Prayer is the vital empowering source for the church. Unless we pray, we are operating only under our own power, and that can become very tiring. But when we wait on God, He empowers us with His strength!
We invite you to join us for prayer the first Sunday of each month at 5pm. Our next prayer time is Sunday, March 1, at 5pm.
Please come invest an hour of pray with us.
Pastor Craig continued our look at the book of Ephesians on Sunday, and he posted this recap on his blog today.
Last week I shared how important it is for us to remember what we were before meeting Christ, and what we now are after meeting Him (you can click here to read that post). But we need to spend some time looking at how we went from “were” to “are.”
First, we need to recall how bad we really were without Christ. We were…
“The man on the street would simply shrugged his shoulders at this charge and say, ‘Sure, no one’s perfect.’ Even we Christians talk about failures and defeats, but the Bible uses other terms. It speaks of wickedness and rebellion (Leviticus 16:21). The Bible speaks of King David as despising God (2 Samuel 12:9-10). It charges another man of God with defying the word of the Lord… (1 Kings 13:21). It is evident by these descriptive synonyms for sin—rebellion, despising, defying—that God takes a far more serious view of sin than the man on the street or even most Christians.” —Jerry Bridges, in Transforming Grace (bold font added)
…and then a miracle occurs! You who once WERE far away [dead, separated, alienated, disgustingly sinful] HAVE BEEN brought near through the blood of Christ (Ephesians 2:13). Jesus Himself becomes our salvation … He IS the miracle! Notice the wording here—
Jesus Himself IS (1) our peace, (2) our reconciliation, and (3) our atonement.
Not only must we always remember what we WERE and what we ARE, but remember the MIRACLE whereby this transformation could happen: The blood of Jesus spilled for us on the Cross!
We’ll be continuing our walk through the Book of Ephesians next Sunday, and we’d love to have you join us.
As we relaunched our series Sit Walk Stand, which is a study of the Book of Ephesians, Pastor Craig shared an important reminder for us. Here is the recap he posted on his blog.
Remembering our past is so important. Forgetting where we’ve come from can make us insensitive to the feelings of others, it can make us falsely proud of what we assume we’ve accomplished for ourselves, and it can make us fearful that God cannot handle what’s coming next.
So God want us to remember two things: what we were, and what we are. In Ephesians the verb tense Paul uses literally says, “Keep on calling this to mind; keep on keeping it fresh in your thoughts” (Ephesians 2:11 & 12).
Keep on remembering what you WERE:
And then come two amazing words―BUT NOW (v. 13) keep on remember what you ARE:
Constantly calling this to mind should produce three attitudes―
We are continuing our study of the Book of Ephesians this coming Sunday. Please join us!
This coming Sunday we re-start a series which we began last year called Sit Walk Stand: A Study In The Book Of Ephesians.
Why Ephesians? Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, who preached 232 sermons on this book to his packed-out church, said, “It is very difficult to speak of Ephesians in a controlled manner because of its greatness. Many have tried to describe it. One writer has described it as the crown and climax of Pauline theology. Another has said that it is the distilled essence of the Christian religion, the most authoritative and most consummate compendium of our holy Christian faith. What language! And it is by no means exaggerated.”
It is Pastor Craig’s desire that our congregation be as biblically literate as he can encourage and resource us to be. So Tom Kaastra, a 38-year veteran pastor, is going to co-teach with him again this year as we continue our attempt to master this powerful epistle.
The name of our series—Sit Walk Stand—comes from Watchman Nee, who wrote, “Of all Paul’s epistles, it is in Ephesians that we find the highest spiritual truths concerning the Christian life. The letter abounds with spiritual riches, and yet at the same time is intensely practical.”
Please join us this Sunday at 10:30am.
Whether you were with us last year or not, Pastor Craig posted some sermon recaps each week which will help prepare you as we re-launch this series. Click on the links below:
Hey, Calvary Assembly of God, how did you do on your 1:one:(12) challenge for January? Hopefully you got your 1 in (or even more)! Whether you did nor not, February is here, so get started on your 1 for this month. There are always lots of great things happening every month—like our current series Sit Walk Stand—so go get your 1!
For our guests that may not know what 1:one:(12) is all about… just ask us!
Do you shop on Amazon.com? Here’s a great way to shop and support the ministries of Calvary Assembly of God at the same time: Shop with a “smile.”
