Home for the Holidays

As a child I remember always wanting and desiring to be at home for Thanksgiving and Christmas. As I get a little older, I still feel the same way. The joy of watching the kids open their gifts on Christmas morning, the enjoyment of family being able to tavel to be with us, and just the all-around atmosphere that Christmas brings is wonderful. I want to encourage you this holiday season to spend time with those you love and share with them the true menaing of Christmas. A baby, born in Bethlehem who was and is and always will be the Savior of the world. Have a great week... Bruce

Thanksgiving Family Meal

Thanksgiving is a wonderful time of year to get together with family and take time to share the blessings of the past year. This season, GBF will host a Thanksgiving Family Meal on Sunday Evening, November 23, at 5:30pm.

On the kiosk in the hospitality area of the church, there is a RSVP list for families to sign. Please be sure your family is signed up so we can include them in the food count. Each EKG group has been asked to contribute part of the meal. In the coming weeks, please sign up during the EKG hour! We need your help. The church is providing the drinks and meat (however, if you would just love to deep fry a turkey or bake a ham...let us know!)

Lastly, we are looking for a few volunteers to help decorate, set-up, tear down, and help in the kitchen. If you are interested in helping please contact Gina at babystinson@yahoo.com or Gayle McMullan at gayle.mcmullan@eds.com

This is going to be a great time of family fellowship, food, music and testimonies. Make plans to attend today!

Elders

I Timothy 3
Titus 1
I Peter 5

I feel like a nervous groom waiting to get married. I am filled with excitement about the prospect of getting elders in place at GBF because of the step of obedience it will symbolize. Just as a groom awaits his lovely bride and all the excitement that comes with a wedding, I feel the excitement can just about carry me away.

On the other hand, the very responsibility that I feel to teach, train and preach what the Word of God tells us about eldership is quite overwhelming. I deeply desire that each person at GBF will have a clear understanding of what defines a godly elder. No greater example can be found than Jesus Christ. What a measuring stick! No human being will even come close to the amazing, transforming, uniquely human servant that Jesus was, but our desire should be to strive, study, pray and learn to be that servant...humble...obedient...passionate. Wow! That young nervous groom feeling certainly can be fearfully paralyzing and can stop of us from doing what God wants. However, if we are walking in the truth that exudes from God's Word we can walk with humble boldness! Much like the groom who is meeting his bride at the center isle....claiming the gift that is his and acknowledging the one who is the giver of this beautiful gift.

Thank you for your prayers as we embark on this journey.
Bruce

Eldership Homework

As promised here is a list of texts that I would encourage each of you to read and study prior to next week's message on the Qualifications of Elders.

I Timothy 3
I Peter 5
Titus 1

There will be a new update later today and I will leave this memo in the updates for this week. Thanks for another great day yesterday and I am looking forward to seeing each of you again soon...

Bruce

Change is in the Air

With the weather changing to cooler temperatures and the colors fo the trees beginning to transform, we are reminded that nothing stays the same forever. I am so thankful that God has given us the ability to change as well. To those of you who will be joining us for Worship this Sunday, we have something "out of the ordinary" that I truly believe you will enjoy. You must be there to see and find out what that something "out of the ordinary" is but I promise it will be different. When given the opportunity this week to do something the same way it has always been done or to do it a little bit differently, I encourage you to step outside of the ordinary and do something that will change the normalcy of your life. Have a great day and I will see you on Sunday...

Bruce

New Church Home in Gunter

This past Sunday was a great time at Grace Bible Fellowship. As we celebrated our new home and our fellowship, I thought it would be fun to take a look at the past and current homes of our church. Thank you so much for all the hard work and sacrifices made during this past month. God is good. Enjoy.

The 2008 SMAK Down

What an awesome week this was for Grace Bible Fellowship. We all had a great time with the children who attended S.M.A.K. The week was full of games, fun, music, and lots of laughter. It is awesome to see such joy from the kids, knowing that God was in the center of it all! Everyday the children spent their morning hours in small groups that included Bible Stories and Activities, Recreational Games, Craft Time, and Rehearsal Time. The afternoons were full of special activities or field trips. We had a water play day, we traveled to the Prosper Party Place, and had game day.

Many thanks to Steve James from Beaumont, TX, the one who spent countless hours on rehearsals and putting the musical together and Gina Stinson who organized “everything” that went into S.M.A.K.

This has been a great start to upcoming new school year!

See ya Sunday, Mandy Turner

S.M.A.K. 2008 PICTURES

When we all get to heaven

As I sit here and begin to blog, there is an old hymn that comes to mind in which the chorus says...

"When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be,
When we all see Jesus, we'll sing and shout the victory!"

Why should we have to wait until we get to heaven to have "rejoicing" and "sing and shout the victory" as Christians! This past week God has blessed my life with a couple of opportunities that earlier in the week I did not know if I would be afforded the opportunity to attend. Last night I journeyed over to Sherman, to Autsin College, the site of KIDjam 2008, and got to sit back and watch as children from GBF and many other churches from, literally a variety of states, came together and worshipped my Lord and Savior. Now, true, it may not have been what many of us may be accustomed to, but they were worshipping in their way. The songs were different, a few of which I did not even know the words to, but as I read the words as they scrolled on the screens, it did not take long to understand that in all their entirety, they were words of Praise and Adoration, not to me but to Jesus Christ.

Tonight I had the opportunity to attend the Artist's Resception for the S.A.M. Club that was hosted by The Mission. As I watched the people file in, the individual artist's would lead their invited guests to the tables where there projects were placed and literally eyes would open wider, smiles were larger and words of "WOW" and "AWESOME" were never more so clearer. What if we entered into worship with those things in mind?

