Don’t forget our Good Friday Communion service at 6:30 pm on Friday, April 2nd!
On the Lord’s Day:
- 9:15 am — Our annual Elim Easter Breakfast!! There’s still time to volunteer YOUR services, however. More help is always needed with clean-up. Contact the church office to volunteer. There will be NO Sunday school classes this day.
- 10:30 am — The strains of The Resurrection Hymn (See, What a Morning!) are already in our ears, preparing our hearts and our minds to celebrate the Resurrection of our Savior and Lord! His RESURRECTION is what gives us LIFE! Praise Him with us this Sunday.
During the Week:
- Tuesday: Our Ten-thirty Tuesdays Bible will continue this week at 10:30 am in the Fireside Room.
- Wednesday: Awana Clubs meet at 6:30 pm with “The Awana Store.”
- Thursday: Thursday Night Toolkit Bible study resumes at 6:30 pm in the Fireside Room.
- Saturday, Noon: Serving Sisters luncheon at the church. Check out the sign-up sheet on the back table in the sanctuary for additional details.
- Saturday, 4:00 pm: Elim League Bowling.
Upcoming and Ongoing:
- Elim League Softball is starting soon! Our church team plays on Monday nights at Sportscore in Machesney Park. Elim’s team is noted for its competitive, yet good sportsman-like spirit (as well as having the BEST fans in the league!). Players and fans, check out the schedule at http://www.racsoftball.com for all the latest news.
- Are you qualified to be an Encourager? If you’re over 60 and you want to encourage those younger (and each other!) in the faith, you are qualified! And one of the unique privileges of an Encourager is the fellowship of others at specially planned events!
Sunday, April 25th: After the morning worship service, meet at 12:30 at the Stockholm Inn for an Afterglow Luncheon! Your cost will be whatever you order from the menu. Please sign up on the back table by Wednesday, April 21st. And set aside Wednesday, June 9th, for a Luncheon Cruise on The Pride of Oregon, a paddlewheel riverboat, to cruise the beautiful Rock River. - We’re starting to look for willing volunteers to help in two areas: lawn mowing and flower bed maintenance. If you’re interested in being part of the rotation to make sure the lawn is mowed and kept in good order, please sign up on the special sign-up sheet on the back table in the sanctuary. If you want to use your planting and gardening know-how to benefit the entire church body (and our neighborhood!) with flower bed planting and maintenance, please contact the church office.
From the Pastor’s Recent Reading:
“For to me to live is Christ” — Philippians 1:21
THERE are three cardinal words in the passage: “me,” “live,” “Christ.” The middle term “live” is defined in the union of the two extremes. The two carbon electrodes of the arc lamp are brought into relationship, and the result is a light of brilliant intensity. And these two terms, “me” and “Christ,” are brought into relationship, and there is revealed “the light of life,” and I become “alive unto God.”
Now this is the only contact which justifies the usage of the term “life.” Any other application of the word is illegitimate and degrading. The word “life” stands defined in the relationship of the apostle’s words. But we take other extremes, and combine them, and we name the resultant, “life.”
“For me to live is money.” Me — money! And we describe the union as “life.” We are using a gloriously spacious and wealthy term to label a petty and superficial gratification, which is as transient and uncertain as the ephemera that dance through the feverish hour of a single summer’s day.
“For me to live is pleasure!” Me — pleasure! And we describe the union as “life.” It is a mere sensation, having no more relationship to life in its reality than the sluggish and ill-defined existence of the amoeba has to the large mental and spiritual exercises of the Apostle John. “She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.”
“For me to live is fame” Me — fame! And we describe the union as “life.” It is a mere galvanized spasm, and is no more worthy of the regal term “life” than a will-o-the-wisp is worthy of bearing the name of the sun.
Of all these relationships we may employ the New Testament indictment and say, “Thou hast a name to live and art dead.” All other combinations fail. By no other fellowships can we produce the resultant. Life is the unique product of a unique union. “This is life, to know Jesus.” “For me to live is Christ.”
—from The School of Calvary or Sharing His Suffering, by Dr. J. H. Jowett
Posted on April 2nd, 2010 by Janet
Filed under: This Week @ Elim