• August 9, 2025 - Frontier Texas (Legends, History, Adventure). Abilene, TX

The bus will leave at 8:30am from the GMBC Education entrance and return mid afternoon. Lunch will be in Abilene, TX.

• October 4, 2025 - Mills Trade Day, Mills, TX. The bus will leave at 8:30am from the GMBC Education entrance. Lunch will be in Mills.

Stepping stones or stumbling blocks

When I look at the Old Testament, many times I see that the Children of Israel strayed away from God and were led into captivity. While reading about this I was reminded that even today we are much the same.

We live our lives, never giving a thought to what God wants us to be doing. We “do our own thing” and we seem to have many friends that are going along with us. But, when things begin to get hard and the road is a little rough, these so called friends begin to drop off and no longer want to be with us. Soon we are left seemingly all alone and struggling by ourselves.

When we get to this point, we always look around and find that God is ahead of us waiting for us to make it to the top of the hill so that we can enjoy his grace and comfort. But we also realize that the Holy Spirit is behind and on both sides of us, protecting us and keeping us from falling backwards. If we keep our eyes on God and move forward, we continue to make good progress. The devil puts things in our path that seem too big to overcome, but with the help of the Holy Spirit, we can make it over the obstacles and keep moving forward.

When we do finally reach the top, we are standing with God, and we look around and enjoy the beauty of life that can only be observed from the top of the mountain. We also look back down and realize that what the devil had placed in our path to be obstacles, God had broken down and they became steppingstones to help us reach our current vantage point.

God is always there to help us. Standing on top as a target to strive towards, and as the Holy Spirit, beside and behind us keeping us from straying off the path or falling backwards as we work our way to the top. It is only with the help of God that we are able to reach the top and enjoy the view.

"If the mountains were smooth we wouldn't be able to climb it."

By James Lively

kids

A father was reading Bible stories to his young son. He read, “The man named Lot was warned to take his wife and flee out of the city, but his wife looked back and was turned to salt.”

His son asked, “What happened to the flee?

A mother was preparing pancakes for her sons, Kevin, 5, and Ryan, 3. The boys began to argue over who would get the first pancake. Their mother saw the opportunity for a moral lesson. “If Jesus were sitting here, He would say, “Let my brother have the first pancake. I can wait.”



Kevin turned to his younger brother and said, “Ryan, you be Jesus!”

A father was at the beach with his children when his four-year-old son ran up to him, grabbed his hand, and led him to the shore, where a sea gull lay dead in the sand. “Daddy, what happened to him?” the son asked. “He died and went to Heaven,” the dad replied. The boy thought a moment and then said, “Did God throw him back?”

I've learned - That love, not time. Heals all wounds.

I've learned - That the easiest way for me to grow as a person is to surround myself with people smarter than I am.

I've learned - That evewryone you meet deserves to be greeted with a smile.

I've learned - That no one is perfect until you fall in love with them.

I've learned - That life is tough, but I'm tougher.

I've learned - That opportunities are never lost, someone will take the ones you miss.

I've learned - That when you harbor bitterness, happiness will dock elsewhere.

I've learned - That one should keep his words both soft and tender, because tomorrrow he may have to eat them.

A time to laugh... grandpa was a preacher

Grandpa was reluctant to recommend threats, but he did in one instance. He had a divorcee to seek his counsel concerning alimony. (That is something one pays for the mistakes of two.) She was afraid her former husband might quit paying and wanted to know what to do. 

Grandpa answered: “Threaten him. Tell him if he doesn’t pay, you will repossess him.”

Grandpa stated that he reared his children through the trail and error method, and when he erred he tried something else. When his little daughter stumped her toe and said, “Darn!” he reasoned with her: “Sweet, if you’ll never say that word again, I’ll give you a dime.”

A few days later she came to him and said, “Papa, I’ve got a word now that’s worth half a dollar.”

“You don’t have the children fooled,” was something grandpa often witnessed. He said that in one of his ministerial calls, the whole family gathered around. The conversation drifted into child training, discipline, and awards. The mother impulsively said, “You know, preacher, I’m going to keep a record of the conduct of each for a week and on Saturday I’m going to give a prize to the most obedient one.”

“That’s not fair!” exclaimed a little boy. “Daddy will win it every week.”

Grandpa’s advice rang with originality. He was consulted in a very novel case. A young man, fascinated by a young lady, serenaded her outside her window. Being unacceptable to her, she threw a flower pot out the window which creased his head. Outraged, he called on grandpa, whose comment was, “Young man, when you make an uninvited appearance, you should always expect POT LUCK.”

By Leroy Brownlow