January 13 Coffee Church Highlights

Congrats to two of our friends who helped to start churches on Sunday…Josh Siegel at Reach Church in Kirkland and Justin Farley who started Blue Bridge Church in Pasco.  Welcome to an amazing season of ministry!  My prayer for you both is that you will find the same joy in the journey that we have found.  My advice for you is to LOVE your story and not be discouraged if it looks different than you pictured.  Trust me, in the end, you will be glad that our sovereign God wrote it just the way He did.

Between the Seahawks game and lots of the flu, we had a lot of people out on Sunday.  We had two great sermons, so make sure you catch them online at www.coffeechurch.com.

Mark spoke on Full Circle at Battle Ground.  It is a highlight of the culmination of our prayers for 2012!  Such a moving testimony of the greatness of our God.  Have you noticed that we are very hesitant to declare the good things in our lives “miracles”?  Let’s be clear…everything that is good comes from God!  Give Him the credit and the glory.

Josiah spoke an awesome message on Sunday about loving the least of the world.  I got this message on Sunday night: “My 15 and 12 year old daughters were moved to action by Josiah’s sermon today. I just picked them up from cleaning our friend’s house. (He is 81 and has a hard time keeping it clean). They plan to make this a weekly event. So proud of my girls. Please let Josiah know we appreciate him.”  THAT is how God moves.  We think it’s something much more “miraculous”, but the reality is that if we all live lives that reach out to our neighbors, the world would be a better place.

We helped with the funeral of one of our little babies who was born too early this week.  Emma is now in the hands of Jesus.  Would you take some time this week and pray for her parents?  They are expressing amazing hope and peace in Christ, but grieving at the same time.  I am impressed by their beautiful reliance on Jesus and have appreciated watching them walk hand in hand through the valley.

Do you have a Bible reading plan for 2013 yet?  www.youversion.com is an excellent resource for getting into the Word of God.  Here’s my best tip for reading the Bible: don’t panic if you don’t understand everything you are reading, just read anyway.  It’s too much to understand on the first time around…after all, it is from the mind of God…so keep in mind that the Bible was written to read over a lifetime, not one sitting.

I sense change in the air…God is up to something.  Here we go!