TMG
Tom’s Midweek Greeting
Crossroads Community Church
Nevada MO
August 1, 2018
www.nevadacrossroadschurch.org
Hello Crossroads Family!
Just back from a 5-hour stint at the hospital to receive another infusion of iron (my sixth one within the past year). My iron levels are low again, and so it was decided I needed another pick-me-up! Low levels of iron lead to fatigue, some difficulty breathing, and “brain fog.” At least now I have an excuse! I am always appreciative of the good care I receive from the team at Nevada Regional Medical Center. I’m grateful, too, for the quiet time I have during that IV infusion. A good time to catch up on reading and solitude.
There are many exciting things going on at Crossroads. One of them is prayer. There is a small group of people who have continued to pray throughout the summer on Wednesday nights at 5:30 at Judi and Phill Edwards house. Anyone is welcome to come. We pray for each other, for needs in the church, for our nation, for individuals in Nevada, and for much more. If you receive this email in time, I hope you’ll think about joining us tonight. We meet for about an hour or a little less most times.
It was good for me to be back at church last Sunday. I enjoyed the fellowship and all your smiling faces. It’s great to have new people attending, and soon we will have some Cottey students back with us!
Let me mention some other things going on in the church in the coming weeks:
• I’ve been meeting with four men from the church for small-group discipleship on Monday nights. We would like to open that up to any men in the church who would like to join us in the fall. We would plan on one Monday night meeting per month, with time for food and fellowship. Men getting excited about their walk with the Lord is a powerful thing in any church. Guys, I hope you’ll be watching for more details, as we hope to start in September.
• Our women are planning a one-day women’s fellowship event on October 27 at the lavender farm between Nevada and Ft Scott. Ladies, please mark your calendars for that date and be listening for more details. Again, I’ve found that women connecting on a spiritual level is a true dynamo in any church.
• We’re having an all-church barbecue and outdoor, evening worship service on Sunday, August 19, at Marmaduke Park. The food and table service will be provided. Please plan to join the rest of the church family, and also bring a friend for this informal time. There will be no morning worship service that day at the YMCA due to the gym floors being resurfaced.
• We are also invited to a barbecue with Restoration Church on Sunday evening, August 12, for any from Crossroads who would like to go. They will spend some time that evening praying for teachers and students at the start of this new school year.
• As a church, we’re providing lunch for residents of the Moss House on Thursday, August 30. Here’s a great chance to serve the Lord and bless some people who could really use the encouragement. Please let Kim Reedy know if you can contribute to that lunch in some way.
• Crossroads will have a display table at the Cottey College Welcome Fair on Saturday, August 18. Please pray that we might have a warm, welcoming presence there and that we would have some good contacts with incoming Cottey students.
• I’m excited about communication I’ve had with Joe Chenoweth from Cornerstone Community Church in Harrisonville. Joe has some great tools to offer Crossroads at this stage in our development. He will be drawing our Elder Board, and eventually the entire congregation, into a vision for ministry that mirrors Nehemiah’s rebuilding of the walls in Jerusalem. Please pray for this process as we move forward this fall. Thank you!
• Young Life in Nevada continues to prepare a launch. How exciting it would be to have this ministry come to Nevada! The purpose of Young Life is to “reach the young person who is the furthest out” – in other words, those young people who wouldn’t necessarily come to church, or even to a youth group event. This project is an opportunity for us as a church to turn our focus outward to the very real spiritual needs in Nevada. If you’re not already involved, please support this in prayer. And be listening for opportunities to plug in. www.younglife.org is a good place to go to check out what Young Life is. Thanks!
In Mark 3, there is an episode where the crowds are pressing in so hard on Jesus that he had to have a boat stand ready to move him out from shore. All those who had some need were falling on him in order to get their need met.
Shortly after that incident, Jesus takes the twelve original disciples away to a mountaintop where he appoints them to … 1) be with him … 2) preach (proclaim a message with authority) … and 3) cast out demons.
Certainly, as you and I come to Christ we will have many needs met (our greatest needs, actually). However, more wonderful still is the opportunity to be a modern-day disciple who accepts the call to … 1) daily fellowship with the Lord … 2) sharing the Good News of the Gospel … and
3) being to other people what Jesus is to us. I hope we will find ourselves, not just among the crowds who press in upon him to have their needs met, but among those who are his ambassadors in the places where he sends us.
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How Much God Loves You!
I had a good conversation yesterday with two people from Crossroads about the depth to which God loves us. We really have no good sense of it, do we? — the breadth and the length and the height and the depth of God’s love!
Some people have an over-exaggerated view of themselves, but many of us feel that we’re mostly failures in life, disappointing God and people. How good to remember the story of the Prodigal Son: He wanted his dad’s money; he went out and squandered it; he wrecked his life. Then, after all that failure, he had the thought that he felt pretty certain his dad might take him back on the family farm as a hired hand. (That really wouldn’t have been very satisfying, would it have?) But the father was actually longing for the son’s return; and when the son came back, a celebration took place.
Such a story speaks to us of God’s love. He loves you!
What’s going on in your life today that causes you to question God’s love for you? Maybe it’s a sense of your own failure? Maybe you, like me, were born with a melancholy temperament and don’t feel like that fits in with what you hear real Christians should be like?
Do you get down when calamities happen all around you? “When it rains, it pours” continues to be a true statement, doesn’t it? Here’s what my summer of breakdowns has looked like:
• three major car repairs : the damage the armadillo did to my front end on I-49 ; the two wheel bearings replaced in the front of my car ; the two accidents in two days with the kids’ car
• broken water heater, with water running all over the basement … for how long ?
• refrigerator needs its thermostat replaced ; “I’ve unplugged him. We’ll let him sit a few days and thaw out,” the repairman said. I loved the idea of calling the refrigerator “him”!
• iron levels on the decline again
• and now, my final project of the summer: replace the battery in my car key remote!
Not very serious stuff compared to what some people go through.
Whatever the circumstances, God never changes … and he always loves you. Jesus said, “In this world you will have tribulation. But take courage! I have overcome the world!” (John 16:33)
God has dug us out of a pile of rocks; he is chiseling us off in order to fit us into his building project; he is making us strong, fit for eternity with him in heaven.
I hope you will know today (even if you must know it by faith) that the Lord loves you.
See you this Sunday, and we’ll talk more about what God’s saying in the Bible with rocks!
— Sunday at 10:00 at the Y.
Tom
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