Operation Thanksgiving in Afghanistan

Hey Gang,

The Care Packages are on their way to Afghanistan! What a wonderful way to give thanks at thanksgiving - to our troops! Monica & Larand Spencer were our project leaders and what a great job they did pulling everything together and getting everything packaged and sent - Great Job! Monica also took some great pictures of the project that I've posted below.

I'm listing the names of the soldiers again for you to continue to keep in your prayers as our Care Packages arrive: Richard Padgett, Jordan Mayural, Jose Ruiz, Miguel Romero, Korey Ehinger, Jason Haight, Erin Patton, Joshua Hensell, Ryan Grigg, Robin Yerger, Michael Suarez, Jonnathan Burke, Vinvent Lopez, John Jackson, Donald McCutchan, Michael Snell, Robert Wilson, Nathan Baker.

Please continue to pray for each soldiers safety while in Afghanistan and their safe return home. Please pray that God will bless and touch each one in a special way through this thanksgiving gift from our class and that God will be glorified. Please pray that God will lead us to help someone else in a special way and give thanks to God for letting us be a part of His care and grace.

Below are the pictures from the project:

What a great opportunity to give thanks to our troops for serving our country!

I want to thank each of you that helped and participated in our class project - it was a great success and blessing!

In His Love,

David & Susan 

Class Lesson November 7, 2010

Hey Gang,

Last week was a really good discussion on Jesus being the only way to God and your only way to salvation. He is our Savior and Lord! This is the basis for our faith and what we claim to believe. 

This week we are going to look directly into what faith really is - both the faith that saves and the faith that remains loyal to Christ. The former addresses what happens the moment a person believes in Christ and is based on passages from Romans 4:1-3, 23-25 and 10:9-13; and the latter concerns what kind of lifestyle God expects from those who have received Jesus as God's Son and Messiah, and is based in the Book of Hebrews 12:1-2.

Hebrews 11 summarizes faith actions of many God followers. The "large cloud of witnesses" named in Hebrews 12:1 refers to these men and women of faith. From Abel to Noah to Sarah to Rahab, they were described as living "by faith." All were imperfect people yet God used them in mighty ways because of their choices to express faith. We can learn how to do faith from these and other faithful-to-God Christians.

With their help, we as Christians can examine our relationship to God to determine if we have been living in a way that pleases God - by faith. Here's where many are today - "I've got an intellectual understanding about God, but I'm not sure of the next step."  Or maybe this is you, "I've got faith, and that's enough!" Or maybe you just don't know how to bridge the gap from faith being an intellectual exercise to faith being a way of life. Well, I think this lesson is pretty important because: first we need to have more than a mere knowledge - we need biblical faith, second, the power of faith is in its object. Because our faith is in Christ, we know that we have the power of the Almighty behind our faith. Third, faith involves all of me, not just my intellect, it's a lifestyle and I need to fully understand this.

This week's lesson is entitled "Making Sense of Faith" and is the last lesson in our series on The Case for Jesus, next week we will begin the final series on "The Case for the Christian Life."

I hope to see each of you this Sunday as we continue in our understanding and defense of our faith.

Have a blessed week!

In His Love,

David & Susan