Saturday (2/20), 9:00 am: Our monthly Prayer Breakfast! A wonderful time of learning more about God’s heart for our prayers, why we should pray, and how to pray. A light breakfast will be enjoyed by those who come to the Lord in prayer for the needs of our church and our world.
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 — Continuing in our look at “What God Hates” from Proverbs 6:16-19, we see that God hates “a heart that devises wicked plans.” Please prepare your heart and mind now to receive God’s Word into your heart and your life.
During the Week:
- Our Ten-thirty Tuesdays Bible study continues this Tuesday in our chronological look at the Old Testament. This group meets at 10:30 am in the Fireside Room
- Awana Clubs meet at 6:30 pm with “Target Practice Night!”
- The Thursday Night Toolkit Bible study continues our survey of the New Testament, “Knowing Jesus and Living Like It.”
Upcoming and Ongoing:
- We’re in need of set-up, cooking, and clean-up volunteers for the Elim Easter breakfast on Sunday, April 4th. If you are interested, please contact the church office.
- Check your bulletins this week for information about the Grace & Truth Conference for Women on April 30 & May 1st. Ladies, you’ll want to set aside this Friday & Saturday for biblical teaching on cultivating a fruitful life for the glory of God.
- If you are planning on graduating from high school or college this spring, please contact the church office.
- For immediate prayer needs, Elim has a chain of faithful folks who pray for the needs of the congregation and our loved ones. Requests for prayer are given by phone or e-mail. During the month of February, all requests should be sent through the church office.
From the Pastor’s Recent Reading:
God meets man. Distance is our natural condition; sin produced it; Adam shewed it; man loves it. As far from God as possible. Depart from us, men say. So the prodigal went into the far country. Man wants no meeting with God. He would rather that the distance were preserved forever. The thought of meeting God is unpleasant. Hence the irksomeness of religion, the weariness of Sabbaths, even though the meeting be of the vaguest and most formal shadowy kind. Man must meet God at the judgment day, but he tries not to think of this, and hopes that he may be ready when it comes. But though man will not draw nigh to God, God draws nigh to man. He does not love the distance and separation. He comes nigh. He did so in the person of the prophets and such like messengers…and in the Word made flesh. But His object is not merely to visit earth, but to come up to, to draw near to each of his creatures. He is desirous of a meeting, a loving friendly meeting, not of judgment, or reproof, or vengeance, but of grace. Isaiah speaks as one who knew this. “Thou meetest,” he says; that is, thou art in the habit of doing so. It is thy practice, thy wont to meet the sinner. This is our message in the gospel, God wants to meet you, —to meet each of you. He proposes a meeting. He tells you that there is no coldness nor unwillingness on his part; that all things are ready. Come, meet with me, I wish to meet with you.
How does he meet man? In love. As the Lord God merciful and gracious. He meets him as Jesus met the Galilean fishermen, and said, follow me; as Jesus met the woman of Sychar, Zaccheus, Mary Magdalene. He meets him with pardon and reconciliation. He meets him as Melchizedek met Abraham, to bless him. Man dislikes the meeting, either for blessing or cursing; God desires it, that he may bless.
Where does he meet man? At the cross. That is the meeting-place. There is no other. It is a safe one, and a blessed one. There there is no wrath, no condemnation, no darkness. God stands at the cross and cries aloud, Meet me here. Not on a spot of your own choosing, but here on the spot which I have chosen; here where the blood was shed, and Christ’s sacrifice offered up. This is the meeting-place. Two meetingplaces; one the cross, now; the other the judgment-seat, hereafter. Which do you choose? One you must have.
—fromfrom Horatio Bonar’s sermon, “The Meeting Between The Sinner and God.”
Posted on February 18th, 2010 by Janet
Filed under: This Week @ Elim