This season, our theme is a powerful Celtic arrangement of "Be Thou My Vision." This cherished song, traditionally attributed to the 6th-century Irish monk Dallán Forgaill, is a powerful prayer for God's constant presence and guidance in every aspect of our lives. The text expresses a deep longing for God to be our ultimate focus, our “vision," and our highest joy. Phrases like "Thou my wisdom, and Thou my true Word" highlight the centrality of God's truth in our lives. The hymn also speaks to God as our "great Father," our "dwelling place," and our "sword for the fight," illustrating His multifaceted role as our protector, provider, and strength. As we sing "Be Thou My Vision" together, let us be intentional about making its prayer our own, asking God to be the guiding force in our individual lives and in our corporate worship. It’s a reminder that true worship extends beyond our Sunday gatherings and permeates every moment, with Christ as our all-in-all.

We've created an online store where you can purchase your very own Meadowood spirit wear! Head on over to our special website, where you can select from a your favorite of two shirt and sweatshirt designs that feature Meadowood across the chest!

The store is only open until March 31, so you have a small window in which to make your purchase and rep Meadowood wherever you go!

**Orders can be placed through Monday, March 31.**

Two designs are available in t-shirts, 50/50 long sleeve t-shirts, crewneck sweatshirts, and hooded sweatshirts. You can order and pay online by using the QR code, or you can order and pay through Kent Epling in the church office. Shirts will be delivered the first or second week of April.

Visit the Meadowood Shirt Store for more information or see posters with details in the church halls.

Here at Meadowood this season, we have chosen to sing the same anticipatory song every advent Sunday—O Come O Come Emmanuel. This is of course, the most well known advent hymn, but there’s something very special and powerful about singing this song each Sunday leading up to Christmas Day.

Upon repetition, there’s a greater intensity of anticipation, a heightened sense of excitement. Each Sunday as we repeat this same song, we sing it with a renewed sense of energy, a more intense level of anticipation. It is in the repetition that we’re able to more adequately express the nuance of our excitement for the birth of Jesus the Christ.

It is in the repetition that we’re able to more adequately express the nuance of our excitement for the birth of Jesus the Christ.

Furthermore, when you repeat a familiar song, we have the opportunity to connect with different textual or literary imagery upon each repetition. This is very similar to when we read scripture. Every time we read it, something new jumps out at us.

Every time we sing this familiar advent hymn, something new should resonate within our spirit. Truly, we anticipate the coming of the Christ child! 

Well, let me tell you a little about what we’re doing in Meadowood Youth. This semester we are going through 1 and 2 Corinthians in our MidWeek worship on Wednesday nights. The focus is on 2 Cor. 5:17 where God tells us through Paul that “if anyone is in Christ, he is a NEW creation; the old has passed away, and see the NEW has come!”  We want to live like we are new. We want to study God’s Word like we are new.  We want to share the Gospel with the lost like we are new.

(Are you getting the picture?!)  There are so many people in this world who are living as if they are old–and bored and unhealthy–no matter their age. God is so good to us, and He wants the best for us, and He ain’t (sorry English teachers!) boring; and He has nothing but good health to offer us in Jesus!!!  Paul’s letter to the Corinthians starts out by challenging the church of God at Corinth to be united in ministry and life. We’re in this together, and in today’s world, we need to stick together. With all the unbelievable happenings going on in our culture today, we need to come together and not fear the future, but just fear God!! Yes, the future looks like it may be uncomfortable like crazy at times, but oh, how good it is that we are in the family of God!!!

And, if you are reading this, and you are not in the family of God, come on in!!! We would love to have you! You see, God created us to have fellowship with Him and to glorify His Name!  He was completely satisfied with the company of the Trinity (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit), but out of His amazing love He created man. Then, man did the one thing God said not to, and sin entered the world.  From that point on we needed a Savior! Good news!–God knew this was coming and had a plan from the beginning. He would send His Son to live and die and rise again for our sins. All we have to do is repent of our sin, and place our faith and trust in Jesus Christ!! That’s it!! And if one does this, then he/she becomes that new person that Paul talks about in 2 Cor. 5:17!!! How great to be NEW!!!!

Also, we continue to study God’s Word through the Gospel Project curriculum on Sunday morning in our community groups. We are so blessed to have so many youth workers that love Jesus from their toes and love students!! These youth workers spend much time preparing lessons in the Holy Scriptures, praying for our students, and loving on some of the greatest people I know!

