Sunday, February 24th

From Paula:

This week, as we continue in our series called "What Kind of Church?," the title of the sermon will be "Are you growing spiritually?" We will be looking at 2nd Peter 1:2-11 which reads:

"Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.
Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

How much responsibility do you think we have for our personal spiritual growth? According to this passage, it seems to me that there is a lot of effort expected from us in order to live the kind of life God desires for us to live.

Are there any particular spiritual disciplines that have been helpful to you on your journey of spiritual growth so far? How do you exercise your spirit? Or, what are some spiritual disciplines you haven't tried before, but would like to? Something that you have done before but need to re-introduce into your daily life?

Sunday, February 17th

Sometimes I find it difficult to answer the question: "What would Jesus do?" Too often I find myself looking for some specific example of Jesus' actions that I can use to convince myself that being proud, self centered, or rude is really my best course of action at the time. Jesus got angry. Jesus put those who were wrong in their place. But Jesus was also perfect. Even in his anger he did not sin, and he never took it upon himself to humble those who were already down.
So for me the challenge is to stop trying to prove my point, and start pointing to God.

"...even Christ didn't please himself..."
-Romans 15:3

Even the Son of the Most High, who was there "in the beginning," did not look to please himself. His aim was always to serve his father, and to serve his body, the church. This should also be our aim.

So how do you do that? How do you put yourself third, behind God and everyone else? Would you say you are "at peace" with Christ and his church?

Looking forward to Sunday,
John

Sunday, February 10th

This coming Sunday, we will be focusing on God's heart for the lost, and His compassion for all people. The main scripture will be Luke chapter 15, which includes the stories of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. I would suggest that everyone read the chapter sometime this week, to help prepare for a focused worship time on Sunday morning.

My question for our church family to think about and discuss is this: who are the lost? And what do you think about the idea that there may be degrees of "lostness"? I have often struggled with the related concept of degrees of sin… you know the way that we humans like to add a convenient layer of relativity to the concept of sin. One illustration would be the different ways we might think of a liar versus a murderer, or a jealous person versus a lesbian.

What are your thoughts? This is a great place to share!


On behalf of the Worship Team,
Jena Akers

Sunday, January 20th

From Robyn:

Revelation 22
Then he instructed me, “Do not seal up the prophetic words in this book, for the time is near. Let the one who is doing harm continue to do harm; let the one who is vile continue to be vile; let the one who is righteous continue to live righteously; let the one who is holy continue to be holy.”


"Let the one who is doing harm continue to do harm . . ." What?? Stand by and let sin continue? Don't get out there and tell those miserable sinners the consequences of their sin? (Remember Bullhorn Guy?) Then I just "continue to live righteously . . . continue to be holy (set apart)"? But who will fix all the wrong and clean up all the mess?

“Look, I am coming soon, bringing my reward with me to repay all people according to their deeds. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”

Oh.

Sorry.

I forgot again. You're God -- I'm not.

Thank God!

This is why we pursue holiness -- we respond to a holy God. How is your pursuit going?

Sunday, January 6th

From Danette:


Happy New Year! As we start 2008, we'll be focusing our lessons on the
church and what God wants it to be. This Sunday's main scriptures will
be Matthew 28:18-20 and Galatians 6:9-10. The body of Christ clearly has
been given a direction in which to go - a clear and distinct mission
which includes telling others of Christ. In fact, not just telling
others about Him but doing it in a thoughtful way that hopefully leads to
their salvation.

What do you think about all this?

Time to Reflect

From Paula:

Can you believe it's Christmas Eve already? Time really does seem to fly faster with each passing year!

This entry is a little outside of our normal format. We usually try to post something before the upcoming service to help us prepare. I thought we could use a chance to reflect a little on our service yesterday as well as the 3 prior weeks.

Was there anything that especially touched you? Something that helped to bring a little of the true meaning of Christmas into your holiday hustle and bustle? A message that really got through to your heart? A song or other part of the worship service that you especially enjoyed? A scripture that hit you differently this year than it ever had before?

Let us know how God has made himself known to you in this special season...

Sunday, December 9th

From John:

From the 3rd chapter of Matthew:
In those days John the Baptist appeared in the
wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, "Repent, for the
kingdom of heaven has come near." This is the one of
whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said,

"The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
'Prepare the way of the Lord, Make his paths
straight.'"

