The Paradox of the Incarnation... Merry Christmas

"Infinite, and an infant.
Eternal, and yet born of a woman.
Almighty, and yet hanging on a woman's breast.
Supporting a universe, and yet needing to be carried in a mother's arms.
King of angels, and yet the reputed son of Joseph.
Heir of all things, and yet the carpenter's despised son."

-Charles Spurgeon

Caroling at Palm Gardens

Palm Garden of Gainesville
227 S.W. 62nd Boulevard
Gainesville, FL 32607

we'll meet in the parking lot just before 5 so we can sing to the folks during their five o' clock meal

then we'll head over to a soup dinner & bonfire

Immanuel means God...With...US

Live in a realizing sense of the Lord's presence. Do not be satisfied with a religion of which this is not an essential element. Seek to live in this atmosphere, and in no other. Go nowhere, and indulge in no recreation from which your Lord will be absent. O be jealous of His presence! Let not worldliness, or levity, or coldness thrust Him from your arms. And should you walk in darkness, or wade through affliction, or battle with Satan, unconscious of the sustaining, cheering presence of Emmanuel, yet fear not. He is nearer to you than you imagine. Unseen, unheard, and unfelt, Christ is still at your side, "A very present help in time of need." He knows your sorrow, sees your difficulty, is acquainted with all your mental despondency and spiritual distress, and presently your tear-dimmed, cloud-veiled eye, shall be open, and you shall see Emmanuel at your side, in all the benignity of His love, and in all the might of His power. Soon we shall realize this presence in glory, unshaded by a cloud, unmingled with a tear. No more darkness, no more grief- no more sin, and no more separation- "Forever with the Lord." Walk in the sunshine of this blessed hope, and you shall walk in the light of life. ---Octavius Winslow (more)

How God's grace meets us in our sufferings

How does God’s grace meet you in your sufferings? We can make
the right answer sound old hat, but I guarantee this: God will surprise you. He will make you stop. You will struggle. He will bring you up short. You will hurt. He will take his time. You will grow in faith and in love. He will deeply delight you. You will find the process harder than
you ever imagined—and better. Goodness and mercy will follow you all
the days of your life (Ps. 23:6). No matter how many times you’ve heard
it, no matter how long you’ve known it, no matter how well you can
say it, God’s answer will come to mean something better than you could
ever imagine. --David Powlison

Joseph's SOng

Have you thought lately of the place Joseph plays in the life of our King Jesus? I've always thought Michael Card's song rings true:

How could it be this baby in my arms
Sleeping now, so peacefullyThe Son of God,
the angel said
How could it be, Lord? I know He's not my ownNot of my flesh, not of my bone
Still Father let this baby be The son of my love

Father show me where I fit into this plan of yours
How can a man be father to the Son of God
Lord for all my life I've been a simple carpenter
How can I raise a king, How can I raise a king?

Elisabeth Moore Matthews

7 pounds 10 ounces
20-21 inches

They are calling her Elise! Mother and child are spending tonite (Tuesday) at home.

Jesus took your tears and made them His own

From the very beginning, two thousand years ago, the followers of Jesus have always maintained that he took the tears of the world and made them his own, carrying them all the way to his cruel and unjust death to carry out God's rescue operation; and that he took the joy of the world and brought it to new birth as he rose from the dead and thereby launched God's new creation. --NT Wright

safe & happy baby Matthews girl is born!

details Tuesday!

Christmas Gift Idea

What do you give that person who has everything? Perhaps you give clean water to people in Africa, in honor of your friend/family member/co-worker???

It is difficult to argue whether or not a person should have clean water. It is also difficult to deny the equation: $1= clean water for 1 person for 1 year.

more at www.bloodwatermission.com

A Moral Imagination

"We will need to nurture in our children (and ourselves!) a moral imagination which can distinguish between prudence and prudishness."

quote from Steven Garber in an article about movie-watching, Don't Leave Your Brains at the Door

What is a "family" worship service

We are having a "family" worship service on December 24th at 10am, and again on 31st. What does this mean? Basically:
1.) no long sermon
2.) no childcare except for wee ones
3.) entire service is singing & scripture readings
4.) the noise of children is expected (and appreciated, for the most part)
5.) the entire service lasts 50 minutes

Jesus, King of the World

Thinking today of in our worship service, people from:

USA
Canada
Puerto Rico
Cuba
Australia
Guatemala
Texas!

and these are just the ones I (Rob) personally know of and can remember to mention

sunday december 17

ZERO nada NOTHING at 9am
10am worship service in theater (children's church during sermon for K-2nd grade)
child care for ages 4 and below throughout the service

Chrisianity 101

"If there is, among the distinctive articles of the Christian faith, one which is basic to all others, it is this: that our Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, became man for our salvation. (F. F. Bruce)

Membership Class for Children

Please be aware that Frank & I are teaching a new members class to children in early 2007. There is PREP work for parents to do... and registration! So check it out.... here

http://www.christcommunitychurch.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=23&Itemid=276

The Virgin Birth, a Miracle

Sunday I will be preaching on...

