If you missed the Ladies' Bible Study and Craft Night, you really missed something. Shirley showed us how to do glass painting, and we all did our best on the goblets and drinking glasses available for us to work our creativity on. The works of art ranged from masterpieces on a glass to simple squiggles of decoration (by those artistically challenged like myself). No matter what category your artistic prowess fell in that night, it was a great time of fellowship, and we even had a visit by one of our community's newest members- Chancy Choate's daughter, Faith ( Toots' granddaughter, and Ellen Brown's great-granddaughter). She stayed long enough to get in on the Bible study that Charlotte led about JOY.
One of the questions that Charlotte posed was- "What things can take away or rob us of our joy?" That is a good question. In John 10:10, Jesus speaks of the enemy of our souls who comes to "steal, kill and destroy". One of the devil's tactics to defeat us is to steal from us, and he syeals everything he can from us. He tries to steal our JOY through circumstances, through frustrations, through pain, through criticism, and a host of other ways. But as we walk close to Jesus in the Spirit, His presence in our life becomes our joy, not the situations that we find ourselves in.
The enemy tries to steal more than our joy- he tries to steal our HOPE- who is Jesus, also, by planting doubt in our trust in Him. He can try to steal our dreams and ministries by planting doubt in what God says to us. Notice that the tool of the enemy's theft is DOUBT, and the target of his theft is our TRUST in our Lord. Is there something that you feel the Lord has spoken to you about doing? Or some ministry that He has put a love for in your heart? Maybe you are tempted to feel doubt because opportunities have not come up for you to do what God has been putting on your heart, or you have not been willing to believe (the opposite of doubt) that God could and /or would use YOU. TAKE HEART, and don't be robbed of all that the Lord has for you this year... this month... this week. Trust God to take you where you could not go yourself. Let His presence within you be your unshakable JOY and HOPE... and the "lifter of your head" Psalm 3:3
The next Bible study/Craft night is Feb. 18th at 6:00 pm SEE YOU THERE!!
Mountain Baptist Association Women's Schedule:
Feb 19th --11:30 am lunch at the Magdalena Cafe, Magdalena
March 18th--11:30 lunch at Ella's Cafe in Reserve
April 30- May2nd Women's retreat at Glorietta.
RSVP by first week in April. Note: All lunches are Dutch treat
For more information call Ann Jenkerson 505-772-5156 email ann@datilbaptistchurch.com t