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From Pastor Dave
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Hey FCN Family....2016 was an amazing year for FCN...Guess what? 2017 is going to be even better...Hold on, I'm about to have a fit: "WOOOOOOOOO"
The only way for us to have a better year than last year is if we challenge ourselves to greater things for God. It begins with putting off old thoughts for new thoughts, putting off old things for new things, putting off old traditions for new traditions. I think you get the point.
2016 was a year of change here at FCN. Take a moment and reflect upon the blessings of God that fell on us a church family. Thank you, Jesus, for your goodness to each one of us. 2016 became a year of many things that changed the atmosphere. They are: A whole new focus on prayer accompanied with loving and serving others in Jesus name. To be a successful ministry you must "Love People and Share Jesus" and y'all are doing just that. Blessings on ya. Below is a devotional challenge for 2017 that I came across and wanted to share with you. I want you to place in your heart and follow this blessed new year of 2017.
The 2017 Challenge
"As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God"
Psalm 42:1
Happy 2017! What does the new year hold for you? Are you longing for something new, better, different? Are you tired of flipping pages on the calendar and going through the motions of your life? Want to make a choice that will transform 2017 from dead to lively, from flat to full, from just another year to your best year yet?
 Spend time with God in His Word. This isn't just another task or meeting. This is an invitation to spend time with the King of the universe, listening to His voice in the pages of the only Book on the planet that will transform your soul. This isn't a book club. It's not an appointment with a personal trainer who might help you marginally reshape your body. This is God, who spoke the universe into existence, and who will speak to you personally if you open the Word and listen.
How's that work? Simply and methodically. Open your Bible, and follow these three steps.
Step 1: Discipline
Here's the spiritual workout plan: I challenge you in Jesus' name to discipline yourself to spend thirty minutes in God's Word every day for a month. During those thirty days, set aside the first half hour of every day-before you shower, before you dress for work, before you drink a cup of coffee (or while).
Commit to this:
"I will not do anything else until I get thirty minutes with the Lord in His Word."
At first, it's going to feel like hard work, but it won't stay that way for long. It's like when you start working out on a treadmill with no fitness base-grueling at first, but over time it grows easier and eventually becomes addictive. Get up in the morning, and make yourself do it. Get a friend to hold you accountable. Check in with each other. Go after this choice that will change your life forever: thirty minutes for thirty days. It starts with discipline.
Step 2: Desire
Over time, God's Word will become your desire. This step involves another thirty days. bNo longer will reading the Bible just feel like a discipline. You will find that you look forward to it, that you can't wait to spend time with the Lord. Like David, you'll say,
"As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God"
(Psalm 42:1). You'll wonder how you lived without it. You'll recognize how famished and impoverished your soul was and how difficult the Christian life felt on empty. No longer will it feel like a burden or obligation.
After thirty days of discipline and thirty days of growing desire, you'll conclude, "I want it. I desire it. I hunger for it." After these sixty days, you'll say, "I chose God's Word as my authority, and my life has been changed forever." And then you get to move on to step 3, which will blow your mind.
Step 3: Delight
In the third, thirty-day step, you will begin to experience what David observed about the blessed person, whose
"delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night"
(Psalm 1:2). David didn't tolerate God's Word, the way we do brussel sprouts. He didn't gut it out, the way we do dental cleanings. He
loved
God's Word.
"Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day"
(Psalm 119:97). And we can get to that place too.
When you begin to delight in God's Word, time spent in His Book will become your favorite time of your day, the best part of your week, the most treasured moments of your life-alone with God, digging into His Word, being fed by His Spirit. And the effects will seep into every part of your day so that you will find God's Word running in the background of your thoughts constantly.
King David experienced this delight. So did the prophet Jeremiah, who wrote,
"Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O Lord, God of hosts"
(Jeremiah 15:16). So did the disciples, who
"said to each other, 'Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures'"
(Luke 24:32)?
So can you. Choose God's Word. Start with discipline, and watch as discipline gives way to desire and grows into full-blown delight. This can be the defining choice of 2017 for you.
Pray this:
Lord God, what do You see for me as You look ahead to this new year? I don't long to do more; I long to be more, by Your grace. And I know that the key catalyst for my soul change is time alone with You in Your Word. You don't force me, but You do invite me, and I choose today, this year, to accept Your invitation. May I learn to delight in Your Word. Would You teach me, speak to me, and make me more like Your Son, Jesus, in whose name I pray.
