Announcements
Communion—This
Sunday! There will be NO potluck this Sunday—it will be on the
27th.
Men's
Breakfast—The next men's breakfast will be Saturday,
January 19.
Outreach
Committee—Meets Thursday, January 10th @ 5:30.
Chili
Cook-off—Wednesday, January 30. See if you can
topple reigning champion Dewey French.
New
Hope News
Sunday
School—This Sunday, the adult class will study
Matthew's Gospel.
Prayer
Service—The Sunday night prayer services will
continue in February.
Pray
For:
All
those dealing with the flu
Pray
for those who do not know Christ.
Links
Keith's
Random Thoughts
I bet you'd love to say you had 50 passages of Scripture memorized.
100 would be even better, right?
We all have an image in our heads of what our ideal self would look
like. The problem is that the ideal self is so far from our actual
self that it intimidates us into non-action. We freeze, confidant
that such a lofty goal is unattainable.
Take my golf game, for example. When I golf, I am a general danger
to any other obstacles on the course, flora & fauna. The safest
place to be is the place where I am aiming. Even the fish flee for
the depths when I step up to the tee.
Now, it would be nice to golf in the 80s rather than the 100s. But
taking 20 strokes off my game is such a lofty goal that I am frozen
into doing nothing. I let myself be intimidated. But, if I managed
to reduce my score by 1 stroke every year, I'd be a pretty good
golfer by the time I was 50. My growth would be evident, and I would
develop into the type of player I would like to be, rather than
staying in the same place for 20 years, certain that I could never
reach my goal.
So let's say you wanted to memorize 50 passage of Scripture. That's
a big goal. To do all this in a month would take hours upon hours of
work, and the size of the goal intimidates us into doing nothing.
But if you spent two months memorizing a single passage, only then
moving on to the next one, two things would happen. First, you'd
know that passage very well. Second, you'd have 50 passage memorized
in just over 8 years.
Sounds like a long way off, doesn't it? It will be here before you
know it. Also, in 8 years, you'll look back and feel like you made a
wise decision. You'll have become the type of person you had wanted
to be. You'll be closer to your ideal self.
Let's make long-term decisions for spiritual growth & let God
work. God takes his time with us. Don't let impatience hamper your
spiritual growth, but plan for the long-haul, and God will do amazing
things through us.
Text
for this Sunday
Matthew
2:1-12
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of
Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, ‘Where is
the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his
star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.’ When King
Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and
calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he
inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, ‘In
Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:
“And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least
among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.”
’
Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them
the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to
Bethlehem, saying, ‘Go and search diligently for the child; and
when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay
him homage.’ When they had heard the king, they set out; and there,
ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until
it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the
star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the
house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down
and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure-chests, they
offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been
warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own
country by another road.
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