TMG
Hello, Crossroads Family!
I look forward to seeing you this Sunday morning, Lord willing, at 10:00 at the Community Center, 200 N. Ash Street. What a good time of worship and fellowship we’ll have! I hope you’ll be there and plan to arrive early! The sermon will have worship as its theme: “The Spiritual Leader & Worship,” from Isaiah 6:1-11. I’m very excited about it and just finished recording it to be uploaded on the Crossroads Facebook page in case you’re not able to be present in-person Sunday … or in case you want to tell a friend about what we’re learning at Crossroads Church!
It was bittersweet to learn this week of the passing of my good friend and mentor, Jim McColloch. Jim was pastor at First Baptist Church in Hermann, Missouri, while I was pastoring also in Hermann at Emmanuel E-Free. I have missed Jim these past several years ; I’m glad for a chance I and two other pastor friends from the Hermann area had to see Jim a few months ago when he was diagnosed with lung cancer. Jim was the type of person about whom it was always evident heaven was his real home. Now he’s there. Jim simply reached out to me one day and asked me if I wanted to do some Bible study together. Any of us are able to do something like that for someone else. That’s one way of being a spiritual leader … which Jim was to me.
I’m so grateful when I read and hear of good things happening at Emmanuel E-Free, too. Special people there, just as the Crossroads family is a special group of people. Someone pointed out to me that Crossroads really meets a “family” need in our lives. I’m glad for that and agree with that statement! God is faithful to His Church and to His churches! He will be faithful to us as He has been in the past!
Thanks to Todd Brooks for ministering to us last Sunday! I’m so glad you had an opportunity to meet Todd. We are blessed by wonderful men and women in the Evangelical Free Church denomination who are servants to the churches!
Let’s pray for those in the Crossroads family who have recently experienced the loss of loved ones. Also, several in the Crossroads family have struggled with illness. Thanks to God for understanding our physical bodies and for caring for us in times of struggle or grief.
Some Announcements
“Breathe” Bible Study starts February 20
The “Breathe” women’s Bible study will start at 9 a.m. on Sunday, February 20, at the Community Center. Be sure to contact Donna Rodriguez or Heather Hall if you have any questions. Let’s be in prayer that God would bless and use the five weeks that lie ahead for these women!
Youth Group, February 23
The next get-together for Crossroads young people is Wednesday, February 23, 6:30, at the Rods’ house, 12536 E. Quail Road. Mark your calendar and bring a friend!
“Renew” Women’s Conference
All Crossroads women are invited to a one-day women’s conference, “Renew,” to be held at the Church of God (Holiness) in El Dorado Springs, 1607 S. Park Street. The conference will last from 9:30 to 4:00. To register, go to http://www.eldochurch.com or call 417-876-2200. Registration is $30 if you register before February 20; $40 after February 20.
What are you reading?
We’ve talked some about the reading life of a spiritual leader, the fact that all of us should be reading something that challenges us, in addition to the Bible. Here are some books I’m reading these days:
Lincoln, by David Herbert Donald
A rather thick and very detailed (even somewhat tedious) biography of Abraham Lincoln. Right now I’m at the early part of his political career, and learning that he was not particularly outstanding as a U.S. Representative from Illinois. It’s also hard to pinpoint exactly what Lincoln’s religious beliefs were. He had a melancholy personality which gives some of us hope that God can use us, too, in spite of our melancholy!
The Weight of Glory, by C.S. Lewis
We’ll talk some about this idea of “glory” in Sunday’s sermon. Did you know that in the Old Testament God says a number of times that His goal is to one day fill the earth with His glory, in the same as water fills the sea!
Le Château de ma Mère, by Marcel Pagnol
This is a fun book based on the growing-up years of Marcel Pagnol in the mountainous region of southern France. If you’re ever able to watch the movie (with English sub-titles), it’s a great movie too!
In the Bible, I recently re-read Psalm 27. I love the “I will’s” and “He will’s” found in this psalm:
- In the day of trouble, He willconceal me in His tabernacle. v. 5
- In the secret place of His tent He willhide me. v. 5
- He willlift me up on a rock. v. 5
- And now my head willbe lifted up above my enemies. v. 6
- And I willoffer in His tents shouts of joy. v. 6
- I willsing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord. v. 6
- My father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord willtake me up. v. 10
I look forward to seeing you Sunday!
— Tom
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