Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. 1 Tim 1:17 (NKJV)

Great Bible study last night! We talked about “A Leader’s Passion”. Paul was passionate about truth, about Jesus, and about relationships. He was especially passionate about Jesus. As he was writing to Timothy about what Christ had done in his life and what Christ meant to him, he broke out in the wonderful verse of praise above. He was so moved for his love by Christ, he couldn’t help but praise him, even in a letter.

What are you passionate about? When was the last time you were so overwhelmed by the grace and goodness of God that you broke out into a song of praise to Him. May our hearts be hot for Jesus, the Savior of our souls and the redeemer of our lives!

We welcomed Lilli Roberts to our family of faith last night. Lilli prayed to receive Christ as her Savior a couple of weeks ago at a First Priority event at her school. Her dad, Trevor will baptize her this coming Sunday morning.

I can’t wait for Sunday! Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, worship and praise and a word from the Lord! A few years ago one of our former Youth Pastors preached a sermon on Elijah on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18). He titled it, “When You Show Up, God Shows Out.” Often all God is waiting on to do something great, is for His people to show up. I wonder how many miracles we’ve missed being a part of just because we didn’t give God a chance to work.

I hope you’ll show up in faith expecting God to do something supernatural this weekend. God is just waiting to show you how great He really is.

See you Sunday!

I’ve been studying 1 Timothy as I am teaching from it on Wednesday nights. I’m blown away by the passion of the Apostle Paul. He wrote this letter later in life, after he had served the Lord for many years and had given his all for the cause of Christ. Yet he is as “fired-up” about the work of the ministry as he ever was. How was he able to maintain his passion and his fire when some of his fellow workers had given up or fallen away? One simple answer – Paul never forgot what Christ did in his life. His salvation experience was fresh on his heart in the latter years of his life as if it had just happened.

In 1 Timothy 1:15, Paul writes, “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.” Notice he says “I AM chief.” Paul was still a work in progress; he never saw himself as being better than a sinner. He knew the Gospel still applied to his life. He was passionate about serving Christ, because Christ was at work in Him!

Many of us today have lost our fire for serving the Lord because we’ve forgotten what the Lord has done for us. We’ve forgotten what it means to be saved. We’ve considered the task at hand greater than the God who saved us.

As we approach the Memorial Day holiday, and as we remember those who paid the ultimate price or our freedoms as Americans, I want to challenge you to also remember the One who gave His life that you would not only go to heaven when you die, but that you would have the power and the passion to serve Him till you die.

I look forward to seeing you soon.

KIDS DAY

Great day of worship yesterday. The kids did a great job leading the worship. Our two young speakers did an amazing job; very evangelistic. We've got a bright future @ MVBC!

Seeing the kids yesterday fueled my fire for VBS. We're just two weeks away from our biggest outreach event all year. Saddle Ridge Ranch is going to be a blast! We're going to be "Rounding Up Questions and Driving Home Answers!"

We need all hands on deck for a great VBS:

• We need prayer warriors to be praying now for children to come, hearts to be open and lives to be changed!.
• We need floaters to be available to help out where needed. We won't know all of our needs till the week begins, so we need people just to show up with a "how can I help" heart!
• We need ENCOURAGERS who will love on our workers and our kids. Encouragers are kind of like the oil in a car engine, they keep things running smooth.

Our goal for VBS is to help kids connect to Christ and then help them and their families to get connected to the community of faith. Don't let the enemy keep you from being involved in God's great work!

Big thanks to the Wilmoths and the Ellis's for a great Spring picnic last night. We had about 120 people out at Cedar Pond Farms and it was a blast. We have some very serious Cornhole players - we may have to start a league (BTW, there is an American Cornhole Association - www.playcornhole.org) Thanks for coming out. One of the best things I heard last night was, "I got to know some new people tonight." That's one of the main reasons we do these things - build relationships in the Body of Christ. Thanks again to everyone who came out.