We hope you were able to join us last Sunday for our Valentine’s Day Banquet.  We had more than 150 people there, all fellowshipping, eating, laughing, and some winning prizes!  Included among those attending the event were a number of people who have never been to a SingleLife event.  Welcome to all of you and thanks for being a part of this event.

The theme for the last two Sunday’s (February 7 and 14) was Snickers Satisfies. The question this theme posed for us was, “Does it really satisfy?”  And of course, those of you that caught the larger Snickers bars Keith tossed out last Sunday were pretty close to being satisfied…yet, when dinner time came, you still went to get dinner, right?

On Sunday, Feb. 7, Mark began the series with a YouTube blog (click here to see it) and introduced the concept of deficit which is, simply, getting your needs met outside of Christ.  Since God has promised to meet all our needs, when we rely on a relationship to meet some of our needs, or, “complete us”, we are really living out of a deficit. When we are not relying on the Lord FULLY we are not “complete” in Him.  We come into a relationship as a part person, or a half a person.  Mathematically we try to do the following, ½ person + ½ person will equal 2 full people.  Doing anything outside of the Spirit means that ½ person + ½ person will not even equal 1 full person.  Mark made the point that this is not just the case for a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship but also for your relationships with friends, both male and female.

Pastor Keith came in on February 14 and unpacked defrauding, which is when we try to convince the other person that, “I can meet your needs”. We can’t meet their needs!  Only God can!  And He will do that when we let Him share His love with us and through us.  Pastor Keith then went through four types of relationships: Friendship, Courtship, Engagement and Marriage.  He discussed God’s math that 1 whole person + 1 whole person = 1 whole relationship.  A couple of other standout notes were that:

1) When in a friendship relationship, staying away from flirting and dating allows you to be friends with many people without being romantically involved.

2) Regarding courtship, Pastor Keith cautioned us to listen to, and take the advice of, friends and family. He said, “If you are unwilling to seek someone’s advice, this needs to be a big red flag to you.” He summed up by saying that, “Through prayer, biblical principles, Godly counsel and the perfect peace of God that this person is God’s will for your life, you will be prepared for a relationship that will last.”

We are having some excellent discussion in our Common Ground time.  Please plan on being there!

The next two weeks, February 21 and 28, we will be departing from our typical Common Ground themes.  On February 21, we will have a review of the last few months and on February 28 we will listen to a Sunday school  teacher’s testimony.

Remember, we start at 10:45 a.m. in The Warehouse!