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celebrate from 2015


John 3:16  NLT
For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

Romans 5:8  NLT
But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

It is time to celebrate.  The last day of the year is here.  Right here we have the opportunity to celebrate many different things.  I have listened to people talk about the greatest things that happened in their lives in 2015, but what I’d like to share as the year comes to a close is the most important resource, great potential and the reason for God’s love really is.

Plain and simple.  People.  God sent His son for people.  His love finds its thriving place in the lives of people like you and me.  His love is an incredible thing or the best of everything.

Too many churches, organizations and Christ followers put their treasure in material things.  We talk about buildings being more important than people.  We look at money and budgets and serve people on what it cost rather than what is needed.  We put our trust in what is comfortable and easy.

All the while God talks to us about people.  We remember that without people there would be no relationships, no church, no family and no reason for life.  It is relationships that do the most for and that often hurt us the most or cause us the most to celebrate over.  God has turned our hearts and our purpose over to people and nothing else.

I want to celebrate the best thing that has happened in the last year, the last 365 days.  We have seen lives changed.  Many people have accepted Jesus as their Savior.  Lives have been turned toward God and away from the things that do not matter. 

Lets take this a step further.  What will be the greatest thing we will be part of in 2016?  It will again be people.  The reason we live is people.  The stories we tell are about people and how God interacts and loves the people around us as well as the people around the world.

I challenge you to stop and pray often for the people that God puts on your path.  Pray that God uses us and uses our resources to help more people change their lives because they comes in contact with God’s love, embraced by His grace and forever forgiven by the God who loves us so much.

1 John 4:10  NLT
This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

In the coming days I am excited to challenge our church family and friends to help raise the funds to complete our new church campus so that we can move from our current space in to a new, bigger space so we can help and serve more and more people. 

It really is all about people.  God is really all about loving people!

Philemon 1:5  NLT
because I keep hearing about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all of God’s people.
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