Baptism. It’s a crazy thing to think about as a kid. Getting dunked under water as a sign of your belief in Jesus. Take a moment and think about the symbolism of it: being put under water and then raised again, cleaner than before; Jesus’ death and resurrection.

This month I am teaching a class on the Beatitudes in “Prime Time.” I was reminded of an article by Derek Rishmawy that appeared in Christianity Today in which he stated that he felt that “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth” is the most misunderstood and undervalued of all the beatitudes.

Mary and Joseph took Jesus to the temple, just as it was commanded in the Law, to present him to the Lord. They traveled far to go the temple to learn from the teachers there. Could you imagine traveling by foot to go to church? Imagine if you as family had to travel far to worship. What would you bring? Would you be excited to go?

The wise men were from a land far away! When they noticed the star, they immediately got together and traveled towards it! We’ve been talking a lot about travel these past couple of weeks. Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, and now three guys from the East! Crazy! But they all traveled for Jesus!

So Gabriel has frightened Mary, Joseph, and now the Shepherds! Nobody was expecting Jesus. They were living their lives as if they had forgotten. When the angel appeared, they all got scared. But then they realized how cool it was! Discuss a time when you weren't expecting something but were pleasantly surprised.

Perhaps one of the most singularly unique perspectives on Jesus’ birth would be that of the shepherds themselves. And from it, we can learn a lot about our potential in God’s eyes. Pastor Marc explains why, in this special Christmas ep from the archives. (We’ll return next year with new eps!)

Traveling can sometimes be hard, loud, crazy, fun, exciting, and sometimes an everyday thing. Imagine what it would be like to travel from one city to the next on a donkey. Talk about how long that might take and how the anticipation might fade or get stronger.

Dear Family of Quail,

We have seen the goodness of the Lord over the course of 2019. His goodness has been evident in the many mission trips and "GO" Projects that we have been able to mobilize. We have seen it in our ongoing disciple-making ministry, the wonderful praise that is fostered by the choir and the Worship Arts team, by our children being nurtured in the ways of the Lord and scores of salvation decisions and baptisms.

Mary was told about her pregnancy. She was engaged to Joseph but not yet married. She was afraid when the angel told her that she was carrying God’s child. What a surprise! What a scary, positive, awesome surprise!

Isaiah was a prophet, one who spoke and led the people of Israel. He foretold the coming of the Messiah. 400 years before Jesus was born Isaiah told the Israelites of his birth. That gave them something to anticipate. But the timing also gave them some time to forget.

As we start the Advent Season, let’s hear the words of the Gospel:
In Luke 2:7, we read…
“…and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”

The HIS-story of David is one we might be familiar with. God chose David to be king after Saul. David showed his trust in the almighty God by facing a giant! David gave God the glory after defeating the giant. Discuss in the car how we can rely on God in “giant” circumstances. Try to pick out some scenarios dealing with your destination (school, home, church, sports, etc.).

Samson is a HIS-story of strength! Talk about the different types of strength there is, e.g. muscles, will power, knowledge, etc. While driving, try to find things that are strong and things that are not.

Discuss freedom. What does it mean? We are free to do a lot in our country. The Israelites were NOT free. They could not travel and they could not have any job they wanted. Talk about what your kids want to be when they grow up.

In Jeremiah 18, the prophet is sent to watch a potter working a piece of clay on his wheel. It says…

“But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.” Jer. 18:4

Being born is a time of joy! Discuss the time when your child(ren) was (were) born. Tell them details and explain your feelings. During the time that Moses was born Pharaoh wanted all baby boys dead. His mother, on the other hand, did not want that, so she hid him in a basket and sent him upstream. Pharaoh's daughter found him and kept him!

Discuss forgiveness while driving. Did somebody cut you off? Somebody run a red light, forcing you to slam on your breaks? Somebody speed by, making you feel uncomfortable? Talk about how to forgive them, to look at it from a different angle. What if they didn’t see you, they are hurrying to the hospital, etc.?

Discuss day dreaming. What are some things you can imagine happening outside of the window? Ask what was imagined. This is what it must have felt like when Joseph was telling his dreams to his brothers - a bit unbelievable.

Sacrifice-it’s something we all struggle with. Discuss with the family some simple sacrifices. Like giving somebody the opportunity to go in front of you in traffic or waving somebody through the stop sign.

