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Sara and I have noticed that some days Eli wakes up and it seems like the first 50 words out of his mouth are all “no.” There are days when he is the coolest, sweetest 2 year old in the world and there are days when you just want to spank him for good measure. It seems like that’s how I am with God. Some days I want to obey Him. Some days I rebel all day long. Not sure yet if Eli is a strong willed child, I’m definitely a strong willed adult!

1 Corinthians 15:1-11
These verses are often referred to as the gospel in a nutshell. What does Paul point out about the facts of salvation? What do we have to believe to be saved? How do we know that we can trust the resurrection?

Ephesians 2:1-10
In just 10 verses, we see here a basic outline of how a person is saved. What do these verses tell us about our condition without Jesus? How do we find out about Him? How do we respond to what we know?

Teaching the Bible on Sundays is an absolute blast for me. I love getting the chance to ask the Holy Spirit to speak to me throughout the week and then to use those words in other people’s lives on Sundays. But, any pastor will tell you that there’s nothing more exhausting than preaching. Every ounce of your spirit gets zapped because you are trying your best to communicate passionately and lovingly. Because of that, on Mondays I am spiritually thirsty. I try to read a lot and usually wind up listening to a lot of preaching from other pastors. What do you do when you’re dry? What do you read? Who do you listen to? If we’re not careful, dry times can lead to filling up with the wrong stuff.

See Monday 5/18 for description of what we’re up to.

Colossians 1:15-23
This passage is an argument written by the apostle Paul arguing that Jesus is the first and greatest in importance of all people throughout history? What kinds of things does he say about Jesus to make his point? How do these contradict your ideas about Him or society’s ideas about Him?

Two adults trusted Jesus Christ in the service today on a holiday weekend! So exciting when that happens. Here’s what else went on:

• Definitely figured out the Sunday that people don’t come to church! Memorial Day weekend. Church at the lake, on the golf course, cooking out, etc. Ya’ll better get back next week!
• Talked about the gospel today. As a pastor, there are very few times when you are absolutely sure that you are saying everything God wants you to say. Today is not one of those days. The simplicity of the gospel is so powerful. Thank God that Jesus is the way for those who are lost, truth for those who have been lied to, and life for those who are dead!
• Did I mention that 2 people believed Jesus as their Savior today for the first time! I’m so glad we planted this church.
• We shortened the music today to work in some Q & A, and I should’ve shortened the message too! Thanks for everybody who asked questions. We’ve had some positive feedback from the txt Q&A. We’ll definitely keep it going throughout this series.
• Setup and teardown are really speeding up. Thanks to everybody who pitches in each week.
• Found out this morning at the last minute we didn’t have a sound guy and Andrew Dibb is in the hospital possibly with appendicitis so we’d have no electric guitar. Band still didn’t miss a beat.
• Looking forward to an acoustic set with Tyler, Hank, & Jessica next week. Haven’t gone unplugged in a couple months and I think it’s gonna be a better vibe this go around.
• Student ministry team coming for a mission trip from Georgia to Motown next week. Got a lot to do to get ready for them this week. Can’t wait to see what God uses them to do here. If you can pitch in some food for them, we’d appreciate it.
• Next Sunday night is our first Summer Sunday night. 6pm at Rose Center. Don’t miss it.

Have a great week and a great Memorial Day.

Just a reminder that this week we’ll talk about the simple truth of salvation from John 14. Should be a great week! If you know someone who isn’t a Christ follower this is a great weekend to invite.

I’m really excited about how foundational this series will be in the life of our church. You can always listen to the audio if you miss a week traveling this summer. We’re still working on getting last week up, but it will be there soon.

Acts 7:1-53
This is a large section of Scripture with lots of great content. You may wish to divide it up among multiple days. In the passage, Steven basically recounts all of the religious history of God’s people. What stories does he bring out in his message? What do you think he’s trying to point out to these people who have rejected Jesus?

See yesterday for description of this post.

Acts 4:1-22
What was the message Peter was proclaiming?
What did these rulers notice about Peter and the apostles?
What was the response of the apostles to being told they couldn’t talk about Jesus? Do you have that same type of response to opposition? Pray for the boldness Peter and the apostles had.

For the next 7 weeks I will be posting devotional readings that go along with the message from the previous Sunday. There will be 3 readings per week, and I will post them on Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday so you can read them on the first 3 days of the week if you want. Take some time each week to read the passages of Scripture and answer the questions if you want to go a little deeper with each topic. Here’s the very first:

Acts 2:42-47
This passage of Scripture is often quoted as a description of what church should be all about. Take a few minutes and pull out some distinguishing marks of this early group of Christ followers. What do you notice? What would it look like for a group of people today to pursue these same kinds of marks? Take some time to pray that Arrowhead would be this kind of body.