Calvary Chapel North Phoenix

I thought it would be good to send you a note to encourage you at the beginning of the year. Although your schedules may be jammed, it takes frequent times of getting alone with the Lord in prayer and letting Him help you reevaluate what seems urgent against what really matters.

There is a phrase that describes this: THE TYRANNY OF THE URGENT. Jesus is our example and our Lord. He waited on the Father’s ok or initiation before He committed Himself to step forward into a situation. There are so many needs that come to us day in and day out. We can’t do them all, nor should we condemn ourselves for not doing them all. God is not out to condemn us or to shame us for our inability to act and take care of every single need that comes our way.

So what really matters? Loving others unconditionally with the love that Christ has placed in our hearts by the Holy Spirit! Is it vulnerable? Yes. Does it open you up to be rejected or counted as weird? Sometimes. But the mandate is to love others and let the Lord take care of the outcome. This is just part of the adventure of serving Him during this pilgrimage on earth.

There are times when we just don’t have the inner witness from the Holy Spirit to get involved with a particular opportunity. When you say NO, understand that there will always be one or two who will accuse you of not caring or judge your Christianity. Welcome to the class GROWING IN GRACE! Just continue to love others and let the Lord take care of things.

As an update to my previous note, we are NOT going to cancel the LIVE feed of our services on Sunday morning and Wednesday nights. We discovered that we were still under contract with Qwest for those T1 lines for a couple of years. The cost of cancelation was not worth it at this time. So we will just continue with what’s already set up. If you have a Mac computer, you cannot view the live service even on Flip4Mac program unless you go to our website through a side Windows OS [those of you with Mac computers understand most of this ]

We are having a special STATE OF THE FELLOWSHIP meeting on the last Sunday of January at 6:30 pm in the Main Sanctuary. This is a time where we want to share all that the Lord has done the past year with the vision of what we believe is God’s leading for 2010. God has been faithful to us these 28 years. I know there are great things in store for us as a church just on the horizon.

Remember about our upcoming Valentines Dinner Theater on Saturday, Feb. 13th at 5:30 pm. The tickets will be $15 per person. Space is limited. We will be setting up in the Fellowship Hall and sitting at our tables after the dinner being blessed by a unique pottery presentation by Pastor Pat Lazovich.

Thanks for your support and prayers over our congregation. Several folks are still in need of employment. Some are facing foreclosures. Jesus stands with us no matter what comes our way. Let’s see what adventure lies ahead for all of us!