I've got a friend who...

One thing I've always loved about the people of Christ Community is that they lovingly engage friends and family with the gospel... seeking to listen and understand what our loved ones think about life, faith, etc.

So, I'm thinking that soon we're going to give you an opportunity to complete the following sentence: "I've got a friend who __________________."

Examples:
I've got a friend who thinks all religions lead to God.
I've got a friend who thinks there is no hell.

And then Frank & I might seek to answer briefly the "hangups" and then offer questions that might stimulate & inform the conversation you are in with your friend/family.

Event Postponed

The party--to celebrate God's gracious help to pay off our land--has been postponed. Sunday's weather is stacking up to be cold & rainy.

And, a reminder that Sunday we celebrate the Lord's Supper together.

Find Him Wholly True

Every joy or trial falleth from above,
Traced upon our dial by the Sun of Love;
We may trust Him fully all for us to do;
They who trust Him wholly
Find Him wholly true.
--Frances Havergal

Are you guilty of this?

"The church was established as a place of grace, the one sanctuary where we should be free to honestly admit our weakness and failure. But in practice it's the place where we are most likely to hide our flaws from others."
--Dan Allender

2006 giving statements 2b mailed this week

sorry for delay

Big Picture

On Sunday we plan to look at a huge hunk of Ephesians together. In studying Ephesians 3,4,and 5 this week I have been blown away with the genius of this book God-breathed through Paul. How practical. How mind-stretching, heart-warming, comforting and challenging.

Their theme is the integration of Christian experience (what we are), Christian theology (what we believe) and Christian ethics (how we behave). They emphasize that being, thought and action belong together and must never be separated. For what we are governs how we think, and how we think determines how we act. We are God’s new society, a people who have put off the old life and put on the new; that is what he has made us. So we need to recall this by the daily renewal of our minds, remembering how we ‘learned Christ... as the truth is in Jesus’, and thinking Christianly about ourselves and our new status.

Here is a link to an extended quote where John Stott summarizes Ephesians Four & Five.

New Book on Messy Relationships

From the guys who wrote HOW PEOPLE CHANGE.

Rather than presenting new or sophisticated techniques to make relationships flourish, the authors instead focus on the basic character qualities that can only be formed in the heart by the gospel.

Relationships: A Mess Worth Making
byTimothy S. Lane and Paul David Tripp

"Take heart, for God is present in your struggles and is fighting on your behalf!”

Read an extended press release here
Amazon link

How Grammar Can Save Your Life

tons o' people... except me of course, struggle to remember what God goes to great lengths to teach us... we don't obey God in order to garner His love & acceptance.... RATHER, His love & acceptance superabounds to us b/c of Jesus Christ... and from that strong & secure position, we obey.

Covenant Seminary Prof has a great detailed explanation of how this works in Ephesians you can read here

6 free sessions of marriage counsel

is what is offered 9am at Oak Hall School starting Sunday.... look for the class led by Frank Matthews

there will also be a study entitled "Knowing God" which will help open up the Scriptures grand picture of who our Great God is. Look for the class led by Scott Perry

Obeying God in a New, Less-Worried Way

"I know the words 'leave it to God' can be misunderstood, but they
must stay for the moment. The sense in which a Christian leaves it to
God is that he puts all his trust in Christ: trusts that Christ will
somehow share with him the perfect human obedience which He carried
out from His birth to His crucifixion: that Christ will make the man
more like Himself, and in a sense, make good his deficiencies. If you
like to put it that way, Christ offers something for nothing: He even
offers everything for nothing. In a sense the whole Christian life
consists in accepting that very remarkable offer. But the difficulty
is to reach the point of recognizing that all we have done and can do
is nothing. What we should have liked would be for God to count our
good points and ignore our bad ones…if you have really handed yourself
over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But
trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in
order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already." --C S
Lewis, Christian Behavior

Christ's purpose for Spiritual gifts He gives

It is the exalted Christ who bestows gifts on his church, that his gifts are very diverse in character, that the teaching gifts are primary, and that their purpose is to equip God’s people for their ministries and so build up Christ’s body. --John Stott, commenting on Ephesians 4

Carried our shame!

Jogging today and these words hit me

You broke the bonds and you
Loosed the chains
Carried the cross
And all my shame .... all my shame!

