Comments (0)

By Admin, July 3, 2010 11:45 pm

Posted by Pastor Charles R. Moore

Lord willing, we’re embarking on a study of Philippians starting this next Lord’s Day.

Join us!

The Apostle Paul writes this epistle (letter) from prison, probably in Rome in about A.D. 60.  Paul indicates his imprisonment no fewer than four times in Chapter 1 alone.  We can’t know all the details surrounding Paul’s imprisonment and eventual martyrdom under Nero, but we can know that Paul’s attitude in the face of trial and trouble is amazing!  Many have called Philippians “the epistle of joy” for that very reason.

I pray that joy will jump off every page for us.

That being said, I don’t want us to worry so much about “theme” that we miss the point.  I’ll quote from William Hendriksen (Th.D., Princeton; Professor of New Testament Exegetical Theology at Calvin Theological Seminary, 1943-1952) …

Attempts have been made repeatedly to construct a formal outline for Philippians, a central theme with its subdivisions … But such themes either lack distinctiveness … or comprehensiveness … What we have here is a genuine letter from Paul to his beloved church at Philippi.  The writer passes from one subject to another just as we do today in writing to friends … What holds these subjects together is not this or that central theme, but the Spirit of God, mirrored forth, by means of a multitude of spiritual graces and virtues, in the heart of the apostle, proclaiming throughout that between God, the apostle, and the believers at Philippi there exists a blessed bond of glorious fellowship.

I like that simple approach to Philippians.

We have the privilege of reading, digesting, and applying a letter written by a man wholly given over to the proclamation of Christ’s gospel.  Though a superstar in religious credibility, Paul debunked all of his human credentials except his knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ!

I can’t wait to be changed along with you.

Yours for the life-changing gospel of grace,

Pastor Charles

Comments (0)

By Admin, March 23, 2010 7:39 am

Adrian Warlock quotes some interesting research from the Barna Group:

In response to a free-response query, most Americans described Easter as a religious celebration. Two out of every three Americans (67%) mention some type of theistic religious element. Common responses included describing it as a Christian holiday, a celebration of God or Jesus, a celebration of Passover, a holy day, or a special time for church or worship attendance.

However, while a majority of Americans indicated some type of spiritual connection with Easter, the research also showed that a minority of adults directly linked Easter to the Christian faith’s belief in the resurrection of Christ. In all, 42% of Americans said that the meaning of Easter was the resurrection of Jesus or that it signifies Christ death and return to life. One out of every 50 adults (2%) said that they would describe Easter as the most important holiday of their faith.

2% of Americans said that Easter is about the “birth of Christ”; another 2% indicated it was about the “rebirth of Jesus”; and 1% said it is a celebration of “the second coming of Jesus.”Not included in the theistic category was another 3% who described Easter as a celebration of spring or a pagan holiday . . .

13% of respondents said they were not sure how to describe Easter. Another 8% of Americans said the holiday means nothing to them or that they do not celebrate the occasion. READ MORE

Pretty good reasons for inviting people to church this Easter.  If you are in the Southern California area, please visit us for Easter.  Our Good Friday service on April 2 is at 7pm and our Sunday Easter services on April 4 are at 8:45am and 10:30am.  Directions to Christ Community Church can be found HERE.

Comments (0)

By Admin, January 25, 2010 11:05 pm

Many of your participated in this project through giving and/or handing out books.  Here is a follow-up.

Comments (0)

By Admin, December 3, 2009 11:26 pm

posted by Pastor Jeff Jennings

The Team with a grateful CSUF Student

On November 18th 2009, 171,000 copies of The Origin of Species, Darwin’s seminal work on the theory of evolution, were handed out on college campuses by Christians.  You might ask why?  The book itself contained a 50 page introduction that argued for Intelligent Design (the theory that an Intelligent creator/mind must have brought everything into existence) and gave a very clear gospel presentation.  CCCLH was pleased to participate in this event by passing out 2,000 copies of the book at Cal State Fullerton.  Through the hard work, and generous donations of this congregation, the purchasing and distribution of the 2,000 books was made possible.  Thank you to all who donated and helped with the project.

Our 2000 Books

It was very obvious that the hand of the Lord was overseeing the day.  We arrived at the school at around 10AM and were given an escort by campus parking right to our designated table where we were to hand out the books.  Chuck, one of the project leads, was able to drive his truck that was transporting the books right up to our table and we did not even need to use dollies to move the books.  So not only were we given permission to hand out literature at the school, but it was made as easy as possible by a campus parking escort.

We quickly unloaded the books and began passing them out.  The first hour was very busy and the books seemed to be going very quickly.  However, around 12:00PM I began to look at the giant mountain of books still left and wondered would we be able to give all of these away.  But God is faithful.  And while it took a bit longer than we thought, at around 2:30 we handed out our last book.  Please see the picture of our last recipient.

The actual handing out of the books went very smooth.  We had only one introduction ripped out and returned to us by a self-proclaimed atheist.  We also had a couple of books given back to us once people realized what they were being handed.  The overwhelming majority however received the books with a thank you and politely went on their way.  It was very encouraging to see a number of the students on their lunch break, sitting in the quad area, reading through the introduction just moments after they had received the book from us.  We were also able to have some gospel conversations and actually ran into a few people we knew as well.  It really was a great day!!!  Let us continue to pray that God will use the message contained in these books.  Who knows, 100 years from now, someone may find one of these copies on a bookshelf somewhere and be exposed to the gospel.  Thanks and glory to God for the success of the project, and thanks again to all that helped along the way.

Sincerely,

Pastor Jeff Jennings