SEND THEM - Student Ministry Missions Offering, Sunday, June 7th

STUDENT MINISTRY MISSIONS OFFERING, June 7TH
SEND THEM – Romans 10:15

Please prayerfully consider making a SEND THEM donation on or before Sunday June 7th.
Funds received will help pay for MISSION TRIP TRANSPORTATION and assist students who need help with funding to GO on a mission trip.

Thanks so much for your continued support,

GBF Student Ministry

Baptism and Communion - This Sunday

We want to remind everyone that this Sunday afternoon, starting at 3:00pm, we will have a Baptism service and Communion immediately following. This will take place at the home of Jonathan and Charlotte Scales (235 Green Meadow Ct, Gunter, TX 75058).
Please prayerfully consider coming as this will definitely be a wonderful time well spent, together in Christ.
Hope everyone can attend!

Sunday June 7th, Elder: An Office of Noble Servanthood

We wanted to let everyone know in advance, to please mark your calendars for Sunday morning, June 7th as we'll be taking a look at biblical qualifications and the role of elders. This message is the next step in Grace Bible Fellowship's exciting transition to becoming the elder led church God has called us to be. Again, that's Sunday, June 7th, 9:00am. We look forward to seeing you there!

Sunday, May 17th Recap...

This week we looked mainly at Colossians 1:15-23. However, we started in Matthew 16:13-17 to make sure we have a good solid answer for the question, who is Jesus?

From Colossians 1:15-23 we discussed and answered the following.
1. Who am I? The crowning glory of God's creation.
2. Why am I here? To bring honor and glory to Jesus Christ.
3. What is wrong with the world? Sin.
4. What can be done about it? Faith in the preeminent Jesus Christ.
If you enjoyed this topic and would like some further study on it, Irecommend the following book: http://www.amazon.com/Supremacy-Christ-Postmodern-World/dp/158134922X
Also, you might enjoy listening to the sermon found at the link below:
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/ConferenceMessages/ByDate/1829_The_Supremacy_of_Christ_in_a_Postmodern_World/

I hope your week is one that recognizes the preeminence of Christ in ALL things.

Important Dates and Events to Remember

It is that busy time of the year when school comes to an end. Lots of programs, lots of banquets, lots of baseball games, etc..... Therefor, we wanted to update you on some important church events that you may want to add to your calendar.

1) This Sunday we will be taking up a special love offering to help fund scholarships. Please come prepared if you would like to help. This is the one and only fundraiser the Children Ministry will partake in for the whole year!

2) Sunday Night, we will be hosting an Appreciation Dinner for workers, volunteers, and/or snack providers for the TeamKID program. Bring the family and have lasagna with us and be prepared to participate in a few fun games!!! The dinner will begin at 5pm in the sanctaury!

3) The TeamKID banquet is next week, May 20th at 6:30 pm. Awards, leadership recognition, "showing off" and refreshments will be happening during this last hour! Please invite all family and friends to attend!

4) Next Sunday, May 24th, will be Senior Sunday! Please confirm with Lara Martin or Casey Layman that your child will be present that morning!

5) May 31st is the last Sunday of the month, which means we will have GBF 101 during the EKG hour, Baptisms will be hosted at the Scales home at 3pm, and Communion Service will be held at church at 5pm. Sign up sheets are at the the kiosk in the greeting area!


The staff has been doing a great job with keeping all the blogs updated! The calendars are active, as well. A church wide calendar is presented on the home page of www.thegbf.com. You can also find specific calendars for the youth and children's programs on specific blogs. Please utilize these tools as it helps the staff not have to duplicate many tasks. Encourage other members and attendees to use these tools, as well!

We, the staff, love you GBF!

