Passion Week~"As a Family" Devotion

Passion Week Schedule April 1st - 8th 

The idea of Passion Week is to come together as a family or families and devote time together walking through the last week of our Lord Jesus Christ’s life. It’s a time of deep reflection on what Jesus did for us. It’s also an amazing way to prepare your heart to evangelize the message of hope that Jesus’ death and resurrection has brought to our own lives and to share that hope with our family members we will be spending Easter with.
Palm Sunday Services April 1st
Pre-glow @ 8am
Palm Sunday Services @ 9am or 11am
Pre-glow @ 6-6:30pm
Arising @ 7pm
As a family, read the account of Palm Sunday in Matthew 21:1-17. Talk about “Hosanna”-please save or save now. Talk about those people you know that need salvation and who you’d invite to Easter service.
Monday April 2nd Prayer
Prayer at church @ 6 am & 6pm
As a family, read Matthew 21:18-46. Talk about the importance of prayer and the attitude of our hearts vs.22. Talk about asking for forgiveness in the 1^st parable and receiving His Son in the 2^nd parable. Pray together as a family. Pray for those people God has placed on your heart to invite and that they would receive Jesus.
Tuesday April 3rd Worship
As a family, read Psalm 22; 100; 148; 150; Hebrews 13:15. Talk about the importance of praising God with our whole being. Sing songs with one another and give reasons you can praise God in your own life.
Wednesday April 4th Seder Meal @ Church
Service @ 7pm…we will be partaking in a Seder with all the elements that a Jewish family would have but we will be talking about how each piece points to Jesus.
Thursday April 5th Communion
As a family, read Matthew 26:17-30. Have communion as a family. Talk about what Jesus’ blood being shed and body being broken has done for you.
Good Friday Services April 6th 
Service @ 6:30pm - Potluck
As a family, read Matthew 27:1-61.  As a family, discuss why this day is called ”good” when nothing good seems to have taken place. Talk about why it was necessary for Jesus to die.
Saturday April 7th Reflection
Suggested movies to watch:
Adults -The Passion of the Christ.
Children – Jesus Movie For Children.
Idea: Make resurrection cookies as a family.
http://www.devotions.co.uk/cookies.shtml
Easter Sunday Services April 8th 
Hallelujah!  He Has Risen!
Sunrise Service @ 6am
Pre-glow @ 8am
Easter Services @ 9am or 11am

The "More" Conference with Ann Graham Lotz

This weekend I was privileged to attend the More Conference at Harvest Ministries, in Riverside.  The guest speaker was Ann Graham Lotz, daughter of Billy Graham. The Lord has gifted Ann in many ways and what was apparent to me was the gift of evangelism and teaching. I had never heard Ann speak or teach before this weekend and let me tell you, she is awesome.  Even after only having 3 hours of sleep the night before due to a wonderful time of fellowship (a few of us stayed at a hotel in Corona) I was intently listening to her teach all day Saturday. Here are a few nuggets I would like to share from the conference.  Also, the DVD of the entire conference is for sale on the Virtue website, through Harvest Ministries.com. http://www.harvest.org/virtue/

                        Lori w/guest worship ~ The Getty's

                       Steph, Xochilt, Charlene, and Nikki

                                   Ann Graham Lotz

~Friday evening we looked at John 17:1-4. The four points she taught from those four verses were: 

1) Having a personal relationship with Jesus 

         a. Jesus invites you into a relationship, not a religion, or a church, or anything else but a relationship. 

         b. It's personal! In the verse, Jesus addresses God as "Father".

2) Salvation is permanent 

        a. There is no other way to heaven except through Jesus.

        b. The verse says,  "Glorify Me (Jesus) .."

        c. The cross reveals the love of God.

3) A relationship / friendship with Jesus is a privilege 

       a. In Genesis, Abraham was said to be a friend of God.

       b. To know God is a privilege and He extends it to all of us!

4) Our life has a purpose

       a. Jesus had a purpose on earth, it was to glorify God - as is our purpose.

       b. People should see God in us as we go through life especially in the trying times.

       c. He wants to use us to reach others through our circumstances.

       d. How can we bring Him glory?

"Faith is caught, not taught" -Ann Graham Lotz

Ann used to catch her mom praying on her knees and reading the bible all the time and that was her example of a godly woman wanting more of Jesus.

~On Saturday we started with session 2 - More of His voice. We looked at John 10:1-10, Jesus the True Shepard.  We learned of 3 characteristics of His voice:

1) It is Biblical

     a. The authentic voice always comes through the door, which is the Word of God.

     b. Thieves and robbers (the religious leaders or false prophets) come from a different way.

2) It is Personal

     a. We need to stay close to The Shepard in order to know His voice (READ the BIBLE).

3) it is Powerful

     a. When we hear the voice, we must heed the voice.

     b. Hearing and heeding His voice is for our own good.

     c. His voice is life saving and life changing.

Session 3 - Learning to listen to His voice.  We need to get a grip on the Word, not just for information or for facts but so we can live it out in our lives. Select a paragraph, or 3-4 verses from a book in the bible that the Lord has put on your heart to study. Our aim should be to listen to His voice and not to get through the bible.

Step 1 : Read God's Word.  Look at the passage.

Step 2: What does God's Word say? List the facts, DO Not paraphrase (do not put it in your own words)!

Step 3: What does God's Word mean? Learn the lesson. (Is there a command to obey, warning to heed, or example to follow) 

Step 4: What does God's word mean to me? Listen to His voice

Our last session was about wanting more of His Spirit.  We looked at John 16:5-16 and found 3 characteristics of the Holy Spirit.

