Christ Fellowship of Wise County

Good morning, Christ Fellowship family! Coupla things: please remember David Hart in your prayers, especially today. He is having open heart surgery today at noon at Presbyterian Hospital in Denton. He’s in good hands there but we are praying for the doctors to have great skill and wisdom and for David to have a quick and complete recovery. He is in room 2308 right now.

We are starting a new sermon series this Sunday. We will be looking at the “Hall of Shame” of biblical characters who have failed. And there are plenty of them. Maybe you know what it’s like to know what you should do but, for whatever reason, you failed to do it. We will start with a doozie this Sunday from Exodus 32. Aaron didn’t just fail. He failed and then failed again and then doubled down with more and more failure. It was ugly. I’m sure he’s the only one to ever do that. 😉

I can’t wait to see you Sunday morning and evening! I love you all! — Todd

I woke up a little earlier than I normally do this morning thinking about how on this day so many years ago, Jesus had gotten no sleep that previous night. He was hauled into a sham court and given a mock trial all the while being mentally and physically abused. I don’t like thinking about what they did to Him much less write about it, but you know.

At about 9am they finally nailed Him to a cross where He died later that afternoon. He didn’t faint. He didn’t swoon. He died. Almighty God in the flesh allowed Himself to be tortured by the men He created and then died. We know that by God’s great mercy and grace that was not the end. We know He rose again in three days. But for just a few minutes this morning let’s all meditate on the fact that Jesus died on a cruel cross to pay for the sins we have chosen to commit.

We will meet again this Sunday to absolutely celebrate His resurrection and to acknowledge why this day can ever be called “Good.” But for now, this is a John 19 kind of day. Read that with me today and if you get emotional, you are in my company.

I love you all! — Todd

Hello Christ Fellowship! Just a reminder here of our Easter Sunday lunch plans. It’s gonna be a ham-themed lunch and all we have to do is bring sides and desserts and drinks. Trina will be cooking the ham. (Yay!) If you want another meat, it’s fine to bring anything. This will be right after the service this coming Sunday the 20th. As usual, crockpots work best to keep things hot. No stove or microwave on the premises. And no evening service that night. As always, you don’t have to bring a thing. Nobody is keeping track of who brings what and there is always plenty so just come on! I can’t wait! Love y’all! — Todd

Well, not this Sunday but the next is Easter and I am very excited! Most of you know that makes this Sunday Palm Sunday. So, should we all wear palm leaf hats and wave palm leaves when we go to Christ Fellowship? Eh, you can. I guess that’s appropriate. But honestly, I want to worship like we always do. In fact, some of you may wonder why we don’t make a bigger deal about Palm Sunday and even Easter. I know some churches pull out all the stops and have a weekend-long festival around Easter. And I’m not saying that’s wrong.

What I am saying is that if you want helicopter egg drops and the Easter Bunny and an Elvis impersonator singing Gospel hymns, well, I can recommend a few places. If you think the Spirit isn’t there unless somebody gets healed, I know of some churches. But if you want to truly worship God in spirit and in truth like it says in John 4 – if you want to lay down your burdens at the feet of Jesus and rear back and worship our Savior who died but rose again – you can do that at Christ Fellowship.

Let’s meet there this Sunday and do just that at 10 and 6. You will be missed if you can’t be there. I love you all! — Todd

Let’s say I invited you over to my house for dinner. I’m not a very good cook but I can make a mean grilled cheese sandwich. So, you come over to my house for a nice dinner and I break out my finest Chinet paper plates and give you one half of a grilled cheese sandwich. That’s it. Only half and no chips or sides. Not even a glass of water. Can you survive the evening on that? Sure. The grilled cheese will be tasty but…you just need more, don’t you?

That’s how a lot of you are doing spiritually when you miss Sunday evening and Wednesday evening Bible studies. Sunday mornings are good. In fact, here lately they have been really good, really worshipful. But you need more. In fact, you really only get about half of what you need to really flourish if you miss out on the other nights. Are you struggling spiritually? Check out our Bible studies at 6 pm Sunday and 7 pm Wednesday.

