What We REALLY Love

Dear Crosswalkers,
According to a recent study, as much as people love money, we love something else even more: security. According to a 2009 survey by the Pew Research Center, 59 percent of U.S. adults prefer a job that offers better security over one that offers higher pay but less stability (33 percent). Researchers insist this value isn’t driven by the current economic crisis, either. A General Social Survey in 1989—a year of economic expansion—produced similar results.  We crave security more than success!  What we REALLY love is security!

The shocking reality is this:  The God who made us calls us to forsake our earthly security for the sake of heavenly security.  God calls us to let go of our imaginary securities and embrace the adventure of faith!  God calls us to leave our sense of security and follow him on a journey of faith!  This Sunday we will focus on the father of all who have faith, a man named Abram.  Later, his named was changed to the more familiar Abraham.  God called Abram to leave his home, his culture, his roots, his belief system, his country, his security; and to go to a place where he did not know the language and where would forever be a stranger in a strange land.  It’s an amazing story of faith!  This would be a great Sunday to invite a friend or family member to come and worship with you as we begin to look at the faith of our father Abraham!  SEE YOU SUNDAY!

Love in Jesus,

Pastor John Christie

Black Sheep Ride In this Sunday!

It’s a Matter of Perspective

Dear Crosswalkers,

Recently, I came across some great puns regarding romance.  At first, they were from the perspective of someone who has been hurt in a relationship.  But then there was added the perspective of someone who was optimistic about the relationship. The optimist is in italics.

What happens when you fall in love with:

A chef? (You get buttered up.)  Or, how about, “He spices up your life”?

A chauffeur? (You get taken for a ride.) Or, how about, “In his eyes, you take a back seat to no one”?

A gambler? (He cheats on you.)  Or, how about, “He bets his Heart on you”?

A telephone operator? (He gives you a phone-y line.) Or, how about, “You always have a special connection”?

A garbage collector? (He dumps you.)  Or, how about, “He refuses to let you go”?

A clockmaker? (He two-times you.)  Or, how about, “He always makes time for you”?

A pastry cook? (He desserts you.)  Or, how about, “He spends all his dough on you”?

A shoe salesman? (He walks all over you.) Or, how about, “Your sole is lifted up”?

An artist? (He gives you the brush.)  Or, how about, “He gives you a peaceful, easel feeling”?

A jogger? (He gives you the run-around.) Or, how about, “He’s there for you when you’re run down”?

I hope these were good for a few chuckles.  There is a lot in the Scriptures that require perspective.  For example, this week we will look at the faith of Noah.  From one perspective, the flood was the terrible judgment of God on a depraved human race.  From another perspective, it was a demonstration of God’s patience and love for all people and an awesome act of salvation for a man and his family who had discovered the grace of God.

This Sunday we will look at Noah’s faith, and be blessed with a new perspective of the power of faith in the face of adversity.  I hope to see you then!

In other Crosswalk news:

This week we are mailing out our mid year giving statements with a full description of our financial situation after 6 months of 2010.  When you receive your report, please join me in praying over our financial situation.
Sunday will be the last day to sign up for our Wild Wacky Sports Camp for Kids!  Please sign up your elementary age kids and grand-kids, and then join us in prayer that the Lord would honor this Crosswalk Outreach Event!
Some wanted to know the cost of the two facility projects we are hoping to complete this year.  Resurfacing our Gym floor will cost $12,000.00.  We are waiting on our second bid and will get a third bid before we are able to ascertain the cost of what is a more significant and immediate need:  the repair and sealing of our church parking lot.  I will keep you informed as more information comes available.  We praise God for our church family, and for generous people who care and share!!
Love in Jesus,

Pastor John Christie

Money for Nothing! What?

Dear Crosswalkers,

Earlier this year, Newsweek magazine featured a story entitled, “Money for Nothing.”  Here’s what’s happening in today’s world:  Many use Facebook as a way to keep in touch with friends, but there is a growing trend among others who use it to play games that involve virtual pets, virtual wars, virtual farms, etc.  The remarkable thing about these games is that a person can buy virtual goods for these games—pets or guns or fertilizer or tools.  The kicker is this:  They cost real money!  Now of course these items don’t actually exist!  They are just little computer pictures from little pixilated stores.  So the player sends real money through a credit card account to a company like Playfish, whose website says, “You can now get Playfish Cash Cards in retail stores near you!  Cash cards are exchanged for Playfish Cash that can be spent in all our supported games.”

So in the Newsweek article, “Money for Nothing,” writer Daniel Lyons discovered that the total U.S. market for virtual goods was over $1 billion in 2009—twice what it was the year before.  Yes, we are spending, in these tough economic times, over $1 billion for something that doesn’t really exist!!  Here’s a great lesson about 21st century America:  People will spend real money for something that isn’t really there at all!  Now I know it might be argued that this is just one way to spend entertainment dollars.  Fine.  But the larger lesson is this:  What are we getting for our money?  What is our investment yielding?

