Crossing Community Church

Off the heels of chapter 1 the Colossians are encouraged to walk and abound in thanksgiving as so are we. The Colossian church was dealing issues of heresy and boredom of God's grace and who He is for them. What we study here in chapter 2 is that Paul encourages the Colossians and the readers of today to grow in intimacy with their Savior, to find Him sufficient for all their needs and to find their ultimate identity. 

Christians, more than anyone else, should be a people defined by thanksgiving. But how can we cultivate that spirit of gratitude? In Colossians 1, the Apostle Paul models three things we can do so we don't slip back into ingratitude or grow bored with God's grace.

Jude's epistle resonates deeply with a missional life. It is a letter about contending for the faith. Contending is missional as we will see. Jude's fight is against the false teachers of his day but it is also a challenge to develop a sound theology. Specifically a sound theology that fuels our worship and our mission!

 In Ruth 4, Naomi's story comes full circle. God takes her from emptiness to fullness, loss to gain, and bitterness to joy as he redeems her through the actions of another -- which is how he redeems us too!

The problem with the future is that we don't know where it's taking us. It's a natural reaction of humans to fear the unknown, but the unknown is a certainty of life. How do we face the uncertainty of our future? What do we do with our fears? Ruth gives us an example to follow in her humility. 

Chapter 2 of Ruth introduces us to Boaz, who seemingly is a good man who exhibits care and generosity towards Ruth as she gleans in his fields. But he is much more than a good man, he's a kinsman, an important relative to Naomi and ultimately the hero of the story. But in chapter 2 we read three times about Ruth finding favor with Boaz. "Finding favor" is an important concept that extends far from the barley fields of Boaz and right into your life. Pastor Tim explains that to us in today's sermon. 

Ruth chapter 1 sets the stage for the rest of the book. We learn about the family, the famine, Moab, the daughters-in-law and Naomi's return to Bethlehem. In all that, Pastor Tim challenged us to watch and learn from Naomi's husband, Elimelech's example -- do I trust God in a famine or do disobey Him and seek refuge in Moab? 

This week we begin a new sermon series from the book of Ruth. As an introduction, Pastor Tim discusses the context of the book as well as two of the major themes -- redemption and God's providence. Where have you seen God at work in your life? What can we learn from His past faithfulness that we can remind ourselves in our current life circumstances? 

Our guest speaker today is Dr. Todd Williams, president of Cairn University. He taught from Colossians 2:6-8 about the need for vigilance and diligence in our spiritual walk. He encouraged us to never allow things of the world to overtake all that Jesus has already done on our behalf.

We are pleased to have Todd Domke, one of our church elders, teaching today. He spoke from the events and experiences of the last year of his life and how God was been at work drawing Ephesians and Paul's writing about spiritual armor.