Also, Melinda Messier had her knee replacement surgery this morning and it went better than expected and she should be home tomorrow – just like we prayed!

I love you all and can’t wait to see you! — Todd

We at Christ Fellowship want to say how thrilled we are to hear that Randy – Trina’s son – has asked Halle to marry him and she said “yes!” Randy has played a big part in our church for some time now helping Morris with the audio/visual stuff and has been a huge help there! Thank you, Randy, and we are excited for you and Halle! No date has been set yet but they are working on that.

Also, David Hart just informed me that he and his family have to be out of their house by April 4 so he is going to rent a truck tomorrow, Saturday, March 29, to load up some stuff and take it to storage in Decatur starting at about 8 am. If you are able to help, you will be greatly appreciated. You know the drill. Bring pickups, dollies, straps, muscles, etc. If you don’t know where he lives here in Chico on Sherman Street, just contact me and we will meet there. Treasures in Heaven for ya!

I’ll see you Sunday when we will discuss God’s majesty as Isaiah saw it in Isaiah 6. I can’t wait! I love you all! — Todd

Merriam-Webster dictionary says: “Sovereign: absolute power—that is, power that cannot be checked by anyone or anything.” If a president or king is absolutely sovereign, that would be a miserable country in which to live. Nobody wants to be ruled by a sovereign person. But, at the same time, the knowledge of God’s absolute, infinite, irresistible and unconditional sovereignty should give the Christian great peace.

Let’s talk about that at Christ Fellowship this Sunday at 10 and 6. There is something special about Sunday nights at Christ Fellowship so I really hope you’ll be there! If you aren’t, you will be missed! I love you all! — Todd

Do you ever read something in the Bible and wonder if it could possibly be true? Did God really speak the universe into existence? Did God really flood the whole earth? Did Daniel really survive being thrown into the lion’s den? Did Jesus really die on a cross to pay for my sins? Some of that is pretty hard to believe.

I want to challenge you this weekend to read Genesis chapters 6, 7, and 8. It’s the story of Noah’s ark. I bet you have read it before but have you read it lately? Go back and read it thinking about why God did it, how He did it and could it really be possible? Then we will talk about it again Sunday morning at Christ Fellowship.

I can’t wait to see you! I love you all! — Todd

I love a good story. And nobody could tell a story like Jesus. He used stories or what we call parables to help illustrate truths He was telling. And sometimes He used them to conceal some truth from people He knew wouldn’t accept it. So, we at Christ Fellowship spent 6-7 weeks studying those parables but this Sunday we will start a new study. This Sunday, we will start to look at the attributes of God through the big, fun stories of the scripture. And this Sunday we will see the creativity of God in Genesis chapter 1. 

Do you want to have all your questions answered about how and why God created everything including dinosaurs and cavemen and the “leviathan”? Yea, that’s not gonna happen. But you will hopefully come away with a new appreciation of the creativity that God has and how we, made in His image, also are given creativity.

Don’t forget to set your clocks forward this Saturday night and I will see you at 10 am Sunday morning and 6 pm that evening. I love you all! — Todd

If you have seen any news lately, you have seen there is a renewed interest in eating and living healthy. We (I sure do) need to be reminded that what goes in our mouths has a direct effect on how we look and feel. And it’s the same with what goes in our eyes and into our brains. What we see and take in has a direct effect on how we look, feel and act.

David said in Psalm 101, “I will be careful to lead a blameless life—I will conduct the affairs of my house with a blameless heart. I will not look with approval on anything that is vile. I hate what faithless people do; I will have no part in it.”

Let’s all be careful what we watch and listen to on TV, radio and the computer. Our mental, physical and spiritual health depends on it! And we can do better. I love you all and can’t wait to see you this Sunday at Christ Fellowship! — Todd

PS We are signed up for the Chico Spring Fling and we have our usual good spot. But we need some prizes to give away. What do y’all have in mind? We have some time. It will be on Saturday, May 17th. Thanks y’all!