Happy Monday everyone!  All over Facebook this morning, I see parents, teachers, and students alike celebrating today as the last Monday of the school year.  As I am not a school teacher, student, or parent of a school-aged child, I reluctantly miss out on this celebratory day.  As like many of you, this Monday is a Monday like all the others.  But we are alive and breathing, enjoying the beautiful day God has given us.  So let us celebrate and rejoice simply because it is a Monday.

It was great seeing so many of you yesterday.  After two Sundays away, it was nice to be back with our church family to worship together.  As you could probably tell yesterday, I’m pretty excited to be starting this new journey through the Book of Colossians.  Over the course of the summer, we are going to look at each verse of this letter Paul wrote to a group of young believers and see, as they did, that our identity is found in Christ.  I know many of you will be traveling (or already are) for the summer.  The great thing with a series like this is you can read along whether you’re with us or not each week.  You can also listen to the sermons online if you’d like to follow along that way as well.  They are usually posted by noon on Mondays at HBICchurch.com.

Yesterday, we started in chapter one and made it through the first eight verses.  Basically we looked at two people and one group of people and discovered a profound lesson about who we are and what we can do.  If you missed it, I would highly encourage you to check it out here.  If you are getting ready for next Sunday, feel free to read the rest of chapter one, we’ll be focusing on the next six verses or so (1:9-14).

Also, this coming Sunday will be the Owens’ last Sunday with us.  We are excited to see them following God’s calling to Tennessee but very reluctant to see them leave us.  We have thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated John and the family’s ministry here leading us in worship.  They will be greatly missed!  I would like to invite you to join us after service on Sunday in the gym for cake and a time of fellowship as we say our goodbyes.  Please feel free to share cards and notes of encouragement with the family.

As you go about your Monday, whatever it holds, remember —if you are IN CHRIST, you can do anything FOR CHRIST!

In Christ Alone,

Pastor Jan