Explain a covenant. Making a promise to do something as long as the other person keeps their promise too. An agreement or contract. Driving is just like that. When we drive on the road we have an agreement with the other drivers to not bump into their cars.

Look at the different cars on the road - big ones, small ones. Discuss how many people could fit comfortably in your car. Talk about how many could SQUEEZE into your car. Discuss how God gave Noah exact measurements for the ark so that Noah and his family, along with two of every animal, would be able to fit, just like your car is built for an exact amount of people.

Discuss reactions when you’re in a hurry and have to stop at a red light or when somebody cuts you off. We usually get frustrated, and sometimes we react in ways we shouldn’t. Talk to your child(ren) about how to react in a proper manner. Talk about how other drivers or passengers might feel that day. Maybe they look nervous, in a hurry, or happy- as they sing along with a song on the radio.

Self control: It seems like the Holy Grail sometimes, doesn't it? Almost impossible to find in those moments where our base nature tries to assert itself. Well... if you need some fresh insight into juicing up your self control chops (and who doesn't!), check out what Pastor Marc has to say.

Discuss driving and making mistakes. Talk with the family about driving rules and that they are in place to protect us and everyone else. Pick out a rule like stopping at a red light and how the traffic lights are designed to allow everybody a chance to go through the intersection. Discuss what might happen if you broke the rule.

I have heard it said that, “Discouragement is both unique to and universal among human beings.” I suppose that it is true that eventually everyone will feel discouraged at some point. One well-known pastor has said, “Do you know how often I have wanted to quit the ministry? Every Monday morning!” I am glad that I do not experience that level of discouragement, but still it is there from time to time. So, here are some tips that I have learned regarding dealing with discouragement, both in terms of its causes and its cures:

Have the family look at people that are passing by in cars, walking on the sidewalk or neighbors in your neighborhood. Ask them if they think God made those people too. Discuss with them that God made each and every one of us! And He loves us all!

Challenge Verse: Exodus 20:11

In the car...

Today's lesson - Genesis 1-2:2

Have the family look out their windows and pick out a couple of things they see. After they choose something ask if it’s something God created? Talk with them about the difference between what is manmade and God-made.

I’m excited to announce a new online giving tool called RebelGive. It’s a great new way to support the ministries of Quail right on our website. Your tax deductible gifts help support 39 different missionaries and agencies locally and worldwide; outreach efforts to our community; children and adult discipleship; and many other ministries here at Quail. The RebelGive logo appears on every page of our website. Giving is safe, easy to use and will not send you to another website. Just tap on the logo and answer the questions. It all happens in dialog boxes on QLBC.org. It’s that easy.

Décor and technological change is a fact of life both for our homes and churches. Sylvia and I recently had to finally do away with the 18 year old wall paper border in the upstairs hallway, and we are coming to grips with the fact that the sponge painted bathroom is past its ascetic prime. So too our tube TV has gone “the way of all flesh” and been replaced by a larger wall mounted flat screen (4K)!

Let’s be honest. By the time Sunday morning rolls around, we often feel like just sleeping in, or [fill in the blank with anything other than 'going to church']. But, as Pastor Marc reminds us, the Bible teaches us that we are to be in regular fellowship with fellow believers, and Sunday morning is a big part of that!

When it comes to choices, sometimes knowing what you'll do before you have to make that choice... whatever it is... can make all the difference in the world. Pastor Marc talks about how to be ready when decision time is staring you in the face.

Have you noticed that the busier you get and the faster you are moving, the less you seem to remember to show kindness to others? In Galatians 5, Paul points out that kindness is part of the Fruit of the Spirit, it is not a product of the flesh.

In other words, kindness is not going to happen automatically. We have to look to the Lord and practice this habit that He wants us to develop.

Walking by faith takes genuine trust. Pastor Marc offers some solid insight on this, through a very practical example. Watch, and grow your trust in the Lord!

The time has come to upgrade our imaging and projection system in our Sanctuary. As you probably realize, every decade or so significant changes come to the way images and words are projected in churches. I remember back when we used an overhead projector and someone was tasked to switch the overheads from song to song. Then we progressed to slides, then to Power Point etc.