Amen.
Loving you and Lifting you,
PD
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| Annual Cook-off & Gift Basket Auction |
9th Annual All-Church Chili, Soup, and Stew
Cook-Off & Gift Basket Auction will be Sunday,
January 29, after the Morning Worship Service.
There is no entry fee and everyone is encouraged to enter! Please bring your favorite chili/soup fixings (crackers, cornbread, sour cream, cheese, onions, etc.) and desserts. Invite your friends and join us for a great time of food, fellowship, and fun! For more information, please contact Kevin or Sherry Seigman or Carrie Turnbow.
Gift Baskets are needed for our Gift Basket Auction on Sunday, January 29.
Last year we had a lot of different baskets...something for everyone! If you or your Sunday School class would like to prepare a basket to auction, please contact Carrie Turnbow or Sherry Seigman as soon as possible. Money raised from the gift basket auction will be used to help with needs in the Children and Youth Departments.
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| Youth Department - WYBT1 |
Happy New Year!
I am going to start the year out with a bang!
One Heart Many Hands
This is the mission trip that is open to the church on June 18-23, 2017. We will be having a meeting at the church Sunday, January 8, right after the morning service. I will have packets ready explaining the cost. The program has to be paid in full by January 31 and half of the dorm room rental fee paid by then, also. I am looking forward to this trip and all that can go and for the ability to show God's love to those in Indiana.
"For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope." -
Jeremiah 29:11
I know we are starting a new year, and some of us make plans to be better at our diet, or to stop smoking, or to exercise more, but whatever your plans are I ask have you included God in those plans. As you read further, Jeremiah 29:12 says
"Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you."
I ask that as we start this new year with goals and hopes and dreams that we remember to call upon Him and pray to Him and He will listen to us.
Sister Sherry
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Nazarene Missions International
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ONGOING MISSIONS PRAYER REQUESTS:
- Pray for missionaries and their families-for their ministry and safety.
- Pray for missionaries and Christians in creative access areas, where government officials may not welcome missionaries and those who share their faith are in danger on a daily basis.
- Pray for World Mission Broadcast programs and personnel who minister globally via radio, television, Internet, podcasts, and cell phone texting. For more information about World Mission Broadcast, visit WorldMissionBroadcast.org.
- Pray for Nazarene Compassionate Ministries teams that share the love of Jesus to a needy world.
- Pray for the JESUS film ministry. For more information about JESUS film, visit the JESUS Film Harvest Partners Web site.
JANUARY MISSION EMPHASIS NIGHT-
-We will be meeting in the Dining Room on Sunday,
January 8, for our Mission Emphasis Night! Please join us! Bring finger foods for a time of fellowship.
PLEASE REMEMBER YOUR FAITH PROMISE GIVING FOR WORLD EVANGELISM.
HAPPY NEW YEAR! THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT FOR MISSIONS!
Gayla Hastings
NMI President
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FCN Book Club
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FCN Book Club
is reading "The Whistler" by John Grissom and will have discussion at our next meeting on Monday, January 9, at 6:30 p.m. at Mad Coffee & More, located at 8049 Hwy 83/84 (the corner of FM 707 & Hwy 83/84). Contact Carol Hehn for more information.
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Men's Basketball
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Are you ready for some basketball? The men of the church will meet on Saturday, January 7, at
6:00 p.m. in the FCN gym for some fun and fellowship. Bring a friend! Participants must be at least 14 years of age. Please contact Robert Hehn for more information.
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Disc Golf Outing
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Due to the unpredictable winter weather, please watch the FCN website calendar for the next outing. If you would like to be sent a text for the next outing, text Jimmy Thomas at 325-829-6528.
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| Online Sunday Morning Services |
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Our Sunday morning Worship Services can now be found online! Go to: http://www.fcnabilene.org/sermons and click on "First Church of the Nazarene on USTREAM" |
| January Birthdays & Anniversaries |
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Birthdays
4 Pat Bigham
5 Julio Santana Castro
6 Sierra Lindquester
13 Bill Leach
14 Barry Camarillo
19 Lorene Price
21 Cody Bullock
23 Frank Camarillo
29 David Kessell
30 Laurie Moore
31 Jarryd Thomas
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Anniversaries
5 Bill & Loretta Leach
8 John & Carol Chappell
12 Neal & Karalyn King
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