Dearly loved ones, I’m always so glad to see you on Sundays.  I wish we could spend more time together.  I was so thankful to see Kimi and Pris there for this week’s service.  We had some good discussion and I’m glad we are able to do that.  As we grow, we need to maintain the ability to minister to each other at that level.  I look forward to the day when we need to work that out.  They were not able to stay for the whole time though.  Please remember Kimi in your prayers.

Also pray for Bobbi.  Yesterday I learned that she was in the hospital and they almost lost her several times.  At last report they had her stabilized, but needed to determine the source of internal bleeding.  Pray for her and all of her family.

Each week, I do try to have something fresh and new to share with you, or at least old enough that it sounds new.  But this week I have a purpose in bringing back something a little more recent.  The book of John is one of my favorites.  If I could only pick parts of the bible to share with someone, I would choose John because it explains who Jesus is, and Romans because it explains what to do with that knowledge.  Over the years, I have probably spent more time in these books, and my collection of sermon outlines shows it.  I’d like to cover them completely someday, but since we meet just once a week, I feel compelled to try to speak more directly to the immediate needs of the church rather than engage in a long series on a given book or topic.

With the goal of someday achieving full coverage in mind, I found my notes from John 1:1-5 and decided to pick up in verse 6 to continue the teaching, but it will be more powerful of we refresh our memories.  Thus we begin at the beginning, and the Sunday after we’ll keep going, Lord willing.

We sing about Jesus.  We often pray to Jesus.  We end our prayers in Jesus’s name.  We talk about knowing Jesus, but sometimes I wonder if many who go by the name Christian really get who Jesus is.  I dare say we all picture Him as less than what He is most of the time.
Our pictures certainly do not depict Him as He is now, and most are not even close to what he probably looked like while He was here.  Turn to Chapter 1 of Revelation to get as close as we are likely to get to what He might look like if he appeared today.  What we need to understand is who He is.  For that we can turn to the Gospel of John.  John opens his account with this, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  Know this, and everything else falls into place.  May the Word open our hearts.

Love y’all!

Larry