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I’m hearing from lots of people that tomorrow’s chili cook-off at Christ Fellowship is going to be the contest of the year! We should have numerous entries in all three categories. The highly acclaimed Bent Spoon Awards are completed, delivered and under lock and key in their display case. Now, if the competition is too much for you, which is understandable, please remember that we also need extras of cheese, crackers, Fritos, onions, sour cream, squid, etc. We have tables set up at the back of the building for you to put your chili and accessories when you get there. There should be plenty of power strips to keep your crockpots warm. And the tables we will eat on will be set up after the service. The 2025 Christ Fellowship Annual Chili cook-off is a go, ladies and gentlemen!

Ah, Valentine’s Day and love is in the air! Guys, I know you want to show your spouse you still love her after all these years. You might lovingly tell her that even though the wrapper is wrinkled, the candy is still sweet. Or maybe you want to be biblical and compliment her like Solomon did. The old, “teeth like a flock of sheep” and “temples like pomegranates” lines work every time. Take it from me. 🙂

But I’ll tell you what my mind turns to on Valentine’s weekend – CHILI! Right? It’s finally here. The Christ Fellowship 24th Annual (I don’t really know) Chili Cook-off! Yay! And, as always, there will be the ever-coveted Bent Spoon Awards for the Spiciest, the Best Tasting and the Most Exotic. These award-winning awards are made from solid gold spoons set on imported gopher wood from Israel and are hand-crafted by the master craftsmen of Nepal specifically for our chili winners this Sunday after the morning service. So, bring a crockpot full of your favorite chili and maybe you can take home one of these worthless, I mean priceless awards!

There will be no evening service so the winners can recover mentally and physically from their overwhelming good fortune and glee.

I can’t wait to see you all! We will be continuing our study of the parables of Jesus. I promise this part of this email is factual. No guarantees on most of the rest. But I do love you and will miss you if you aren’t there! — Todd

Life’s not fair. That’s no great revelation, is it? We can all see that. And yet, we all want it to be fair. We complain when it’s not and we can’t believe it when it shows to be that way. But at least God is fair, right? Are you sure? In fact, there aren’t many examples of God being truly fair in all of scripture. Unfairness is far more common. Truthfully, if God were really fair, we’d all be bound for Hell. So, I’m grateful He’s not fair. The true measure of a person, though, is how they react to that unfairness.

It’s not fair that so many of us have been sick here lately. It’s not fair that I had to ask Timmy and Brian to fill in for me last week with less than 24 hours’ notice. But neither one complained (that I know of) and both allowed God to use them and speak through them in a powerful way. And I’m grateful to them and to God for that.

It’s also not fair that our dear Anna Campbell is back in the hospital. Would you please pray for her? The doctors still don’t know what the problem is and continue to run all kinds of tests. Right now, she’s not in a lot of pain but she’s not well and that’s what we pray for. But she’s in good spirits and she said she doesn’t need anything. But there’s no telling what Joe is eating when he gets home, know what I mean?

I love you all and I can’t wait to see you this Sunday at Christ Fellowship! Thank you all for checking on me and giving me good stuff to eat while I was sick. I’m 100% now though and I can’t wait to worship with my church family! (Except you sick folks. Y’all stay home.) 🙂 — Todd

Karl Menninger, the famed psychiatrist, once said that if he could convince the patients in psychiatric hospitals that their sins were forgiven, 75 percent of them could walk out the next day!

Forgiveness. It’s huge. It’s painful. It’s difficult. It’s oftentimes undeserved but it’s always critical. But we learned last week why we are to forgive others. We forgive because we have been forgiven. And we forgive because it is a command. We forgive or we won’t be forgiven. So, we learned why we forgive. Join us this week at Christ Fellowship to see how we are to forgive. 

I can’t wait to see you! If you missed last week, you missed a powerful time of worship and praise. It was just fun! Let’s do it again this Sunday. I love you all! — Todd

Most of you know that Christ Fellowship streams our Sunday morning worship service to Facebook. Then it’s also sent to our church website and the message is sent to You Tube as well. Morris and Randy do a great job with our audio / visual and the quality of the video is top notch. And we are very thankful for all the work they do. So, it’s no surprise every week when we get 150 – 300 people watching the video one way or another.

But last week it was a surprise when I checked my Facebook page to see that over 800 people had tuned in to hear Timmy Perry preach! Yes, I believe 512 of those had the last name “Perry” but I thought it was fantastic. So, we have decided this Sunday, Timmy will make the announcements, pray, lead the singing, preach, take up the offering and sing a solo. So, don’t miss it!

Seriously, while we are grateful to Timmy for sharing with us, we won’t do that to him. We will continue our look at the parables of Jesus this Sunday. Then on February 16th, we will have our always fantastic chili cook-off (with Bent Spoon Awards) and we are already looking forward to Easter on April 20th when we will have our next potluck dinner.

