Advent 2010

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14

Advent is a time for waiting, reflecting, praying through God’s goodness.  That God would join the human condition, taking on flesh and make his dwelling among us.  What good news this is, what a display of love!  All of human history has been changed by this event, and for the next four weeks we are going to be looking at different aspects of this.  Please join us as we prepare ourselves to celebrate our Savior as an infant.

November 28: Community

December 5: Power

December 12: Money

December 19: Love

December 24: Celebration (A special Christmas Eve Morning service held at 11am)

Thanksgiving Service

This Sunday is our Thanksgiving worship service.  A time that we remember the source of all good things, Jesus Christ our Lord.  We are pleased to be joining together with all the Congregations of our Church to worship with one accord.  Our service will start at 11am.  Each congregation will bring a testimony and a song to offer.  Our theme verse for worship will be:

Col. 3:15-17 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.  Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.  And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

 

Painting update

We are just about half way with our projects.  Here are some photos to show the changes.

 

The Painters

We are so thankful to have these talented guys working and repairing our campus.

Prophets

“And the Lord said…” makes up 4% of the Old Testament.  Time and time again God has been speaking to his people, but are they listening?  Only after God raises up someone to repeat the message time and time again.  That is where the prophets come in, they are the people that God uses to share his message.  Samuel anoints Saul and David to be King, Nehemiah rebuilds the temple, Jeremiah speaks against the religious leaders asking them to repent, Daniel is taken captive only to lead powerful kings to remember that God is the ultimate King of kings.

History

Judges is the source of confusion for many Christians.  It is hard to justify the recorded destruction.  One way to interpret the story makes God bent on destruction and enemy of humankind, which clearly is not the way Christians read the text.  But we cannot skip over it either, it is scripture just like the rest.  This Sunday join us as we look at our image and understanding of God in light of these difficult passages.

Through the Pentateuch

We are making our way through the scriptures, looking at the big picture.  After several weeks in Genesis we are going to be moving quickly through the rest of the Pentateuch.

Abraham

The biblical stories are so significant to our ability to make meaning of our life experiences.  Our series is going through the scriptures like a photo album, and seeing how God’s relationship with people turned out.  Hopefully we will be more skilled at seeing how God is interacting with us as well.  Come and join us as we look at Abraham and Sarah this week.

The Kingdom of God

Jesus taught in parables.  In our own school system this seems incredibly strange.  It would seem that it would have been better for Jesus to speak directly about the local events, teaching the people to interpret the times for themselves.  Instead we learn about seeds, yeast, weddings, spring time, nets, and wheat.  These objects still teach us about God’s Kingdom long after the local events have passed.  We celebrated the risen Lord at Easter, and as we wait for Pentecost, we will be studying these parables trying to learn what the Kingdom of God is like.