Day 1

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing (forgiving) their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." (2 Corinthians 5:17-19)

Like you, I've read these scriptures many times, but this morning it clicked...God has given us the ministry of reconciliation...what does it mean to reconcile? The 1935 Webster's dictionary says that it means to cause to be friendly again; restore harmony; reunite. Scripturally, it means to bring back into a right relationship with God. We were born as enemies to God because of the sin of Adam, but through the blood of Christ, we can be reconciled to a right relationship with God and once we have been reunited with Him, we become ambassadors of Christ, reaching out to others to see them reconciled and forgiven.

It is so exciting when God opens up my understanding to what His Word is saying and shows me how to apply it to my life. I trust He is doing the same for you.

New Year...

So...how do you start out your new year? Do you make resolutions that you may or may not keep? Do you set goals for yourself? Normally, I just go with the flow...whatever happens, happens. This year is a bit different for us...following a year of big changes and life threatening events and the first week of the new year starting out with serious problems and death...most all of our congregation is feeling the need to do some serious fasting and praying. Starting tomorrow, we will be embarking on a 21-day fast together as a church. If you read in Daniel, chapters 1 and 10, you will find that Daniel did a 21-day fast where he drank water and ate fruits, vegetables and nuts and refused meats and breads. There are a few of us, who will be starting the "Daniel fast" with a complete fast, meaning no food...and the rest of us will do just the "Daniel fast". The reason we are doing this is to find God's will for this congregation, for this year, to know what He would have us focus on; we need workers who are committed to reaching the lost for Christ; we need finances to do whatever He leads us to do; we need the health to keep going, we have some serious health issues among our congregation and we need healing for those issues; we also want to see souls saved this year and added to the Church as God leads them and then we have our own personal things that we need God's direction on. I prayed in the New Year, but don't feel that I have the direction that I need for this year...so this first month of the new year is a good time to find out what God wants of me and for me. I'm looking forward to seeing how God directs this congregation and the work here in the city. We've had others, from other parts of the country, choose to join us in fasting and if you want, please join as well.

Now...some have asked that I post some pictures from Christmas, so I'll add some from the night the Church went to see the Christmas lights in Chickasha.

The tunnel of lights... front row, Pastor Ray and angel baby, Lilli; back row, Nick, Sherry, Sheyanne, Samantha, Darren, Larissa, Jeremy and Heather.

We are missing Amy, Madison, Emma, Kaylee, Lydia, Kim and Ethan because they

didn't get the memo that we were walking through the park rather than driving, so they were somewhere in the nice, warm van while the rest of us were shivering and laughing at the craziness of being out in the cold.

I'll have to add more pictures later...blogger is uploading rather slowly and I have other things that must be done.

Sister Tammi