Dear Parkside Familyj.b5z.net/i/u/2144902/f/Messenger_November_2015.pdf · Dear Parkside Family . I...
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Dear Parkside Family I would like to take a moment as we enter December to wish you a very Merry Christmas. During this season, we will be celebrating “Our Coming Savior”; I pray our Christmas services will remind you, your family and friends of the Hope, Peace, Love and Joy our Savior freely gives in every way this Christmas and beyond. Thank you for your faithfulness and commitment to serving Christ. As I look back over the year, I am overwhelmed with gratitude. Firstly, I’m grateful just to be a part of this community and to get to walk this journey with you. I feel so privileged to be part of a group of people who are honestly and passionately taking on the challenge to follow Jesus in all the trials, joys and complexities of modern life. Secondly, I am so grateful for how you have served so sacrificially this past year. Whether it’s leading groups; shepherding children; serving coffee; setting up for worship; playing music; serving in Haiti; pulling weeds; or any one of the countless other (usually unseen) tasks that keep our community running, I am grateful. Thank you so much for all you do! And I am grateful to God. This Christmas, as in all previous years, we celebrate “Immanuel” (God with us). Without Christ’s presence among us we would be lost. Through God’s presence gently, (sometimes even violently) working within us, we are being healed, transformed, reconciled and made whole. What begins in the stable ends in our salvation. That’s why we celebrate Christmas, and it’s the best and only reason the human heart needs. Jesus is with us! This is what our children really need to know. Jesus is not only the Babe of Bethlehem, but He is also the Son who was born to live for our righteousness, and to die for our sins. Christ is the missing piece to life. Without Him our lives are incomplete. With Him our lives, even in their most complex or disappointing parts, make sense. Jesus is with us! This is what our middle and high school youth and college age young people need to know. In the middle of their trials, identity issues, betrayals by friends, struggles to find their way in the world, and dreams for a great future, the Babe of Bethlehem, now the enthroned Christ of all Creation, is with them. His salvation gives hope to them and to you. This is the message of hope to single people, and single-again people, and young marrieds, and families with children and families without children, empty-nesters and young retired folks and senior saints. Even ministers need this message. The light we long for is the Light we have been given. To receive Him is to be warmed by that Light and shown a new way through the trials and sorrows and even joys that we have on our journey. Our journey as a church continues. And we are thankful to be on that journey with you. We thank God for you. We commend you to your true first Pastor, even the Shepherd of our souls, the dear Savior, Jesus Christ. This Christmas we want to again bow before Him with you, happy and confident that in Him all things turn out for our good and His glory. “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” This is our gift. This is our Christmas. This is our hope. MERRY CHRISTMAS! In His Grip, Pastor Marshall 300 Potter Drive, Burlington, Iowa 52601(319)753-6775, Email: [email protected], Website: www.ParksideFBC.org
Transcript of Dear Parkside Familyj.b5z.net/i/u/2144902/f/Messenger_November_2015.pdf · Dear Parkside Family . I...
Dear Parkside Family I would like to take a moment as we enter December to wish you a very Merry Christmas. During this season, we will be celebrating “Our Coming Savior”; I pray our Christmas services will remind you, your family and friends of the Hope, Peace, Love and Joy our Savior freely gives in every way this Christmas and beyond.
Thank you for your faithfulness and commitment to serving Christ. As I look back over the year, I am overwhelmed with gratitude. Firstly, I’m grateful just to be a part of this community and to get to walk this journey with you. I feel so privileged to be part of a group of people who are honestly and passionately taking on the challenge to follow Jesus in all the trials, joys and complexities of modern life.
Secondly, I am so grateful for how you have served so sacrificially this past year. Whether it’s leading groups; shepherding children; serving coffee; setting up for worship; playing music; serving in Haiti; pulling weeds; or any one of the countless other (usually unseen) tasks that keep our community running, I am grateful. Thank you so much for all you do!
And I am grateful to God. This Christmas, as in all previous years, we celebrate “Immanuel” (God with us). Without Christ’s presence among us we would be lost. Through God’s presence gently, (sometimes even violently) working within us, we are being healed, transformed, reconciled and made whole. What begins in the stable ends in our salvation. That’s why we celebrate Christmas, and it’s the best and only reason the human heart needs.
Jesus is with us! This is what our children really need to know. Jesus is not only the Babe of Bethlehem, but He is also the Son who was born to live for our righteousness, and to die for our sins. Christ is the missing piece to life. Without Him our lives are incomplete. With Him our lives, even in their most complex or disappointing parts, make sense. Jesus is with us! This is what our middle and high school youth and college age young people need to know. In the middle of their trials, identity issues, betrayals by friends, struggles to find their way in the world, and dreams for a great future, the Babe of Bethlehem, now the enthroned Christ of all Creation, is with them. His salvation gives hope to them and to you. This is the message of hope to single people, and single-again people, and young marrieds, and families with children and families without children, empty-nesters and young retired folks and senior saints. Even ministers need this message. The light we long for is the Light we have been given. To receive Him is to be warmed by that Light and shown a new way through the trials and sorrows and even joys that we have on our journey. Our journey as a church continues. And we are thankful to be on that journey with you. We thank God for you. We commend you to your true first Pastor, even the Shepherd of our souls, the dear Savior, Jesus Christ. This Christmas we want to again bow before Him with you, happy and confident that in Him all things turn out for our good and His glory. “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” This is our gift. This is our Christmas. This is our hope. MERRY CHRISTMAS!
In His Grip, Pastor Marshall
300 Potter Drive, Burlington, Iowa 52601(319)753-6775, Email: [email protected], Website: www.ParksideFBC.org
December 2015 Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
1 2 Prayer Warriors 4:30
No Kids Club
3
Marshall in Jail
For MDA 11:00
4 5
Men’s Breakfast
8:30 Rock House
6 7 8 P.L.A.Y.
Angels among us
9
Prayer Warriors 4:30
10
Exec Committee
6:00
11 12
13
Children’s
Program
14 15 16
Prayer Warriors 4:30
Kids Club and Youth
17 18 19
Christmas Play
Dessert Theatre
7:00 pm
20
Christmas Play
10:15
21 22 23
Prayer Warriors 4:30
No Kids Club or
24
Christmas Eve
Service 7:00 pm
25 Christmas Day
26
27 28 29 30
Prayer Warriors 4:30
No Kids Club or
31
