Happy New Year

Calvary Baptist Church-Gainesville, Texas January 2015 Volume 9, Issue 1

T h e C a lva ry C o n n e c t i o n

Real Christianity

Real Jesus

For twenty years I believed I was saved. I

thought I knew who Jesus Christ was and I thought I knew what it meant to be a Christian. After all, I was an American and I grew up in a Southern Baptist Church, I must have been saved. After twenty years of believing a lie, God made it abundantly clear to me that I was not saved. This divine revelation lead me to study God’s Word, the Bible, for the first time in my life. Looking back, it’s hard to believe I considered myself a Christian when I had never actually opened God’s Word. What I read amazed me, but what I learned scared me. I soon realized that I had no idea who this God was. It didn’t take me long to figure out that Jesus was not a “gentleman”, or some sort-of hippie-pacifist who was cheerleading on the sidelines of life just waiting for me to stop by and “invite him into my heart”. No, He was and is the eternal, perfect, and all powerful God of this universe and He didn’t want a one-time prayer from me, but rather he demanded a life-time of devotion. Though He loves me just the way I am, He doesn’t expect me to remain this way. He expects me to draw further away from sin and closer to who he is every day, and even more as the time draws near. I think there is a lot of misrepresentation and confusion in the Church today about who Jesus was and is, and what He expects from us. I also believe this misrepresentation is due to our ignorance of God’s Word. If we want to know who the real Jesus is, then we need to open up His word, read it, believe it, and apply it! Grace, mercy, peace,

Haden Children/Youth Pastor

I think it is safe to say that the Lord truly blessed the year 2013 here at CBC. Let me take a second to remind you of several things that happened this past year: Children were saved Believers were baptized New members joined We ordained a new deacon We completed our first full year of

AWANA and began our second We sent several kids to camps this sum-

mer We held a block party to let our commu-

nity know they are welcome here We provided school supplies for GISD We fed around 60 people a Thanksgiving

dinner We sent 100+ Operation Christmas Child

boxes to be distributed around the world

We hired a children and youth minister We bought Christmas gifts for 9 children

in our community I’m sure there are many other things that I have missed, but there is no doubt that the Lord has been at work! And when I think about all of these things, I am reminded of what a certain church member always tells me: “We can’t get content!” It’s ok to step back, see all that has been done, and praise the Lord for it, but it’s not ok to sit back, re-lax, and think that is enough. As we enter 2015, there is still plenty of work to be done. Let me encourage you to take some time and ask the Lord what your part will be in making His name famous this year. Happy New Year! Travis Pastor

Coming Events

Happy New Year 01 Office Closed AWANA Resumes 07 Youth Pizza Party 07 7-12th Grades 6:00pm Deacon’s Mtg. 11 5:00pm Friend’s Fellowship 15 Woolf Den 6:00pm Children/Youth 18 Sponsors Mtg. 4:30pm Ladies Mtg. 25 4:29pm Business Mtg. 25 6:00pm

Happy Birthday

Bob Chapman 04 Steve Eans 11 Brenda Jenkins 11 Sandy Johnson 13 James Hardy 15 Savana Beaudin 16 Phyllis Williams 20 Joe Gibson 21 Gerry Pelton 26 Judy Smith 28 Kathy Hellman 31

Our sympathy to Bar-bara Cox and her fami-ly in the loss of her Dad, Delton Winters on Nov 28th and to Joe Gibson in the loss

of his wife Pat Gibson December 8th. Our love and prayers are with these two fami-lies during this difficult time.

If you have seen a young man in the hall-ways or in the Worship Center sporting a big smile or offering a friendly handshake, that would be Haden

Clark, our new Children/Youth Pastor. Haden joined our staff on December 7th. “Welcome Haden” we are glad you are here.

DID YOUR KNOW? Brysen Whitaker and Brittanye Moore, granddaughter of Wayne and Linda Moore became engaged during the Christmas holidays. A summer wedding is planned. Bob Chap-man’s nephew, Bill Kelly was named Navel Computer and Telecommunications Headquarters Sailor

of the year for Japan and was in third place for the world-wide award. He and his family have been in Yokosuka, Japan for the past three years. According to Brody Parkhill, he’s big because he has a big heart. If you haven’t done so already, you need to take a look at the newly arranged youth room (the previous choir room). It’s pretty neat. Congratulations to all of our UIL winners and to those who made the honor roll for the past six weeks. The CBC Post Office collected $1,112.00 for the Children’s Christmas Fund. Bible

facts: There are 3,268 verses of fulfilled prophecy in the Bible. Until next time, that’s News From the Pews!

We currently have the following openings

Children’s Bible Study Teachers

Kid’s church workers for Sun-day Am and Pm

Youth sponsors

Van drivers for Sunday AM to bring people to Bible Study

Volunteers to clean the church

If you feel lead to help in any of these areas, please see Haden Clark, Travis Flanagan, Stephen King or Lori Kremling

The

Woolf Den

The Friend’s Fel-lowship will be going to The

Woolf Den for dinner January 15th. We will meet at the church at 5:30pm and have din-ner at 6:00pm. All adults are invited to join us for a great time of good Christian fellow-ship. Please make plans to join us.

Ladies, we are planning a Ladies Retreat in April. We have all of our plans and Team leaders in place but we still need help. If you enjoy decorating, we need you, if you have china that you would loan we need it. These are just a couple of the places we need help. Come to our next meeting January 25th @ 4:29 and see what all we have planned and what you might like to do. It’s going to be great!!!