1) The Holy Spirit is a person

    a. Holy Spirit is referred to as He or Him

    b. Holy Spirit is invisible

2) The Holy Spirit has Power

     a. Victory in the life of a christian is through the Holy Spirit

     b. Be filled of the Holy Spirit.

3) Priority

    a. The priority of the Holy Spirit is to exalt Jesus that we might know Him.

    b. If we want more of the Holy Spirit, then we need to make sure He has ALL of us.

I was so blessed by this conference and I walked out of there just wanting More of Jesus!

Be Blessed,

~Xochilt De La Cueva

Just Give Me Jesus...you won't regret these 10 minutes!

"Living Relationally" Women's Study Week 2 ~ Noah's Wife

Review to come soon!

"Living Relationally" Women's Study Week 1 ~ Eve

Our Women's Bible Study started up on Monday night as we set forth on the journey of exploring the Women of Genesis.  We implemented the book "Live Relationally" by Lenya Heitzig & Penny Rose.  We started with Eve, the first woman as noted in Gen. 2:18-3:24. Her name means "Mother of all Living." Matthew Henry says that "woman was formed out of man-not out of his head to rule over him; nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him;but out of his side to be his equal, from beneath his arm to be protected, and from near his heart to be loved."  We see the first marriage as mentioned in Gen. 2:19 "A man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and they shall become one flesh.  And they were naked and were not ashamed."  They lived in paradise with nothing to worry about and yet Eve was discontent and doubted God's Word. Eve committed the first sin.  That word for sin is an archery term for missing the mark. She choose to listen to the lie of the enemy and disobey the only command of God as to not eat of the Tree of Life.  Eve was deceived by the enemy to think that she would be like God, knowing good and evil.  She not only disobeyed God but influenced her husband to sin as well.  How are we wives influencing our husbands? For good or evil? Even in their sin, God pursued them as He was walking in the cool of the day calling out to them.  There's hope and grace even when we sin. We also discussed that she was the first designer of clothing- she sewed fig leaves together.  Which seemed like a good idea at the time, but in actuality the shrank and crumbled in a matter of days.  God's solutions are always better and He provided tunics of animal skins.  We see the first animal sacrifice for sin as well.  Then in Gen. 4:1 we observe Eve as the first mother.  She names her son Cain which means "with God's help I brought a man into the world.  
In His mercy & grace, Lori Cook

Mentoring Moms

This past Friday, Feb. 24th, we had our 2nd Mentoring Moms bible study of the year. As always, it was a sweet time with the mommies. The topic was "Creative Prayer and Encouragement...Not Just Surviving but Thriving! We looked at the word creativity, which means: approaching a need, a task, or an idea from a new perspective. We talked about how we need to look to God, our Creator, for His vision and direction for our ministry of being a wife and mother. Isaiah 55:8-9 says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the Lord. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Who better to turn to for creative prayer and encouragement then God! 
Three points we talked about to help us do this were: 
1. It takes our time. We shouldn't be to busy to raise our children in the ways of the Lord. Take time to pursue and draw out from the hearts of our children. Deuteronomy 6:4-9
2. It takes humility. Putting others first. We want to pray for a change that benefits the one were praying for not a change that makes our lives easier. Philippians 2:4. Also, in our words, be encouraging, build our husbands and children up for success. Ephesians 5:29
3. It takes faith and trust. We pray for God to write  our story of motherhood but of course we're not going to know what each new day will bring but we can believe by faith that the author and finisher of our faith does and with His help we can face each day with an assurance that He will give us all we need.


We talked about what the lack of prayer and encouragement can look like in our lives and used Pharaoh as an example. God did many miraculous signs in his midst but Pharaoh didn't take any of it to heart. He was unyielding and refused to change (Exodus 7:13-14;23). So to as moms we can become hardened to the wants and needs of our families if we neglect seeing and searching for the Lord. We need to let the word of God keep our hearts pliable towards our husbands and children and especially towards God.


Lastly, we looked at surviving vs. thriving. The word survive means: to live, but the word thrive means: To grow and flourish. We looked at Jeremiah 17:5-8 and compared the woman who trusts in herself to live versus the women who trusts in the Lord to guide her life.


Praise God that He is the one who will give us the creativity to reach our husbands and children's hearts through prayer and encouragement so we can help them to thrive in the Lord, and in that we will see ourselves grow and flourish as well.
In Him, Sarah Esquivel

"Proverbs 31 Woman" Night

"She extends her hands to the poor, yes, she reaches out her hands to the needy." Proverbs 31:20
Last Monday night we were inspired as women to take this scripture to heart and be doers of the word not just hearers only. We were blessed with a sweet time of fellowship over an abundance of dessert. We had a short devotion where we looked at the Proverbs 31 Woman as being a woman who understood the core of her calling. She was a woman who was focused on looking upward to God for direction so that she in turn could reach outward to those God put before her.
We looked at ways to help meet the spiritual and practical needs of those who who are homeless. We then proceeded to arrange "care kits" to keep in our cars and distribute as needs would arise. These "care kits" consisted of a water bottle, two granola bars, a can of vienna sausages,  a mini boxed cereal, a handy wipe, and most importantly two laminated scriptures with Romans 10:9 and John 3:16 on them.
It was a wonderful way to start off our first Proverbs 31 of the year by being others focused and being encouraged to look out not only for our needs but the needs of others.
In Him, Sarah Esquivel

                              Even the kids got involved!