Thursday, January 3, 2013

1/3 E-News


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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