Bulletin

Summer Quarter Classes

The elders would like to thank you for your cooperation with the class schedule over the past year. Your support has been greatly appreciated. We felt and still feel that these classes were needed and that the entire congregation should hear them. This month ends this series of classes and a new quarter will begin Sunday, July 5. Starting on this first Sunday in July there will be three adult classes. They are:

Main auditorium: Bill Norton will be teaching from the Gospel Advocate Adult Quarterly. The topic is "Great Texts of the Bible." Some of the texts to be considered are: Deut. 6:1-15, 23rd Psalm, Acts 2:22-39, and 1Cor. 13:1-13.

Auditorium B: Daniel Stearsman and Chad Tagtow will be teaching from the April 2009 issue of The Spiritual Sword. The theme of this issue is "What Is Happening To Us?". Topics such as Role of Women, the Emerging Church, Post-Modernism, and the exclusiveness of Christianity will be discussed.

Classroom 3: Bob Bauer will be teaching a textual study of the Sermon on the Mount. The class will consider our Lord's teachings as recorded in Matthew chapters 5-7.

Each member is free to attend whatever class he or she desires. There are no assigned classes. A sign up sheet is posted on the bulletin board. This is to help us to have an estimate of the number of class books each class will need. Since some classroom sizes are limited, please sign-up early to secure a spot.

Thank you for your continued cooperation,
. . . the elders

Total and Unconditional Surrender
Derek McNamara

A young man went in to a jewelry store and asked the jeweler, "Please engrave this engagement ring, ‘From Tim to Cindy.'" The Jeweler replied, "Take some advice, son, and just have ‘From Tim' engraved." The point is clear: "From Tim" allows for a change of plan.

Too many people want to receive the benefits of Christ's awesome work, and yet they want to allow for a change of plan; they want to keep their options open. However, Jesus taught that it is impossible to do so.

To be a disciple of Christ means to be a "student of Christ." Not a "follower," not a "believer," not a "churchgoer"; rather, a student. The most important lesson every disciple of Christ must learn is the cost of being a disciple. Jesus plainly taught that if any one wants to be His disciple, he must follow Jesus' example of dying. Remember that to take up your cross means that you must die to yourself so Christ can live in you. To take up your cross does not mean that you must bear a burden. It means that you must die.

To be a true disciple of Christ we must die to ourselves, our way of thinking, our way of living because our thinking and living are efforts in futility and, paradoxically, they bring death. So to truly live now and to live eternally with God, we must die to ourselves.

To live we must die. This is the call of being a disciple. The cost of being a disciple is not total commitment (that puts the emphasis on us), but total and unconditional surrender of ourselves to God.