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

As I write this, the world seems profoundly calm. As long as I don’t get on social media or turn on the TV or radio, the world seems to be at great peace. Snow continues to fall and fall and fall. The insulation of it muffles what few sounds there are. Traffic is sparse. The world looks beautiful and peaceful outside. And inside, I have two peaceful dogs (for the moment) and we all have full bellies. We have heat and water and right now all is well.

Which brings up two things: I know not everybody has this right now. And I know it won’t last. For the first thing, if you don’t have heat, water or food, please let me know. I or someone in Christ Fellowship will be glad to help you. No, I won’t go to Starbucks for you and get your daily Frenchie frappe vanilla vente squishie but I’ll make sure you have heat, water and food.

For the second thing, peace is way more than just external. Looking outside my window, everything is peaceful, but I know when some people look inside their hearts, peace seems a long way off. I know. I’ve been there. Scripture has a lot to say about finding peace and keeping it. Isaiah 26:3 says, “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!” Read that verse again slowly and really let it sink in. “Perfect peace”, “trust”, “thoughts are fixed” all speak volumes. Meditate on that today and have the inner peace that matches the outer peace.

I love you all! — Todd

I usually appreciate Facebook motivational posters like I appreciate a cold bowl of baked broccoli but I saw one today I could agree with. It said,

Marry a guy who says things like:

·        I’m proud of you.

·        I can’t believe you’re mine.

·        You can do it baby!

·        I don’t know where this extra dog came from, but it fits in great with our other dogs.

I agree with it because my neighbor is still in jail and his two dogs need foster homes this weekend. He has two really, really sweet mixed breed dogs. He said one is about 16 years old. I don’t know the age of the other but it is mature. Both are females. That’s about all I know. But the weather is supposed to get really cold next week and they have no heat. They can go in and out of the house but there’s no electricity. If you or somebody you know could foster these dogs for a few weeks until he gets out of jail and gets on his feet, there will be treasures in Heaven for you! And I’ll throw in a bag of dog food.

Also, our food pantry is still helping people every week and is running low on milk, bread and meat. If you can help, you can bring them to church or to my house or I’ll be glad to come get it.

Thank you, Christ Fellowship! I love you all and I can’t wait to see you Sunday! — Todd

So, Christ Fellowship, if you had 2024 to do over again, what would you do differently? Maybe you have some New Year’s resolutions or maybe you don’t do that stuff but hopefully we can all look back and see what we might do a little differently in the coming year. Will you speak a little gentler to people? Will you recognize that everybody is going through something right now and maybe cut them a little slack? Will you cut yourself some slack and forgive yourself of what you did in the past? Maybe you need to work harder to not use God’s name or any of His titles unless you are talking to Him or about Him. (Ex. 20:7)

In praying about what God wants for our church, I feel led that we need more Jesus and more of each other in 2025. So, we will start in January looking in depth at the parables of Jesus and we will have more opportunities to get together and just eat and fellowship and share with each other what is going on in our lives. I look forward to ’25 (even though it looks weird to write that number) and I wouldn’t want to do it with any other church. I love y’all!

Lastly, I have some sad news. Many of you remember our dear friends from Bowie, Jim and Bunnie McAfee. I got word that Jim had a heart attack Christmas day and passed away at the hospital. Please pray for Bunnie and the whole family including his sister Pati who lives in Bridgeport. I have no other info yet but when I do, I will pass it on. Thank you. — Todd

There’s no tree. There are no special lights. There’s no Santa Claus or inflatable reindeer. But this is a special time of year at Christ Fellowship and this will be a special Sunday coming up this weekend. Sunday morning will be filled with worship and testimonies, special scripture readings and fellowship. Then Sunday evening we will do something completely different. We will get our popcorn and munchies and wear our holiday jammies and watch a special Christmas movie called The Star. It will last about an hour and a half so we will start right at 6. It’s always fun when we get together like this so I sure hope you can make it! I love you all! — Todd

In this holiday season “so merry and bright”, it’s easy to be overwhelmed with the desire for stuff. I want this from Santa and that in my stocking and I want that in the driveway and that in my online cart. And what happens when you get it? “Yay! Now…what’s next? I want more!” Right?

For those of you that have worshipped with Christ Fellowship in our temporary building at the R2BA gun auction in Chico, you may be feeling the same way. God, in teaching our church that being His church has nothing to do with the building, has shown up in a powerful way since we have moved this last time. And it has left me with a desire for more.

I want His presence. I need it. I have felt it and His presence has satisfied like presents never could. But I still want more. The good news is God wants to give us more! He is generous with presents but He wants to lavish us with His presence. Psalm 16:11 says, “in Your presence there is fullness of joy.” Acts 2:28 says, “You will make me full of joy in Your presence.”

I can’t wait to see you this Sunday morning but I really can’t wait to be in the presence of the Great I Am, the Creator and Redeemer, the Sustainer and Deliverer, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and my Friend. I’m praying right now that God will bring you to church this weekend prayed up and ready to worship! I can’t wait! I love you all! — Todd