"Why the Virgin Birth is Necessary"

and i won't have time to go into depth about Miracles in general.... so i will post some stuff this week.... Batting Leadoff, CS Lewis:
The Grand Miracle.
One is very often asked at present whether we could not have a Christianity stripped, or, as people who asked it say, 'freed' from its miraculous elements, a Christianity with the miraculous elements suppressed. Now, it seems to me that precisely the one religion in the world, or, at least the only one I know, with which you could not do that is Christianity. In a religion like Buddhism, if you took away the miracles attributed to Gautama Buddha in some very late sources, there would be no loss; in fact, the religion would get on very much better without them because in that case the miracles largely contradict the teaching. Or even in the case of a religion like Mohammedanism, nothing essential would be altered if you took away the miracles. You could have a great prophet preaching his dogmas without bringing in any miracles; they are only in the nature of a digression, or illuminated capitals. But you cannot possibly do that with Christianity, because the Christian story is precisely the story of one grand miracle, the Christian assertion being that what is beyond all space and time, what is uncreated, eternal, came into nature, into human nature, descended into His own universe, and rose again, bringing nature up with Him. It is precisely one great miracle. If you take that away there nothing specifically Christian left. There may be many admirable human things which Christianity shares with all other systems in the world, but there would be nothing specifically Christian. Conversely, once you have accepted that, then you will see that all other well-established Christian miracles--because, of course, there are ill-established Christian miracles; there are Christian legends just as much as there are heathen legends, or modern journalistic legends--you will see that all the well-established Christian miracles are part of it, that they all either prepare for, or exhibit, or result from the Incarnation. Just as every natural event exhibits the total character of the natural universe at a particular point and space of time; so every miracle exhibits the character of the Incarnation. Now, if one asks whether that central grand miracle in Christianity is itself probable or improbable, of course, quite clearly you cannot be applying Hume's kind of probability. You cannot mean a probability based on statistics according to which the more often a thing has happened, the more likely it is to happen again (the more often you get indigestion from eating a certain food, the more probable it is, if you eat it again, that you again have indigestion). Certainly the Incarnation cannot be probable in that sense. It is of its very nature to have happened only once. But then it is of the very nature of the history of this world to have happened only once; and if the Incarnation happened at all, it is the central chapter of that history. It is improbable in the same way in which the whole of nature is improbable, because it is only there once, and will happen only once. (God in the Dock pp. 80-82)

Pascal and the movie "Crash"

This summer i watched CRASH. What a movie! This film does a tremendous job of helping you see that every person is both remarkable and repulsive. As Pascal put it:

It is dangerous to let a man recognize too clearly how much he has in common with the animals without at the same time helping him to realize his greatness. It is also unwise to let him see his greatness too clearly without realizing his baseness. It is even more dangerous still to leave him in ignorance of them both. So it is advantageous to draw attention to them both.

Every person you have seen today. Every person you'll see at the Mall this Christmas. Dignity beyond our imaginations b/c they are image bearers of the eternal God. Every person you saw in church yesterday, especially those two pastors!... depraved beyond your imagination and in need of the blood of Jesus. Schaeffer called us glorious ruins.... broken & beautiful.

Extending God's Grace through Christmas Blessings

Over the past several weeks CCC has generously been pouring out Gods love to others. Here some ways this has taken place not to say look at us BUT more to say see GOD in us.

Operation Christmas Child- 101 boxes sent- huge thanks to Bonnie Hall and Leslie Marshall

CCC Christmas Event- 345$ offering collected to be given to Arbor House Ministries for unwed mothers here in G-ville

Work day at Arbor House and church house. Many great hands on things accomplished but many relationships developed too.

Women’s Christmas night collected many items for Ronald McDonald house.

These are all formal events there are many more people that are reaching out in lots of different ways that I cannot mention here or don’t even know about.

It is exciting to see the awareness and passion grow to extend God’s grace to others in some many ways.

Haiti Haiti Haiti 9am sunday

come to the media center to experience a multi-media presentation as steve and mo omli and kevin phegley report on their recent trip to help the Church in Haiti

Jan 3:16 (Haitian Creole Version)
Paske, Bondye sitèlman renmen lèzòm li bay sèl Pitit li a pou yo. Tout moun ki va mete konfyans yo nan li p'ap pedi lavi yo. Okontrè y'a gen lavi ki p'ap janm fini an.