Amazon.com has launched a program that gives 0.5% of your purchase to the charity you choose to support. Simply go to smile.amazon.com, add your purchases to your chart, and check-out. That’s it! Then Amazon will send a donation to the church each quarter.
Thanks for helping support the ministries of our church!
January is the month of new beginnings, so it’s an appropriate month for us to focus on the sanctity of human life. Life is precious. All life is precious.
God determines our day of conception (Psalm 139:16), the value of our life (Ephesians 2:10), and the day of our death (Job 14:5). Taking any of these things out of God’s hand, and putting them into our own hands, not only constitutes murder but dishonors God.
We celebrate life and honor our Creator by promoting life.
One way we can do this is support organizations that support life. In Cedar Springs we support Alpha Family Center. If you would like to help us, please consider making a donation to Alpha, or donate some needed supplies like diapers, pull-ups or formula.
And especially we need to pray.
This is from our Pastor’s blog…
When Paul was writing to his young protege Timothy he said, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12). I was so proud of a couple of young people who did this for us at Calvary Assembly of God yesterday!
Savannah has been raising money for childhood cancer research. She shared with us how this is the least-funded form of cancer research, and that every three minutes a child is diagnosed with cancer. “That is unacceptable,” Savannah said. So in an amazing example-setting move for all of us, Savannah and two of her coworkers worked to bring in over $3000 in donations for childhood cancer research, and they shaved their heads as a sign of solidarity with the children undergoing cancer treatments. By the way, you can still donate to this noble cause by clicking here.
“We can’t make ourselves grow, but we can put ourselves in a place for God to grow us [1 Cor. 3:6].” @schram77
— Craig T. Owens (@craigtowens) November 30, 2014
Then Josh brought us a challenging message entitled Are You Growing? Taking his text from 1 Corinthians 3:6, Josh reminded us that God makes things grow, but we can put ourselves in a place for Him to do that. Just as with a plant, our spiritual growth requires:
“Growth takes time. Time shows investment. Time shows dedication.” @schram77
— Craig T. Owens (@craigtowens) November 30, 2014
I am so proud of Josh and Savannah for setting an example for us to follow!
If you missed Pastor Craig’s message yesterday about the role of the church, please read this synopsis he published on his blog.
I think we have made the Church and Christianity something different than what the New Testament shows us. We’ve created far too many “things” which simply aren’t in the Bible. That’s not to say these thingst are wrong, but they may become stumbling blocks to us if we make secondary things the primary thing.
It might surprise you to know that the word church is only used twice by Jesus (Matthew 16:18, 18:17). He used a Greek word ekklesia, which meant a gathering of people called out from their homes into some public place. This word originally had more of a “town hall” meaning to it, but Jesus used this as a starting point to show us true church.
In Christ’s time the church for Him was…
Mobile—wherever He was, church was. Look at the extensive traveling He did. He held as many “church services” in people’s dining rooms as He did in the synagogues.
Messy—often as Jesus was speaking…
Meaningful—
Jesus asked His disciples Who they thought He was (see Matthew 16:13-18). The correct answer was Peter’s declaration, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!” Jesus said, “You’re right, and on that declaration I will build My church.”
Our job is to make Jesus known as the Christ, the Son of the living God (v. 16).
Christ’s job is to build His Church (v. 18).
He didn’t tell us to build a building and invite people to come on Sundays.
He didn’t tell us to start a Sunday School or a feeding program or a youth group.
There’s nothing wrong with these things, but they are not the main thing.
The main thing is Jesus being seen as the Son of the living God. Where we are gathered together in that confession and purpose—even just two or three of us—that’s where His church is (see Matthew 18:20).
We must be mobile, taking a meaningful message into people’s messy lives. That is true church.
We are big fans of the EnGedi Youth Center, an after-school program in Cedar Springs.
This Christ-centered program gives students in 6th grade and up a safe place to hang-out after school, and gives them opportunities to play some organized sports with high school coaches, get homework help, learn life skills, and develop lasting friendships with the dedicated Christian staff members.
If you have a couple of hours a week you can invest with these students, we promise you that the rewards will definitely be eternal. For both you and the students with whom you will work.
EnGedi for 6th-8th grades meets Monday through Thursday, from school dismissal until 5:15pm, in Red Hawk Elementary. For more information on EnGedi, visit their website by clicking here.