TMG
Hello, Crossroads Family!
A few reminders about things going on at Crossroads!
Of course, we’ll worship this Sunday morning at 10:00. I hope to see you there! We’ll have our final sermon in the series from Matthew 12-13. If you’re unable to make it to the service Sunday, I’ll post the sermon on Facebook sometime Sunday afternoon.
Immerse on Wednesday nights at 7 pm. Many of us are enjoying the fellowship and study that the Immerse Bible reading experience has brought to us. Some of you are headed there this evening!
There will be a Ministry Teams Meeting this Sunday following the worship service. I’m hopeful we’ll have a representative from each of our ministry teams there: elders, worship, missions, children’s church, greeters, finance team, Immerse. The purposes of our meeting are to share with each other what’s going on in our various areas of ministry; to share needs and goals for this year; to pray together; and to do some planning for Easter Sunday. Thanks for your willingness to be a part of keeping good communication going at Crossroads!
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Praise & Prayer
We rejoice that Heather Vestal has had a good report from her doctors following her recent surgery! Thank you for praying, and thanks be to God for this good news!
Please pray for Austin Forkner (Julie’s son) who was in a very serious accident at a Motocross event at AT&T Stadium in Dallas last weekend. Please pray for God’s hand on Austin and the entire family as he recovers. Thank you!
Please pray for Dean and Emily Lewis who are sick with strep throat. Others in our church family have been, or are, sick. Continue to pray for Matt Servos as doctors investigate his recent heart problems.
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Thoughts
I enjoyed starting the book of Job again today in my personal time with the Lord. I’m especially excited about it because I’ve also been reading very slowly (for about a year-and-a-half now!) through a book called The Gospel According to Job by Mike Mason. Until I read this devotional book on Job, I think I had never realized how much a picture Job is of the Lord Jesus. Other than Jesus, I suppose no one on earth has suffered more than Job did. Think of Job’s experience of suffering, then realize that Jesus’ suffering was even greater, not only physically but spiritually.
Job’s suffering seems similar to the suffering Jesus faced when tempted in the wilderness at the beginning of his ministry. “Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan asks God. “Put forth your hand and touch all that he has ; he will surely curse you to your face” (Job 1:9,11). Satan was also hoping Jesus — being deprived of food and fellowship — would renounce God and God’s ways for Him.
I was surprised to discover, toward the beginning of Job, a familiar thought from the Psalms, only spoken with a different twist: “What is man that you magnify him, and that you are concerned about him?” (Job 7:17)
In Psalm 8 that question is raised out of amazement: “God, we can hardly believe you take thought of human beings, that you are concerned about us!” In Job 7, it’s just the opposite: “You’re concerned about humans; yes, you try them every moment! Will you never turn your gaze away from us?” (Job 7:17-19).
To struggle with how and why God does things is an experience common to us all. We shouldn’t forget that Job didn’t know what was happening in the invisible world that affected his experience. Satan’s attack wasn’t first of all an attack against Job, but an attack against God!
Job looks for an arbiter who can argue his case before God: “God is not a man that I may answer him, or that we may go to court together” (Job 9:32). The arbiter Job was looking for — and which we have found — is the Lord Jesus.
The word “passion” (such as we find in a phrase like “the passion of Christ”) is from a Latin word that means essentially “to experience something.” Jesus Christ experienced extreme suffering in order to save people he is passionate about.
“Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God” (1 Peter 3:18).
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Personal
Most of you know I had a new grandbaby last month. Wesley Rush Harms was born to Emma and Jason in Albert City, Iowa. He’s my seventh grandbaby.
My son, Sam, will marry Madeleine Golightly April 21 near Dallas. We’re all very excited about the wedding and about getting the family together again.
Our Nevada Show Choir season is almost at an end: We travel to a competition this Saturday in Webb City, our last scheduled competition.
I had the opportunity this week to give a 20-minute talk on the Bible to our Nevada High School Scholar Bowl team. In their competitions, they occasionally have Bible-related questions. It was fun to be able to do that. Bryan Townsend is the team’s coach.
I’ll take some time off from work the week of Spring Break (March 11-16), but I’ll be preaching both Sundays.
I look forward to worshiping with you this coming Sunday!
— Tom
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