TMG
Hello, Crossroads Family!
I hope you’re not growing weary of the stories of Elisha we’ve been studying on Sunday mornings! I continue to be amazed and encouraged by the picture God worked out, 850 years before Christ, through the life of Elisha, of the coming of the Lord and the joys of His kingdom. Just as the fiery Elijah is a sort of picture of John the Baptist, so Elisha, who came after Elijah, pictures the Lord who came after John — His many miracles, His feeding of crowds, the raising of the dead, the invitation to Naaman to “Wash and be clean” (2 Kings 5:13).
Elisha ministered during at least one famine in Israel. We talked two Sundays ago about two of his food-related miracles in 2 Kings 4 — the removal of poison from a soup prepared for the school of prophets ; and the feeding of a large crowd from just a few loaves of bread and a few ears of grain. God, through Elisha, provided for the physical and spiritual needs of His people. It caused me to think of the vision (also food-related!) provided elsewhere in the Old Testament about the Lord’s coming kingdom:
The Lord of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain;
A banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow, and refined, aged wine.
And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples,
Even the veil which is stretched over all nations.
He will swallow up death for all time,
And the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces,
And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth;
for the Lord has spoken.
And it will be said in that day,
“Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us.
This is the Lord for whom we have waited;
Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.” Isaiah 25:6-9
I hope you’ll take heart in God’s promises — spelled out in words, and painted in pictures in the stories of Elisha and others who trusted God. Even if you’re going through a “famine” period in your life right now, we look forward with certainty to the day of the Lord’s coming, the establishing of His kingdom, and the joy of a banquet at which we will say, “This is the One we were waiting for!”
Going on at Crossroads :
We’ll worship this Sunday morning at 10:00 at the Community Center. The sermon will cover a large part of 2 Kings 6 and 7 if you’d like to read ahead.
Our elders will meet following the worship service. Please pray for our Crossroads elders as they seek God’s will for the church family and our ministry together.
There are many good things happening in the lives of our missionaries. If you would like to receive regular communication from the McCallisters (serving in Berlin), Colin Welch (serving in Paris), or the Shoemakers (serving in Chicago), please contact Heather Hall or Erlinda Reichard. Also, we rejoice that Lawson and Shay Albey have arrived in Turkey, and another missionary that our Missions Team has prayed for — Sandy Dicus — has received all the support pledges she needs to leave for Greece with ReachGlobal, the missions arm of the Evangelical Free Church of America. God is showing us His faithfulness! Isn’t it amazing that He continues to send missionaries throughout the world! You and I are also His missionaries where we are!
A friend of mine called looking for ideas for small-group praying in his church in Florida. It was a good reminder to me that we need to continually stoke the fire of prayer at Crossroads. Be sure to pray for the needs of our church and other needs God lays on your heart. As we pray for earthquake survivors in Morocco, flood survivors in Libya, wildfire survivors in Hawaii, and more, we have a small part in God’s work in those places. Take time on Sundays, and throughout the week, to read the bulletin insert provided, and to share any requests with Heather Hall that you would like included in the bulletin prayer insert. Perhaps you would like to gather with three or four others from Crossroads for a short time of fellowship and prayer this week.
I look forward to seeing you Sunday!
— Tom
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