Sunday, June 10, 2012

FAMILY PRIORITY

Learn Deuteronomy 6:5, 7 - Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.... Impress these commandments on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

Main Idea

The second core value of our series Christian to the Core is “Family Priority”. Being christian to the core means you recognize the most important relationships in your life are with your family, and the most important work that you will ever do is within your family. God desires for you to be a blessing within your family. Family is where we first learn the skill of relation to others, where we learn to love and receive love, to listen, and to express our needs. God desires for the family to be a trusting and secure environment. In the family, we learn about authority, and hopefully, we learn healthy lessons about the consequences of disregarding that authority. God designs the family to be the place where babies are born and children are nurture.

Know What

God looks for men and women who are convinced that the family is God’s building block for society and give their family priority in their lives.

So What

The Lord gives you a family so you an lean how to love him and others. As we grow in our ability to relate to those closest to us, we are able to take those skills into the broader community.

Now What

This week, identify the strengths and weakness of your relationships within your family. What can you do today to begin to work on those weakness?

Discuss…

1. Think about the family as a gift, a place of service, and a responsibility.

2. Analyze how common is “God-talk” in your home.

3. Evaluate your commitment to your family.

4. Evaluate your spiritual life as a family.

5. Name 2-3 blessings for every specific member of your direct family.

Next Steps…

This week, discuss with your spouse and/or other families members where your family is strongest and where is weakest. Try to create a moment you and your family or family member will cherish for the rest of your lives. Remember to love those that god gives us to love.

Let’s pray… Dear God, you plan placed us in families. This act of grace reveals your wisdom. In families we learn to love. Even though some families are broken, your perfect will is wholeness. You have provided for us grace, mercy and forgiveness to restore and heal. For that which we have received from our families, we give you thanks. Help us by your grace to love our families as you have loved us. And as you give yourself to us, may we also give ourselves to our families so that they too, may learn how to love. In Jesus name, Amen.

Announcements

North Georgia Annual Conference: This week our pastors will be attending the North Georgia Annual Conference in Athens, GA. Our lay delegates, Gene Jernigan, Phil Dodson, and Gerald Scott will also be in attendance. Rev. Rodrigo Cruz will be commissioned as a provisional elder at the Classic Center in Athens on Tuesday, June 12^th at 7:30 p.m.

WORSHIP FOR SUNDAY, JUNE 17^th: Dr. Kirk Bozeman will be in the pulpit at 8:45 and 11:00 in the sanctuary. His sermon “The Four Voices of the Heart” is based on 1 Corinthians 15: 9-10. Rev. Rodrigo Cruz will preach the “Pasion” service in the Fellowship Hall at 11:00. His sermon “Passion for the Harvest” is based on Jeremiah 20: 9 and Matthew 9: 36-38.

PRAYER NEEDS: Rehab: Maudie Lee at Golden Living. Home: Diane Granville, daughter of Marion Granville-McKeown, in NY; Doug Riddle; Lillian Kuglar. Ongoing Care: Frank Phillips; Teri Jo Reese; Sue Hill; Tom Little; Joyce Stone; Thelma Purcell; Charles Spiegel; Sheldon Smith; Georgia Heckler; Don Moll; Don Bell; David McQueary, son of Sharon McQueary, in IL and Joy Porter, LA, niece of Gloria Hall. We keep these and others we may learn about in our prayers. If you have other prayer requests, please place them in the prayer boxes.

NEWSLETTER DEADLINE: Information for the July newsletter must be submitted by email to dhightower@northbrookumc.com in Word by Monday, June 18th, before 10:00 a.m.

We are still looking for volunteers for Second Saturday - This Saturday June 9th. Come help out The Hope Store - a supporter of Street Grace - as we help to sort and organize donations for their thrift store or spend a couple of hours picking up trash on Houze Way - Northbrook's adopted highway. Volunteers for trash pickup will meet at 9AM outside the fellowship hall and Street Grace volunteers will meet there at 9:30. Signup online or email Trey Kinney at trey@gokinney.com.

METAL CLUB: Metal Club - Fellowship Hall - 12:00 noon - for all those 55 years of age or older. Our entertainment this month has been changed from Doug Riddle (who will be with us in September) to Singing Steve, who has been with us before and will entertain us with his repertoire of "Golden Oldies." Bring our sandwich - dessert and beverage will be provided and another not-so-average door prize will be awarded. Come join us.

American Red Cross Blood Drive will be Sunday June 24^th, from 8:00 until 1:00. Please sign up in the courtyard today to give blood, help with registration, or bake cookies. Call or email Lynn Clements to sign up or get more information at 678-491-0080 or e-mail Lynnc104@comcast.net.

Directory advertising opportunity: We are in the process of updating our annual Guide Book & Directory for the Church. This book will be the Who, What, Where, When, Why and How of our Congregation. The book is being provided at no cost to our Church, including the mailing to each family, and again is being subsidized by local businesses that advertise in it. If you own or manage a business and would like to find out about advertising in our book, please call the Church Office 770-998-2000 ext. 225.

UPDATE: We are updating our data base for the new Guide Book and Directory. Please let the church know any changes in phone number, address or children at home.