TMG
Tom’s Midweek Greeting
Crossroads Community Church
Nevada MO
Dear Crossroads Family,
I’m thankful for the Lord’s work in our world and in your lives! This has been a busy week for many! God has been faithful, as He always is. I enjoy hearing about what He’s doing in your lives!
In the TMG today are a few reminders of life at Crossroads, and a few encouragements as we go forward!
Grocery Grab
We could still use some help this Saturday morning, starting at 8:00, next to Woods. A good chance to serve and bless others!
Worship This Sunday
Looking forward to a great time of fellowship and worship this Sunday morning at 10:00 at the Y! The congestion is gone at the Y; there is plenty of space to enjoy each other and to worship! I hope to see you on Sunday! If you’re unable to attend, the sermon will be posted Saturday on the Crossroads Facebook page.
Thanksgiving Meal
We’re having a Thanksgiving meal Sunday, November 22, following the worship service! Please plan to come, and bring a friend with you that Sunday! Please let Kim or Michaela know if you can bring soup, rolls, dessert, or drinks! Thank you!
Nominations
If you have a suggestion for the open Elder position, please let someone on the Nominating Committee know before the end of November.
January Congregational Meeting
January 10 is the date for our Congregational meeting. We’ll meet following the worship service to elect a church Elder and to approve a 2021 budget. If you have input to give for the 2021 budget, please notify one of the elders.
Christmas Eve Service:
We’re planning a Christmas Eve service. In the past, this has been a good opportunity to invite friends and family. Mark your calendars for December 24 at 6:30 pm.
Monday Night Bible Study
The final MNBS for the fall will be this Monday, November 16. Join us at 7 pm on the Crossroads FB page, or with a few others at the Reas’ home, 628 W. Arch Street. The theme is “The Strength You Need.”
Time Off
Tom will be on vacation November 23-29. Shane McCasslin will preach in his place Sunday, November 29th.
Colossians: Becoming Complete
This Sunday we’ll start a series of sermons in an oft-overlooked New Testament letter, Colossians.
Colossians contains one of my favorite Bible verses, one I think should motivate all of us:
”We tell others about Christ, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom God has given us. We want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ. That’s why I work and struggle so hard, depending on Christ’s mighty power that works within me” (Colossians 1:28-29, NLT).
The word for “perfect” in the New Living Translation is translated “complete” in other versions of the English Bible. Would you like to be complete in Christ? Would you like win the struggle to grow and change and become all God intended you to be? There is help for you, then, in this little book written by the Apostle Paul to a church he probably did not start himself. Although we never see Paul in the city of Colossae in the New Testament, there are many powerful and interesting connections between the letter to the Colossians and the letters to the Ephesians and to Philemon!
Some themes of Colossians include:
- Becoming complete, mature, or “perfect” in Christ.
- A “mystery” … which is Christ in you!
- Reminders to keep looking up. Don’t get dragged down to an earth-only, this-life-only mindset.
- Warnings against exchanging a vibrant relationship with the Lord Jesus for religious rituals and rule-keeping. “No one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to Sabbath days or other special religious days,” Paul writes, “for the substance belongs to Christ”(Col 2:16-17). How awesome to live out a Christianity whose substance is the person of Jesus Christ Himself, and not other things!
“Therefore” is a word often repeated in Colossians. “Therefore” implies practicality, or action! We’re going to discover that Colossians is a very practical letter; the growing up to completion in Christ is something we incorporate into our everyday lives!
I look forward to the journey we’ll have in Colossians between now and Christmas! I would appreciate your prayers for me as I prepare. We’re reaching many people with God’s Word, on Sunday mornings and through the Crossroads Facebook page.
A Prayer For Today
I was grateful for this part of a prayer I read this morning. I hope it will encourage you too. I look forward to seeing you this weekend – Saturday for Grocery Grab, and Sunday for worship!
My life today will be lived in time, but eternal issues will be concerned in it. The needs of my body will be urgent, but it is for the needs of my soul that I must care most. My business will be with things material, but behind them let me be aware of things spiritual. let me keep steadily in mind that the things that matter are not money or possessions, not houses or lands, not bodily comfort or bodily pleasure ; but truth and honor and meekness and helpfulness and a pure love for God
I, a pilgrim of eternity, stand before You, O eternal One. Let me not seek to deaden or destroy the desire for You that disturbs my heart. Let me rather yield myself to its constraint and go where it leads me. Make me wise to see all things today under the form of eternity, and make me brave to face all the changes in my life which such a vision may entail, through the grace of Christ my Savior.
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