First of all, we walk through the door with guests and lead them to the reason we come to worship; Jesus Christ. Then we followed it up by describing with adjectives such as "WOW" and "AWESOME"? How would you describe Him?

I want to encourage each of you who have a chance to read this, whether tonight before going to bed, in the morning before attending your local church services, or even if it is after the fact you have already attended, to ask God to impression upon your heart to never allow you to enter "Worship" again in the same way.

There are three things that I always pray before entering the venue of worship and I just thougt I would share them with you...

1) "God, open my ears to let me hear what You want me to hear today."
2) "God, open my eyes to see Your Words as never before."
3) "God, open my heart and break it if You so desire and all I ask is that You would take the brokenness and put it back together stronger than ever before."

I am so excited about what God is doing and I pray desires to do through the lives of GBF.

Bruce

The Countdown is On

I can remember as a child thinking that time just crept by and now I cannot seem to find enough time in the day, week, month or year! God has truly blessed us the past couple of weeks with great services and just a great, all-around atmosphere. I cannot express to you how excited and grateful I am for the opportunity to serve alongside each of you and join you in this process.

Tonight I had the opportunity to participate in Zander Turner's baptism and I must say that it was truly a great time of celebration. Thanks for allowing me to be a part of your lives and may God give each of us an opportunity this week to share His love with others.

Bruce

S.M.A.K. is Almost Here

We are in the process of getting things in place for SMAK (Summer Music Activities for Kids) on August 4-8th, 8:30-3pm. If you have kids who have finished K-6th grade they are welcome to participate in this fun-filled week. The cost is $25 and will include a t-shirt, lunch, 3 field trips, arts and crafts, games and a really great time! The week will culminate with a top-notch performance of the drama and musical the kids learn during the week. You'll be astounded by the awesome talent!

In planning for the week...we need some volunteers to help in the following areas:

-Recreation (would need to be present from 8:30-noon)
-Crafts (would need to be present from 8:30-noon)
-Bible Games and Activities( would need to be present from 8:30-noon)
-Floaters (help serve lunch or fill in if we need you to assist with a class)
-Drivers- don't have to be at SMAK until 12:30pm Tuesday-Thursday and then help drive kids to field trips. Will be obligated to stay at the field trip to bring kids back to the church for pickup at 3pm.
Email me if you can help! gina@thegbf.com

Can't help during the week, but would like to do something to help with SMAK? We are also looking for people to help provide food for lunch....email me if you can help and I will let you know what we need! Also, if you would like to provide a scholarship for a SMAK participant, you can designate it on your offering envelope. The cost is $25 per child with a $60 max per family. Lastly, and most importantly, be in prayer as the plan of salvation is presented on Thursday, August 7th.

Thanks for your help in making this a great week for the GBF kids and the kids of our community! We already have kids registered! It's going to be a great week!

It's Beginning to Feel A Lot Like Christmas!

Okay, maybe not the weather but the excitement! I am so excited about the move into the school and get a little more anxious each day as we are one day closer. A lot of work is about to begin and what timing as we get ready on Sunday to launch a new series on the Church in Acts 2. We at GBF have truly been blessed by God in so many ways and once again, I find myself with the excitement of a child on Christmas morning. We are about to be calling upon many of you, who have shared your interest, to come and be a part of getting the building ready and I cannot wait to watch and work together as we prepare for Godto do yet another work in our midst and I am so thankful and humbled to even be able to be a part of this part of the journey with each of you...

Bruce

Acts 2

First of all, I want to publicly say that Roy did an outstanding job with his teaching us on the "three-legged stool" and I truly appreciate his heart when he shares from God's Word with us. As we get set to kick off a new series this week from Acts 2, I would like to encourage each of you to be reading through this chapter and pray that God would use the next few weeks to truly make GBF an Acts 2 church. Please remember Lincoln Harris in your prayers today as he was admitted to the hospital overnight with a severe case of tonsilitis and strep. I know that he would greatly appreicate your thought and prayers today.

Bruce

Disconnected

While attending camp this past week for a couple of days with the youth of GBF I found myself feeling a little awkward. The reason being there was no internet access in our dorms and therefore there was no way ot update the blog or to reply to e-mails I had received. The thought struck me driving home, how many times do we allow ourselves to become disconnected from the power of God. I am talking about the times when we deliberately choose to not keep an open line of communication with Him. God desires that we always keep that line open and it is our job to make sure that we uphod our end of the deal. Just thinking out loud...

Bruce

Off to Camp

As I get ready to depart to camp for a day and a half, my mind goes back to when I was a teenager and I can still remember the first camp I ever attended and the impact it had, on my then, new Christian life. The love of Christ has brought me so far since those days and I just simply ask you to take a moment and remember our kids who are at camp this week and pray that God would speak to their hearts and impact their lives.

Bruce

Recent Baptism Pictures

If you did not have the opportunity to come out to the baptisms which took place in Hidden Lakes, then take a look at the pictures. We had a great time.

My First Blog

Okay, I know that I am a little bit behind the eight ball on getting this thing started but I am actually very excited about all of the happenings that are taking place at GBF. I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I am to think about the potential that I feel we have going into the new facilities and being placed strategically by God's own hand right in the heart of Gunter. I will do my absolute best to keep this page up-to-date with current events and happenings as well as share thoughts from a personal standpoint from the heart of your pastor and friend. Thanks so much for taking the time to read and helping us to make GBF all that we fully believe she can be!

Bruce

New Church Blog

Welcome to the new church blog. A blog is a simple way to communicate with our members and visitors. This is the place to stay updated on church events, news, and ministry updates.

Our goal is to share our hearts, experiences, ideas, reflections, and vision for Grace Bible Fellowship via this online tool.

Please subscribe in the nav for a Feedburner update with your email address. The blog will email you when there is a new post, so you can stay on top of GBF happenings. God bless!