TMG
Tom’s Midweek Greeting
Crossroads Community Church
Nevada MO
June 17, 2020
Hello, Crossroads Family!
We’ll worship together this Sunday morning at 10:00 at the Y, and we’ll be in the gymnasium! No need to bring a lawn chair or sunscreen! Join us for some good worship, fellowship, and teaching! The gym is the only part of the building we’ll have access to, but it will be good to be there! We can spread chairs out to a distance you’re comfortable with. I look forward to being with you and to continuing our journey through the book of Ephesians. This Sunday’s sermon will be from Ephesians 4:17 – 5:17, “The Christian Life is a Life That’s Moving Forward.”
Announcements & Calendar
Worship Music this Saturday evening, 5:00, on Facebook Live. Thanks to Jessica and others for blessing us with some Saturday evening worship music!
Worship Sunday morning at the Y, 10:00. We’ll meet inside. Come as you are. Bring a friend. (The sermon will also be posted on the Crossroads FB page starting Saturday evening.)
Monday Night Bible Study, next Monday, 7 pm, on Facebook Live. We’ll continue our “Summertime Psalms” series with a look at Psalms 45-48. Feel free to join us on Facebook or to drop by my house to study alongside a few others.
July 5th visit to 1409 N. Washington Street, following worship. Anyone interested is invited to come along to take a look at the building for sale at 1409 N. Washington Street immediately following the worship service on Sunday, July 5.
Prayer Requests
Pray for the Rodeo Bible Camp being held starting today and lasting until Saturday at Riverside Cowboy Church just outside Nevada. Some from Crossroads are involved in the camp.
Pray for Jessica and Kelsie as they prepare to lead the High School camp at Kamp Keirsey, July 19-23, near Amsterdam, Missouri.
Currently at Crossroads there are some ongoing job needs; some ongoing, nagging physical needs; some parenting needs; and concern on the part of all our members to stay safe and healthy while the pandemic runs its course. Please pray.
You are invited to meet at the flag pole on the south lawn of the Vernon County Courthouse to pray with others for our nation at 9:30 a.m. on the first Saturday of each month. For information, you can call 417-448-4067.
The Christian Life is a Life That’s Moving Forward (or “What I’ve Learned Watching Downton Abbey”)
As I mentioned once, during this slowed-down season of our lives Esther and I have been watching all the episodes of Downton Abbey … since we never watched them when the show came out several years ago. It is, simply put, a soap opera set in 1920s England. In an effort to justify (?) this use of my time, I’ve tried to make note of any life lessons I can learn from Lord Grantham’s family. Here are four:
— Courtesy is still (at least, for me) a very attractive quality. Because the family in this show is an aristocratic family, they exercise a lot of traditional courtesies toward one another. I find it a beautiful part of the show, and it seems to help smooth a lot of the relational issues between the members of the family. Someone once said that courtesy is love in little things. Christians should love all the way down to the little things in life.
— The characters in Downton Abbey have an unusual ability to quickly say “I’m sorry” and to quickly forgive. The members of the family are often in some sort of trouble with each other; but they are able to say, “I’m sorry,” “I forgive you,” and to move on. It makes me wonder why we, as Christians, aren’t better at that. Maybe it’s only because the writers want to move the story along to the next crisis or scandal, but, again, it has such a smoothing effect on relationships. In our sermon this Sunday on “The Christian Life is a Life That’s Moving Forward,” we’ll see that in order to move forward Christians are to be kind, tender-hearted, and forgiving (Ephesians 4:32).
— Fathers have it hard. Lord Grantham seems to often be the target of the frustrations of family members at Downton Abbey. It seems people don’t always understand the nature of the load fathers carry. (Ephesians 5 and 6 will take us into the world of husbands and wives, mothers and fathers. We’ll be there in a couple weeks.)
— Because it is a soap opera, everyone at Downton Abbey is carrying around a secret … and usually lying about it. The secret always eventually comes out, but as long as it’s held onto (and lied about), the plot doesn’t move forward. Again, in Ephesians 4, Paul exhorts believers to lay aside falsehood and to speak truth “each one of you with his neighbor” (4:25). Lying is perhaps the most widespread characteristic of our old life without Christ. It may seem like a small thing, but it can keep us from moving forward.
Are we moving forward at Crossroads?
It seems to me that we are, and I think the Lord’s instructions throughout the book of Ephesians are a help to us:
- The Christian Life is a Supplied Life
- The Christian Life is a Rescued Life
- The Christian Life is a Life of Unity With Other Believers
- The Christian Life is a Life That Is Moving Forward (this Sunday’s sermon)
I loved watching your response to last Sunday’s sermon. Unity with other believers is achieved, as Paul wrote, by treating each other with humility, gentleness, tolerance, and patience. I see you doing that as you develop relationships, show courtesy, reach out, encourage growth in each other, and seek ways to serve.
Let’s continue to move forward together under the Lord’s leading. If a church home of our own is what God desires, it will require a significant increase in giving beyond the faithful giving you’re already a part of. We’ll need to commit much prayer to that. Let’s pray, too, for the Lord to add to our number other people who want to plant a healthy church that’s moving forward!
I look forward to seeing you this Sunday!
— Tom
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