CHRISTMAS SEASON

Christmas Dinner & Caroling

Come and join us for fun and fellowship on Sunday, December 11 ^th !

3:00 pm - Christmas Caroling & deliver fruit baskets to our shut-ins

4:45 pm – Approximate time of the Christmas dinner. Meat and drink will be furnished. Please bring a dish to pass.

6:00 pm – Creative Ministries & Praise Team to perform

Invite your family and friends to join us in the celebration!

CANDLE LIGHT SERVICE will being at 7:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve.

COMMUNITY outreach

We will again be outreaching to our community on Friday, December 16th at 5:30 p.m. during Tinsels & Lights by offering free family photos. Copper Coins will be also be playing during the evening. If you can volunteer to help at this event, please see Vickie Davis.

POINSETTIA

Mindy Fritzen is now taking poinsettia orders for Christmas.  A sign-up sheet is on the bulletin board in the hallway .  Please sign up by Sunday, December 11th and    Please consider purchasing a poinsettia to beautify our church in honor or memory of a loved one.

From the Pastor: Ordinary in the Extraordinary

In the Scriptures, the great miracle of the incarnation slips into the ordinary life of a child; the great miracle of the transfiguration fades into the demon-possessed valley below; the glory of the resurrection descends into a breakfast on the seashore. This is not an anticlimax, but a great revelation of God.

We have a tendency to look for wonder in our experience, and we mistake heroic actions for real heroes. It’s one thing to go through a crisis grandly, yet quite another to go through every day glorifying God when there is no witness, no limelight, and no one paying even the remotest attention to us.” -Oswald Chambers

     It was the most extraordinary of a human birth-angels appearing, the heavens declaring and the reality that the “Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14).  However it was a most ordinary birth-a peasant child born in the most austere conditions in an occupied land of no geographical significance. The extraordinary becomes ordinary that we might truly live.  This is the wonder of Christmas-an extraordinary God becoming an ordinary man only to die a criminal’s death that we might be delivered from our sin to deal, once and for all, with the bondage of sin.

     In this ego-driven world, human pride and self centeredness strives for the extraordinary.  Sports figures take growth hormones to perform extraordinary feats on the playing field.  Film stars go through plastic surgery to reflect extraordinary beauty even when age settles in.  People show up at Dandy Mini Mart buying lottery tickets hoping to cash in on the extraordinary promises of wealth and possessions.  Everywhere we look, people are chasing an extraordinary dream but the truth is that the human heart is anything but extraordinary.  Marred by sin and brokenness, the human heart chases a dream that not even all the money, beauty, and fame can fulfill. Marilyn Monroe, whose life ended in tragedy has said, “Fame is fickle and I know it. It has its compensations, but it also has its drawbacks and I've experienced them both.” The problem is, that in the pursuit of et extraordinary, the ordinary human heart has been separated from the one who is beyond the ordinary-the Creator of the heaven and earth.  This separation began with the fall of man due to sin and has continued ever since.

     The message of Christmas is that the extraordinary has become the ordinary to bridge the separation that existed between God and the human race. Jesus, God in the flesh became man so that no longer would we be separated from a holy God. Since God is holy and loathes sin, Jesus became the sacrifice who took away the sins of the world.  By becoming an ordinary man, Jesus was the perfect sacrifice for a human race that was separated from the extraordinary and from the Creator.

    Are you seeking something far greater than the ordinary things in life?  Is your desire to experience life more abundantly and beyond what you have ever experienced before?  Look no further than to the one who became ordinary for us that we might live life to the full.  Furthermore, become His follower so that the extraordinary One who lives in you may be known in the ordinary world.  Merry Christmas!

Pastor Steve and Marilyn want to wish everyone a joyous Christmas and start to 2012.  May we all truly experience the “Christ” in Christmas this year and in the coming year of 2012.  We are looking forward to ministering together in 2012.