This Week at MOPS

We began our meeting with some delicious food and a fun mug exchange.  Everyone will be sipping coffee, tea and hot cocoa from their new mugs!  After a discussion about Holiday traditions and plans for the next few weeks, we were treated with a visit from Mitch McKinney, Lead Pastor at Real Life East.  A huge thank-you to Mitch for traveling and spending some time in a "room full of concentrated estrogen." 

If your Christmas Season is anything like mine, it's full of peace, love, joy and magical memories...Wait, that doesn't sound exactly right.  It's often difficult to remember the true meaning of Christmas when things are so crazy but Mitch gave us some tremendous information about what to do when life gets hectic and we don't feel like we can manage it all.  We don't have to do it on our own!  That's the GOOD NEWS.  See a recap of the message Mitch gave us (as stolen by Melinda Gill's Facebook page because it was so much better than my notes.) 

Peace, by Pastor Mitch McKinney (from Real Life CC, East Campus)....as shared with MOPS this Christmas season.
A "Goodness Sandwich" is when the middle is as good as the top and the bottom!

The top, John 14:1 NIV...Jesus Comforts His Disciples "Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me."
The bottom , John 14:27 NIV... Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."
The middle, John 14:2-26 NIV...well that is where the "Goodness" comes in... 2 "My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Jesus the Way to the Father 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.7 If you really know me, you will know[b] my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." 8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” 9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. 12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit 15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.” 22 Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?” 23 Jesus replied, "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. 25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you."

Our next meeting won't be until January 4th and 5th but there will be informal gatherings with your tables the week of December 21st.  Have a blessed Christmas Break and we'll see you in 2011!!!




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