The River Online

To hear messages from Pastor Steve Crombie & guest speakers at The River Community Church here in Faribault, visit http://theriverchurch.org/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/AppLogic+FTContentServer?pagename=FaithHighway/10000/4000/459TH/links.

Enjoy your day & your weekend with your family!

What Lies Are You Believing?

Last night at our small group, we were talking about the lies that we believe. These lies are, of course, from the devil himself. However, if we are not consciously casting these thoughts down and replacing them with the truth about ourselves from God's perspective, our minds get full of junk. God's perspective about things can be found in the Bible.

The Bible is full of words of wisdom along with how he sees us even before we come to him and say "God, I have messed up. I know that your son died for me on the cross and rose again. Please forgive me. God, I want you to be in control of my life." The Bible says in Romans 5:6 NIV "When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners." God loved us when we were formed in our mother's womb. Isn't that good news? We are loved by God Almighty, the creator of the universe.

Now, back to my original thought, lies, lie, and more lies. If there is one thing that I cannot stand is being lied to. I would rather be told the truth and deal with what that brings. The devil is the original liar. My question to you is "What lies are you believing?" I encourage you to write the lie down on an index card and after the lie write what the Bible has to say about that lie. Share the lies that you are being told with a trusted friend who can pray with you and encourage you. If you want to share with me, please email me at gullandfamily@q.com or call me.

I could write an entire post about lies that I have believed. Unfortunately, I do not have time to do so today. I am heading off to an Encounter Weekend, so I need to get my house in order for the boys.

Please keep me and the ladies from The River in your prayers as we head off away from our families for the weekend to encounter God and deal with the junk in our soul (which is our mind, will, and emotions).

Blessings to you and your families! Have a wonderful weekend!

Getting to Know Your Friends 2008

1. What time did you get up today? 6:15 am

2. Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds are a girl's best friend!

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Veggie Tales The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything.

4. What is your favorite TV show? Anything CSI or Law and Order. Also, my latest fascination has been anything (or almost anything) on HGTV.

5. What do you usually have for breakfast? I have been bad about eating breakfast lately which isn't good for the metabolism. Otherwise, I normally eat eggs or vanilla yogurt with granola.

6. What is your middle name? Ann

7. What food do you dislike? I don't know if there is anything that I really dislike.

8. What is your favorite CD at the moment? I don't listen to CD's. I listen to KTIS online or my KTIS Compilation CD, so there is various artists on it. My favorite song is "Brave" by Nicole Nordeman.

9. What kind of car do you drive? Volkswagen Beetle

10. Favorite sandwich? Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki from Subway (I think that is the name of it)

11. What characteristic do you despise? Lying is at the top of the list for me.

12. Favorite item of clothing? My fuzzy socks mom gave me for Christmas.

13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Hawaii, Europe, or the Caribbean

14. What color is your bathroom? Which one? Ours is off-white and David's is a tannish color. My friend, Amy, helped me pick out the paint since I can be decorating challenged. :-)

15. Favorite brand of clothing? I don't think I really have one.

16. Where would you retire to? Ed and I have been talking about retiring to Mexico. We have a friend who is a missionary down there, so we are going to go check out where she lives. She says it is beautiful.

17. What was your most recent memorable birthday? All my birthdays are memorable & enjoyable because we hang out as a family. The one memory that really sticks out though is my 21st birthday. It was my golden birthday, and I was complaining all day to Ed that my parents didn't give me any gold for my golden birthday like his mom had. Later that day Ed proposed to me, so I got my gold! He also planned a surprise birthday/engagement party for us along with my college roommates. It was such a shock. I was totally bummed because no one wanted to get together after church to do something, and I didn't want to go to the bars. No one wanted to come over because they were already coming over as a surprise. They totally had me fooled!

18. Favorite sport to watch? I love them all, but my recent favorite has been hockey.

19. Furthest place you are sending this? I am posting it on my blog, so who knows where people will be who are reading it.

