We Are Family!!!

We stepped out this morning into an overcast chilly day, made even colder by the wind, but our destination, FBC, was warm and welcoming as we gathered with our spiritual family to praise and worship God.  We began our service with a congregational song, followed by a welcome from Matt.  The choir and orchestra and all our dedicated accompanists presented a uplifting rendition of "Hymn Of Heaven" with Brian as soloist.  The congregation joined in  for more corporate praise and worship and then we were blessed to hear a sermon from our Media and Connections pastor, Daniel McGinty.  He spoke to us about how God designed the family and wants us all to be a part of His family in Heaven with Him forever and how we can begin to live that life of belonging to that family here on earth as the church.  He mentioned four things that bring us together as a family.  We have a belonging that is built by God.  We have a belonging to a way of behavior.  We have a belonging that is rooted in truth.  We have a belonging for benevolence.  McGinty had much more to say about each of these things which you can see in the Live-stream which would be worth the investment of your time.  But. I cannot resist telling you one thing he said under the fourth point, benevolence and that is we not only met our goal of 801 shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child, we surpassed it by sending 1,081 boxes from our church members!  That is 1,081 children and their families who will be reached with the good news of Jesus and that makes me very happy and proud to belong to this particular part of the family of God!