1.  I love Grace Community Church!  I was reminded again of the amazing fellowship, passion, vision and unity that we share.

2.  I love being around University Students!  There was a different vibe in our church for a few days.

3.  I love the opportunity to share our (Grace Community) story and try to inspire the next generation of leaders to think about the possibility of a better way of doing church.  I believe in our church to the core and want others to see that everything can be done in a life giving way.

4.  A fresh coat of paint is worth the effort.

What did you enjoy about this weekend?  I would love to hear your thoughts about the invasion of a group of Texans.  What did God show you as we served and lived together for couple of days?

Jerris

stir –verb

This morning i looked up the definition to the word stir, because I just needed a word to describe the little somethings here and there that I have observed. It fit perfectly.  I am reading a book called Forgotten God, by Francis Chan. In the book he talks about the tragedy of living your life with out ever discovering the power of the Holy Spirit inside of you. He asks a really interesting question, one that I would like to ask to you, “When was the last time I undeniably saw the Spirit at work in or around me?”

I have talked to several of you and the Holy Spirit is stirring. Let’s seek it out. Find out more about who the Holy Spirit even is. Find out why or why not you are feeling the Holy Spirit. Let’s be proactive about our faith…about our lives…about our purpose. Are you being stirred? If so, what are you doing about it?

(p.s I really would love love love to hear about how you have seen the Spirit at work in or around you!)

Brittany Black

As ridiculous as it sounds to think that I can somehow change the weather by acting as if it isn’t cold, I gave it further thought and realized that I can be guilty of trying the same ridiculous thinking in other parts of my life.  How many times have I simply replied, “I’m doing great!” when someone asked how I was doing even though I was having a horrible time?  Maybe it’s just a matter of being lazy and not wanting to enter into that long of an answer, maybe it’s pride that keeps me from admitting my struggles to others, but I think somewhere deep down I may actually think that I can change painful things by acting as if they don’t exist.  The only problem is, that just as I stay cold by refusing to put on a coat, the pain of struggles remains in my life when I refuse to admit them and allow opportunity for needed help.

- Aaron 

1.   A fantastic sermon dealing with Hosea and Gomer.  The message will be available over 40 times this week at church online or on the Grace website.  Our church online team would love to have you join us Wednesday night at 10pm.
2.  Next Monday, March 8th at 6:30pm our church will launch a second online experience.  If you are looking for a place to volunteer we would love to have you join the team.  Contact Aaron Carpenter for more information.
3.  Saturday, March 13th we will be working with the students from Texas to paint the church.  We will be painting from 11am - 5pm and 7pm  - 9pm.  I will send a complete schedule for the weekend later this week.  If you have any painting supplies you can donate that would be helpful.  We need rollers, brushes, drop cloth, scaffolding, buckets, extension poles for rollers and anything else paint related you can share.  You can either drop stuff by the church or bring it on Sunday.
4.  Next week we will begin a new series called “Red letter Day”.  Craig will be looking at the final words of Jesus as we lead up to Easter Sunday.  This is a wonderful time of year to invite someone to church.  Easter is a time of year when people feel like they should attend church, so invite them and see what God chooses to do in their life.

Have a blessed week!

– Jerris

Do you ever commit to something, then wonder a little later “what was I thinking?”? Last week, I committed to running the Illinois Marathon 5K with my good friend Brittany. Since November, we have been motivating and encouraging each other with our fitness goals. At that moment, this race seemed like a fun thing to do together.

After the initial “Rah! Rah!” we can do this, the doubts started in my brain. I started going through all the reasons I can’t or shouldn’t do this. The list went something like this; I’m way too old, still out of shape, slow, I don’t think I have ever run a 5K in my life, I can’t remember the last time I ran 5 blocks, I’ll collapse , I’ll embarrass myself… I won’t bore you with the complete list but I can assure you it got quite long.

After about a half a day of listening to all those thoughts spin around in my head, I realized that two of my old companions had showed up again. Fear and Pride. Argh! Why do I keep letting those guys have their way with me? How often do I let them run my life? God does not want that for me. Both of those totally block the abundant life God has for me.

Honestly, most of my fears were driven by my pride. The same pride that keeps my struggles in the dark, the same pride that won’t admit that I need help with something, the same pride that sometimes thinks I need to present this neat little life all tied up with a pretty bow, the same pride that often thinks I can “fix” whatever by myself without bothering anyone including God. Pride almost kept me from writing about pride. How ridiculously absurd is that?!

So this week, I am spending lots of time reflecting on how adversely pride has affected my life and reading lots of scriptures about how great God is and how He feels about pride and humility. Job 38 is very humbling reading.

Do you struggle with pride? If so, what does pride look like in your life?

James 4:6 (NIV)
“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”[b]
James 4:10 (NIV)
10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

When someone drives in a way I don’t like, speaks in a tone that bothers me, takes up more than one parking space, or leaves their shopping cart in the middle of a parking space I can be so easily angered.  You see, I am so determined to have everyone and everything operate under my terms and it really bothers me when they don’t!  That’s not grace though, is it….. You see, God designed us to be in a relationship with him and sin really messed it up.  Things didn’t turn out the way he wanted them to, but he went to great lengths to make things right again even though he had no fault in the matter.  And what really blows my mind is that I believe he knew the great lengths and pains he would have to go through (grace cost the life of Jesus) before creation for this relationship but he created it anyhow.  I hope and pray that I can become more GRACEful and that I can be more like Christ in the way that I relate to others.  Which brings still another question I can quite wrap my mind around…what would the world be like if I lived out grace in the way that Christ did?

- Aaron

Truth be told, if I were to clean out a couple of cabinet drawers in my house, there would probably be numerous items like that.
Let’s face it; most of those things are just clutter or junk. They are not serving a function; they don’t really bring me any joy. In fact most of the time, they do just the opposite by adding stress to my life.

The other morning during my quiet time with God, I gazed upon a couple of things straight out of my past. One was a jar filled with corks from bottles of wine that had been consumed with friends over the years. Funny how God sometimes speaks through ordinary things…
After looking at those old corks from days gone by, the thought came to me that they are really trash from the past. They have very little use. I could think I will make a cool serving tray out of them some day, but honestly that probably is not gonna happen.
Why in the world am I keeping those???
How true that statement is of some of my other material stuff and most definitely stuff from my past like; my mistakes, emotional pain, or hurt from others. Why am I hanging onto junk from the past?
One of the verses from the apostle Paul that I have been repeating over and over this week is Philippians 3:12-14.

Pressing on Toward the Goal
12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

I love this verse because Paul admits he is not there yet, but he continues to persevere. Christ died that we might have freedom from all forms of captivity, including our junk.

Is there junk you need to get rid of so that you can take hold of all the blessings God has for you?

-Mary-