The Prophet Isaiah advent readings

Friday, Dec. 8 Isa. 3:8-15

'Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him.'-Isaiah 3:10

It is well with the righteous ALWAYS. If it had said, 'Say ye to the righteous, that it is well with him in his prosperity,' we must have been thankful for so great a boon, for prosperity is an hour of peril, and it is a gift from heaven to be secured from its snares: or if it had been written, 'It is well with him when under persecution,' we must have been thankful for so sustaining an assurance, for persecution is hard to bear; but when no time is mentioned, all time is included. God's 'shalls' must be understood always in their largest sense. From the beginning of the year to the end of the year, from the first gathering of evening shadows until the day-star shines, in all conditions and under all circumstances, it shall be well with the righteous. It is so well with him that we could not imagine it to be better, for he is well fed, he feeds upon the flesh and blood of Jesus; he is well clothed, he wears the imputed righteousness of Christ; he is well housed, he dwells in God; he is well married, his soul is knit in bonds of marriage union to Christ; he is well provided for, for the Lord is his Shepherd; he is well endowed, for heaven is his inheritance. It is well with the righteous-well upon divine authority; the mouth of God speaks the comforting assurance. O beloved, if God declares that all is well, ten thousand devils may declare it to be ill, but we laugh them all to scorn. Blessed be God for a faith which enables us to believe God when the creatures contradict Him. It is, says the Word, at all times well with thee, thou righteous one; then, beloved, if thou canst not see it, let God's word stand thee in stead of sight; yea, believe it on divine authority more confidently than if thine eyes and thy feelings told it to thee. Whom God blesses is blest indeed, and what His lip declares is truth most sure and steadfast.

- Charles Spurgeon

Emanual:God is with us Christmas offering

This Thursday night during the CCC Christmas event at Oak Hall that begins at 7 to 8 pm, there will be an OFFERING taken. ALL of this MONEY will go to ARBOR HOUSE MINISTIRES, a local Christian ministry that we support.

Arbor house focuses it's ministry to unwed mothers, providing them with resources, a place to stay, counseling and more during this their time of being with child and helps them beyond getting back into the world with a child.

Please consider being a financial blessing to this Gainesville ministry this Christmas season through the offering tomorrow night. You can write checks to CCC or give cash- all the money will go to support them.

Tomorrow Night 7pm

An hour of Christmas music & Scripture readings for the whole family.

spurgeon hymn

Charles Spurgeon wrote a verse in a communion hymn,
“What food luxurious loads the board,
When at His tablesits the Lord!
The wine how rich, the bread how sweet,
When Jesus deigns theguests to meet!

Tradition

G.K. Chesterton:

Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about. All democrats object to men being disqualified by the accident of birth; tradition objects to their being disqualified by the accident of death.(Orthodoxy, pp. 64-65)

Isaiah 1 commentary

Not only feel sorrow for the sin committed, but break off the practice. We must be doing, not stand idle. We must be doing the good the Lord our God requires. It is plain that the sacrifices of the law could not atone, even for outward national crimes. But, blessed be God, there is a Fountain opened, in which sinners of every age and rank may be cleansed. Though our sins have been as scarlet and crimson, a deep dye, a double dye, first in the wool of original corruption, and afterwards in the many threads of actual transgression; though we have often dipped into sin, by many backslidings; yet pardoning mercy will take out the stain, Psalm 51:7. They should have all the happiness and comfort they could desire. Life and death, good and evil, are set before us. O Lord, incline all of us to live to thy glory.
matthew henry

women's christmas party

This group was runner-up last night. We can't publish a picture of the winning team because they are already struggling with pride and being pictured here as champs could be their undoing!
Several pictures here

7pm Thursday Night

Still, Still, Still is what you heard y'day in the worship service.

That and more, including solos and scripture readings. Thursday nights one hour program begins at 7pm in the Oak Hall Theater.

word for the day...

puckish \PUHK-ish\, adjective:
Whimsical; mischievous; impish.

No one has ever seen God...

2 times in the bible this phrase is used... No one has ever seen God...

John 1:18
No one has ever seen God;
the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.
1 John 4:12
No one has ever seen God;
if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

Once God's answer to his "unseen-ness" is Jesus, and once it is... His church loving each other!

With Whom Do We Commune in Communion?

The Lord's Supper is not all about you and your private relationship with God. Its about your vertical relationship with God of course, but it is also about your horizontal relationship with your fellow believers as well. We have been reconciled to Christ corporately, and one of the functions of communion is to bind us to each other. --Ben Witherington

WORK DAY for Women children and men

Just a quick update for the confused- Workday which is Sat from 8-12 am is for everyone who is willing. Men women and children.

There are 2 work sites.

1 - is at Arbor House doing some yard work and decorating the house for the single pregnant moms. Tamara Johnston is the contact. She would love to have you join the group that is going. Call here for more details. 332-5403

2-Church Property.- leaf blowing, tree/bush cutting, bathroom fixing, lights to be worked on -great fellowship and fun together. show up at 8 with work gloves, saws, bush cutters, and anything else you meet think would be helpful. Call Frank for more. 275-2687

hope to see you there rain or shine