Dear Crossroads Family & Friends,
This has been a good week already at Crossroads. Let me share a few things I’ve been able to see going on:
Our new Elder Board met for the very first time Monday evening. It was a good meeting of sharing vision and thoughts about where Crossroads is at, where we hope it to go, and what we want to be as an Elder Board. Some of the themes that were discussed concerning the church were these: how to better connect people’s abilities and talents with practical opportunities to serve; how to have a more visible presence in Nevada; how to increase our interaction with each other in the areas of spiritual growth we’re experiencing; how to have more fun times together as a church. I left the meeting grateful for the heart of our new elders, and thankful for your prayerful participation in getting this new Board going! Thank you for praying for us!
I’ve had opportunities to interact with several of you who are going through the Ten Steps discipleship course, and others of you who minister at Crossroads. I continue to be impressed by the heart God has given all of you to serve Him and to serve people! There is real spiritual growth taking place at Crossroads – several of you have mentioned this – and I believe such growth will necessarily bear fruit to the glory of God. Thanks for your dedication to the Lord, and for your reliance upon Him for strength and direction. I’m always excited to hear of people serving people… in the church and in the community. I’m very grateful that you reach out to each other. You are being the church. Thank you!
I look forward this Sunday to our Crossroads 101 course, and I invite any of you to join us for this membership course. It’s really an introduction, first of all, to the Church as God describes it in the Bible; then, more about our local church, our denomination (the Evangelical Free Church of America), and how God is calling us to be the church together.
Don’t forget about Home Group tonight – 6:30 at the Rodriguezes home. If you are in need of a midweek re-fueling, you won’t want to miss it! If you would like to join a small group for prayer before Home Group, come at 5:45.
This Sunday
I hope you’ll join us Sunday morning! We need the fellowship, encouragement, and support, don’t we! God says this in Hebrews 10:25 – “… not forsaking our own assembling together, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.” That “day” (of the Lord’s intervention in the world, and the return of Christ to judge and to rule) does seem to be near! But whether it’s near or still some distance away, we need the encouragement and support that comes from being together as God’s people.
Our sermon on Sunday will be from Acts 9 and 10 — “People Who Need Healing.” We’ll take a look at a great series of miracles and healings God performed through the Apostle Peter. Which one was the greatest? What kinds of miracles is God still doing today in our lives? Where do you and I need healing? Worship begins at 10:00 at the Y. Children’s Church and nursery are available for 5th grade and under during the sermon time. Thank you to our team of teachers and helpers!
Our Adult Bible Study at 9:00 is a fun, informal time of studying and applying God’s Word. This Sunday we’ll look at the sixth of the Ten Commandments, “You shall not murder.” On the surface, this appears to be a commandment few, if any of us, have broken. And yet, the Lord Jesus had a lot to say about what it means to be murderer! Underneath the surface is our struggle for peace. Join us in discovering why we struggle with peace, and how we can find it by better understanding this commandment!
The Baby Bottle Boomerang project ends this Sunday. If you have a baby bottle which you’ve been filling up with loose change for our local Birthright ministry, please bring the bottle and money to church this Sunday. Thank you for participating!
Youth Group for High School and Middle School students this Sunday evening, 6:30, at the Y.
One Thing
You know that I’m a planner and don’t function well unless I understand the purposes and goals of what I’m doing! There are strengths and weaknesses to that, I suppose, but I do see God as being One who has purposes and a “course” for us to follow (sort of like the courses we went through at school, with each level becoming a little more difficult, or stretching).
Occasionally in the Bible, we come across sentences that use the phrase “one thing,” or some variation of it. You remember probably the story (Luke 10) where Jesus was visiting the home of Mary and Martha and Lazarus. Martha was busy in the logistical preparations of the visit, but Mary was simply spending time listening to Jesus. Jesus told Martha that only “one thing” was necessary, and that Mary had found it. Here are some “one thing” passages in the Bible that help us understand the Lord’s priorities for our lives:
To worship God is a “one thing” we should be doing in life.
“One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life” (Psalm 27:4).
To put Christ above all else is a “one thing” I must do.
“One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me” (Mark10:21).
To sit quietly and attentively at the Lord’s feet, learning His Word is “one thing” that is necessary for me.
“The Lord answered and said, ‘Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary’” (Luke10:41).
Another “one thing” that is necessary is to tell others what the Lord has done for you!
The blind man Jesus healed said of the Lord, “Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see!” (John 9:25).
As followers of Christ, “one thing” we do is to look forward.
“Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet ; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-15).
“One thing” we ought to be doing is getting ready for the return of the Lord.
“But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness” (2 Peter 3:8-11).
I hope that at Crossroads, this week and this weekend, we can have a personal experience of God:
- O taste and see that the Lord is good. Psalm 34:8
- All His garments smell of myrrh, aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces. Psalm 45:8
- My sheep hear My voice. John 10:27
- Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see Matthew 5:8
Hope to see you Sunday!
— Tom
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