Saturday:Homebuilders! Share in the wisdom of God’s Word to build your house wisely from 9:30-11:00am at Elim. Please contact the church office for more information.
On the Lord’s Day:
9:15 am — Sunday school classes for all ages: Classes for graded age groups meet to learn from the Scriptures. To see Sunday school classes, ages and meeting locations, click on the red “Ministries” button under the category “Pages” (to the right).
10:30 am — In preparation for corporate worship, begin praying now for God’s Word to be delivered in spirit and in truth during the morning worship service. We’ll continue in our study of the book of Jude, learning what it means to “contend for the faith.”
During the Week:
- Tuesday: Our Ten-thirty Tuesdays Bible study look at the practical epistle of James. This study meets every Tuesday morning at 10:30.
- Wednesday: Awana clubs for all ages meet at 6:30 pm with “The Awana Store.”
- Thursday: Our Thursday Night Toolkit Old Testament survey Bible study will look at 1 Samuel, meeting at 6:30 pm in the sanctuary.
Studying God's Word
Upcoming and Ongoing:
- Can you believe it’s softball time again?!? Elim has a VERY competitive team that plays in the Rocckford Area Church League on Monday nights at Sportscore. Last year, the field was flooded much of the year, so this year we need to really encourage our team! If you want to play (all skill levels accepted), please contact the church office. For all you fans, the first game is scheduled for April 13th.
- A new monthly fellowship/study/prayer time for men of all ages begins Saturday, April 18th. One of our own men will be your leader for this time, as he begins with a study of the work, “Practical Religion” by J.C Ryle (see below for an excerpt). A freely available, somewhat modernized version of it is available for online viewing/printing at www.geocities.com/johncharlesryle/index.html (about half-way down the page). Meeting every third Saturday in the month, this will be a good time to connect with brothers in Christ in maturing in the faith and praying for each other.
- HELP WANTED: for Easter Breakfast on April 12th at 8:15 am. This annual event is part of our celebration of the Savior’s resurrection. But many hands are needed to assist with set-up, cooking, serving, and clean-up. Please see the bulletin for details or contact the church office to volunteer.
- CEF Summer 5-Day Clubs come right to your backyard. They supply qualified teachers to tell Bible stories, teach memory verses, play games, sing songs, and tell an exciting missions story every day. All you need to do is pick from one of the following weeks, as well as a one-hour time slot for your club. Invite the kids in your neighborhood to come and bring their friends. Dates available are listed in the bulletin. Contact Amy K. at the CEF office to schedule YOUR CEF 5-Day Club. Call 815-398-0302 or e-mail at cefnwil@choiceonemail.com.
From the Pastor’s Recent Reading:
We live in an age of special spiritual danger. Never perhaps since the world began was there such an immense amount of mere outward profession of religion as there is in the present day. A painfully large proportion of all the congregations in the land consists of unconverted people, who know nothing of heart-religion, never come to the Lord’s Table, and never confess Christ in their daily lives. Myriads of those who are always running after preachers, and crowding to hear special sermons, are nothing better than empty tubs, and tinkling cymbals, without a bit of real vital Christianity at home. The parable of the sower is continually receiving most vivid and painful illustrations. The way-side hearers, the stony-ground hearers, the thorny-ground hearers abound on every side.
The life of many religious people, I fear, in this age, is nothing better than a continual course of spiritual dram-drinking. They are always morbidly craving fresh excitement; and they seem to care little what it is if they only get it. All preaching seems to be the same to them; and they appear unable to “see differences” so long as they hear what is clever, have their ears tickled, and sit in a crowd. Worst of all, there are hundreds of young unestablished believers who are so infected with the same love of excitement, that they actually think it a duty to be always seeking it. Insensibly almost to themselves, they take up a kind of hysterical, sensational, sentimental Christianity, until they are never content with the “old paths” and, like the Athenians, are always running after something new. To see a calm-minded young believer, who is not stuck up, self confident, self-conceited, and more ready to teach than learn, but content with a daily steady effort to grow up into Christ’s likeness, and to do Christ’s work quietly and unostentatiously, at home, is really becoming almost a rarity! Too many young professors, alas, behave like young recruits who have not spent all their bounty money. They show how little deep root they have, and how little knowledge of their hearts, by noise, forwardness, readiness to contradict and set down old Christians, and over-weaning trust in their own fancied soundness and wisdom! Well will it be for many young professors of this age if they do not end, after being tossed about for a while, and “carried to and fro by every wind of doctrine,” by joining some petty, narrow-minded, censorious sect, or embracing some senseless, unreasoning crotchety heresy. Surely, in times like these there is great need for self-examination. When we look around us, we may well ask, “How do we do about our souls?”
—J. C. RYLE, “Practical Religion”
Posted on March 27th, 2009 by Janet
Filed under: This Week @ Elim