I just wanted to take a moment to encourage and to give you a peek into what’s going on in Meadowood Youth.

Well, for now, may the peace of God come to you who follow Jesus! And please continue to pray for our youth, our church, THE Church, and our world!!! 

In His Hands,

Kent

We are approaching the end of summer. School begins in a little over two weeks and the full schedule of church fall activities begin the second week of August.

It has been a productive summer as we have witnessed children and youth receive Jesus as their Savior at the Children and Youth camps as well as our Vacation Bible School.

We have been blessed as the Lord has given us Josh and Natalie Chism and their two beautiful children, Jacob and Hannah. Josh is our new Minister of Music. Josh and Natalie are already being sources of inspiration to our Meadowood Choir and Orchestra as well as to our church family.

This fall we want to encourage our people to intensify their time in prayer. There are overwhelming needs in our nation and in the world. Mankind can not solve all the problems facing us.

We need an intervention from God. Only the Lord could deliver the Israelites from bondage in Egypt, and only the Lord can deliver us from the devastating challenges we are faced with.

I urge you to read Jeremiah 33:1-9 and see what the Lord promised to Israel. He can give that same healing to us. The first thing the Lord told them to do was pray. Jeremiah 33:3. The Lord said, “Call to Me and I will answer you.”

May the Lord God strengthen our faith in Him and may that faith be reflected in that we pray consistently and fervently expecting our wonderful Savior to do great and mighty things in our midst and in the world.

Blessings,

Bob

I apologize for not emphasizing the Mother’s Day offering. I was focused on the fact that it was Randy’s last Sunday with us. We will have the opportunity to give to this offering the last two Sunday’s in May, which will be May 19^th and May 26^th.

The mother’s day offering is so important as it supports the Oklahoma Baptist Homes for Children and the Baptist Village Communities. The OBHC cares for more than 200 children affected by abuse, abandonment, neglect, or poverty by providing safe and nurturing homes where children can be loved, encouraged, and taught about Jesus and Bible teachings.

The Baptist Village Communities since 1958 have expanded to more than 2,700 seniors across Oklahoma in our villages and the entrusted hearts home care ministry.

Our financial gifts and prayers give tremendous assistance to these excellent ministries for Christ. Remember this statement in James 1:27, “Pure and undefiled religion before God is this to care for orphans and widows in their troubles”.

I pray all of us will give generously to this very important offering.

Thank you in advance for your contributions.

Bob

First, the death and resurrection of Jesus reveals that He is exactly who He said He was. On different occasions, the Lord Jesus declared He was God. Mark 2:1-11, John 8:54-58, and John 10:27-33 are representative passages where Jesus proclaimed His deity. In the resurrection, Jesus gave proof positive that He is indeed God. Paul wrote in Romans 1:4, Jesus was declared the Son of God (this phrase denotes deity) with power by the resurrection from the dead.

Second, the crucifixion of Jesus reveals that God can take what is horrible and bring from it indescribable good. It was appalling what evil people did to Jesus. They put Him through six unjust trials–three Jewish, three Roman. They mocked Him, spit on Him, beat Him unmercifully, and hung Him on a cross and ridiculed Him as He was dying. It was horrible what Jesus endured. Yet, in that most darkened time, God, unbeknownst to man, was accomplishing the greatest good for mankind. The way of salvation was being paved. What the Lord did in His dying reveals that the promise of Romans 8:28 is true. For those who love Him, the Lord will take all things and cause them to work for good.

Finally, the crucifixion and resurrection gives every follower the guarantee of these benefits–forgiveness of all our sins, rescue from judgement and hell, and a loving Savior Who will never leave us. Instead, He will guide, protect, comfort, and empower us to live and serve Him. We will have victory over death. Jesus said, “Whoever lives and believes in Me will never die," John 11:26. Heaven will be our eternal home.

The death and resurrection of Jesus offer the greatest gift ever offered to the human family. Hopefully, you have received this gift by accepting Jesus as your Savior. Have a blessed Easter.

Bob

"3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interest, but also for the interests of others. 5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the Glory of God the Father."

In this passage, Paul is focusing our attention on Christ as our example! "He humbled Himself". Jesus's focus was not on being honored as God, but on obedience to God the Father. His humility and obedience to the will of the Father led to His exultation. "God highly exalted Him".

