CCC Gainesville | Blog
In the rejoice with those who rejoice category—our dear Kenyan friend Joseph is celebrating the arrival of his precious family in Illinois. Caroline and the boys arrived recently to a very happy husband and daddy/baba.
A sweet gift from the God of all grace.
Over the years, CCC has hosted a handful of events that warranted a full-fledged choir. Last year, Song of the Stars reminded us how much fun it can be to sing the Christmas story to each other, and to our neighbors. We are establishing Song of the Stars as a tradition this year, and to make it even better than 2012 we are expanding the program to include more music! To make the program great, we need to assemble a choir. If you love to sing, please come to an info meeting this Sunday at 12:30pm in the adult classrooms. As we determine interest and experience level in the group, we’ll also discuss adding performances for Advent.
Calling All Voices—If you love to sing, please join the seasonal choir! Led by members of the worship team, the choir will rehearse on Sunday afternoons throughout the fall and perform in our Christmas program, Song of the Stars, on December 6th, plus help lead our Advent services on 12/1. Please contact Hannah Jones with interest or questions: hkj3d@virginia.edu.
Additional opportunities to make a joyful noise, as well as solos, will be discussed at our first rehearsal—9/29 at 12:30PM.
We need men and women of all ages (9th grade and up).
Rehearsal Schedule: 12:30 to 2PM OR 4 to 5:30PM TBD
September 29, October 6, 20, November 3, 10, 17, 24
Morning Run-Thru Saturday, November 30.
Evening Dress Rehearsal Thursday, December 5.
Show: December 6th
GOD’S TIME SCALE is so different from ours. Abram wants a son, and feels his time is running out; God envisages a race with countless millions of descendants. Abram feels his life is approaching its termination with nothing very much settled as to God’s purpose in calling him out of Ur of the Chaldeans; God sees the entire course of redemptive history.
What God does in Genesis 15 is promise Abraham that his offspring will constitute a vast number. At one level, God’s promise is enough: “Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness” (Gen 15:6). Abram’s faith is simple and profound: he believed God’s promises, taking God at his word. And that faith, in God’s eyes, was credited as righteousness. This does not mean that Abram earned brownie points for deploying such a righteous faith. Rather, the idea is that what God demands of his image-bearers, what he has always demanded, is righteousness — but in this sinful race what he accepts, crediting it as righteousness, is faith, faith that acknowledges our dependence upon God and takes God at his word. This faith of Abram is what makes him the “father” of those who believe (Rom. 4; Gal.3).
Yet however genuine this faith, some of the details of God’s promise Abram has trouble imagining. God tells him of a time when his descendants will possess all the land around him, and Abram wavers and asks for a sign (Gen. 15:8). Graciously, God provides one: in a vision, Abram is enabled to see God entering into a covenant with him. Probably the pieces of the animals between which “a smoking firepot with a blazing torch” (Gen. 15:17) passes represent a way of saying, “May those who enter into this covenant similarly be torn apart if they break the terms of this covenant.” What a visionary act of kindness to anchor Abram’s faith is also an instance of God’s long-range plans, his vast frame of reference: he is establishing his covenant with Abram and his offspring, a covenant relation into which Christians enter today (Gal. 3:6-9).
There is one more strand in this chapter that depicts God’s long-term view of things. One reason why Abram cannot begin to take over the Promised Land immediately is that “the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure” (Gen 15:16). God’s sovereign timing so matches his moral sensibilities that by the time the children of Abraham are ready to take over the Promised Land, the inhabitants of that land will have so sunk in degradation that judgment must be meted out. That time, God says, is coming, but in this chapter it has not yet arrived.
–DA Carson, For the Love Of God
This academic year CCC is reading through a bible overview reading plan.
Children’s Ministry wanted to send out a deep thank you to everyone who was involved in VBS this Summer. While this may seem a little delayed, we wanted to post some pictures from the week so that as a church we can celebrate God’s work in our community through VBS.
Morning journey through the Wardrobe
Assembly
Art in Mr. Tumnis’ Cave
Bible with the Beavers
Games in the yard
The busy Hall throughout each day!
(Please don’t miss the wonderful picture-filled post of our tremendous VBS that follows this lengthy post.)
Initiatives 2013-2014
Vision Night was such a memorable evening together. For those of you who were able to make it, I know you won’t soon forget it. I got so caught up in recounting God’s work through Christ Community in the year past that I ate into my time presenting this year’s initiatives. So here they be.
Remember that these are in addition to maintaining the five functions of every biblical church:
- 1.) Empowered Corporate Worship.
- 2.) Evangelistic Effectiveness.
- 3.) Counter-cultural Community.
- 4.) The integration of faith and work.
- 5.) The doing of justice and mercy.
Briefly, they are: become a people of prayer, train leaders, and specify our calling in the world.
