This Sunday is our annual Christmas program!  Our singing will be accompanied by strings and horns and our adult and children choirs are preparing songs as well.  After our  message we’ll have coffee and cookies for everyone! We hope you will join us as we celebrate the birth of our Savior together.  Feel free to bring family and friends as well!

Also, come early as our horn section will begin with a prelude of music at 9:50 with strings and choir to follow.  You won’t want to miss a moment!

Reminder:  We will also have services on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  Both services will be the same, so you can choose to join us for one or the other.

Christmas Eve:  Candlelight Service from 7:00-8:00.

Christmas Day:  Service from 11:00- 12:00.

See you on Sunday,

Eric

I think I am what they call and “auditory learner.”  I tend to remember things that I hear better than the things I read (not that I remember either very well!)  That is why I was pretty excited to see that Max McLean has done a monologue on the entire gospel of Mark, reciting it word for word.  Max McLean is an actor famous for his dramatic recitations of Scripture and other works.  Last spring I had the chance to see him perform The Screwtape Letters live with my family and loved it.

I would encourage you to carve one hour out of your schedule or your family’s schedule to listen to the entire performance in one sitting.  I think you will be surprised at what stands out to you as you listen to the whole story.  There is also a DVD of this one man show: “Mark’s Gospel”.  Enjoy!

(HT: Justin Taylor)

Tomorrow we will return to our series in Jonah.  There doesn’t seem to be an end to the depths of insight in this book about God and His amazing heart for people.  Since we have finally come to the section about Jonah in the belly of the great fish, I thought I’d post some art.  I love how Tullian Tchividjian does the same in his book Surprised by Grace.  Enjoy and we’ll see you tomorrow!

Eric

This Sunday Bob Kauflin will be with us preaching God’s word to us.  Bob plays a multi-faceted role today by training pastors and worship leaders in the theology and practicals of worship, leading corporate worship at various events, and overseeing the recording projects of Sovereign Grace Ministries. He also blogs on “worship, music, and more” at worshipmatters.com. Most recently he has written a book called Worship Matters: Leading Others to Encounter the Greatness of God, available through Crossway Books.

Bob and his wife Julie have also been wonderful friends to Marie and me.  I have known Bob for over 20 years!  We met in 1988 when I was 16 years old and we have been able to serve in many ways together since then.  I simply can’t wait for Sunday, to see how the Lord will work through our good friend.

To get to know more about Bob, please visit worshipmatters.com.  You will be encouraged!

Grace to you today,

Eric

Good evening!  Weather.com says it’s 87 degrees right now (8:15 p.m.) but feels like 95!  I hope you’ve found a way to stay cool today (and this week).  We look forward to gathering tomorrow morning as a church.  If you are planning to visit, we look forward to meeting you and hope you are blessed by the Lord at our service.  For all who can come, we have a prayer meeting for our service at 9:00 in the Spurgeon Room.  This group has faithfully met for years praying for God to bless our time together.  Please join us if you can.

Our meeting will start at 10:00 with a time of singing.  Last week we studied the story of the 10 lepers and the response of the 1.  It will be wonderful to put into practice our own joyful thanksgiving for all the Jesus has done for us.  We also have a Baby Dedication tomorrow morning where parents in our church will have an opportunity to dedicate their children to the Lord and ask for His blessing and help in their parenting.  Our sermon will be the last in our Community of Grace series.  Finally, we will close our time with an opportunity for prayer and ministry and will dismiss to the lobby for a cup of coffee.

We look forward to seeing you Lord willing,

Eric