Even though Jesus knew that it was the Father's will that He endure the cross, He prayed fervently that He would not have to suffer the agony and humiliation of the cross. It was fervent prayer that got Him to the place where he could say "yet not as I will, but as You will".

We, unlike Jesus, must spend time in the Word of God to know the will of God for us each day. And we, like Jesus, must pray fervently to get to the place where we can say; "yet not as I will, but as Thy will".

1 Peter 5:5,6 tells us that, "...GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE. 6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time..."

Lord, Let us not embrace pride that puts us in opposition to you, but let us embrace humility that leads to grace and honor. Amen!

A little over a week ago we held our Disciple Now 2024! Our theme was “Hold The Rope,” focusing on prayer. 

When God calls on us to prayer for one another, we’re beckoned to ”hold the rope” for them. When we do, we serve as a safety line in their lives and provide a connection to Christ even if they don’t even know what that means or looks like. Also when we feel sorrow, pain, frustration, etc., we need to just hold on to Jesus and pray. 

Josh Crouch, our DNow speaker, talked about community on Friday night using Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, which was a great lead-in to preaching about prayer on Saturday night. 

“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their efforts. For, if either falls, his companion can lift him up, but pity the one who falls without another to lift him up. Also, if two lie down together, they can keep warm, but how can one person alone keep warm? And if someone overpowers one person, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not easily broken." — Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 

We need community! That’s what is so great about The Church and our church! We should be ready to hold the rope for our brothers and sisters. We need to encourage one another, challenge one another, and PRAY for and with one another! 

The entire weekend lent itself to focus on prayer and how we can be the community God intended when He tells us to not forsake coming together. What a gift!  

One of the activities, besides some fun games (Tug of War went Girls 1 vs Boys 1—we didn’t try a playoff) was a time of solitude in prayer by spreading out in the auditorium and simply getting quiet with and before God! It was one of the favorites of many of the students! 

We also had the privilege of worshiping through song with Common Worship. As usual God showed up to grant us many God moments, 

I can’t wait until next year to see what God does, and what He’s going to do now because of the faithfulness of Meadowood and the participation of these kids and sponsors! 

I would like to say THANK YOU to all of you who held the rope with us in giving of your time, your finances, and your prayers!! God gave our students and adults with some good memories, and we definitely grew closer to The Father in fellowship and prayer!

In His hands,

Kent

In Esther 9 the author tells us about the start of the Festival of Purim. Purim is to commemorate the deliverance of the Jews from genocide through Esther’s obedience to God. Purim is also a time for the Jews to come together to rejoice and distribute food and presents.  Verses 27-28 says, “the Jews took it on themselves to establish the custom that they and their descendants and all who join them should without fail observe these two days every year, in the way prescribed and at the time appointed. These days should be remembered and observed in every generation by every family, and in every province and in every city, and these days of Purim should never fail to be celebrated by the Jews – nor should the memory of these days die out among the descendants.”  This festival was to make sure generations to come would remember the turmoil the Jewish people suffered and to celebrate the deliverance they received when Esther obeyed and spoke up for her people.

In Psalm 71, David recounts how he took refuge in the Lord and placed his hope in the Lord throughout his rocky life. In verse 18 David says, “Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your mighty acts to all who are to come.” 

We can pass our legacy onto our children and grandchildren through talking about our struggles that God has brought us through, along with the victories. In one of our BLAST lessons, a phrase we used was “God - Sightings.” We need to tell those that come behind us about the “God - Sightings.” When we let our children know the struggles and victories God has seen us through, we are passing on the legacy of our faith and trust in the Lord. We are letting them see how we allow our lives to be malleable to Christ’s design for us.

When we let our children know the struggles and victories God has seen us through, we are passing on the legacy of our faith and trust in the Lord.

I want to take this one step further.  Passing the legacy of faith onto not just our own children and grandchildren, but to all those we encounter: children at church, children in our neighborhoods, our nieces and nephews, our children’s friends. Declaring His goodness from one generation to the next extends far beyond the walls of our houses.

Declaring His goodness from one generation to the next extends far beyond the walls of our houses.

Hebrews 6:12 says, “We do not want to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.” Are you leaving a legacy daily? My challenge to each of us is to make leaving Christ’s legacy to the next generations a top priority in our lives.