What a wonderful Weekend for God we celebrated this year. It was the 5^th year that we have taken the first weekend after the New Year to dedicate ourselves to the Lord for the rest of the year. Our guests this year were Darryl and Sherri Beebe from the state of Washington. The combination of their powerful personal story and sound teaching on forgiveness opened our hearts to a level of trust and faith in God that we so need in this present day. Many have shared that they were able to build bridges of forgiveness and received both emotional and in many cases, physical healing. If there was any one truth that we brought from those four services and two breakfast meetings it was that “God often withholds his hand of immediate relief so that he can fulfill a greater purpose that we won’t see at the time.” The statement that hit us the most was “ God had to withhold his hand of rescue while His own Son was suffering on the cross so that he could TIP THE SCALES in our favor and provide eternal salvation for all who would receive Him. I trust we can remember this year when suffering comes our way and it appears God does not jump to our rescue immediately, that He may be withholding our instant relief so he can tip the scales in favor of a purpose greater than ourselves. My dad used to say, “He does not always come in a hurry but He always comes in time.” We all, like the apostle Paul, want to know him in His glory but we also must be willing to enter the fellowship of His suffering especially when He has a purpose beyond us. Be encouraged this year. Rejoice with every victory and when necessary suffer like a good soldier and know beyond any shadow of doubt God will see us through and we still win with Him.