?” The older 3 children said nothing. Mercie raised her hand and said, “They played a game with dice to see who would get his robe and sandals.”  
• Alexis Drebes (3 years old) Every night we read a story and as soon as I close the book Alexis puts her hands together and tells God all the things she is thankful for. "Daddy and mommy and ...."
• Patty Evans, teaches chapel at Canyon Creek Preschool and shared that she had a little boy from CCP come up to her after chapel and ask her why God would love him?  This gave her a great opportunity to tell him because God made him. God seemed like a completely foreign concept to him. 
• A mom from Canyon Creek Preschool said that she was in the grocery store with her daughter and a lady told her she was beautiful and asked where she got her beauty from.  The little girl replied, “From God!”  
• In one of our 1st grade Sunday school class, they were doing prayer requests.  One of the kids thought to bring up a prayer need of one of the kids that wasn’t there that day. We are so impressed that she was thinking past her own needs and wants and focused on the needs of others.  

I hope these examples not only brought a smile to your face, but that they solidified how important it is to build spiritual foundations in our little ones so that as they grow up, they will have the heart and head knowledge to accept Christ as their Savior.  Not to mention, that then as an adults, these simple truths are engrained in their hearts and minds which allows them to lean on these truths for the rest of their lives.  People’s spiritual journeys have to begin somewhere….why not in preschool ministry, its way more than babysitting!