CCC Gainesville | Blog
We have extended the deadline for collected items to Sunday, March 17th. Items will be gathered and delivered the next day. Please consider bringing an item from the list below this Sunday or the following and dropping it in the bin in the foyer!
A. Quinn Jones Backpack Items:
*SCHOOL SUPPLIES
*BOOKS OF ANY READING LEVEL
*FOOD
PROTEIN: canned tuna, chicken or other meats ~ peanut butter ~ baked beans ~ canned beef stew, chili & other meat based fixings
FRUITS & VEGGIES:canned vegetables & fruits ~ 100% fruit juice in boxes & cans
DAIRY: canned, evaporated or powdered milk ~ shelf-stable regular & soy milk
OTHER:boxed pasta, rice & cereals ~ canned soups ~ macaroni & cheese ~ jelly
PERSONAL HYGIENE ITEMS: soaps, shampoos, deodorant, feminine items, detergent, toothpaste, toothbrushes
TOILET PAPER
DIAPERS
Next Week our Middle School students will be packing Christ Community for the annual Lock-in! It will be an action packed night with games, tournaments, food, and even an inflatable game. Your student won’t want to miss this night! Cost is $15 per student.
Contact Drew Donovan for more information: ddonovan@christcommunitychurch.com
During this year’s Holy Week (the week before Easter Sunday), we will have a service on Maundy Thursday and Secret Church on Good Friday. Secret Church is six hours of intensive Bible teaching and worship. Watch this brief trailer for this year’s Secret Church – Heaven, Hell, and the End of the World:
Registration for Secret Church will open next week, so we also wanted to share a couple of testimonies from our own people about their experience last year!
From Daniel Turner:
My experience with David Platt’s Secret Church is that it makes me more excited about the Bible, gives me a bigger view of God and a higher value for how he’s revealed himself to us, and sends me away wanting to know Him more. I’ve watched a number of David Platt’s Secret Church sessions and this has been the case each time, no matter the particular topic. Because of watching these teaching sessions, I have a more comprehensive understanding of how God is the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament and the God of today. I highly recommend taking advantage of the opportunity to participate in this experience on Good Friday, March 29, at Christ Community!
From Jonathan Berry:
The whole idea of Secret Church seems completely counter-cultural. In a time where technology allows people to fit sermons and studies perfectly into ever-busier days, having a six-hour Bible study on a Friday night calls us to set ourselves aside and intentionally, intensively seek God through His Word. When we gathered for Secret Church last year, we didn’t witness a big spectacle. We worshiped with several hymns, and then with Pastor David Platt’s guidance, we spent about 6 hours in Biblical study and prayer, seeking to understand more about Suffering. This year, we’ll be doing the same thing, but exploring Heaven, Hell, and the End of the World. There won’t be a large production, but there will be a community of people desperate to understand what God has revealed about His plans and desiring to follow Him better. There will be deep and powerful Biblical teaching, and there will be time to marvel at God’s glory and the plans he has to spread it across the Earth. And in case staying up until 1 A.M. seems impossible, there will be coffee. I hope you’ll be willing to set aside one night and come join us in seeing and savoring the wisdom and glory of God on March 29!
Two New Adult Education Classes—Begins April 7th
9:00AM—“Gospel in Life – From Heart to Culture” Join author and pastor Timothy
Keller in a 12-week study of the gospel (10 minute videos from Tim Keller) and the ways to live it
out in your everyday life. Topics include: the focus on the city, the centrality of the heart, the need
to live by grace, the significance of idolatry, the importance of cultural engagement, the role of
work in mission, and more. Led by Ken French.
10:30AM—”From Gethsemane to Galilee: Poetry of Death and Resurrection”
Consider poetic responses to and reflections on Christ’s death and resurrection. For centuries,
poets have been drawn to the story of Christ’s passion, and we hope that each week the readings
will encourage our own thoughtful consideration of this central moment in the Christian story.
We hope to foster insight into how our contemplation of Christ might be both challenged and
renewed.
*Participants need not read in advance, but poems will be posted online. Led by Stephen Addcox.
By RC Sproul
By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies”
Hebrews 11:31
As Christians we are well-informed about the necessity of faith. We are justified by faith alone. We persevere in salvation through faith alone. Our glorification comes only after living a life of faith.
Even though we know that faith is absolutely necessary if we are to please God (Heb. 11:6), sometimes we have trouble understanding exactly what true faith looks like. Happily, God, in His providence, has provided examples of true persevering faith for us in redemptive history. Hebrews 11 lists many of these examples for us.
Today’s passage discusses the faith of Rahab, the woman who hid Israelites spying on the city of Jericho shortly before the conquest of Canaan (Josh. 2). It took great faith for her to risk her own safety and hide the spies. This faith was rewarded when she and her family were spared the destruction that came to the city (6:22–25).
Rahab is a remarkable character for several reasons. First, she is the only other woman besides Sarah mentioned specifically in the catalog of faith found in Hebrews 11. Thus we can see that she occupies a place of prominence among the other great heroes of the faith such as Abraham and Moses. Her inclusion demonstrates that both women and men are required to exercise persevering faith and are both honored citizens in the kingdom of God. Rahab’s prominence is also markedly displayed in Matthew 1 where she is only one of two women mentioned in the genealogy of Christ.
Rahab was also a Gentile. She was not one of Abraham’s physical descendants and yet was accepted into Israel, God’s people. She foreshadows the great ingrafting of Gentiles into the church now happening under Christ. Like her, those who are outside the people of God today can join His kingdom if they place their faith in Christ alone.
Finally, knowing that Rahab was a prostitute is a reminder of God’s mercy. John Owen says that Rahab is “a blessed example both of the sovereignty of God’s grace and of its power; of its freedom and sovereignty, in the calling and conversion of a person given up through her choice to the vilest of sins. Nobody, no sin, should lead to despair when the cure of God’s sovereign, almighty grace is engaged.” There is no sinner, no matter their sin, that cannot be forgiven if they would but turn to Jesus for salvation.