20. Who do you least expect to send this back to you? ?

21. Person you expect to send it back first? Whoever has the most time.

22. Favorite saying: "If you don't quit, you win!" Pastor Mac Hammond.

23. When is your birthday? October 21st

24. Are you a morning person or a night person? I am totally a morning person! I prefer to be in bed and sleeping before 10 pm. :-)

25. What is your shoe size? 7 or 7 1/2 depending on the brand of the shoe as well as the style

26. Pets? 2 cats, Lucy (indoor cat) and Chili (outdoor cat)

27. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with us? I wish I had some big announcement to make. The most exciting thing right now is that we are really starting to feel at home in Faribault and find our place in our new church, The River. Check out our website at www.theriverchurch.org.

28. What did you want to be when you were little? A teacher

29. How are you today? AWESOME. I am going on an Encounter Weekend with a bunch of gals from my church.

30. What is your favorite candy? My new favorite is the 3 musketeers dark chocolate with mint.

31. What is your favorite flower? Roses or stargazer lillies

32. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? Currently it is April 1st which will be my second anniversary as a Mary Kay consultant.

33. What is your full name? Stephanie Ann Gulland

34. What are you listening to right now? David watching Tom & Jerry on TV.

35. What was the last thing you ate? A piece of cake at small group last night. It was Deb's birthday.

36. Do you wish on stars? No, not anymore. I believe in the power of prayer instead of wishing on stars.

37. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Pink or purple.

38. How is the weather right now? Nice & sunny.

39. Favorite soft drink? Diet Dr. Pepper or Coke Zero.

40. Favorite restaurant? Olive Garden or Buca.

41. Hair color? Brown with highlights.

42. Siblings? 2 sisters, 1 brother, and 1 brother-in-law (on my side of the family)

43. Favorite day of the year: I don't know that I have a favorite day of the year. My favorite season is summer.

44. What was your favorite toy as a child? Barbies or Cabbage Patch Kids.

45. Summer or winter? Summer.

46. Hugs or kisses? Both are nice.

47. Coffee or tea? Tea. I will drink coffee but it is fru-fru coffee. :-)

48. Chocolate or Vanilla? Chocolate.

49. Do you want your friends to email you back? Yes, please.

50. What is under your bed? Stuff that needs to be picked up and put away instead of shoved underneath the bed.

51. Who is the friend you have had the longest? My sister.

52 . What did you do last night? Ate dinner at our neighbor's house. Then stayed for our small group bible study.

53. Favorite smell? My husband's cologne.

54. What are you afraid of? Fear is the opposite of faith, so I purpose to not be afraid. The Bible says in Matthew 10:31 Amplified Bible, "Fear not, then; you are of more value than many sparrows." Matthew 6 goes into further detail about how God will take care of us. These are good verses for me to think about. They help me to stay focused on God and not give in to the temptation to worry about things or be afraid that things are going to go wrong. Things have gone wrong in my life, but God has always been there for me and things eventually have turned around. If I am starting to be afraid or worrying, I call one of my friends who can help me by getting my focus off of me and back on the Bible. We often pray together as well.

55. Salty or sweet? Sweet most of the time. My favorite though is having popcorn with Reese's Pieces. YUM!!!

56. How many keys on your key ring? 3

57. How many years at your current job? Two years on April 1st. As a homemaker, it was six years this past December.

58. Favorite day of the week? I really like Sunday because this is when we get together with all of our friends to worship God at The River Community Church.

59. How many towns have you lived in? 10

60. Do you make friends easily? Yes.

61. How many people will you send this to? I don't know. I am sending it to two via email and then posting it on my blog,

62. How many will respond? Hopefully most of them

For those of you who are reading this on my blog, please feel free to post your answers in the comments section.

Have a wonderful day & a great weekend with your families!

Happy Easter!

Look at the lines the artist used to draw this picture of Christ. There are scenes from Christ's life. Have you ever seen anything like this?

Hope you are having a wonderful Easter celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!