Sunday, May 10th Recap

Colossians 1: 9-14. We approached this text in somewhat of a reverse order, looking first at verses 12-14, as Paul gave thanks that we that we who are in Christ have been “qualified…to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.” (vs 12) Furthermore we discussed that we have been:

Rescued us from ignorance vs13a “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness”
Relocated to his kingdom vs13b “transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son”
Redeemed vs14 “in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins”
verses 9-11. Paul prays that we deepen our relationship with Jesus:

· FILLED WITH JESUS – vs9 “filled with the knowledge of his will (Jesus’ WILL- the Goal) in all spiritual wisdom and understanding (the Holy Spirit-The Means)
When a Christian is saved they receive the Holy Spirit as a guide among other things. See John 14:26, 1 Cor. 2:12, John 16:23
Paul prayed, and we should pray,that our whole life comes under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

· WALKING WITH JESUS – vs10“walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God”
Paul prays that the Colossians practice what they preach. Our faith should be evident in the way we live our life.
"If Christianity is really true, then it involves the whole man, including his intellect and creativeness. Christianity is not just "dogmatically" true or "doctrinally" true. Rather, it is true to what is there, true in the whole area of the whole man in all of life." –Francis Schaeffer
See also: James 3:9-10, Romans 12:9, Philippians 1:10

· JOY WITH JESUS – vs 11“May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy...”
Paul prayer is for God’s power and might because believers have to endure and be patient, but in all this we have JOY.
It’s the purpose and pleasure of every Christian to bring GLORY to God:
Joy – is pure GLORY unto God.

We ended with three application points:
1.Seek to have every area of your life become more and more under the influence of the Holy Spirit.
2.Show the worth of Christ in your walk.
3.Discover the joy in Jesus that brings Glory to God. God is glorified when we are satisfied in him.

Would You Like to Help Send a Child to Camp?

The GBF children will be attending Camp KidJam this summer for the third time! We need your help to send a few extra kids that would not have the opportunity to attend! Next Sunday we will be taking up a special love offering to raise scholarships for the camp. The camp cost is $249. Our goal would be to send 4-5 additional students. Any donation would help make this goal possible. For more information regarding the camp or scholarships see the children's blog for weblinks and/or contact Mandy Turner at 972-837-6166/ mandy@thegbf.com.

Sincerely and Much Appreciation,
Mandy Turner, Children's Minister

Sunday, May 3rd Recap...

Hey folks, hope you all had a great Sunday and are off to a week that brings honor and glory to God as well as joy to you.

I wanted to give you a quick recap of what we covered yesterday in our time together. Our biblical text was over Colossians 1:3-8. We discussed three specific things, possessed by the Colossians, that the apostle Paul was thankful to God for:

1. FAITH IN JESUS (1:4a) Our faith is not merely a blind faith, it is a faith in a real person in Jesus Christ. Nor is it just a set of rules that we go by, our faith is based on actual events.
2. LOVE OF JESUS (1:4b) We referenced 1 John 3:14 which says “ we know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers” and discussed 4 things that can help us as we love each other through our differences:

• Avoid Gossip. (2 Cor. 12:20)
• Speak criticism directly to each other if you feel you need to speak to others about it. (Rom 12:18)
• Look for and assume the best motive in other's viewpoint, especially when we disagree. (Rom 14:6)
• Be more amazed that you are forgiven than you are that you are right. And in that way shape your relationships by the gospel. (Eph 4:32-5:2 & Luke 7:47)

3. A HEAVENLY HOPE LOOKING FORWARD TO JESUS (Col 1:5) This hope is the knowledge of the glorious reward that awaits us. We discussed just a few ways that can be heavenly minded in our time here on earth:

• Think heavenly thoughts - about how great it will be when we are with our Savior whose love is so great that he died for our sins.
• Pray heavenly prayers - address God with the knowledge and believing that will actually be in his presence one day. That we can't wait until we are in his presence but until then we'll be doing his work.
• Read heavenly words - read your Bible, not merely as self help book, but as God's revelation of himself to us. Spend time getting to know the God you will spend eternity with. (see John 17:3)

Hope to see you all this Sunday for Colossians 1:9-14, read ahead if you'd like!