Hello, Crossroads Family!
I hope you’ll join us for Immerse tonight at 7:00 at the church. The reading assignment is pp 89-122 in the Immerse Bible. That corresponds to 1 Samuel 1-20 in an ordinary Bible, a really interesting section of the Old Testament. There should be lots of questions and plenty of room for discussion tonight! Come and be encouraged by the fellowship and study of God’s Word, our spiritual food.
There’s a lot going on at Crossroads! Diane Knoche is doing a wonderful job keeping the calendar updated at our church website, nevadacrossroadschurch.org. Also, most of the needed information is posted on the Crossroads Facebook page. Thanks to all who keep that up!
Here are a couple of dates to especially make a note of :
Spring Cleaning & Work Day at the church on Saturday, March 22, 9-noon.
We could use all the help we can get to do some important small projects around our facility. Please let Donna Rodriguez know if you’re able to help for some or all of that time. Jobs needing to be done are these :
- Inside :
- Wash chairs.
- Organize equipment / storage room.
- Move refrigerator, tables, and shelving to a single storage room.
- Clean carpet (Monday, the 24th).
- Outside :
- Spread mulch.
- Repair handrail where coming loose from concrete.
- Plant bushes.
- Blow leaves.
- Spray weeds.
- Other yard clean-up.
Thank you for signing up to help! We’d love the place to look great for spring and for Easter!
Men’s Recharge – Thursday, March 20, 6:30-8:00 pm.
All men are invited! This will be our second session going through a study called “The Ten Greatest Struggles of Your Life,” a study based on the Ten Commandments. On the 20th, we’ll discuss the second commandment, “You shall not make for yourself an idol” — our struggle with worship. If you have questions, please contact Cris Rodriguez or Tommie Ray.
Cookout & Outreach – Sunday, March 30, following worship.
The location is still to be determined, but please plan to stay after the morning worship service for food, fellowship, and outreach to others in our community. There is a sign-up sheet at church for you to sign up for food to bring, or you can contact Julie Kemper. Our Missions Team is organizing this meal and hoping we can reach out by having a visible presence at one of the local parks or at the Community Center. Please pray for this special event.
Upcoming Opportunities for Women
Our women’s group is planning a fellowship activity each month starting in April while the Saturday Breakfast & Bible Study series takes a break. Be watching for information for women to connect and grow relationships. Elizabeth Scheib is inviting any women who would like to go with her and a few others to Life Church’s Sisterhood Spring Fling on Friday, March 28, at 6 pm (here in Nevada). If interested, please let her know.
Tom on vacation next week
I’ll be taking some time off from March 15-23. Mark Tice will preach in my place this Sunday, the 16th, and Markus Kirner, from Midwestern Seminary in Kansas City, will fill in for me on the 23rd. Please be in prayer for these two men and for our worship team and others who will facilitate Sunday mornings the next two Sundays. Don’t forget there is an open prayer time at 9:00 on Sunday if you would like to join a few others for prayer. Thank you for praying for me, too, while I have some time off.
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I came to the end of the Gospel of Mark in my personal Bible reading this morning. It’s always a thrill to get to the end of one of the Gospels and to re-read the story of the crucifixion and resurrection. Below are some simple observations I made today. I haven’t had time to think fully about what their significance might be, but I once again found the details to be full of interest.
- They offered Jesus a drink of wine mixed with myrrh (Mark 15:23) which, as I understand it, was a kind of narcotic. He refused it. This had been prophesied hundreds of years earlier in Psalm 69:21.
- I was interested in the involvement of the Romans in Jesus’ crucifixion (Mark 15:16). It wasn’t only the Jewish chief priests and other Jewish religious leaders who were involved. A cohort of Roman soldiers seemed happy to carry out the orders for crucifixion. (In my previous church, I used to meet with a group of area pastors which we called a “cohort.” I remember another pastor-friend of mine not liking the use of that term. Perhaps it was because of the scriptural reference to this Roman cohort.)
- There’s an important reference to, and a specific naming of, women present at the cross (Mark 15:40-41), then present again at the laying of the body in the tomb, then present again at the empty tomb. Mark seems to go out of his way to make sure we see the role these women played in the story.
- “Golgotha” was the name of the place where they crucified Jesus (Mark 15:22). The Latin term used for Golgotha is “Calvary.” Sometimes we forget the origin of these names and what they mean.
- The day of the crucifixion is mentioned as “the preparation day, the day before the Sabbath” (Mark 15:42). Sometimes it’s hard to piece together the sequence and timing of the events of the crucifixion and specifically which day of the week Jesus died on. Some additional helps are found in Matthew 27:62 and John 19:14.
- The role of Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy follower of Jesus, is significant. He asked to be given Jesus’ body, and he laid the body a new tomb which he owned (Mark 15:43-46). It appears that Joseph was the one who actually climbed up to the top of the cross, pulled the nails, and carried the bloody body of Jesus down.
- The young man who announced the good news that Christ had risen is said, by Mark, to be in the tomb when the women arrived early on Sunday morning (Mark 16:5). Matthew writes of this angel as coming down, rolling away the stone, then sitting outside the tomb on the stone. Perhaps, before the arrival of the women, and after the frightening of the guard outside the tomb, the angel then went inside the empty tomb to await the arrival of the women. How exciting ! The world was about to be changed with the news!
- I am always struck, in the final section of Mark 16, by the record of unbelief — or at least initial unbelief — on the part of many (Mark 16:11,13,14). How interesting that unbelief is often our natural, default response to what God does or promises to do. May He cure our unbelief during these weeks leading up to Easter!
— Tom
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