Announcements
Kids'
Musical--
This Sunday!
Service
of Healing & Wholeness--
For all who struggle with any and all of Christmas, we hold this
service yearly as a place to come and let the hope of Christ and the
love of the community surround us. December 22 @ 6pm.
Candlelight
Christmas Eve Service of Lessons & Carols--
December 24, 7 pm.
Community
Kitchen Spot
There
are a lot of hungry and homeless children of God and the community
needs some help feeding them. If you would like to help out, please
bring the following items to church this Sunday & put them on the
bookshelf.
Plastic
Forks, Knives, Spoons
Dinner
Napkins
Heavy
Duty Sectional Dinner Plates
New
Hope News
Sunday
School—We
push forward through Matthew 8 this coming Sunday.
Sam's
Card—Please
check and see if you have the church Sam's Card. We are not sure
who borrowed it last, but it has not been returned.
Pray
For:
Lynn
Meyer—please pray for Roger and Lynn as the eternal life into which
she was baptized draws near. While death has been defeated and the
veil separating us from God has been torn in two, there is still much
pain and many tears as we grieve the wounds that death punches into
our hearts and minds.
Norma Capone—she will be in surgery throughout today, so please be in constant prayer for her
Norma Capone—she will be in surgery throughout today, so please be in constant prayer for her
The
O'Rear Family
Christine
Dyer
For
Jessica and so many others wrestling with cancer
For
Christmas joy and hope and peace and wonder to wash over all of us in
such powerful ways that we never forget what Christ our King has done
for us
Links
Keith's
Random Thoughts
Apparently, Christmas is
next Wednesday. My tree still isn't up...
People ask if we're
ready for Christmas.
Well, I suppose that depends on what you mean.
By 'ready', do you mean that presents are bought and the house
decorated? The answer would be no. We don't do many presents at
Christmas, and decorations are still in their boxes in the basement.
Who knew a second kid could make things that much more chaotic?
By 'ready', do you mean
ready to receive a Savior into my life, a light for my darkness, hope
for my despair?
I am ready in the sense
that I need a Savior. I am a mess, and only my Lord and God can save
me. I cannot save myself. The way that I act, the way that I think,
the way that I live—it is all in need of redemption. In that
sense, I am ready.
But if you were to ask
whether or not I am ready to hand everything over to my Savior, the
honest answer is no. I hold back from letting Christ be Lord of all
of life. I stubbornly refuse to cede complete control to him, and I
suffer as a result of that choice. The burdens that I choose to
carry weigh me down, body and soul, and I am struggling forward,
waiting for Christ to relieve me of these burdens, ignoring the fact
that he has already made the offer and that I am carrying them of my
own volition. I need to let him be Lord, but I am afraid of the
unknown quality of my life if I were to let him reign supreme in my
heart, mind, body & soul.
So if I'm honest, I'm
not ready. My soul and heart are yearning to be set free from the
prison of despair and sin, and Christ has unlocked the door and
beckoned me out into the light. He has come into my cell and sat
with me, and he has shown me the way to abundant life.
Yet, here I sit, in the
darkness, stubbornly resisting, holding onto sin, trying to tunnel my
own way out of my cell with my gnarled and bleeding hands. It's
foolish. But it's what sin does to us—leaves us as fools wishing
for meager gifts when Christ the Lord has set all of heaven before us
as a gift, yet we somehow believe the lie that we are better off
playing in the shadows.
“Behold, the light has
come!”
Text
for this Tuesday,
December 24
Luke
2:1-7
(ESV)
In
those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world
should be registered. 2 This was the first registration when
Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 And all went to be registered,
each to his own town. 4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from
the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called
Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be
registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. 6 And while
they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7 And she gave
birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and
laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
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& Devotionals
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