; but GOD!

Billy Graham was one of my heroes.  (1918-2018)

I remember in 1997 chartering a couple of buses and taking a group from church to the Billy Graham Crusade in the Alamo Dome in San Antonio, TX. It was POWERFUL time when God REALLY made Himself know. What was amazing to me is that it was a rather SIMPLE message that Billy Graham preached and yet hundreds of people came forward!

RC Sproul tells a story about Billy Graham playing a celebrity golf tournament in his book, “Holiness of God,” in which Graham was put in a foursome with President Gerald Ford and two other professional golfers. After the round someone came up to one of the professionals and asked, “What was it like playing golf with the President and Billy Graham,” and the Pro said with disgust, “I don’t need Billy Graham stuffing religion down my throat!” and then stormed off a HUFF. Bewildered the man turned to the other pro and said, “What did Billy Graham say?” and the PRO sighed with embarrassment and said, “Funny thing is, Billy Graham didn’t even mention RELIGION.” 

Isn’t that something. Billy Graham didn’t even have to SAY anything.  His mere PRESENCE was LIGHT. Light has an interesting characteristic. It exposes the darkness.

You say, well that was Billy Graham! But if you are in Christ, the same Holy Spirit that was in Billy Graham is also in you!

Jesus says that we are the SALT of the Earth and the LIGHT of the WORLD. (Matthew 5:13-16) We were put on the planet to bring LIGHT to an otherwise DARK world. Jesus said that when you light a candle, you don’t put it under a BUSHEL, but put it out for all to see.

Let your LIGHT SHINE!

Bill Stegemueller preaching at Medina United Methodist Church in a message entitled, “The NEW Man,” taken from Ephesians 4:25-32.

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Recently in our study on Ephesians we talked about how the CHURCH is a body made up of many different parts with EACH serving a purpose. 

(Ephesians 4:11-16,  Romans 12:4-8; 1 Corinthians 12:4-31; 1 Peter 4:10-11)

What is a Spiritual Gift?  It helps me to think about being BORN.  All of us have been born PHYSICALLY, right?   As we grow PHYSICALLY we begin to discover our PHYSICAL GIFTS AND ABILITIES.   Well, when we become Born Again, SPIRITUALLY the same thing happens; only SPIRITUALLY.  As we grow spiritually in the Lord, we begin to discover our SPIRITUAL gifts and abilities. 

The beautiful thing is that when the Church’s Spiritual Gifts are pooled together you get a beautiful expression of the Body of Christ. 

For the next few Sundays we are going to HIGHLIGHT various ministry opportunities by having a Ministry Fair in the Foyer of the Church.   I encourage you to check it out every week to learn more about the ministry scope of the church and to prayerfully discern where you might fit into the body. 

This is the first time we’ve done this and it is a work in progress.  If you have any ideas or suggestions please feel free to contact anyone on the VISIONING COMMITTEE:  Janna Klein, Rick Turner, Inmann Dabney, Darlene Stevens or myself. 

The following is what is going to be happening for the next THREE SUNDAYS:

Sunday, February 2^nd              Missions
Sunday, February 9^th                 The Core House Ministries
Sunday, February 16^th            Agape Ministries

More to come, were still fine tuning the calendar. 
 Pastor Bill