Vacation Bible School 2007 is now history!  What a week we enjoyed!  I cannot begin to tell you   how proud I am to be a part of the St. Andrews Road church of Christ.  Each VBS team member worked so very hard to see that every part of the program was 100% successful.  Steve and Stephanie Rigney did an outstanding job organizing every facet of our program.  To our snack team, skit team, craft team, teaching team, decoration team, registration team, set-up team, clean-up team, and to every member who helped in any other way, THANK YOU for your dedication to Christ, to His church, and to those who have been taught the gospel of Jesus Christ this week.    Paul prayed for the Christians at Ephesus in Ephesians 3:14-21 and ended his prayer with this blessing:  “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.  Amen.”  This is my prayer for us.  May the Lord strengthen us with might!  May Christ dwell within our hearts through faith!  May we be rooted and grounded in love!  May we be able to comprehend and know the width and length and depth and height of the love of Christ!   May we be filled with all the fullness of God!    Now to our next adventure!  Our All-Night Singing is now only a week away, scheduled for Friday night, August 3rd, at 7:30 p.m.  We will have fellow brothers and sisters in Christ traveling from all over the southeast to unite with us in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs as we sing praises to the Lord for the evening and into the night.    I often think about the Jesus and His apostles gathered together in that upper room in Matthew 26:17-30.  Jesus told them that one of them would betray Him.  They were “exceedingly sorrowful” to know this.  Judas Iscariot had already made his plans with the enemies of Christ.  Yet,      he asked Jesus, “Rabbi, is it I?”  Jesus took the bread and then the cup and established the             “Lord’s Supper.”    In verse 30 we find the apostles and Jesus singing a hymn. I wonder what song they sung!  I       also wonder about the voice of Jesus Christ, the Son of God!  We sometimes sing #102 in our songbooks: “In the Garden.”  Verse two declares: “He speaks and the sound of His voice is so sweet that the birds hush their singing…”  Can you imagine a voice so sweet, so smooth, so strong, so perfect, so wonderful that the entire world stops to listen?  May we live our lives in such a way in faith and obedience that we hear Him throughout eternity!    For the next two Sundays we will focus our attention on “Choice.”  Many people, especially preachers, lead us to believe that following God is a forceful thing.  Some try all kinds of manipulative techniques to “fool” people or trick people into following their particular “brand” of what they call godliness.  Jesus simply said, “Follow Me.”  Some did!  Most didn’t.  From Genesis to Revelation,   following God is a matter of choice, not chance or force.  We will use Matthew 16:24 and Joshua 24:15   as our texts.    On Sunday evening we will study the life of Simon Peter as we resume our lesson series “Living a Life that Counts.”  One of the most important aspect of Christianity is our “Maturity” in Christ.  We will consider Peter’s maturing process.  Maturity is growing past relationship barriers to unity.  Maturity is growing past  disappointing and/or sinful behavior to forgiveness.  Maturity is growing past sight to faith.  Maturity is growing past emotional motives to Biblical promises.  If you would like to read ahead, read John chapter 21.