TMG
span style=”color: #0000ff;”>Tom’s Midweek Greeting
Crossroads Community Church
Nevada MO
August 22, 2019
Hello, Church Family!
Don’t forget that we’re planning to grill hamburgers and eat together after our worship service this Sunday! Please plan to stay and enjoy some back-to-school fellowship! It will be good to catch up with each other. If you’re able, please bring a side dish and/or dessert. A refrigerator is available at the Y, so we can keep things cool during the worship service. Meat, water, paperware, and condiments will be provided. I hope you’ll join us and that perhaps you’ll bring a friend!
We’ll continue the sermon we started last Sunday concerning some of the misunderstandings we have about the Gospel and Evangelism. These ideas are from an excellent book by Larry Moyer called 21 Things God Never Said: Correcting Our Misconceptions About Evangelism. My hope is that we will address some of the questions you’ve had about the Gospel that in the past have caused you to be reticent about sharing it with others. Here are three we considered last Sunday:
Misunderstanding #1 — If you don’t know the date you were saved, then you’re not saved.
Some people hesitate to share the Gospel with others because they can’t pinpoint the exact date that they themselves were saved. Actually, when the Bible wants to assure you that you’re saved, it goes back to a person – Jesus Christ – not to a date. Salvation is established by who we place our trust in, not when we trusted Him.
Misunderstanding #2 — You can be saved even if you’re trusting in something in addition to Christ for your eternal salvation.
God says salvation is a gift from Him (Ephesians 2:8-9). It is not a formula (faith in Jesus plus church attendance, a good life, baptism, etc). If there is something else we need to do in addition to trusting Christ, then He only paid for a part of our sins. On the contrary, the Bible says God was satisfied with what Jesus did about our sins on the cross (1 John 4:10). We should be satisfied with what satisfies God – trusting Christ alone.
Misunderstanding #3 — If you doubt your salvation, then you’re not saved.
There are many reasons why people at times doubt (question) their salvation. One of the most common is when we fail in some way to live what we consider to be the Christian life. However, the characteristics of a growing Christian (love, peace, patience, honesty, etc) are not the conditions for being saved. We enter into eternal life by simple trust in the death and resurrection of Christ. First we enter the life; then we begin the process of living it. When we fail in some way as a Christian (something we all do), forgiveness and cleansing is available. (Be encouraged by 1 John 1:9.)
We’ll take a look at four more misunderstandings this Sunday. Our text will be 1 Peter 3:8-17. I hope we’ll leave eager to share the simple and free message of the Gospel!
Calendar
Worship Service and Barbecue this Sunday. Worship at 10:00. Dinner immediately following.
Cottey College Welcome Fair. Please pray for Donna and Esther who will be at the Crossroads table at the Cottey Welcome Fair this Saturday evening. Let’s pray that the Lord might give us new friendships this year with students from Cottey!
Kids Party: Friday, September 6, 5:30-7:30 pm, at the home of Angi and Shane Dahmer, *contact us for location or a ride*. All kids and their friends are invited!
Adult & Youth Bible Studies begin Sunday, September 8. Two early-Sunday-morning Bible studies will start up Sunday, September 8, from 9:00 – 9:45. The Adult study will be on “Can We Trust the Bible, and Why?” and is open to everyone. The youth will be working through a video series called “The Truth Project.” All middle schoolers and high schoolers are invited!
Congregational Family Meeting, September 15, following worship. The meeting is open to anyone who calls Crossroads their church home. We’ll plan and pray and take a look at finances. If there’s something you’d like to get on the agenda, please talk to me or one of the other elders.
Home Group & Youth Group, September 25, at the Rodriguez home. Food, fellowship, and encouragement for adults and young people. A fun time and an important time for building relationships! 6:30-8:00 pm, *contact us for address or a ride*.
The Big Serve, September 28-29. If you would like to be involved in a service project in Nevada with others from Crossroads, please let Heather or me know! We would love you to be part of Crossroads being outwardly focused!
Two Prayers for Teachers & Students
We’re blessed at Crossroads to have students, teachers, and staff in the Nevada public schools, in the Bronaugh school system, in the Lamar school system, at Crowder College, and at Cottey College, … and beyond ! May the following two prayers be a help to you as you remember them today and in the coming year!
Grant, Lord, to all who study and those who teach them,
the grace to love that which is worth loving,
to know that which is worth knowing,
to value what is most precious to you,
and to reject whatever is evil in your eyes.
Give them a true sense of judgment,
and the wisdom
to see beneath the surface of things.
Above all, may they search out and do
what is pleasing to you ;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
(after Thomas a Kempis, 1380-1471)
Good Jesus, you have deigned to refresh our souls with the sweet stream of knowledge;
grant that one day we may come to you, its source and spring.
(Alcuin of York, 735-804)
See you this Sunday!
(Tom of Nevada, 2015 – present) 
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