How astounding is that?! Lord, for grace to know and feel that. How it would free your people.

A Prayer

I bow my knees before God and pray that, according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
--The Apostle Paul
Perhaps you pray this today? For yourself, spouse, children, Christ Community, et al ???

Glory in the cross

Let us, in the words of Jerry Bridges, “Preach the gospel to ourselves daily.”

Let us heed Charles Spurgeon’s exhortation:
“Abide hard by the cross and search the mystery of his wounds.”

Let us respond to John Stott’s invitation: “The Cross is a blazing fire at which the flame of our love is kindled, but we have to get near enough for its sparks to fall on us.”

When was the last time?

When was the last time you felt the loss of all confidence in yourself? This quote grabbed me today...... "Just as the sinner's despair of any hope from himself is the first prerequisite of a sound conversion, so the loss of all confidence in himself is the first essential in the believer's growth in grace." --A.W. Pink

Because it is only as we know our weakness that we can experience what Paul, in Ephesians 3, refers to as "the power at work within us". God help us. God help me!

RIDE NEEDED for the INTRO CLASS!

Robert NG is a grad student at UF and a regular attendee of our church.
He would like to attend the intro to CCC class this Friday and Saturday, but does not have a car so he would need a ride.

If you would be able to give Robert a ride to the class, please contact him by phone: 614-806-5804

Friday: Class is from 7pm-9pm. Robert can be picked up from the University of Florida on Friday (Jan. 26), and then taken home after the meeting is over to his apartment on 13th Street.

Saturday: Class is from 9am-12pm. He will need to be taken to and from his apartment to the class.

Overcoming Sin & Temptation

You can read a new translation of this old classic online (they also have instructions for ordering the physical book!)
J. I. Packer says of this book :
"He (the author, John Owen) told me how to understand myself as a Christian and live before God in a morally and spiritually honest way, without pretending either to be what I am not or not to be what I am. It is not too much at all to say that God used him to save my sanity.

Read it here

Preaching the gospel to your own discouraged self

"I am tempted to discouragement -- I look at myself and think: "This is as good as I can be after 35 years in Christ??!!" But then I ask the help of others and discover that they are the same! And then I am reminded by one of those others that my hope is not that I shall be well in this life -- but that Christ was well for me -- and that to be discouraged with myself is to have believed in myself -- and that is the opposite of the Gospel.

So, I need the Gospel. I need the reminder that I must have the blood of Christ and the Spirit of Christ to stand before God and to grow in sanctification. I need the double cure Toplady wrote of -- to cure me of sin's guilt and power. And not only do I need this -- so do my people. They battle the same sins -- they get discouraged by the same repeated patterns of wickedness in their hearts -- and they need to be reminded of the Savior's persistent and saving grace for them.

This is certainly not an excuse for sin -- it is a call to dependent killing of sin -- and not hoping in my growth for joy or life. My sin, in many ways, is a daily reminder of how desperately I need Christ. When I am least dependent I am most out of touch with reality." --These are comments from a pastor in San Diego

Where do you go for power to live as a Christian?

"In Christian repentance we do not 'take our sins' to Mt. Sinai, but to Mt. Calvary. Sinai represents only the law of God, and makes us fear God will reject us. But Calvary represents both the law of God and his commitment to save us no matter what--even if his Son has to fulfill and pay our debt to the law. 'Going to Sinai' with our sins means we use the painful fear of rejection to motivate us to change. 'Going to Calvary' with our sins means we use gratitude for his love to motivate us to change. The free love of Christ means that in disobedience, you have not just broken the rules, but spurned the One who lost his Father rather than lose you." --Tim Keller