This passage introduces two of the themes for this
Sunday: repentance and preparation, or anticipation.
In this context, I believe that repentance may have
less to do with being sorry and more to do with
turning toward Jesus. Not only must we turn our
hearts, minds, and actions toward the Living God, but
we must do so quckly! God longs to use us now, but He
cannot use us to our fullest potential if we hesitate
to make corrections in the direction of our everyday
lives, when needed.
Anticipation. Christmas is a very tangible example of
anticipation. Most of us not only look forward to the
day, but also spend a great deal of time, money, and
effort in preparation for it. May it also be said of
us when it comes to the kingdom of God.
This Sunday, purpose to water the seeds of
anticipation your heart, that you may be completely
turned toward our Savior in all that you are.

Elder's Corner

From George Trivelas:

Connected

A couple of months ago I looked around on a Sunday morning – it was one of those weeks when attendance was low- only about 40 people. It bothered me, not so much the low number, but I noticed not very many people were sitting together. It struck me and made me ask, “Why aren’t people sitting together?” When my family goes to see a movie, we don’t all sit in different rows, we sit together. We laugh, we whisper, we share popcorn. We talk about it afterwards. When we share a meal together, we all crowd around the table, we share highs and lows, we hang on each other, hug on each other, encourage one another. Isn’t that what families do? Aren’t we a family? Shouldn’t it be the same?
When I was growing up, family time was not always happy. Spending time together usually consisted of some kind of argument or fighting between my parents or between me and my brother, or both. It was not something I looked forward to or a safe environment for sharing. Perhaps you also have wounds and apprehension because of past experiences, but take a step into today. We are now part of God’s family, and it’s a safe, loving place where we can:

Spend time together and ENJOY it!
Confide in one another, share struggles and joys.
Look for ways to encourage and uplift one another.
Speak honestly with each another.

We all need to assess ourselves and our families from time to time, and ask some hard questions. It is the same way with our church family.
Are we connected with the rest of the family?
Do we share and confide in one another?
Do we encourage one another regularly?
I have been asking myself these questions and to be honest I find myself not being the example I would like to be. Let’s pray that we all would strive towards that ideal where we connect like a family, share and confide in one another, uplift and encourage one another regularly and enjoy being together!

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. John 13:34-35.

Sunday, November 18th

"And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, "Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things and because of Your will they existed, and were created." -- Revelation 4:9-11

This Sunday the 18th we will have the opportunity to experience together the presence of the One who lives forever. Come ready to listen to the words of John's vision as if for the first time. What do you hear? What do you feel? Fear? Anticipation? Dread? Jubilation? Open your imagination (God created that, too!) to the images and descriptions as John struggles to put human words to an ethereal, unexplainable experience. Will you be ready to bow before the throne?

for the worship team --
Robyn

Sunday, Novermber 4th

From Paula:

This Sunday, Bruce will be preaching out of 1 Corinthians 11:1-16. I have found it helpful this week to read this passage in The Message, as well as several other translations. You can do this easily by visiting Biblegateway.com. Here is what it says in The Message:

1-2 It pleases me that you continue to remember and honor me by keeping up the traditions of the faith I taught you. All actual authority stems from Christ. 3-9 In a marriage relationship, there is authority from Christ to husband, and from husband to wife. The authority of Christ is the authority of God. Any man who speaks with God or about God in a way that shows a lack of respect for the authority of Christ, dishonors Christ. In the same way, a wife who speaks with God in a way that shows a lack of respect for the authority of her husband, dishonors her husband. Worse, she dishonors herself—an ugly sight, like a woman with her head shaved. This is basically the origin of these customs we have of women wearing head coverings in worship, while men take their hats off. By these symbolic acts, men and women, who far too often butt heads with each other, submit their "heads" to the Head: God.
10-12 Don't, by the way, read too much into the differences here between men and women. Neither man nor woman can go it alone or claim priority. Man was created first, as a beautiful shining reflection of God—that is true. But the head on a woman's body clearly outshines in beauty the head of her "head," her husband. The first woman came from man, true—but ever since then, every man comes from a woman! And since virtually everything comes from God anyway, let's quit going through these "who's first" routines.

After reading this passage, I thought it would be interesting for us to use this forum to discuss some of the ways in which our culture affects our behavior in worship. For example, I have heard Jim mention our casual culture several times in reference to the way it influences our interactions with God. What are some other cultural things that infuence us as a church? How do you think they affect our worship?

Have a wonderful week!