Sunday Night, March 1ST

We're back to the Cox house on Sunday night for our meeting, where some new additions to their family now reside (chickens!). And our sign ups for this week are Beth on Childcare, Sarah on Savory and Trevor on Sweet! We missed you guys last week, so looking forward to our time together this weekend!

Come One Woman, Come All!

I mentioned this a couple weeks ago at our group, but wanted to give everyone another heads up to the upcoming Womens Forum: What is it to have a woman's body?

Here is what Imago's site says about the forum: The female form often stands judged, critiqued, and condemned. How can our physicality be known, nurtured, and celebrated? Age, vigor, beauty... history, hurts, and illness. Join other women to examine our flesh and bones from all angles, and seek a sense of health and peace as you live in your own skin.
The Imago Dei Women’s Forum will be held on Saturday, March 7th starting at 9:30 am in the Lower Sanctuary of Evangel Baptist (2830 NE Flanders).

Emily & I will be leading our table so we REALLY hope you ALL can come! I think it will be a lot of fun and super rewarding to all go to it together! Please give me a shout out if you're going to come (or not) so we can save your seat at the table!

Blogs, Blogs, and more Blogs

Hey Y'all -

I know some of you are bloggers and I thought it would be cool if we could post our URL's so everyone could partake. Its a great way to keep the conversation and learning going throughout the week. Here are a few from the HC that I know of:

http://web.mac.com/kylecostello11/The_Costellos/Kyles_Blog/Kyles_Blog.html
http://web.mac.com/kylecostello11/The_Costellos/Joys_Blog/Joys_Blog.html
http://elahvalley.blogspot.com/
http://thisdoesnthavetobemeaningfuldoesit.blogspot.com/
http://colesideas.blogspot.com/
http://howiesmith.blogspot.com/
http://coxkidsnews.blogspot.com/
http://www.organicchange.blogspot.com/

I know there are more out there. Please post your URL or URL's you know of people in the HC. See y'all Sunday!

Last Night and Next Weeks Group

Thanks to Becka for making the super sweet brownies last night, even though she couldn't make it to group herself. You guys rock! Also thanks to Brian for watching the kids and then coming in to share his music with us! Thank you! That was so great! And of course thanks to my husband for leading our group! That's hot. :)

Next week we'll meet at the Costello's house. Sarah will be on Childcare and Jeremy & Emily will be on the Sweet & Savory Snacks!

We really missed you guys who couldn't make it and had an awesome time last night. We talked about spending quiet time with God and just how critical that is to our spiritual life. We read from the verses in Matthew 4, where after Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness, he is tempted by Satan to command that the stones becomes loaves of bread. Jesus responds "One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God."

The funny thing is my first thought has always been "Geez, I wish it was that easy not to be hungry for food." It sounds ridiculous now that I say it outloud. I always wished it was possible to have those daily hunger alerts, stomach growling, and go "oh, okay, I'll read God's word instead"...and then be completely satisfied. But last night I thought of this differently. Instead of wanting to change my daily dependant relationship to food, what would it be like for me to want to change my relationship to God's words. To be that daily dependent on spending quiet time alone with my Lord? I mean, no matter how busy I am I make time for food. I just can't survive without it. Maybe a day or 2 is possible, but I would be wiped out afterwards and feeling desperately in need. I was really thinking about what it would be like to have those daily signals of "I'm hungry" for solitude with God and feeling literally starved for him when I don't get that.

To take the illustration a step further, after you don't eat for a couple days your body goes into a starvation mode and you literally start to loose your appetite. Your body's hunger pains fade and you can go without feeling that frantic need for food. You are still tired and depleted, nowhere from fully functioning, but your body just doesn't scream out for food anymore. Maybe a lot of us are in this starvation mode. We don't even realize our soul's hunger and ultimate desire for "every word that comes from the mouth of God" because we haven't been getting a steady diet of it.

My prayer for you and I is that we starve for this time alone with Jesus, being in his presence, listening to him speak to us, love us and fill us up with him. I pray that we know what things we need to subtract in our lives to make time for these daily meals with our Father. I pray that we would literally feel those hunger pains and be faint for our time alone with our Savior.

Prayer Request

Hey Everyone -

Sarah sent me this prayer request, please pray for her brother -

i just wanted to ask you guys to pray for my little brother, aaron (he's 19). i don't even know exactly what to pray for. please pray for Christ to rescue him, and for him to find grace and freedom from his destructive behavior. also that his health would hold up (he has severe asthma and is in a place in his life where he doesn't care. he's been in a coma from it before and last night it almost happened again and he doesn't care). there is so much he needs, but if you could just remember to lift him up to God when you pray, i believe there is hope.

gender focused groups

There are some special things going on for Men and Women at Imago right now.

Men - there is a men's group meeting on Wednesday mornings at 6:30 at Evangel. We are talking about the Role of a Man. This week the conversation is focused on our Family of Origin and how that affects us. There will also be conversations about being a husband, father and other roles in the upcoming weeks. Let's look for each other on Wednesday mornings.

Women - there is a follow-up to the women's forum this Wednesday at 7:00 at Evangel. I've heard great things about the forum, so I encourage all of you to go.

I think as we attend these things it would be great to sit together as a home community. We already know one another and it'll help conversations to already have a starting place with each other, rather than that awkwardness that comes with unfamiliarity.

Celebrate Birthdays

The end of this month is Kim's Bday! Happy Birthday Kim!
Also, Jan was Danielle's bday and Howie & Beth's Anniversary!
Happy Happy Joy Joy!

I corinthian 6:1-11

Since we didn't get to meet on Sunday for a discussion of the sermon, I thought it might be good to discuss it here. How were you affected? Did you feel conviction? To download a summary and some questions from the message, click here. I would love to hear your thoughts on justice vs. mercy, and how that plays out when you are the violator or the violated. How far should mercy extend before justice is enforced? Look forward to your thoughts.

FREE TIME

Just wanted to remind everyone that we won't be meeting this Sunday, due to a churchwide home community leadership meeting being held that evening. We'll resume the following Sunday, Feb 15th at the Costello's house (that's us). Thanks! Joy