Slime Time Family Fall Festival
Slime Time is the Ridge's alternative
Halloween event at the Carthage Community Center. Slime Time will be
open from 6-9 PM. Games, treats, and the message that "God loves you"
will be given out all evening. Volunteers can always be used to greet
families from the neighborhood. Donations of treats and cookies are
also needed.
Sunday AM Discipleship
Sunday morning discipleship groups are available for all ages. The adults are using curriculum from Saddleback Church in California. All adults are invited to attend this challenging study. Groups are also available for all children through the Camp W program.
Community Ministry
The Walnut Ridge Food Pantry
is open on the 2nd and 4th
Saturdays of the month from 8-10 AM. An appointment can also be made with Robin if
assistance is needed at other times. Distribution from the Food Pantry
has skyrocketed in the last month. Bring your donations to the church
at any time OR volunteer one Saturday morning to pray with a family.
Women's Ministries
Chick Flicks............ December 11!
The December edition of Chick Flicks will be announced shortly. Take a
break from a hectic holiday season to hang out with "the girls".
Men's Ministries
Men's Bible Study
meets on Wednesdays at 8 PM at the church. The Beverly
Hillbillies is the current curriculum...............
Midweek Bible Study
A midweek
Bible Study group meets on Wednesdays at 6 PM in the fellowship hall of the church. The group is open to anyone wanting to learn more about
the Characters of the Bible. Pastor Bruce leads the group. Call the office for more info.
A Note From the Pastor
Live Life Backwards
Whatever is going to be important then, make it
important now. When you stand before Christ at the end of your life, there
will be no remorse or regrets. That thought alone ought to motivate us to
introduce a lost person to Christ.
Have you ever noticed how much we grade people on the
basis of their performance? Our whole society does it. The better we
perform, the higher up the ladder we go; the more we make, the greater the
privileges we receive or the fewer penalties we suffer.
I’m convinced that this emphasis on performance is one
reason non-Christians may find it hard to grasp the grace of God and His
free gift of everlasting life. They try to understand
God’s love by
comparing rather than
contrasting it to
human love.
No verse of Scripture could make it any clearer that a
right standing before God has nothing to do with our worth, merit, or work
than Romans 4:4&5 which says, “Now to him who works, the wages are not
counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on
Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,”
Paul illustrates the
difference between faith and work by describing the process of employment.
An employer does not call an employee’s wages a gift; instead, the
workers earn what they receive. The employer is obligated to pay for
work that has been completed. The wages are the agreed-upon amount, not a
gift. If a person could earn right standing with God by his or her works
(doing good, obeying the law), salvation wouldn’t be free; it would be God’s
obligation, like payment for our efforts.
Imperfect people that we are, we cannot pay for our own
sins. Only the perfect Son of God could do that. Since He has died on a
cross for our sins and risen victoriously, we simply need to
believe---Christ alone to save us. God will justify or declare us righteous,
not based on what we’ve done for God, but based on what Christ did for us.
The reason is that, as we read in Romans 4:5, ‘his
faith is accounted for righteousness.’ That simply means that when we commit
our trust in Christ, God takes the perfection of His Son and places it over
us. Therefore, when He looks on us, He no longer sees our sin; He only sees
the perfection of His Son. We are forever accepted by God, not based on our
performance but based on His.
The awesome recognition of the depth of the grace of
God ought to affirm our commitment to Him and to move us to tell somebody
else.
Through our commitment to Christ let’s consider
priorities. Priority is such a frustrating word, isn’t it? Yet it’s the one
that will determine whether or not we have lived a worthwhile life. What
sadder experience could there be than to come to the end and discover that
we have lived for things that are going up in smoke. And what more exciting
experience could there be than to realize we have been faithful and lived
for things that really count.
Imagine that you have just died and are standing
face-to-face with Jesus. What will you wish had been the most important
items in your life? Will they be the TV and the VCR, the new house or
expensive car, the golf course or the swimming pool? Or will it be what it
was for Paul the apostle---the ones he had led to Christ and the ones God
allowed him to disciple?
As Paul said to the Thessalonians, “For what is our
hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of
our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? For you are our glory and joy.” Paul
had been instrumental in leading many of them to Christ and then caring for
them as a nursing mother does her own children to help them grow. Because he
lived for people, not things, the day he anticipated seeing Christ
face-to-face was to be his most exciting moment ever.
The Earl of Rochester lived a wealthy but wicked life.
When he came to the end of his life, he exclaimed, “Would to God I had been
born a blind beggar or a foul leper rather than to have lived and forgotten
God.” What appeared to distress him as his life came to an end is that he
had lived for all the things that really didn’t matter. If we are not
careful, even though we are believers who worship the name of Christ, we can
live for all the things that, when we are face-to-face with Christ, won’t
matter, instead of for the people who will.
Again I say, live life from heaven backwards. Whatever
is going to be important then, make it important now. When you stand before
Christ, there will be no remorse or regrets. That thought alone ought to
motivate us to introduce a lost person to Christ.
Think carefully. Is there someone in whose life you
were a messenger of His saving grace? Do you have someone who is your “crown
of rejoicing”? If evangelism is one beggar telling another beggar where to
find bread, why not direct non-Christians to the buffet?
Once we come to Christ, how quickly we forget the depth
and the freeness of our salvation. We need to ask God to remind us of the
supremacy of the grace that brought us to the Savior. Out of gratitude for
His love, we need to tell someone about Him. Make a list of what should be
most important in your life as you anticipate seeing Christ face-to-face.
Then take that list and, in prayer, ask God to help you master your
priorities until you come to a point that God’s priorities have mastered
you.
What will that moment be like when you meet Jesus
face-to-face?
In Christ,
Pastor Bruce