Raul Sifuentes will be leaving for an Amigo Sin Frontera mission trip to Mexico on February 8. He will return on February 20. Please support him with your prayers as he serves as an evangelist with the medical team.

Raul would like to thank everyone for contributing to the special offering for his expenses and ministry. A total of $411.25 was collected.

Advisory Council elections will take place during March. We have four seats up for election this year. Anyone wanting to serve on the council should pick up an application from Terry Quinn. The application involves writing a short paragraph about your experience and qualifications. Members are elected for a two-year term and may run for re-election. The council consists of eight members, seven are elected of which 4 are elected in even years and 3 in odd years. The eighth member is our treasurer, who is appointed by our pastor.

Fifteen members volunteered to serve at The Beacon last Sunday morning. Jobs involved everything from preparing lunch, serving coffee, doing the laundry, bussing the tables, doing the dishes, and registering the needy. The Beacon is a ministry that serves the homeless of downtown Houston four days a week. We volunteer on Sunday morning once a month. Due to the large number of volunteers, you are asked to serve once every other month so that all will have a chance to participate. Please contact Sylvester Washington if you wish to volunteer. Definite dates are not available at this time, but he will have them shortly.

Hello once again from Community Christian Fellowship, This coming week were going to be going through I. Corinthians 13; known as the love chapter. Have you ever asked yourself what love is? Many people feel it is a deep emotional experience. Others think it means youre happy all the time because of loving or being loved. Finally, some actually think that it is completely revolving around being sexually involved. The answer is frustratingly simple. Love is God, or as most of us say it, God is love.

God, in His nature of perfect union of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is by His nature love. It is a perfection and unity that is so transcending our experience that we have to have faith to believe it. Jesus, in his physical life, suffering, death, resurrection and ascension, certainly didnt feel happy all the time, but his actions were perfect in love. He was God in the flesh, love.

With this in mind, we have to understand that we will never be like Christ, but we can be thankful that through him we are saved. Many Christians feel that they have to emulate Jesus in every aspect of their lives. This is simply impossible. If we could, we wouldnt need him. Even with the direction and guidance of the Holy Spirit, we fall painfully short. So why did God give us the Holy Spirit? So that we could begin to understand, that in spite of the faults and sins we see in ourselves, our hearts can be directed to accept the love that God has for us. We are becoming at one with Him!!!

But, to do so, we must BE LOVED, or maybe a better way to say it is let ourselves be loved by God. This is all up to us; it is a complete change of heart and mindset from the human desires. We want to take charge, fix things, get better, and constantly be growing. These are not bad ideas, but the focus is on us. Why not try focusing on others besides ourselves, not worry about if God loves us or not, and let the Holy Spirit direct us to a point to where our entire view on life changes; its not always about us.

God has taken care of us so that we can learn to love and be loved by others. That is becoming one with God and through the Holy Spirit, becoming one with others. In other words, it is love.

Until next time, Pastor Mark