Ephesians 2:20-22 and the prophets at Christ Community

First, the foundation. Nothing is more important to any edifice than a solid, stable foundation. And Jesus’ well-known parable of the two house builders, with which he concluded the sermon on the mount, taught the need for rock. On what rock, then, is the church built? Paul replies: it is *built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone* (verse 20).
Since apostles and prophets were both groups with a teaching role, it seems clear that what constitutes the church’s foundation is neither their person nor their office but their instruction. Moreover, we are to think of them as inspired teachers, organs of divine revelation, bearers of divine authority. The word ‘apostles’ here cannot therefore be a generic term for missionaries or church planters or bishops or other church leaders; instead it must denote that small and special group whom Jesus chose, called and authorized to teach in his name, and who were eyewitnesses of his resurrection, consisting of the Twelve plus Paul and James and perhaps one or two others. What they taught they expected the church to believe and preserve, what they commanded they expected the church to obey. The word ‘prophets’ also indicates inspired teachers to whom the word of God came and who conveyed that word to others faithfully. The couplet ‘apostles and prophets’ may bring together the Old Testament (prophets) and New Testament (apostles) as the basis of the church’s teaching. But the inverted order of the words (not ‘prophets and apostles’ but ‘apostles and prophets’) suggest that probably New Testament prophets are meant. If so, their bracketing with the apostles as the church’s foundation is significant. The reference must again be to a small group of inspired teachers, associated with the apostles, who together bore witness to Christ and whose teaching was derived from revelation (3:5) and was foundational. In practical terms this means that the church is built on the New Testament Scriptures. They are the church’s foundation documents. And just as a foundation cannot be tampered with once it has been laid and the superstructure is being built upon it, so the New Testament foundation of the church is inviolable and cannot be changed by any additions, subtractions or modifications offered by teachers who claim to be apostles or prophets today. The church stands or falls by its loyal dependence on the foundation truths which God revealed to his apostles and prophets, and which are now preserved in the New Testament Scriptures. --John Stott

Campus Safety Meeting

In response to recent activity in the College Park area, the Gainesville Police Department is holding a residential security seminar, on Thursday, January 18th from 5-7 PM at the United Church of Gainesville, to educate citizens about how to secure their homes/apartments better and other safety issues.

CS Lewis, the versatile friend

The other night I was reading Lewis' Screwtape Letters, as a dosed off. And I thought, "This guy has such an understanding of the human heart and can help you beware the wiles of the enemy."

The next morning I listened as 9 year old Olivia read chapter 1 of Lion Witch & wardrobe... where lewis describes how funny-looking Edmund thought the professor was .... saying something like, "Edmund couldn't quit laughing and had to pretend he was sneezing."
And I thought, "This guy can tell a story the way children want a story told!"

And with that I saw Lewis like a friend. The best kind of friend. He can go sit in your child's room and take them seriously and listen and tell a story. Then he can sit down with you and blow your mind with his ability to articulate the patterns of your heart.... and make you see how great Jesus is. Quite versatile, that Lewis.

Which class are you a part of?

Starting this Sunday at 9am in the media center

Adult Sunday School classes:
God's Plan for Marriage
&
Knowing God

This week they'll both meet in the media center.

Hope For Broken Relationships

Coming soon to Christ Community's lending library. A recent conference done by the gritty gospel folks at CCEF has received rave reviews. Well, we're awaiting the arrival of the audio of the lectures listed below. You are encouraged to borrow 2 CD's at a time through Lizette or Debbie.

1 When Loves Gets Messy by Paul Tripp
2 The Artwork of Grace by Paul Tripp
3 A Stranger Invades Love by Carl Ellis
4 When Love Is In Love’s Way by Paul Tripp
5 Relationships and the Corinthians by Ed Welch
6 Love That Promotes Love by Paul Tripp
7 Restoring Broken Family Relationships by Tim Lane
8 Hope for Broken Friendships by Jayne Clark
9 Restoring Relationship After Divorce by John Bettler
10 They Struggle Like Me by Bill Smith
11 Redeeming Relationships in an Empty Marriage by David Powlison
12 Bridging the Racial Gap by Carl Ellis
13 When Sons and Daughters Say They are Gay by John Freeman
14 Marriage After Adultery by Tim Lane
15 When You Can’t Fix What’s Broken by Mike Emlet
16 Broken Through Child Abuse by David Powlison
17 Personal Relationships by Bill Smith
18 Adoption: From Brokenness to Relationships by Julie Smith
19 Relationships As Stories by Steve Smallman, Jr.
20 Marriage Broken By Pornography by Winston Smith

Last Sunday's Prayers

a couple of folks wondered about the origin of some language i used while praying sunday... yes! it was much too vivid & creative to be mine.... here it is:

Glorious God,
It is the flame of my life to worship You,
the crown and glory of my soul to adore You,
Give me power by Your Spirit to help me worship now,
that I may forget the world,
be brought into fullness of life,
be refreshed, comforted, blessed.

