Where is God?

Scripture for the Week
Look! The virgin will conceive a child!
She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel,
which means 'God is with us.' Matthew 1:23

Dear Friend,

Where is "God with you" in your life? Can you identify the God tracks? Places where you've seen him show up? When have you experienced the unexplainable? Maybe a better question is . . . have you looked lately?

Just yesterday one of our partners was working on the front door of the church. After a long effort he prayed "God, I don't know how to fix this door, please help me." Just then, a young man who was dropping something off for Scott walked by and said "You need an impact hammer, I'll go home and get it. I've done this kind of work many times." Long, cool story short, God showed up. . . and the door got fixed.

This Christmas God showed up. In a most difficult time in this economy, Crossroads gave more to our Haitian mission and our Food Pantry at Christmas time than ever before! That means you've given all 1000 children in Haiti a gift and provided the ability to help fix up their school in Meyer... plus fed 129 families through the Pantry. (Not to mention that 50 gifts for our mentoring program, money for our Jamaican orphanage, lunch for 100 homeless and struggling people, gifts to 30 sexual assault victims and 46 units of blood were given!) This is amazing! God is with us!

God took on the form of a human being when he came to us on that first Christmas. He started what would be his "M-O" for everyone who would look for him. Be encouraged, God is with us! He is showing up for you, too. He wants you to experience His presence with you. So many times we are more aware of our trouble than our answer. We can be so blinded by what isn't that we can't see that God is. Think about it, if He can be conceived in a virgin, your situation is a piece of cake! He is with you. Just look.

This Sunday, come to our special Christmas service, Songs of the Season: "My Silent Night". It will be a live "Nativity Gallery". We will tell stories of how God is showing up all the time in the lives of people you go to church with. Bring your friends...come see God with us in art, song, dance and spoken word. Let your faith and the faith of those you love come alive!! God is with you! Just look!

Looking for God,
Scott & Clare
Crossroads Church & Ministries

The "Purchase" Driven Christmas

Scripture for the Week
"Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." Luke 12:15(NIV)

Dear Friend,

Paul Harvey tells the story of how an Eskimo kills a wolf. Get ready, this is not a story for the faint of heart.

The Eskimo coats his knife blade with animal blood and allows it to freeze. He then adds layer upon layer of blood, until the frozen blood completely conceals the blade. The hunter next fixes the knife in the ground with the blade up. A wolf smells the blood and when he discovers the bait he licks it, tasting the fresh-frozen blood. He licks faster, more and more vigorously, lapping the blade until the keen edge is bare. Feverishly now, harder and harder, the wolf licks the blade in the arctic night. In his mad craving for blood he does not notice the razor sharp sting of the naked blade on his tongue, nor does he recognize the moment when his insatiable thirst begins to be satisfied by his own warm blood. His carnivorous appetite just craves more-until the dawn finds him dead in the snow.

This is a disgusting and horrifying story. Yet it can offer wisdom concerning the devouring nature of greed. Greed could be defined as desire with no discipline. If we truly want to live a purpose driven life we must resist the "Purchase Driven Christmas." Whether it is our own undisciplined desires or the desires of others that drive us, we must be on our guard . . . especially this time of year. Our hopes and dreams for satisfaction and love are not enhanced by over-spending or dangerous giving. In fact, our enjoyment of this season will increase if we would choose to practice a few new disciplines. Try one or two and see how the purpose of Christmas comes alive!

Pray and ask who "can" I buy gifts for this year?

Stick to a budget: How much do you have to spend? 0? 25? 100? 500? Be honest about your amount and stick with it . . . without guilt :)

Choose new ways to give. Write letters. Frame a picture and present it with a memory of a great moment.

Start a tradition; Cook, build, write, sing or decorate something together. Visit a soup kitchen or a nursing home. Make a card with scripture for someone who is sick or depressed.

Look for new opportunities to be generous with your time, talent, and treasures for those who have less than you. Your gifts can make an eternal difference in someone's life.

Go to church with family and friends on Christmas Day.

Share the gift of your faith this season. Nothing you can give this season can come close to the value of giving God's love this Christmas.

We want to wish you all beautiful and generous moments of love leading up to the day we celebrate the greatest gift of all . . . Jesus Himself!

Love and Blessings,

Scott & Clare
Crossroads Church & Ministries

Happy Thanksgiving

Scripture for the Week
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and a thank offering and into His courts with praise! Be thankful and say so to Him, bless and affectionately praise His name!

Psalm 100:4 (Amp)

Dear Friend,

Happy Thanksgiving! This past week our message on Thanksgiving revealed the power of giving thanks. We looked at what God has to say about a life of giving thanks . . .

Thanksgiving will open doors for you.

Thanksgiving will cleanse you.

Thanksgiving will change you.

Thanksgiving will make you whole.

Thanksgiving gives life.

Thanksgiving gives us communion with God.

Click here to watch that life-filled message.

We pray you will purposefully look for all things to be thankful for. List them . . . and then tell the people you are thankful for why you are thankful for them! Let your life be filled with the power of thanksgiving.

A Prayer for Thanksgiving

Grant me a heart of gratefulness oh God

so that I can live from the depth of my being.

May I take notice of disregarded moments of goodness.

Reveal to me the neglected gifts of grace

and show me your Presence within them.

Give me the desire to grow in thankfulness

that I may know true freedom--

the freedom of living without the need for more or better.

In gratitude I go deep

In noticing I experience your touch

In growing I am free.

On this day, I give thanks.

All our love and thanks for you this Thanksgiving,

Scott & Clare
Crossroads Church & Ministries