To God's Beloved At Cloverdale Baptist Church:
It is good to be a part of a family like Cloverdale Baptist. We have worked hard to be Spirit filled and love one another, and one of the places it shows most powerfully is in our business meetings. A dream of one of the elders from our past was that you would be able to bring your non-Christian friend to our business meetings and they would declare, "see how they love one another". I think we have moved so strongly in that direction, where we can pursue God's will together in a safe family environment, filled with love and longing to do God's will. We are not perfect, but having clearly defined win, we are pursuing it in God's strength, and that is a JOY!
We have our AGM tonight, at 7:00, where we will sing praises, discuss our passionate pursuit of God's will and learn from His Word. All are welcome as those who have chosen to make this church their primary place of service (members) join together in seeking God's will and rejoicing in what God has done. The bride of Jesus is worth serving, joining, and delighting in, so join us tonight for a time of worship and corporate seeking of God together. Members and non-members you are officially invited!
One of the areas that we want to constantly grow in, is our active dependence on God. We want to be a church that prays alone and together, and seeks God's glory this way. Most of the great revival's in church history have come from a spirit of prayer in God's people, and so we long for that in our church. We are programming this with prayer summit's, prayer meetings and perhaps a prayer conference but way more than programming is the passion of each of us as individuals to constantly improve our prayer lives. I am asking you, if you belong to our family, to commit to our programs, but even more, would you commit to being a man or woman of prayer. To praising God, thanking Him and pursuing Him with all your might, and seeking His best for our church family. I truly believe if we are a people of prayer we will discover the passion we long for and our pursuit of God's purposes will be pleasing to Him and produce fruit!
Thank you for your prayer for our elders retreat. It was a joy to be with our leadership group seeking to find unity and vision for our church. I am honoured to serve with these men, and excited to see where God will take us as we devote our lives fully to Him for His glory! Thank you for praying, and please keep praying for your elders!
Stewardship Situation: Want you to be aware that we continue to lag behind our budget in terms of our giving. The good news is that God has used you as His people to close that gap over the last two weeks. Would you continue to pray that we would have wisdom as to where to invest God's funds, and consider helping us to be the kind of church that has a lot of investment resources to meet our investment opportunities. Thank you for already helping in this area! I praise God for you!
Please continue to pray that we would develop our culture of evangelism, and that our missionaries would succeed where you have called them. This week we are praying for Matthew. Please pray that he would have wisdom regarding future education, building of relationships for Gospel purposes and where the investment of his life would yield the most fruit.
Sunday Is Coming:
Title: BUT NOW: The Righteousness Of God
Text: Romans 3
- Have you ever struggled with self-esteem issues? Why or why not?
- How can we have a healthy view of ourselves coming out of the strong language of the early passages of Romans?
- How does Romans 3:20-31 show us the solution to the problems displayed in the earlier verses?
- Why do you think Piper says that, "the most beautiful words in the english language are, 'BUT NOW'"?
- How must we respond to this chapter if we are saved? If we are not yet saved?
- Why do you think that so many in history of designated this passage of Scripture the most important in history and the Bible?
- How can you live in light of this text?
I am excited for Sunday, as the heart of the book of Romans is the focus of our text. Isn't the book of ROMANS amazing!
I am excited to serve you, for God has placed us here for such a time as this.
Thankful, and ready for the paths God has directed us to,
Pastor Rob