Give me knowledge of Your goodness
that I might not be over-awed by Your greatness;
Give me Jesus, Son of Man, Son of God,
that I might not be terrified,
but drawn near with filial love,
with holy boldness;
He is my mediator, brother, interpreter,
branch, advocate, Lamb;
Him I glorify,
in Him I am set on high.
Crowns to give I have none,
but what You have given I return.
Let me live wholly to my Savior,
free from distractions,
from carking care,
from hindrances to the pursuit of the narrow way.

I am pardoned through the blood of Jesus—
give me a new sense of it,
continue to pardon me by it,
may I come every day to the fountain,
and every day be washed anew,
that I may worship You always in spirit and truth.

A Prayer for Marriage

Christ, grant that neither grief nor place nor life nor death may part
Those who, enjoying your sweet grace, in You are one in heart.

Spirit of God, whom we adore: preserve, protect, defend,
Increase, rekindle, and restore their love till life shall end.

--Charles price and charles Wesley, music Caithness

Bring your Sorrows to Me

"Bring him here to me." Matthew 17:17

In your moment of disappointment and despair, Jesus meets you with the gracious words, "Bring it here unto me." And now your spirit revives, your heart bounds, at the words, and you exclaim, "Behold, Lord, I come."

Jesus says, "Bring your sorrows to Me." Never did the soul find so powerful a magnet, attracting to itself affliction in every form, and sorrow in every shade, as Jesus. Standing as in the center of a world of woe, He invites every daughter of sorrow, of sin, of grief to repair to Him for support, sympathy, and healing. As the High Priest of His Church for whom alone He suffered, and wept, and sobbed, He unveils a bosom capacious enough and loving enough, and sympathizing enough, to embrace every sufferer, and to pillow every grief. Accept, then, His compassionate invitation, and bring your grief to the soothing, sustaining, sanctifying grace of His heart!

--excerpted from Octavius Winslow, Christ's sympathy for Weary Pilgrim's

Why we need the comforts of the Holy Spirit

In Communion with God, John Owen explains why we need the comforts, or consolations, of the Holy Spirit:

• Without them, we shall either despise afflictions or faint under them, and God be neglected as to his intendments (true meaning) in them.
• Without them, sin will either harden us to a contempt of it, or cast us down to a neglect of the remedies graciously provided against it.
• Without them, duties will either puff us up with pride, or leave us without that sweetness which is in new obedience more examples here
  

A Puritan Prayer -- For Resting in God

O God, most high, most glorious, the thought of Thine infinite serenity cheers me, for I am toiling and moiling, troubled and distressed, but Thou art for ever at perfect peace. Thy designs cause thee no fear or care of unfulfilment, they stand fast as the eternal hills. Thy power knows no bond, Thy goodness no stint. Thou bringest order out of confusion, and my defeats are Thy victories: The Lord God omnipotent reigneth.

I come to Thee as a sinner with cares and sorrows, to leave every concern entirely to Thee, every sin calling for Christ's precious blood; revive deep spirituality in my heart; let me live near to the great Shepherd, hear His voice, know its tones, follow its calls. Keep me from deception by causing me to abide in the truth, from harm by helping me to walk in the power of the Spirit. Give me intenser faith in the eternal verities, burning into me by experience the things I know; Let me never be ashamed of the truth of the gospel, that I may bear its reproach, vindicate it, see Jesus as its essence, know in it the power of the Spirit.

Find the rest of the prayer here

Children & Youth Membership Classes

Sunday at 4pm we got off to a great start with our 6-week church membership classes for children & youth.

When every head was counted we had 22 kids and 10 adults helping to teach them.

One thing that i want to let you know.... Parents, you can pray from 4pm til 4:45 while the teaching is going on.

MLK Day

I love Martin Luther King. Yes, i realize he struggled with sin. What great leader hasn't? For that matter... What horrible follower hasn't?

Anyway, if you've never read Letter From a Birmingham Jail... consider it.
or
listen to a speech online....

God Made Us Alive

Ephesians 2:5
"God made us alive..."