Tapestry…
As we look into the month of June there are some exciting things that I want to tell you about. One of them is our annual “Tapestry of Quail” celebration. This year Tapestry will take place on June 2nd, and we are anticipating a wonderful day of fellowship and food from the various ethnic groups represented within our body. Plan to stay after the third service and enjoy the wonderful time that we will have together.

Dear Family of Quail,

Once again we are praising the Lord for the way that He has led the people of Quail to support the work of the Lord in finance. We have truly been blessed as a body through your generosity over the course of 2018-2019.

As you know, our fiscal year ends on June 30. As we close the books on this year I ask you to pray about an extra donation prior to that time which will enable us to finish strong!

Trust. Simple, right? Not so much, though, when we can’t see the future. And yet, we operate with a certain rote faith—a blind trust—every day without even thinking about it. Today, Pastor Marc encourages us to build and strengthen this kind of trust in our Heavenly Father.

Very soon, graduation season will be upon us. A new batch of college grads will walk across the stage, and high school graduates will ready themselves for the next phase of life. Some of these newly-minted graduates will face academic situations where it is assumed that to be “smart” is to reject the idea of God and His love for us.

Resurrection Sunday is almost here, and it reminds us that Jesus promised something that no other religious leader in history could, that He would return from the dead and that He would see to it that His followers would also rise from the grave.

Last time, Pastor Marc spoke about the value of operating on solid guidance instead of guessing our way through things. In this ep, he expounds on the value of good counsel for that guidance.

For those of you who did not attend this past Ladies Night you missed a real treat. The title was “Life Line” where we learned that God is our life line. Robin Gordon explained that He wants a relationship with us and the only way we have access to this life line is through prayer. Our theme verse reads as such:

In Matt. 7:12, Jesus says…

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 7:12

Dear Parents,

As the early church expanded outside Jerusalem, new churches were planted in various cities. Each church needed godly leaders to help it grow and stay true to the gospel. Paul understood this need, which is why he wrote letters to some of the leaders in the church. Two of these leaders were Timothy and Titus. Timothy was Paul’s friend. He had traveled with Paul and helped him. Now Timothy was a leader at the church in Ephesus.

As I look back on the recently past Christmas season, one of the striking memories is the wonderful music of Christmas. It seems that once I start hearing those old familiar songs and hymns, I am filled with a renewed sense of joy and happiness. That got me thinking about the importance of singing as a follower of Jesus Christ.

You may not think of yourself as a singer, but let’s for a moment suspend all judgement about what makes a good singer “good” and simply notice the wonder of singing. Humans alone are invested with this ability to sing. We sing for joy, we sing the blues, we sing love songs and we sing songs of loss. But I think most importantly, we sing songs of worship and praise. Paul puts it this way in Ephesians…

As Christmas approaches – it reminds us of the blessing of giving gifts to one another. There is great joy in picking out just the right gift and knowing that the person to whom it will be given will need and appreciate it. Therefore how would you feel if you entered your friend's home weeks after Christmas and found the gift that you had given them still unopened?

Wouldn’t it make you feel bad if you heard a friend of yours complaining about an unmet need in their life, and yet you knew that you had given them a gift to take care of that need but they had simply not yet opened it?

Thank you, Quail family for helping our GO Lift Houston team raise a record-smashing $3049 at last Sunday's mission bake sale. At times, it felt like the team was running out of items to sell, then the tables would suddenly be flooded by new contributions, and people eager to buy the goods! It truly was a fishes-and-loaves situation. God is so good!

To all who contributed items to sell, to those who bought items or donated so generously, and to those who simply stood with the team in prayer: Thank you and God bless you.

Dear Parents,

Peter—one of Jesus’ original disciples—had grown up in a culture where the Jews believed that God only cared about them, not the Gentiles or non-Jews.
Most of the Jews looked down on the Gentiles and refused to even associate with them because Jews believed Gentiles were unclean; Gentiles didn’t live the right way to please God. Any Jew who did associate with Gentiles did so at the risk of being ridiculed by his own people.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”

How do you define genuine success? Well, Paul had some things to say about that during his missionary journeys. Pastor Marc explains how Paul’s perspective on genuine success is a model for us even today.

One of the reasons I love the ministry here at Quail is that I see so much help being given to folks in crisis by so many. Just about every day, I observe a member of our Lay Counseling Team meeting with and assisting an individual or a couple in our counseling office.