::MID WEEK PREVIEW

Check out this week's Mid Week Preview, featuring our Assistant to the Pastor and our Assistant to the Executive Pastor, Ashlyn Portero and Vonna Hall, and our Lead Pastor Dean Inserra here.  

::HOPE COMMUNITY GAME NIGHT

Come out this Saturday, May 21st, to the HOPE Community from 6:30pm to 9pm for a night of fun and games with the residents.  It's great local outreach opportunity!  The address is 2729 West Pensacola St.  If you have any questions, call Shaun O'Leary at 850 491 0897.  

::DISCIPLESHIP TRAINING 

Tallahassee Biblical Counseling Ministries will be offering a discipleship class entitled, "Self-Confrontation."  This is an in-depth discipleship training program that teaches you how to study the Scriptures for answers to all of life's problems.  Its unique approach enables you to learn biblical principles from the Bible and practically apply them to your own life.  This class will also prepare you to help others to do the same. The classes begin May 17^th and will continue for 13 weeks and will be led by Caryn Shivar and Rev. Dick Brown.  For more information, please e-mail Caryn Shivar at carynlaurel@hotmail.com.

::SERVICE: TUTORING HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS 

We're helping high school students prepare for final exams. Come to one or all tutoring days.
Contact Heidi Schaff for more information heidi.schaff@gmail.com or sign up on the Facebook page!

Volunteers Needed: 10:00 am - 1:00 pm
Saturday May 21    Saturday May 28

  ::COLOMBIA CLOTHING DRIVE

We have a goal to clothe 100 families in the city of Cartagena that our group will be visiting this summer.  We're hoping to fill the trailer at the Warehouse, and donations are starting to be accepted this Sunday at every service.    

::YOUNG PROFESSIONALS NETWORK  

Thursday, May 26th, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm @ Chez Pierre where it all started!

We'll meet under the Oaks, so there should be live music and hopefully great weather!. Check out the facebook event for more information on this great way to meet new people. 

by Lindsey Hartsfield

I have often asked myself what it looks like to follow Christ. I believe in God, so then what? As an engineer, I look for the analytical answer, something concrete and solid. "Do this, but not that." I want a literal list of to-do's I can check off or at least some parameters to stay within. I have always had a reserved personality and a desire to please others. Playing by the rules was usually easy as long as I knew them. When it came to my relationship with Christ, the "Southern Comfort" Bible rules were easy to play by. I didn't need to drink, have sex, or curse profusely to have a good time.

The more I grow in my relationship with God, the more I realize I have missed the point. It isn't about what I do or don't do. In fact, the focus isn't on me at all, but on God and the immense love He has for His people. Recognizing the anguish it caused Him to send his son to die in our place and the compassion He had to redeem us from our sin, I am able to grow in my faith and rest in the grace that was so freely given but undeserved. "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." Ephesians 2:8-9(ESV)

No matter how hard we try, we will always come to a breaking point where we realize our imperfection.I wanted a list of rules because with them, I knew where I stood. It is that same list of rules that I will never be able to live up to. Every day I do something that offends God, and luckily for me, the love God displayed to Gomer and the people of Israel in the book of Hosea, He also extends to us. He paid the price for us to have freedom from sin. Regardless of how many times we want what the world has to offer, He is persistent in pursuing a deeper relationship with us and shows us just how vast and incomprehensible His love is. An incomprehensible love is a hard thing for a left-brained thinker to accept. It's where logic no longer makes sense. I did nothing, and yet He gave everything to pay the price for my iniquities. "But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit." Titus 3:4-5 (NIV)  

The more I come to acknowledge the extreme love that took place, the more grateful, loving, and compassionate my thoughts and actions become. I will never be able to reach a standard of Godly perfection. Until I come face to face with God, I will never completely fathom all that He is, nor will I ever be able to fully comprehend His greatness. Because of His grace, I am able to set my legalistic ideas aside and live freely in Him.