Daily Devotionals

Here is a list of some good Daily Devotionals...

Christianity Today
*several to choose from on this site.

http://www.purposedrivenliving.com/

http://www.crosswalk.com/devotionals/

http://www.gty.org/Resources/Devotionals/dailyreadingsone

Commercial Contest Results

Click here to view the winning video.

Click here to view the losing video.

The winning group wins an evening of dining at the Olive Garden. Also, the winning group leader needs to contact the losing group leader to arrange childcare.

Special thanks to all groups for participating in the commercial contest. Great job by everyone! Enjoy the game tonight.

Here are the official voting results for all videos:

1st Place-Laubach-50

2nd Place-Weese-72

3rd Place-College & Career-77

4th Place-Youth-84

5th Place-Archer-90

6th Place-Taylor-91

7th Place-Moix-94

8th Place-Davis-114

Gift to City Church

As you guys remember, we gave City Church some pretty cool gifts to help support their ministry this past Christmas. I received an email the other day that I wanted to share with you guys, since the gift wasn't from me...it was from Crossroads. Because of your faithfulness in giving we are able to be a blessing to other people. Enjoy!



Hey Mike,

Mike, you don’t know me, but I just wanted to send you a word of encouragement and praise for what you did for Jeremy Sullivan and City Church in Jonesboro on Christmas Eve. I am the Innovative Church Planting Strategist, which is a brand new position for the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. City Church was the first church I helped to start and get going in this position. I just wanted to shoot you guys a note and say what an awesome gift you gave and what a blessing you were to City Church. As you probably know raising up good church partners for church plants is one of the most difficult aspects of my job because most established churches just don’t get it when it comes to church planting. We’re making great strides, but still have a long way to go.

Anyway, I didn’t have any big agenda or anything, I had talked with Jeremy this morning and he told me what you guys had done for them. I got your email address off your website and just wanted to say thank you for being a huge encouragement to City Church through your Christmas gift to them. Very well done. I hope God just absolutely pours amazing things into your church’s life this year.

Grace and Peace,

Dave

Dave McClung, Innovative New Work Strategist
Missions Ministries Team
Arkansas Baptist State Convention
10 Remington Dr. Suite #257
Little Rock, AR. 72204
501-376-4791, ext. 5149
In Arkansas: 800-838-2272
Fax: 501-374-2754
dmcclung@absc.org

Super Bowl Sunday

Hey everyone, don't forget to wear your favorite sports gear to church this Sunday. For those of you that are not into sports, just wear something that shows what you like. You could always wear a Crossroads T-shirt. Also, we will be showing all 8 of the Community Group Commercial Contest Videos this Sunday. There are some good ones, so don't miss out. This might be a good weekend to invite that lost friend.

On a side note...

Mosaic Church in Los Angeles entered a commercial in the Doritos contest and if they win, it will be aired Sunday night during the game. They would also win some big money. Right now, they are in the top 3. Check out this link to read the story and view the commercial.

MosaicChurchDoritosCommercial

Another cool story you've probably heard about...

TimTebow

Have a Great Day!

Envy

I see Envy this way...being sad when someone else has victory and being glad when someone else loses. Now, you can apply that definition to any area of life, but have you ever noticed how sneaky envy is? We usually don't tend to envy people that are outside of the arena of life we are in. For example, I don't envy LeBron James, Bill Gates, Rachael Ray or Tom Cruise. All of these people are highly successful in their fields, but I'm not in their fields. I play basketball for fun (and hope I don't pull anything), I cook without getting paid for it, I'm on the computer but haven't invented anything to improve the quality of it & I act goofy alot, but no one would be willing to buy a ticket to see me on the big screen. Now, think about those people and who do you think would be envious of their achievements?...other NBA players, rich successful businessmen, other cooking shows & other actors. We tend to envy the people that do what we do. I may envy other Pastors or other churches. You may envy someone in the same field as you, but more than likely you won't envy outside of your personal arena of life. Look in the church, we envy the other areas of ministry that have success, other community groups that seem to grow faster than ours, or other musicians that play better than us. James 3:16 says, "for where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice." More than anything, God wants His church to be unified and orderly, and with Envy hanging around...that won't happen.

Choices

There may not be a choice in the work itself, but there is a choice about the way you do that work.

There may not be a choice in the type of kids God gives you, but there will be a choice in the direction you lead them.

There may not be a choice in the type of people you work with, but there is a choice in how you treat them.

There may not be a choice to have more than 24 hours in a day, but you will have a choice in distributing the 24 hours you’ve been given.

There may not be a choice in defining how people will treat you, but there is a choice in your attitude toward them.

My In-Laws have these words in a picture frame, plaque or something in their house and I’ve always remembered them... “Life is God’s gift to you, what you do with it is your gift to Him.”

Quick Tip on Defeating Jealousy

I think one thing that creeps into our lives and causes danger is jealousy. Jealousy can be damaging to Christians because it keeps us from encouraging others along the journey. I see it in kids all the time. Kid A gets a new toy and Kid B gets mad because Kid A was blessed. However, as adults I think we can tend to be as jealous or more jealous than children. Think about the people in your life that have a better house, job, vehicle, etc. It doesn't take much thinking before the faces of several people start to pop-up in your mind. Jealousy can be a killer! One thing to remember is this...it's much easier to behave your way into a new way of thinking than to think your way into a new way of behaving. In other words, don't wait until you feel like celebrating; celebrate until you feel like it. When someone wins, gets a new toy, accomplishes something huge, whatever, just go ahead and compliment and congratulate them. With this approachment, you can remove jealousy before it settles in and hopefully, create a habit of celebrating the blessings of others.