From: Cyprien To: SGC

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A few weeks ago Ken Hulme shared about his recent trip to Africa including his time with his friend Cyprien and the many amazing ministry opportunities they had together.  Below is a note and a prayer that Cyprien wrote to our church upon receiving a financial gift from folks in our church.  We wanted to pass it along for all to read.  Please continue to pray for Cyprien in Africa and the work of the gospel all around the world!

THANKS AND APPRECIATIONS
Our thanks and appreciations go to: SOVEREIGN GRACE CHURCH for your physical, spiritual, and  financial participation and in various other ways,  which are no small thing,  to make our ministry grow, especially for encouraging the missionary trip of my friend Ken Hulme the great man God has been using in our ministry. And we are so grateful for the gift $624 USD given by some kind and generous people from your Church last week. You are helping us move forward in the vision for our ministry,

THIS IS MY PRAYER FOR YOU, SOVEREIGN GRACE CHURCH:
I command the Angels of the Living God to go out as warriors and fight the  battle against all sickness, diseases, evils, enemies, poverty, jobless, divorces, barreness, misunderstanding, accidents, failure, hunger in the Church –All of these things are perished in  the mighty name of Jesus Christ!  Signs, Wonders and amazing miracle of healings, resurrection of dead shall occur in SOVEREIGN GRACE CHURCH for those who believe in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.
Financial blessing, amazing success and spiritual growth belong to this PRECIOUS CHURCH.  We love everyone of you and one day we shall meet face to face to praise God together!

Cyprien
Cyprien’s Evangelistic Ministry

Apply: Psalm 41

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On Sunday Mike Napier served us well by preaching to us from Psalm 41.  Mike drew our attention to the past, present and future elements of the Psalm as well as the way the Psalms ultimately point us to Christ.  Our hope in the present is based on promises made in the past that will be fulfilled in the future.  And in Psalm 41, our hope in the present is directly connected with the reality of resurrection; both Christ’s and ours.  To know that one day we will be resurrected in glory because Jesus Christ was raised from the dead is the foundation for every hope we have in a broken world in which we face many trials.  You can listen to our download the message here.  Mike provided these questions to help us apply God’s word to our lives.

1. Remember the Augustine quote? “The New Testament is in the Old concealed; the Old is in the New revealed.” The whole Bible is about Jesus. Do you have a hard time reading the Old Testament? Is it difficult for you to find in the Old Testament pictures of Christ, prophesies of Christ or preparations for Christ?  How does Psalm 41 connect to Christ?
2. The Psalms instruct us not only concerning praise and repentance, but they also show us how to suffer honestly. Are you tempted to avoid feelings of desperation and need?  Are you comfortable honestly crying out to God in distress?   Or are you tempted to be more stoic and then look to yourself to try harder or find something “to do”  instead?
3. What is the difference between hoping FOR something and hoping IN something?  When you find yourself in trials, suffering or when you are tempted to be anxious, where do you put your hope? Do you hope IN things you should just hope For?  How do you think the Lord wants to help you place your hope IN Him alone?
4. What would it mean if there were no resurrection awaiting us?
5. If Jesus Christ’s ressurection guarantees our future resurrection, what does this mean for our lives now?  How does knowing that one day all things will be made right and better than we can imagine help you face the things that are wrong today?
We have been born again to a living hope!  Because He rose from the dead, one day we will rise!  May this reality give us hope and faith no matter what comes today or in 2012.
Grace to you,
Eric

Bible Reading Plans for 2012

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Happy New Year!  It is amazing how fast the time goes by and how a new year is upon us again.  Whether you are a resolutions person or not, I wanted to post some resources for you to consider as you think about your reading of God’s word in 2012.  As Christians, we simply cannot live without God’s word.  Psalm 1 tells us, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.  He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.  In all that he does, he prospers.”  (Psalm 1:1-3)  This is a picture of health and growth that comes from delighting in and meditating on, digesting and applying God’s word.  There are many other places in Scripture that commend to us the regular practice of spending time in God’s word – reading, listening, understanding and applying.  No matter what else happens in 2012, a prayer and goal for every Christian should be to go deeper in the knowledge of God through His word.

Justin Taylor has posted a number of different Bible Reading Plans for 2012 and we wanted to post a link to his sight so that you could consider following one of these plans in the new year.  If you’ve never read through all of the Bible or haven’t done so in one year; I would highly recommend it to you – 2012 would be a great year to try it out!  And even if you are not planning to read through the Bible in a year, but plan to continue your current reading routine, I pray that we will all grow as we live our lives based on the perfect word of God.

Happy New Year!

Eric

End of the Year Giving

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I trust you had a wonderful Christmas!  I wanted to thank everyone who joined us for our Christmas Eve service and our Christmas Day service.  Both went very well.  We even had to set up an extra 5 rows of chairs on Saturday night to accommodate everyone!  My biggest hope is that the seed of the gospel that was sown will bear fruit and grow in all who heard!  Thanks for bringing family and friends to join us, and for all who were out of town – we missed you!

As we mentioned leading up to those services, we were planning to take an offering at these two services since these would be the last services in 2011 to give.   However, there is still opportunity to give prior to the end of the year and for that contribution to be included in your 2011 tax deductions.  Here are the important things to realize:

1.  Checks DATED December 31st are NOT tax-deductible in  2011 if give on January 1st or later.

2.  Sunday falls on January 1st this year. According to IRS rules, checks given in the offering on Sunday, January 1st, must be counted as a gift in 2012 even if you put a December 2011 date on the check.

3.  If you would like for your contribution to be included in 2011, you can drop off your offering at the office this week.  Our office will be open normal hours Tuesday – Friday: 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.  You can  also mail your offering, but again, according to IRS rules, envelopes must be postmarked by December 31st in order to be tax deductible in 2011.

If you have any questions please feel free to call Christine in the church office (757-436-7264).

As always, we are grateful for your giving and support of the gospel here at Sovereign Grace Church.

Grace to you this week,
Eric

PS:  We didn’t have a chance to announce this past weekend, but I wanted to let you know that Mike Napier will be preaching God’s word to us this Sunday!  Last year Matt Hennessey did a wonderful job serving us and we are looking forward to Mike instructing and encouraging us this year.  We’ll see you in the New Year at 10:00 Sunday morning at the corner!

Christmas Program this Sunday

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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

To Africa and Back

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Many of you may recall that recently on a Sunday morning, one of our care group leaders, Ken Hulme, shared about an upcoming trip to Africa.  We had a chance to here about the plans for the trip and hold Ken up in prayer while he was gone.  Well, as Kirk mentioned this past Sunday, Ken has returned from that trip and will be sharing about his experiences tomorrow night here at the church. Ken will be telling some amazing stories, including stories of miracles, and providing an update about his friend Cyprien’s mother’s journey to heaven.  If you’re interested in hearing more, please join Ken in the Spurgeon Room on Thursday, December 15th, at 6pm.