This week is Thanksgiving! As you get ready for a long holiday weekend, and many of you will be around family and friends who may not know the Lord, I want to quickly remind you of a few things coming up. Those who do not come to church any other time during the year will often come at Christmas. Invite them! Our theme for December is “Hope,” and everyone can use a little hope!
– This Sunday, November 29, will be the last message in The Beatitudes series. I’ve certainly enjoyed studying these sayings of Jesus and hope you have too. The final beatitude ends with, “Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven.” Who of us doesn’t want to live in such a way that we are exceedingly glad? Who of us doesn’t want to receive a great reward in heaven?!
– On Sunday, December 6, we will begin a new series on Hope. Jesus gives hope! We will kick off the Christmas Season with “Hope for the World.” We will hear what God is doing around the world and how your prayers and giving are making an eternal difference.
– Christmas Eve services start Wednesday, December 23 at 6:30 PM (with childcare available for those up to 3 years old) and Thursday, December 24 at 1:00, 3:00 & 5:00 PM. Talk with your family this weekend and make plans to attend one of these services together.
This is a special week for our family as we will be celebrating Thanksgiving and an early Christmas with all of our kids and grandkids. Whatever your Thanksgiving plans are, I hope you are reminded of how much we have to be thankful for; and like Paul prayed for the Ephesians, “I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:17-19). Whether your house will be full of people, or your Thanksgiving will be much smaller and simpler, you are loved beyond knowledge and NOTHING can separate you from His love (Rom. 8:39)!
Happy Thanksgiving!
