Words of life

It was a very cold Saturday morning on December 12th, but we still had a good sized crowd at the Reach van. Kathy started us off with two Christmas carols and many joined in...
The message we shared was titled "Powerful, Life-changing Words"
Hebrews 1:2, Msg - "He holds everything together by what He says - Powerful Words!"
Hebrews 4:12 "His Word is alive and full of power...".

Words of creation
God's Words of Power actually hold everything together. In the beginning God spoke " Let there be light" and it was. God created a beautiful world for His new family. His creation was sweet, creative, positive, alive and full of God's love. Jesus said "His Words are Spirit and they are life". God's creative words caused creation and breathed life into every creature.

Words of destruction
Everything God made was good...but then something terrible happened... God's enemy spoke. A dark, shady, twisted being that speaks destructive, negative, hateful words and turns sweet into bitter. The first attack on God's creation was against His Word. Sin entered this world and broke it. The good family God created was ruined, lost, broken. The curse of sin and death ruined what God originally intended for us. If God's Word failed to hold things together the enemy's destructive word would have torn everything apart long ago!

A new Word: Rescue and recovery
God could have given up on humanity, on creation. His dreams were crushed - He lost everything He worked so hard for! But God never gave up hope. Instead He came up with a plan to recover and rescue us and spoke new creative, powerful Words of life. This new creative Word would be even more powerful than sin and death and would restore God's family and recover what He lost. What could God's Word bring that would be more powerful than sin and death?

Christ the Savior is born
The Word of a savior, Who would come to save the lost and bring eternal life. This Word was spoken through God's people for many generations until one day... the Word of a savior became flesh. Jesus Christ is God's answer to hurting humanity. Jesus gave us the Words of eternal life and He became our sacrifice for sin.

Get in the Word and find the creative Words from the bible that you need today...
Words of Healing, salvation, provision, protection, relationship with God, eternal life, a new family of believers who love you, deliverance from addiction, purpose and meaning in life. I'm going through some storms in my life and if it wasn't for God's Word holding me together I'd be lost.

If you don't know this saving God you can know Him today and have a relationship with Him. Romans 10:9 says "The Word that saves is right here, near as the tongue in your mouth, as close as the heart in your chest! It's the Word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us."

We welcome everyone to pray this prayer with us... " Jesus, you are the Master, our boss. We believe you died on the cross for us and rose again. We surrender our life to You. We repent of sin and trust in you to save us and make us right with God. Thank you for saving us through Your Word and empowering us to live for you." Amen.

As far as I could tell, everyone prayed that prayer with us that morning.

- Neil

Holiday dinner video clip

Video of the dinner shot on an iPhone ....

Thank you all for making the dinner a success!

Great time, great food.
Thanks to all who volunteered their time and their resources to make this a success. We served two meals to accommodate the larger crowd this year. We served 160 meals total (including volunteers). Pastor Thom shared a message of God's love and hope for each one of us. There was a raffle and Hannaford gift cards were given out. Each person was greeted and welcomed with a smile. Gift bags were given out to everyone as they left. It was great to see so many smiling faces.

Sonlight Fellowship wanted to mention a special thanks to:

• Reach4Hope - For the crew of volunteers.
  
• Rise Again Outreach - It was great to have the bus on site. Many left with clothes from the bus that they were blessed to have.
• Lakes Region Charter and Shuttle Service - They supplied two vans and two drivers for the afternoon who were VERY accommodating!
  
• Friends of Forgotten Children - For the boxes and boxes of clothing of all types and sizes - what a blessing!
• West Congregational Church - It was a joy to witness their enthusiasm in helping out by providing the goody bags.
• American Legion - For the $50 toward the purchase of turkeys - not to mention allowing us free use of the hall the night before so we could do a great deal of the prep work ahead of time.
• Starbucks Coffee - For supplying all of the coffee. There were folks in attendance who had never been able to afford a Starbucks coffee, and here they were able to enjoy one for free.
• Aspen Family Dentistry For donating a whole case of tooth brushes.
• Hannaford Supermarket - for providing a $15 gift card as well as cups and napkins for the event.

God bless you all!