TMG
Tom’s Midweek Greeting
Crossroads Community Church
Nevada MO
April 13, 2020
Dear Crossroads Family,
I hope you experienced some degree of peace, rest, hope, and renewal over the Easter weekend. I was happy to connect with many of you via Facebook yesterday morning, and I understand that many others joined us for the Easter morning sermon. What a joy it is for us to connect with some outside our church during this time of quarantine! It’s an opportunity we wouldn’t have had if life were continuing on as usual. God has unusual ways of doing things, and He redeems situations for His glory and our good!
I wonder what post-Easter looks like for Crossroads? Will you pray with me about that? What are some springtime and summertime goals for us? How should we continue to reach out (to each other and to our community) during the remainder of the quarantine … and beyond? How should we take advantage of the gift of quiet (“Be still and know that I am God” – Psalm 46:10)?
One of the things I love about Crossroads Church is that people (you) are doing ministry in daily life. We don’t have a lot of ministry “programs” at Crossroads, but there’s a heart for serving the Lord in everything we do, whether that be in our home, at our workplace, or in relationships God gives us in the community. I urge you to continue to see those opportunities as God’s call to ministry. My daughter Emma and her husband Jason have been building relationships with their neighbors in their new town by delivering cookies to them. It has made me realize that I need to do more personally to reach out to my own new set of neighbors. Being active in daily life – learning to be God’s servant wherever we’re at – is a mark, I think, of a healthy Christian and of a healthy church.
Remember that resurrection means death. In order for resurrection to happen, death had to happen first. In order for us to live lives filled with resurrection power, we will have to die, first, to ourselves. Dying to self and living to Christ is our call for this spring season. This prayer of Francis of Assisi is a good one: “Teach me … not so much to be consoled as to console; not so much to be loved as to love; not so much to be understood as to understand.”
I look forward, in our Sunday mornings this spring and summer, to working through four of Paul’s letters that form the heart of the New Testament – Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. I don’t know how far we’ll get through these letters; we’ll hit highlights and help ourselves better understand some of the practical exhortations God gave through Paul for living the Christian life! The themes of these four letters are:
- Galatians – Be free!
- Ephesians – Be rich!
- Philippians – Be joyful!
- Colossians – Be forgiven!
We’ll also continue our study on Monday nights in the Old Testament book of Numbers through mid-May on Facebook Live.
In the meantime, is there someone you can reach out to? Face time, Zoom, a conference call, or a simple handwritten letter of encouragement and prayer could be an important blessing to someone this week. Please pray for our church elders as we will be meeting via a conference phone call this coming Wednesday evening.
Schedule for this Week
Monday Night Bible Study —
Join me tonight at 7:00 on the Crossroads Church Facebook page. We’ll be at an important point in the book of Numbers as the Israelites transition from theory (a nation promising to obey God) … to reality (a people forced to choose whether they will actually trust God or not). What can we learn for our own lives? We’ll meet for about 45 minutes tonight on Facebook Live.
Saturday Evening Worship —
Jessica plans to lead worship music again this Saturday evening on her own Facebook page at 7:00. A good opportunity to be refreshed after a long week and to prepare your heart for Sunday’s message.
Sunday Morning Message —
Join me Sunday as we look together into Paul’s letter to the Galatians. I think this little book will surprise you and encourage you! Sunday morning at 10:00 on the Crossroads Church Facebook page. Let your friends know God has a good word for them!
God is Able
Are you wondering, during these unusual times, what God will do? … or what He’s even able to do? Here are a few encouraging verses that remind us of a God who is able:
He is able to make you strong.
“Now to Him who is able to establish you be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen! (Romans 16:25) (NLT version says, “… to Him who is able to make you strong …”)
He is able to do beyond what we are even capable of imagining.
“Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21)
He is able to keep what we’ve entrusted to Him (our lives, our families, our futures, our hope).
“I am sure that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until the day of His return” (2 Timothy 2:12).
He is able to help us when we’re tempted.
“He is able to help those who are being tempted” (Hebrews 2:18).
He is able to keep us from falling.
“Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy, … be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.” (Jude 24)
He is able to make all grace abound to us whenever we need it.
“God is able to make all grace abound toward you, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8).
I’m trusting Him that these promises will be true for you and me this coming week! I look forward to being in touch with you!
— Tom
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