Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Love moves.
God is love. God moves towards us to rescue, to redeem, to reward. God’s love was displayed when he showed up in the person of Jesus Christ, which we celebrate at Christmas.
The truth is: we can’t love if we don’t move. Or at the very least, you can’t show love without moving. We know this intuitively – from the parent responding to the cry of a newborn in the middle of the night to the child working to care for an ailing parent. Love isn’t seen or known if it doesn’t move.
If we love God, we move. We turn away from our sin by turning to Jesus. This is called repentance. We place our trust in Christ – moving from self-reliance to reliance on Jesus. We move when God tells us to go, as in the call of Abraham and in the wilderness wanderings of the people of Israel.
So, because of our love for God and for the brothers and sisters of CBCGL, our congregation will be moving on December 21. We will move our location for worship – from the Main Sanctuary to the Fellowship Sanctuary. We will also move our time – from 11:25 to 9:45 am, so that families can worship simultaneously.
Also, because of our love for God and for the community around us, our congregation will be taking gifts for our neighbors to them on Dec. 21. The Local Missions Committee has collected gift requests from children who live in the Chelmsford Commons. 17 gift requests have been made and fulfilled. The Youth Ministry will wrap the gifts tonight. CPC is participating by going to the Chelmsford Common to distribute the gifts, to share the love of God and let the kids and families know of God’s greatest gift – namely Himself in the person of Jesus Christ!
Please continue to pray for the nations of Israel and Ukraine and South Sudan. Here is a suggested list of prayers if you are at a loss for words in how to pray: https://send.org/story/hh_pray_for_ukraine. And https://worldrelief.org/blog-prayer-for-israel-and-gaza/ And here are other prayers for peace in general: https://worldrelief.org/prayers-for-peace-in-the-world/ Thank you for kneeling on behalf of the people of Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Gaza and Lebanon, Sudan and South Sudan, and taking a stand (or a knee in prayer) against the forces of darkness in this present age.
Further announcements can be found in the weekly spotlight. And other church wide announcements can be found in our weekly bulletin.
For Prayer:
1. From Bishop J.C. Ryle – “To be prayerless is to be Christless, Godless, and in the high road to destruction…It will always be found that when prayers are few, grace, strength, peace, and hope are small.” Please join our Wednesday night prayer meeting (7:45 – 9:00 pm) even if you can’t participate the whole time.
https://zoom.us/j/758587937?pwd=aS9sZUdxcm1janNNM2I2aXJ6Smx2QT09
Meeting ID: 758 587 937
Password: 030086
Join by phone: +1 929 436 2866 US (New York)
2. We’d be glad to pray for you. If you need prayer, you can submit your prayer request via the following link: https://www.cbcgl.org/pray/
In Christ, your servant, SDG,
Pastor Nathan Willems
Associate Pastor of CrossPoint Community – A Ministry of CBCGL