February 17-18: Love Christ. Love Others - Serve
February 17-18: Love Christ. Love Others - Serve
February 17-18: Love Christ. Love Others - Serve
SERVE
February 17-18
www.cccctally.org
From the Minister
I wouldn’t normally subscribe to words of wisdom from singer/actress/famous icon Jennifer Lopez, but the
other day I saw a YouTube video of her interviewing her twins. “Ask me ANYTHING you want” was the
topic for her interview with her 11 year old twins, a boy and girl. Her daughter asked, “which one of us is
your favorite?” Mrs. Lopez responded with what I found to be profound, possibly beyond her intentions:
“All the rules for normal people don’t apply because the love you have for your kids goes so deep.” How
right she is. The way we think of love in our world today is so different than the way God loves us. And
yet, that’s exactly what He calls us to do. Love one another with the unconditional love Christ has shown
each of us.
1 John 4:7-12 furthers this idea…”7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from
God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love
does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He
sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not
that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
11
Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever
seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
It seems like we compete for all of the best characteristics to form the image of some “super
Christian.” The Apostle Paul simplifies it for us when he said, “look, the best we can imitate
from Christ is FAITH, HOPE, and LOVE. But if we have to choose, the BEST is LOVE.” (Allen’s par-
aphrase) So that means all the energy and determination we spend in the disciplines of our
faith, learning to LOVE the way Christ loves is the key. When we can begin to understand un-
conditional love—a love and acceptance never based on merit, worth, or entitlement—but an
AGAPE love where we love others...JUST BECAUSE...because God loves them and they are the
loveliest part of His creation—THEN do we begin to KNOW God. If we want to be ambassadors
for Christ, and if we want to SHOW the world what it means to look like Christ, we have to un-
derstand AND PRACTICE unconditional love.
See ya’ Sunday.
Allen
As a boy / young man growing up in South Florida, my first challenge was to find my mountaintop
experience without a mountain. Somehow, I ended up finding part of my mountaintop experience quite
surprisingly in the Everglades. I am relatively certain there were no mountains anywhere around there.
My early mountaintop moments held only the smallest spiritual element within them, for though I did
wonder about God a bit, my family were not church goers and did not speak of God very often.
Mountains aside, I enjoyed growing up in a lovely tropical paradise. We even had good coconuts
down where I lived. I knew the river before it was brown. I enjoyed the Gulf of Mexico and sunsets
where the sun appeared to sink right into the water. I often biked or walked with a big load of fishing
gear down to the river, where I actually caught fishes. Most of the time I was looking forward to the next
trip, and perhaps catching that bigger one that those mysterious waters held! My father used to go to a
small family-run butcher shop in East Ft. Myers and get us sirloin steak. This was a special treat! That
butcher cut the steaks by hand and seemed to choose good ones for my dad. It was years later before I
ever found a meat place as good as that one (if I ever really did). I was lucky enough to grow up with
beauty around me.
What I needed most back then was to know the Creator and to have some of His truth and beauty
within, because quite frankly, beauty without was not nearly enough. It is of great importance to know
Almighty God loves us and made this wondrous world for us. God declared this creation was indeed
“good!” Good because it was perfectly fitting for its intended purpose in every way, and was good for us.
Nowadays, keeping hold of truth and faith, despite the insidious godlessness of so many, I readily
see and hear the witness of creation and its testimony to the greatness of God. And I am reminded how
much we mattered during creation, and how much we matter to our loving God even now!
Rick Harvey
Ministry EVENTS
Upcoming Events:
May 14 - Movie Tuesday - Meet at CMX
May18 - 10AM Paint Class, Cost $10
3rd painting in the bird series
Sign-Up For Peach State Summer Theatre
starts this month.
May 31 - Movie Night at the church
Call the office for more details 850-877-7315
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Mother’s 6:00PM 10AM Prayer Circle
10:30AM Ladies 10AM Paint Class
Day
Fellowship Meal
& Devotion 12-4 Canasta Club
Bible Study 10AM Railroad
6:30PM Violin 6:30PM Ladies Bible Club
Recital Study
3PM Emmaus
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
Scottsdale Academy 10:30AM Ladies
Graduation Bible Study
6:00PM Fellowship
Meal & Devotion
5PM Life Groups 6:30PM Ladies Bible 10AM Prayer Circle
7PM Railroad Club Study
NEWSLETTER DEADLINE ~ The Deadline for JUNE 2019 Newsletter is May 26th