• 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. Further details will be provided in the next Silver Star

god always has a plan

God has always had a plan. Even before he spoke and created the earth, he had a plan for each of us.

He told Abraham that he would be the father of a great nation and then asked him to sacrifice his only son, but God had a plan. I probably didn’t make sense to Abraham, just like it wouldn’t make sense to us today, but he did what God had asked him.

Joseph was the son of Issac’s favorite wife and therefore his favorite son, his brothers hated him for it and sold him into slavery, but God had a plan. Joseph later became the second most powerful man in Egypt and was able to save not only Egypt, but his father and entire family.

David was the youngest of his brothers and was sent to keep the sheep in the pastures and wild places of his father, but God had a plan. David would later become King of all Israel and the greatest king they had ever had.

Years later, Jerusalem was captured and destroyed. The city was torn down, and nothing was left but a pile of rocks, but God had a plan. Years later the city would be rebuilt and would become a great city again. It would be the site of the most amazing thing that has happened in human history. The Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ would happen in this place that had once been a pile of rocks.

Bring this thinking up to today. Look at your own life. We may think we are a slave to something, we may think our life is meaningless, we may think our life is nothing but a jumbled-up mess, like a pile of rocks. But God has a plan. We don’t know what the plan is just like Abraham, Joseph, David, and the City of Jerusalem. We may think our life is meaningless. But God has a plan. All we have to do is surrender ourselves to Him and allow Him to take control of our lives. When we come to a point that we can’t go any further, that is when God takes over and starts to fulfill His plan. Once we give God control of our lives, the pile of rocks can be raised into something wonderful and beautiful. But this can only happen when we give God total control. God has a plan.

By James Lively

kids

A three-year-old went with his dad to see a litter of kittens. On returning home, he breathlessly informed his mother there were two boy kittens and two girl kittens. “How did you know,” his mother asked? “Daddy picked them up and looked underneath,” he replied. “I think it’s printed on the bottom.”

Another three-year-old put his shoes on by himself. His mother noticed the left was on the right foot. “Son, your shoes are on the wrong feet.” He looked up at her with a raised brow and said, “Don’t kid me, Mom. I know they’re my feet.”

A mother and her young son returned from the grocery store and began putting away the groceries. The boy opened the box of animal crackers and spread them all over the table. “What are you doing,” his mother asked? “The box says you can’t eat them if the seal is broken,” the boy explained, “I’m looking for the seal.”

I've learned - That we should be glad God doesn't give us everything we ask for.

I've learned - That money doesn't buy class.

I've learned - That it's those small daily happenings that make life so spectacular.

I've learned - That under everyone's hard shell is someone who wants to be appreciated and loved.

I've learned - That to ignore the facts does not change the facts.

I've learned - That when you plan to get even with someone, you are only letting that person continue to hurt you.

God has a way of always working things out to get your attention when you least expect it. Recently I did my daily Bible reading and was reading a daily devotional from a year long book that I had started. I am currently on the second year of reading the Bible from front to back in a year, finish and start over. The Devotional passage was from a different section of the Bible than I was reading through.

As I read the devotional passage my thoughts turned to the Bible passage that I had just read, and I began to make the connection that God was slapping me upside the head, He has to do this quite often because He made me hardheaded and like my dad used to say, “sometimes the best way to get my attention is to hit me upside the head with a good strong 2 X 4”.

As I put the thought together, I realized that we often wonder where God is leading us and what He has in store for us. I have known for a long time that it is not good to see the entire path that we are on because we would probably turn tail and run from what He has for us to do. The realization that I came to is that God equips each of us with a small lamp to carry. The lamp gives us just enough light to see the area all around us for just more than 1 step. Our job is to keep going along the path that God has placed us on and take one-step at a time, each step still in the light, but continuing in the direction that we feel God is moving us.

We can’t see what is ahead of us, but each step is preparing us for what lies ahead. Each step gives us the strength and resources to take the next step, and we just keep moving forward.

The alternative is to stand still and let our lamp burn until it runs out of oil and goes out. When that happens, we are in darkness not being able to see what is around us and stumbling every step of the way.

Keep moving, one step at a time, and allow God to lead us to a great reward. The result will be greater than we can even imagine. Let the light of His lamp light our path and take life one step at a time.

By James Lively