The Bible tells us the greatest investment we can ever make is in the Kingdom of God.   Jesus told a parable about a master who entrusted money to his servants and how he expected them to invest his money wisely while he was away on a trip.  Here’s part of the story:

After a long time their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money. – Matthew 25:19

God has invested in you.  He has given you money, abilities, property, cars, clothes, influence, friends, and he has considered you to be a good investment.  Now he expects you to produce a return.  Every human being will one day give an account of himself or herself to God.  We will all have a final exam someday.  God is going to ask: Did you follow my Son, Jesus?  And another question will be this:  What did you DO with what you were GIVEN?


Wise investments will outlast ourselves.  This is why God says to invest in eternity.  Now, like many of you, Leanna and I have seen some of our financial investments take a beating in the past couple of years.  But you know, the thousands of dollars we have invested in eternity by giving to our church, and supporting missionaries; those investments haven’t lost a cent.  In fact, those investments are compounding and growing, creating a treasure in heaven for us.  Praise God!

I share all this because right now, like many other churches and non-profits, our giving is down considerably.  We have some projects that are going undone.  For example, we need to repair and sluice our parking lot.  That is a big ticket item.  We also need to repair and resurface our gym floor.  There are some painting projects that need to be done.  We are prioritizing our funds now for ministry and outreach, but these are becoming great needs that we cannot ignore forever.  If you can bless your church with a special gift at this time it would be most appreciated.  You can give to our general fund, which also needs help, or earmark the gift “PROJECTS” and we will begin making the needed improvements.

Thank you in advance for investing in the church of Jesus!

Here are a couple of quick announcements:

MEN’S BREAKFAST  is this Saturday at 8:30 a.m.  Angel Hernandez will be speaking and you know it’s the best darn breakfast in town!  Invite a friend and come and hear an exciting testimony from one of our missionaries!
SPORTS CAMP is coming at the end of this month!  It is a great outreach event as we have over 20 kids from our community participating.  Sign up your kids for an awesome week this Sunday!
See you at Worship,

Pastor John Christie

What Faith Can Do for You!

Dear Friends,

I’ve been out of town the last couple of weeks and I missed sending my regular email communication with you.  Last Sunday we started our new series of studies entitled “Heroes by Faith.”  The goal of this series is to inspire us to be heroic in our lives because of our faith.  Faith can make heroes of us all!  Here’s one example:

I recently read about A. N. Wilson’s exciting turnaround.  He is a brilliant philosopher, and many hoped he would become the next C. S. Lewis, an intellectual champion for the Christian Faith.  But as a young man, he began to question his faith. By his thirties, he had lost all religious belief and publicly repudiated his Christianity.  He not only became an atheist, but he relished the role of a harsh critic not only of Christianity but of any faith in God at all.  Wilson even wrote a book claiming Jesus was a failed messianic prophet (2004′s Jesus). But then, praise God, he experienced a major turnaround in his life.  On the Saturday before Easter in 2009, he wrote a shocking article for London’s prestigious newspaper, The Daily Mail, in which he detailed his return to faith.  It all began with his participation in a Palm Sunday service. He writes:

When I took part in the procession last Sunday and heard the Gospel being chanted, I assented to it with complete simplicity. My own return to faith has surprised no one more than myself. Why did I return to it? Partially, perhaps it is no more than the confidence I have gained with age. Rather than being cowed by them, I relish the notion that, by asserting a belief in the risen Christ, I am defying all the liberal clever-clogs on the block. …

But there is more to it than that. My belief has come about in large measure because of the lives and examples of people I have known—not the famous, not saints, but friends and relations who have lived, and faced death, in the light of the Resurrection story, or in the quiet acceptance that they have a future after they die. …

Sadly, [the secularists] have all but accepted that only stupid people actually believe in Christianity, and that the few intelligent people left in the churches are there only for the music or believe it all in some symbolic or contorted way which, when examined, turns out not to be belief after all. As a matter of fact, I am sure the opposite is the case and that materialist atheism is not merely an arid creed, but totally irrational.

Materialist atheism says we are just a collection of chemicals. It has no answer whatsoever to the question of how we should be capable of love or heroism or poetry if we are simply animated pieces of meat. The Resurrection, which proclaims that matter and spirit are mysteriously conjoined, is the ultimate key to who we are. It confronts us with an extraordinarily haunting story… Most of the greatest writers and thinkers of the past 1,500 years have believed it. But an even stronger argument is the way that Christian faith transforms individual lives—the lives of the men and women with whom you mingle on a daily basis, the man, woman, or child next to you in church tomorrow morning.

A.N. Wilson made a heroic turnaround in his life because of the heroic faith of ordinary men and women who lived out the blessed realities of being a follower of Jesus.  Do you need a turnaround in your life?  Do you know someone who does?  This is one of the many great things faith can do for you!  Please prioritize being a part of this series.  This Sunday we’ll look at the first hero of faith in the Bible, a man named Abel.  See you then!

Love in Jesus,

Pastor John