Help the Texas Wildfire Victims

The women of Spring Branch Baptist Church officially kicked off the 2010 New Year by coming together on Jan 30 for a Women’s Fellowship – the first of four quarterly fellowships being planned for the year.

Thirty women joined together to praise God, enjoy one another’s fellowship and food and to hear guest speaker, Deanna Thornton, who spoke about women’s roles in the Church and the need for all of us to continue to grow in spiritual maturity.  She pointed out how the women of the early church were some of the ‘shakers and movers’ in the church and stressed the need for us to not overlook the important role that women serve in Christ’s church today.  She exhorted us to continue in our quest for spiritual maturity and reaching out to each other and our community in Christ’s love.

We defined our growth in spiritual maturity as having (at least) four components:

1. Fellowship – loving one another.  As we spend time together, we learn more about each other and recognize  the various gifts, personality traits, life-circumstances that each of us have to offer.  We learn to honor each other and carry each others’ burdens, thereby obeying and honoring our Lord.  Romans 12:9-10; Galatians 6:2.

2. Discipleship – Bible & book studies. Learning to develop leadership skills.  We will be planning on conducting several small group studies throughout the year – encouraging everyone to grow in knowledge and also to step up to facilitator/leadership roles.  We want to do our best to present ourselves to God as a workman (workwoman) who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of Truth! (2 Timothy 2:15).   

3. Service to God – to each other – our community – our world.  In John 12:26 Christ himself tells us, “My Father will honor the one who serves me.”   Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:13 that ‘we are God’s workmanship – created in Christ Jesus to do good works’.  And, of course,  who can ignore Christ’s admonition in Matthew 25 to those who either served  Him honorably or neglected Him based merely on whether they had ministered to the needs of the poor during their time on earth. 

4. Worship.  We want our worship to be pure and acceptable to the Father. (John 4:23)  Our worship to God is expressed in how we live our everyday lives, not just how we conduct services and programs within the church, or a list of do’s and don’ts.  Romans 12:1 tells us this is true worship – living our lives sacrificially, dedicated to His service. 

Upcoming Events

• Saturday, May 1, 2010

Rummage sale where we will be selling the crafts we have been making!

• Watch for upcoming announcements for a study on the “Beatitudes” to be led by Claudia Martindale.  Time and day to be determined.

• We’d love to do another book study this summer.  If you have recently read an inspiring new book that lends itself to group study, contact either Jacki Hatmaker or Claudia Martindale.

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Women’s Spring Retreat

We had a wonderful time at the April Women's Spring Retreat.  The event began with a beautiful brunch. Thanks to all of you who brought the wonderful food.  After eating, Claudia led the group into thinking about the imagery of "Godly Garments" and how we can clothe ourselves in righteousness. We encourage all women interested in some great fellowship to come to our next retreat!

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Loving Hands

Each Thursday,  a small group of women meet together in the church kitchen for study and craft activities.  We all brown bag it and enjoy visiting while eating lunch together. 

Our current study is on PRAYER and centers on the question, “Does God answer the prayers of an unbeliever?”.  The past two weeks we have concentrated on the first five of ten ‘Locks to effective prayer’  taken from the devotional book, Love Dare,  follow-up to the movie, Fireproof.

So far, we have learned that:

  1.  We cannot come into the presence of the Father without Jesus – John 14:6.

  2.  We cannot pray with an unrepentant heart – Psalm 66:18-19.

  3.  We must not pray for show – Matthew 6:5.

  4.  We’ve been warned not to use repetitive, empty words – Matthew 6:7-8.

  5.  We must ask for what we want – James 4:2.

 It is encouraging to know that we all struggle with some of the same issues and that we can all learn more of what God’s Word tells us about communicating with Him. 

On April 15, we’ll discuss five more ‘Locks’ to effective prayer.  Then,  in the upcoming weeks we’ll talk about the ten ‘Keys’ to effective prayer.  Come join us for lively and honest discussion on this topic of prayer! 

After lunch, everyone works on the ‘craft’ of their choice.  We are currently making craft items for sale at our upcoming Rummage Sale on May 1.  Proceeds will go to our Benevolence Fund – to help our church minister to the needs of the needy in our community.  Leftover craft items, such as baby blankets and jewelry, will be used as evangelism tools or taken to an orphanage for our sister church in Moldova.

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Women's Exercise

Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 6:30 is the time we come together for much needed exercise!  Not only do we need to grow spiritually – but, we also need to take responsible steps to maintain good physical strength.  Satan knows that when we are sick or physically weak and in pain it is more difficult for us to praise and serve Jesus!  We fight against the enemy’s arrows by being pro-active in maintaining our own physical health.  Not only that, but physical exercise also helps our bodies release  the feel-good neuro/brain chemicals – so we struggle less with depression and apathy.  It’s amazing how much better we sleep and function when we get regular exercise.  God designed an amazing machine when he created our bodies – let’s keep it tuned up!

Sometimes we walk to a video – ‘Walking off the Pounds’.  Sometimes we exercise with Richard Simmon’s- ‘Dancing with the Oldies’.  We always have a good time and go home knowing we have done something good for ourselves!

Join us – there is always room for more! 

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©2010 Spring Branch Baptist Church