Top 10 List - April 9

Spring comes and all of a sudden there are a ton of things to know! Here is your Top 10 List.

1. Group Life
- The Seekers Small Group meets this Sunday after church!
- The Group With No Name will meet next on May 4.

2. Baby Shower - A BIG THANK YOU for all those who donated items for the Basics for Babes baby shower this past Sunday. It was fun to look at the table and see it overflowing with items. Great job!

3. Maundy Thursday Service, 6:30PM - Join us and at least 5 other churches at Church of God Holy Faith on Leonard Street for worship, making new friends, and celebrating communion together. Get a taste of heaven and experience the Church in all of its diversity.

4. Breakfasts & Egg Hunts: Yes, you can go to TWO Easter Breakfasts and Egg Hunts this year!

• Saturday, April 19th at Calvin CRC. They will serve a Pancake breakfast for a donation from 8:00-10:00AM with the Easter Egg Hunt starting at 10AM sharp. The egg hunt is for children 0-11yrs old. Bring a friend and an Easter basket to hold your eggs!
• Sunday, April 20 at Celebration. We will have our annual Easter breakfast starting at 9:30AM. The Egg Hunt will take place at 10:10AM in the Oasis Room. 

5. Church Campout - The annual church campout will be June 27-29 in Scottville, MI. Contact Sharon Bergman to reserve your site. The cost will be $25 per night. Reservations need to be in by June 1.

6. Muskegon Prayer Initiative - Sign up at the Info Booth to pray on Thursday, April 24, or contact Pastor Matt. Praise God that there are at least 31 churches have volunteered to pray for Muskegon County! 24/7!

7. Students - There are NO programs at Calvin CRC this evening due to spring break. Our last three meetings of the year will be April 16th, 23rd, and 30th. 

8. LoveINC Gift Cards - For every $10 "Simply Give" card purchased, Meijer's will donate $20 to LoveINC's food pantry. AWESOME! Also, this coming Friday and Saturday 10th & 11th), Meijer's will donate $30 for each $10 card purchased!

9. Sunday - Imagine that you have been invited to the banquet of the King! What do you do? What do you wear? How do you address the King? Bring a friend to hear one of Jesus' last parables before he died. (Matthew 22:1-14)

10. Prayers - Please take time this week to pray:
- For marriages with great stress and complications. For those who need to make important decisions soon that impact many lives.
- For Brenda Grabinski's knee replacement that appears to have gone well. She may return home Wednesday!
- For the many people battling diseases like cancer, Parkinsons, etc.
- For Pastor Matt's cousin Karyl Brouwer lost her bout with cancer recently. Be with her husband and family as they deal with this loss.
- For Spring Break adventures and travel. Pray for a safe and productive break.
- For the Beck's as they fill out mountains of paperwork and continue the adoption process.
- For high school seniors who are making college choices.
- For the Celebration worship team. Nothing special other than someone had the wonderful thought that we should pray for them.
- For those who are looking for employment.


--
Pastor Matt Eenigenburg
Celebration Community Church
1260 W. Sherman Blvd.
Muskegon, MI 49441
www.celebrationmuskegon.org
Like us on Facebook!
(231) 571-4137

Celebration Midweek - February 19

1. Annual Wild Game Dinner, Saturday, February 22 - The Hors d'oeuvres will be at 5:30PM with the dinner starting at 6:00PM. Men: this may be the highlight of the year for you! See you there!

2. Sunday - It has been said that life is a gift. But how do you live this precious gift called life? How do you make plans in an uncertain and un-guaranteed future? Come Sunday an hear how to make the most of the short life that God has given to you! (James 4:13-17)

3. Building Project Update, February 23 - There will be a short meeting directly after the morning worship service where we will update the congregation with the plans for the building project. This will be a chance for you to see your role in the future of Celebration.

4. Prayers: Please add these recent additions to your prayer list:
- People at Celebration who are hungry for God to work in their lives.
- Tammy, Holly's friend, who has just finalized the divorce process.
- Back issues in the Ribbens family. Kadence will be undergoing an injection procedure on Tuesday to decrease the swelling in her spine. Holly has a disk pressing on the sciatic nerve causing constant pain. Also, Rob re-injured his back this past week with a fall in the driveway.
- Those looking for employment.
- Justin Udell who is in the hospital having emergency surgery.

- Basics For Babes ministry that provides layettes for new moms.

--
Pastor Matt Eenigenburg
Celebration Community Church
1260 W. Sherman Blvd.
Muskegon, MI 49441
www.celebrationmuskegon.com/
www.facebook.com/celebration.muskegon
(231) 571-4137

Questions For Leading Deeper

I did it or at least I think I did.

We are in the middle of a sermon series on Reformed Theology yet I believe that maybe half of the people know it. Maybe less. Maybe they have a healthy perspective of theology. Maybe it isn’t a big deal for them at the moment.

I started out with the hope to help the congregation build a deeper foundation in their understanding of God and their journey through life with Jesus. I thought that it would be important to talk about some of the basics. These are not the “non-negotiables” but rather the “disputable matters” that have good theologians on either side.

But then I began to question my purpose: Is my role only to get the people to think through things, to use their brains? Pastors aren't supposed to tell people what to think? Surely my job is to nudge them in a certain direction, right?

Peace came my way when I remembered a useful saying that one of my informal mentors says, “The main things are the plain things so keep the plain things the main things.” My hope is that we can always lead with a sense of humility in our theology knowing that we do not have it all figured out. Some day when we get to the end of our journey, I want to be able to celebrate that our search to know God deeper did not cause division nor did it distract us from loving others. I want to teach unity on the essentials and freedom where it is needed.

