TMG
Tom’s Midweek Greeting
Crossroads Community Church
Nevada MO
January 23, 2020
Hello, Church Family!
I was blessed by last Sunday’s worship and message centered around “Depression & Mental Health.” Thanks to Judi for what she shared, and to Jessica for leading us in worship. As you know, the Sunday morning sermon is now available on Crossroads’ Facebook page. Take time to invite your friends to connect with God’s Word there! Thanks, Julie, for offering to video the Sunday morning messages, and Heather for helping to set up our Crossroads Facebook page. Audio from Sunday’s sermons are available as well through our church website, www.nevadacrossroadschurch.org.
We’ll continue this Sunday in our “Your Asked For It!” sermon series. Someone in the church has asked for a sermon on tithing. We’ll take a look this Sunday at the big question of “Why do we offer things to God?” and at some related questions like, “What is a tithe?”; “What are God’s expectations for our participation in this part of the Christian life?”
A quote from Randy Alcorn has helped me organize my thoughts this week on this subject: “To me, one of the few experiences comparable to the joy of leading someone to Christ is the joy of making wise and generous choices with my money. Both are supreme acts of worship.”
I hope you’ll be with us Sunday morning at 10:00 at the Y for good worship and fellowship.
Calendar & Reminders
Home Group: Home Group is for all ages and will take place this coming Wednesday night, 6:30 – 8:00, at the Rodriguez home, *contact us for location*. We’ll have food, then activities for young people and study / sharing for adults. Join us!
Crossroads Connection: Do you need some time to connect with others in the Body of Christ? Crossroads Connection happens immediately after the worship service next Sunday, February 2. We’ll have chili and fixin’s, then take time for discussion of things going on in the church. Ministry teams that need to meet will have time afterwards to do that. It’s an informal time of fellowship and catching up with life in the church. If you could help bring a part of the food, please contact Kim Reedy.
Baby Bottle Boomerang: There are still a few baby bottles available for this fundraiser for Birthright of Nevada. It’s a simple matter of signing out a baby bottle and filling it up with loose change over the course of the next few weeks. This is a primary fundraiser for Birthright in Nevada. You can take more than one bottle if you’d like! The bottles and money are due back on Sunday, February 23, so there are still over four weeks to participate. Thank you!
Purpose in Life
Sometimes we pass through periods in life during which we simply need to be reminded of what is the purpose of it all! As followers of Christ, we have the joy of being given many reminders in the Bible of what our purposes are in life. If you’re at a point in life where you’re making an important decision, or if you’re needing to be reminded of what the goal is as we move through each day and each week, I hope these Scriptures will help you. These are only some of what God says about goals in life; they are some that have been particularly helpful to me over the years.
Psalm 34:3
O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together!
- knowing God
- developing a habit of worshiping Him, praising Him
- knowing Him and making Him known in the world
Colossians 3:17
Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.
- working, serving, living in such a way that the Lord’s name can be stamped upon it
Matthew 4:19
Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.
- winning others to Christ
- making disciples
Matthew 28:19
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations….
- making disciples everywhere
John 17:3
This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
- knowing the Lord more deeply
- preparing for life in His presence
John 17:4
I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do.
- accomplishing whatever the work is we feel God has given us to do on the earth, no matter how mundane or ordinary it may seem to us
Joshua 1:8
This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.
- studying, learning, knowing the Word of God more and more
- putting it into practice in daily life
Acts 13:36
Now when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep ; he was buried with his ancestors and his body decayed.
- accomplishing God’s purposes for the generation in which we live, whatever we understand those purposes to be
Romans 12:1-2
Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
- worshiping God by serving Him in everything we do every day wherever we are
- being a sacrifice given completely to Him
- participating in God’s plan of renewal of our mind
Philippians 3:13-14
One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
- releasing the past
- pressing onward toward the future
- accomplishing new things for Christ, as He makes them known to us
Colossians 3:1-2
Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, no on the things that are on earth.
- thinking about spiritual things
- preparing for life in heaven
1 John 3:2-3
Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
- preparing to meet Jesus
- growing in spiritual maturity
- shedding our old habits and ways of thinking
Hebrews 12:1-2
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aide every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
- persevering in whatever God has called us to do
I look forward to seeing you this Sunday !
–Tom
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