Friday, March 15, 2017
Dear Eastridge Family,
Of all the word pictures and
metaphors used to describe the church, one stands out above the rest: family. In fact, it is so much of the essence of the
church that it cannot even properly be called a metaphor.
Metaphors describe what the
church is like or similar to—light, flock, field, building—but family is not
metaphorical; it is a literal description of the phenomena we know as church.
The church is not like family; it
is family.
God is literally our Father,
Jesus is literally our elder brother, and we are literally brothers and sisters
in Christ. Family is the primary way the
early church identified themselves.
This can be seen by the fact that
the word disciple, so prevalent in the early part of the New Testament,
disappears after the book of Acts. It is
replaced by the term brother in the rest of the Bible.
Family dominates the
self-understanding of the early church.
If we want to think Biblically we
need to change the way we think about the church. When we say church, too often we don’t think
family. I think we need to understand
that we are not simply a part of a church, we are not attending a Bible study;
we are establishing a family. The
activities and ministries of the church are family gatherings.
God’s desire is that no one would
live as an orphan but rather God has invited us into His family. What a privilege!
·
Love Offering
This Sunday we will be saying goodbye to Jorge Ortiz and Sarai
Marin. They just completed the
membership class and were accepted in as members at our church board meeting
last Sunday. Jorge has been such a
blessing with our worship team we hate to see them go but believe God is
leading them to return to Mexico. We
want to encourage them and say thanks for being a part of our church by sharing
a love offering with them on Sunday.
We will also say good bye to Dan and Nittaya Henry’s
grandchildren Jasmine and Vincent.
Jasmine and Vincent will be returning to Georgia to be reunited with
their mother who has been deployed in South Korea. We will miss them and their smiles.
·
Work Day
The trustees have scheduled a work day on Saturday, April 1st
at 9am. There is a list of jobs that
need to be completed from yard work to cleaning. If you have any questions please contact one
of our Trustees: Nick Heer, Dan Henry, Norman Karns, or Enrique Vargas.
·
Easter Offering
The Easter Offering is for the World
Evangelism Fund (WEF). Traditionally, WEF is collected through two large
offerings each year “the Thanksgiving and Easter offerings.” The Nazarene Church has always had a strong
history of supporting missions through their generous giving through these
offerings.
The law of harvest states that you may not
reap when and where you sow—but you will always reap what you sow. As we
prepare to give to this offering, remember it will come back to you (Luke 6:38)
and the Lord…will bless you in everything Deuteronomy 15:10.
·
Easter Sunday April 16th
We
will start our day with a Continental Breakfast at 9:00 AM – 10:15AM. Followed by our Easter Service at 10:45 AM
and at the conclusion of the service we will have the children’s EASTER EGG HUNT.
Each
year we have a large number of children come to participate in the Easter Egg
Hunt therefore we need people to donate candy or money to buy candy to fill the
eggs. We also will have a signup sheet
for the breakfast in the entry way at the church.
The
reason we have scheduled these special activities like Easter Egg hunt and
Breakfast is to create an opportunity for us to invite unchurch friends and
family to expose them to God’s people or to give them a “nudge” towards Jesus. These activities are not designed to give us
something to do. So even if you do not
have children who will be participating in the Easter Egg Hunt you may consider
staying around to meet new people and show the love of Jesus to them. Your first choice may not include having breakfast
at the church but if we look at it from the perspective as an opportunity; an
opportunity to visit with guest visitors why not come?
·
Favorite Quotes of the Week
“Jesus didn’t come to make bad people good but to make dead
people live!” - Ravi Zacharias
"The whole preaching of Jesus Christ and His apostles is
concerned with the kingdom of God." - Herman Ridderbos
“Do you spend more time telling God how big your problems are,
or telling your problems how big your God is?” - Jason Meyer
"Without worship, we go about miserable." - A. W.
Tozer
"We only learn to behave ourselves in the presence of
God." - C. S. Lewis
I am looking forward to worshipping with you on Sunday,
Pastor Andy