We are only 2 weeks into the 5 week series. I have great resources from which to draw from (Thanks Jim Osterhouse)! I have a great congregation that truly desires to be stretched yet does not want to be told what to think. The conversations have started and I have heard some deeper discussions. My hope remains that the roots grow and great things come from this.  I look forward to where this takes us together!

Redundant

Often I find that someone else writes the exact same words that I have in my head and heart.  I do not know how or why that is.  I have strange little creatures milling around the dungeons of my brain!

Sometimes a person even writes something downright beautiful and brilliantly captures what I wanted to have said but didn't think of it that way before.  I wish I was that creative!  I wish that I was able to put words to paper to so effectively capture an idea.  Either way, my world is made brighter by reading the article or book.

That situation happened today.  And it was while I was reading the Banner.  Gasp!  I know!  Maybe you feel the same as me about this.  There are times I find that my reading of the Banner is another 15 minutes of my life wasted that I can never get back.  But that is why this article grabbed my attention.  It was short, to the point, about a topic that is totally relevant to me and our culture. Maybe the biggest reason this spoke to me is that he was daring enough to use a book of the Bible that is often avoided: Song of Songs.

I don't think that I could improve on the author's thoughts about love. So, to keep from being redundant, I will direct you to read the article yourself. I think that it will be well worth your time.

http://www.thebanner.org/features/2012/05/love-lessons-from-the-song-of-songs

Torn

Sunday I preached about the John 8 story of the woman caught in adultery.  Jesus lovingly responds to the woman who had led a life of sin.   Jesus lovingly told her to stop her life of sin but still reached out with deep compassion.  Both sides of the same love, God's love.  Could I respond the same way?

There is this recent news story that hits a little close to home and tests me in this.  As reported, a man beats this little 10 month old baby girl so that she has several skull fractures.  The girl is presently recovering in the children's hospital in Grand Rapids.  There is no rhyme nor reason given for the beating.  I am not sure that I could accept any rational reason anyway.  I am angered by the incident and cry out for justice to be done!

Man accused of beating 10-month-old | WOOD TV8

However, what if I met this man face to face?  Would I be able to treat him with love, God's love?  Would I afford him the compassion that he reportedly did not give to the little baby?

My head screams that this is different!  When you mess with our children, you have crossed too far over the line!  There is a victim in this situation and a perpetrator of an evil act of brutality!  Mercy and compassion are not to be a part of the equation!  If the reports are accurate, this man will get what he deserves and I will not shed one tear for him.  People like this should be locked up, shot, or worse!  But is this the way I should respond?

Jesus said (Matthew 5:43-44), “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!" Are you kidding me? Jesus, this is insane! How does a person love those who do things that only an enemy would do?  Where would I draw enough strength to pray for a person like this and NOT hate them?  How could I "gasp" LOVE him?  Truly, this kind of strength and focus would come from God because everything in me would want justice, not love!

I hope that I never meet this man.  Not that I would do bodily harm to him.  That is not my point.  Honestly, I do not want to have to respond with love and compassion to this person who I think does not deserve it.  Even with Jesus' example and words, I do not think that I could give the same example.  But I must!  I must do all I can to remember all of my own wrongs that do the same thing to a holy and almighty God.  I do not deserve God's love and compassion yet it has been lavished on me!  I must!

I pray for wisdom and God's strength because I am torn to my core.  Who says love was easy?

Genuine Love

Mornings are an adventure.  It makes sense that I take the kids to school since I need to be to church not long after the kids need to be at school.  So we rush around and get all of the lunches made and clothes on.  Most mornings child #3 is the slow one because she can be and it bothers the others.  We all have our control issues and this one is hers at the moment.  Other than that, mornings have fallen into a quiet routine of which we have navigated safely so far and without coming to blows.

This morning Maria asked me if I would help her roll up her blanket with her.  Preschool is so cool these days. I just had hang time with mom.  I could have been a rocket scientist if I had preschool!  But I digress.  Maria brings her fun dog blanket pillow for rest time at school.  She wanted it rolled up well so that it is easy to carry.

We fold the sides in together and begin to roll it but it doesn't roll as she wanted.  I notice that she couldn't get it so I jumped in and did my daddy thing to fix the problem.  I rolled it up and stuffed it just right so that it looked like a cool dog blanket pillow.  I must say, it did look well done!

Then, the coolest part of the morning took place.  Maria realizes that she now is in possession of a cool looking dog blanket-pillow.  Her face changes from one of anticipation to that of "this is the coolest thing ever!"  She lunges at my neck and gives me the biggest hug and kisses me on the cheek.  Then she says thank you, picks up the pillow, puts it in her backpack.

Such a genuine display of love is maybe the coolest thing ever!  This girl showed me her deep appreciation for my efforts and her love for me as her dad.  As a dad, what else would be better than that?

I get moments like that with God too.  Hopefully you know what I mean.  God unexpectedly puts a person in my path to bless me.  God arranges a complicated set of circumstances into a perfect alignment that I thought impossible.  God inexplicably sends his comforting peace when I am frazzled and am most definitely in need of it.

When I am confronted by God's greatness and goodness, my attitude suddenly changes from one of deep concern to a response of wonder and amazement of my heavenly dad.  He blows me away!  I sit back and smile and say, "God you are so good to me!  Thanks!"  And if I could physically hug his neck, I would for the longest time.  Someday!