Over the next several weeks and months, we have an awesome opportunity to be about our Father’s business by actively pursuing to be involved in ministry opportunities that will impact our community on behalf of Christ. We need EVERYONE’S participation! Here is how you can be involved:

Your prayers:  Begin each and every day with prayer.  Pray that God will reveal His will for you; pray for His presence in your life and in His house (our worship facilities).

Your presence:  Make your private and public worship of God the top priority.  Don’t miss for worldly reasons.  Remove God as an extracurricular activity and make Him your way of life!

Your gifts: Commit yourself (truly) to financially support the ministry here at CCUM. Trust God and the leadership He has provided to do that which is right as good stewards (and we shall!) of the money you give. The more you are willing to financially commit to God, the more we can accomplish. Your generosity produces great blessings!

Your service: Faith without works is dead!  Your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual involvement is necessary and essential to us being faithful to God in carrying out the “Great Commandment” and the “Great Commission”. We need you to show up and show up often.  If you are already fully involved, great!  If not, then please get involved.  Service to God turns into blessing.  Don’t miss out on yours!

Will you commit yourself to God our Father  in Christ Jesus to faithfully support His church by your prayers, your presence, your gifts,  and your service?  These are part of our  membership vows.  Unexpected blessing will come when we as a local body commit  ourselves truly to God in Christ.  We will also  be blessed when Jesus returns unexpectedly to find us so doing.  May God richly bless!

In Jesus,
Pastor Norm

The New Year is now upon us.  It marks the moment when the past year is gone and a new opportunity presents itself for each of us to live perhaps differently than we did before.  This is especially true for the Christ follower.  We are told in 2Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” Perhaps you have not truly come to realize what happened to you the moment you received Christ as your Lord and Savior. We are new, not just made over.  We have a fresh start, a new opportunity to be different from the inside out.  The things we thought, spoke, and did in the past have truly passed away.  They are behind us and there is nothing we can do to change that.  We cannot go back and redo, or undo that which has been done. It’s done.  It’s gone, except for the consequences or benefits that often linger long after.  The good news is that you and I are NEW in Christ Jesus.  This provides us with the tremendous opportunity to live life abundantly this day forward from a God perspective.

OK, so what will you and I do with the new life Christ has given?  How will you live differently in 2012?  Please allow me to offer a suggestion that doesn’t involve making resolutions that most of us won’t keep.  It’s simple.  It comes from God our Father.  It will dramatically change the way you think, speak, and live.  Here it is.  ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  In short, give yourself sacrificially to God first, and then to others without any expectation of receiving anything in return.  If you do these two things, you will live as the new creation that God has made each of us to be in Christ Jesus.  May your new year bring you the “new life” in Christ you have been looking for.  Happy New Year!

In Jesus,
Pastor Norm

So why the big deal about the BIG DEAL? This is a question that some, perhaps many, are asking. But more importantly, why some are choosing to not to participate? I invite you to stay with me here as I seek to respond to the question. I will start with a very short story:

Once the Devil was walking along with one of his cohorts. They saw a man ahead of them pick up something shiny. “What did he find?” asked the cohort. “A piece of the truth,” the Devil replied. “Doesn’t it bother you that he found a piece of the truth?” asked the cohort. “No,” said the Devil, “I will see to it that he makes a religion out of it.” Klyne Snodgrass, Between Two Truths – Living with Biblical Tensions, 1990, Zondervan Publishing House, p. 35.

Here is a piece of the truth. We are told by Paul’s letter to Titus that because of God’s grace  salvation has come to us and we are to turn away from godless living and sinful pleasures.  We are to live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God. Christ has freed us from every kind of sin, cleansing us and purifying us to make us His own special people, totally committed to  good works (Titus 2:11-14).

We are God’s children (if indeed we have received the gift of salvation in and through Christ  Jesus), and as such are to be committed to show God’s love in practical and extravagant ways to those around us. These  “good works,” we are told, are good and beneficial toeveryone (Titus 3:8). Here’s a revelation for us: it’s beneficial to us as  well.

It comes down to this. As a local body (Church) we are commanded to GO and make disciples. The best way to do  that is to show God’s love to those who don’t yet know God personally. They will not listen to what we have to say until  they know we sincerely care. It will be uncomfortable for some to go out because of fear; others because “it’s not their  thing”; others perhaps have no interest in getting personally involved. No matter the reason, everyone is encouraged to  worship together, even on those Sundays we go out. So let me encourage each and every one of you to take advantage of  every opportunity to worship and serve God in Christ. Please do not allow the wonderful gift of this truth be turned into a religious act. Let it be what it is: God’s love expressed by God’s people through good deeds.

I will leave you with this  Scripture:

“And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of  ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10:24-25 (NKJV)

May God richly bless you as we worship and serve our Lord here on earth  together.

In Jesus,
Pastor Norm

How much do you love Jesus? I mean really. We often use the word love freely and openly, but what does it truly mean? In the gospel of John, chapter 21, Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves Him. As you may recall, Peter denied Jesus three times before the resurrection. Peter needed to be assured of his forgiveness and re-commissioned to the ministry Jesus committed to him. The question Jesus asked Peter, however, has some important implications for us today as individual Christ followers and as a local body of Christ. And so, let me ask you (and myself) again. How much do you really love Jesus?

Before answering, please take some time and prayerfully think through what it will  mean for you. In John 14:15 Jesus says, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” In 1John 3:18 we are told not to love in word or tongue but in  deed and truth. In Matthew 22:37 we are told to love the Lord our God with all our hearts…. It is clear from these and many other parts of the Bible  that love is not a warm, fuzzy feeling we get when we are near someone or something that makes us feel good. The feelings we experience often  come as a result of what love actually is when we are engaged in it, willinglyand sacrificially giving of ourselves to God without any expectation of  receiving anything in return. God has demonstrated that kind of love to us, having given us the example.

How much does God love us? Romans 5:8  tells us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 1John 4:7 and following tells us that God has showed us what love is and our love is the  result of Him loving us first!

In short, love is commitment. Love is obedience to God our Father. Love is in our doing, not our talking. Now, perhaps  you are ready to begin answering the question — not verbally, but with your very life. Starting now, commit yourself to loving God in Christ Jesus  by doing, living, serving, giving, and being available to Him at any time and in every place. Are you willing to spend more time with God, give more  of your finances to Him through His church, serve Him when asked (or better yet, volunteer), forgive others, seek ways to share with others the  good news of how Jesus saved you? That’s what love of God in us does. God loves you and me very much. May we individually and together express  our love to God by actively living for Him.

In Jesus,
Pastor Norm

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This is the message currently on the church marquee at the corner of Marshall and Grand.  Visit this page often as the message is always changing to find out more about the scripture.