...the first effect of the power of God in the heart in regeneration is to give the heart a Divine taste or sense; to cause it to have a relish of the loveliness and sweetness of the supreme excellency of the Divine nature. - Jonathan Edwards

It is Well with My Soul

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blessed assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

Sermons on Ephesians

To start off the new year we are going (DV) to spend 5-6 weeks sprinting through the new testament book of Ephesians. Two encouragements:
1.) Seek to read Ephesians 1:1-2:10 prior to our gathering Sunday January 14
2.) Pray Paul's prayers for the Ephesian church for Christ Community Church. Hint: they are found in ch.1 and ch.3.

Paul’s readers (the Ephesian Church) are *in Christ Jesus*. This key expression of the letter thus occurs in its very first verse. To be ‘in Christ’ is to be personally and vitally united to Christ, as branches are to he vine and members to the body, and thereby also to Christ’s people. For it is impossible to be part of the Body without being related to both the Head and the members. Much of what the epistle later develops is already here in bud. According to the New Testament - and especially Paul - to be a Christian is in essence to be ‘in Christ’, one with him and with his people. --John Stott

Counseling Appointments Available

Rich Greete will begin his ministry of Biblical Counseling at the church house TOMORROW, Thursday January 11.

As you consider receiving counsel, and interact with others who might be seeking counseling, Rich will be available for appointments at

1:30 (already filled)

2:30--available

3:30--available

5:00--available

6:00pm--(already filled)

Each session will last 50 minutes. The fee is $90 per session.

The phone number for scheduling appointments is 352-613-4549.

Miscellaneous

in the quiet of the morning after Gators win ch'ship... here are the things that capture my attention and might be of interest to you...

1. rich greete links
Rich Greete's fine sermon from Sunday, and information about his counseling services at the church house (New Tab under “Ministries” called “Counseling Services”)

2. Resolutions? helpful--BRIEF--stuff on fighting temptation by centering on Christ resolutions

3. When the Darkness Will Not Lift: doing what we can while we wait on God
John piper has a 79 page book available online

4. Oh yeh: gator photos here

Anticipating God's Feast

"On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,
of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
And he will swallow up on this mountain
the covering that is cast over all peoples,
the veil that is spread over all nations.
He will swallow up death forever;
and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,
and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken.
It will be said on that day,
“Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.
This is the Lord; we have waited for him;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” --from Isaiah 25

Counseling Appointments at Church House

Rich Greete will begin his ministry of Biblical Counseling at the church house on Thursday January 11.
As you consider receiving counsel, and interact with others who might be seeking counseling, Rich will be available for appointments at

1:30 (already filled)

2:30--available

3:30--available

5:00--available

6:00pm--available

Each session will last 50 minutes. The fee is $90 per session.

The phone number for scheduling appointments is 352-613-4549.

Communion Sunday, Prepping Your Heart

Friends, though January feels half over, this is the 1st Sunday of the month, and per usual we will partake of Holy Communion together. Couple o' thoughts as you prepare:
1.) You will remain at your seat and we will pass the bread and wine down the rows
2.) This text is in the bulletin/worship folder to help frame people's thinking:

Communion, also called The Lord’s Supper or the Eucharist, is the family meal of Christians. We invite all committed followers of Jesus Christ to partake of this sacrament: those who are baptized members of a congregation which proclaims the gospel, who are at peace with God and with their neighbor, and who seek strength to live more faithfully for Christ. If you are not a Christian, or if you are not prepared to share in this meal, we encourage you to spend this time in prayer using the prayers provided on the next page as guidelines. We hope that this time is helpful to you as you
consider your relationship with Jesus Christ and with His people, the church. Note About Communion

Wine: The outer ring of the tray contains non-alcoholic grape juice; the other cups contain wine.

Sunday, Come Thirsty.... and flat broke

“Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price." --The Prophet Isaiah

Children's Membership Class

There is a children's membership class beginning January 14. More here

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

Communion Sunday January 7

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. 1 CORINTHIANS 11:23-26

The Lord’s Supper is an act of worship taking the form of a ceremonial meal, in which Christ’s servants share bread and wine in memory of their crucified Lord and in celebration of the new covenant relationship with God through Christ’s death.