New Creation

A new born baby comes into this world to grow and to learn. As Christians we are to be born of the Spirit of God. With this new birth comes our spiritual growing. We learn how to walk as the children of God. We learn how to act in a Christ-like manner. Our “new born” life is now controlled by the genes of the Spirit. We show kindness, love, and grace. These are the indicators that our old nature is gone. A new person is born. Babies fall as they learn to walk. They may have black bruises on their heads because of their painful learning lessons. However, they never stop learning. They keep growing and changing. Are you seeing the signs of the genes of the Spirit growing in you? “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Cor. 5:17)

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The Oaks seventh-grade classroom and the Discipleship Sabbath School Class had a wonderful time
celebrating Valentine’s Day together! Since our Sabbath School class meets in the 7 th grade classroom,
we have “adopted” these students as our prayer partners; sharing time together, getting to know them,
and encouraging them.
In the Fellowship Center today the Discipleship class members got together with the seventh grade class
for a fun time. We provided the supplies for the students to make special hand-made Valentine’s Day
cards. Each student selected a few individuals they felt would benefit from a special note of love and
encouragement, such as grandparents and some of our older members who are unable to come to
church. They made cards especially for them. It was great to be with our prayer partners as they had fun
making the cards.
After making the cards, we had haystacks, cookies, and cupcakes. There surely was not much food left
over! The Discipleship Class has had a grand time getting to know our prayer partners better. We hope
that each student knows that we care about their concerns and that we are praying for them. (Mike Harrell)

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Our ministry at the Chattanooga Community kitchen is active and growing with every month. I am excited to let you know that our church purchased a new steam deck for this ministry. Here is what Richard Johnson shared with me a couple of days ago:

So first of all, I received good news this morning that the steam deck is in and I have to figure out if it will be tomorrow or next Monday to deliver it to them. I want to thank the church for the strong support for this outreach to our community. They are just overwhelmed by this act of kindness and I pray it plants good seeds for the future. And I also distributed 10 blankets and 18 care packages and had to sadly turn people away. I also had a talk with a man and learned what they really need. He said any thing to repel rain like a shower curtain or any type of material to stay dry. 
… These people were so thankful for these gifts of which I put literature of love and hope with in. 

So I just left from going down and handing out rain ponchos and shower curtains. The Lord led me to two individuals. One was a worker who said that the service center there needed shower curtains. She needed 8 which I gave her. 
The other was a gentleman who was at one time on the streets but has a burden for them. He really gave me a lot of insight on what goes on there. 

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Last Sabbath we celebrated Don’s and Joshua’s baptism. It was truly touching to see a father and son joining the Lord’s family together. I forgot to mention during the service that the day before, Joshua celebrated his 17th birthday!

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Jack Phillips had a great seminar all day Sabbath. It was practical and Christ centered. The seminar continued last Wednesday and will go on for two more Wednesdays, February 22 and March 1.

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See you tomorrow.

pastor Peter