The Beauty Of The Church

CRCC family:

The Church, by her very nature, should reflect the beauty and wonder of her creator and Lord, Jesus Christ. It is upon Him alone that the church is built (see Matt 16:18; Eph 2:20).  At CRCC, we’ve been trying to cultivate this beauty for quite awhile…

Let us consider:

• The beauty of honoring the Lord’s day
• The beauty of discipling our children
• The beauty of being accountable to a small group of saved sinners
• The beauty of using resources for His glory
• The beauty of reaching out to others with the whole Gospel
• The beauty of serving one another and the community
• The beauty of becoming a true family, enjoying times of fellowship, hospitality and love

And a few other things:

• The beauty of seeing God’s Word as sufficient for life and ministry practice
• The beauty of walking through Scripture to behold the purity and love of the Lord
• The beauty of biblical marriage, singleness, manhood and womanhood
• The beauty of forgiveness and mercy and walking with each other through difficulties
• The beauty of Word-driven prayer and Scripture-regulated worship and preaching

In all of our imperfections, may you see the beauty of the Lord’s Church.

Remembering His Goodness: A Message From Your Pastors

“I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.” (Psalm 9:1, ESV)

Family, as Thanksgiving approaches, we are reminded of how often we should remind ourselves of the goodness of God!  In fact, God was constantly reminding his people how they should be thankful.  Psalms 105 is a great example of this.  The Psalmist declares, “Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples!”  He then runs down a list of events in which God saved and delivered his people, Israel.  From Abraham to the Exodus, God delivered, provided, protected, and encouraged Israel.  The Psalmist recalled these events to elicit praise and thanks from the hearers.  What if we were to stop and do the same; maybe create a psalm of our own…

There are many things in our psalm that we could list.  Just over the past year all of CRCC can recall countless blessings, deeds, miracles, provisions, instances of spiritual growth, underserved mercies, grace through failures, spiritual and physical protection and on the list goes.  Within that list, let us also consider the blessing of our family.  The Lord did not make us solitary beings.  He made us into families who would be unified in Christ and reflect his image.  For that alone, be thankful!

No matter how you choose to spend your Thursday, thank God for your family and Church family.  Let the abundance of your thankfulness to God, spill over into the lives of those who may not know the Lord this week.  Perhaps call that family member you haven’t spoken to in a while.  Call on your brothers and sisters in the Lord and encourage them this week.  And above all…

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” (Colossians 3:16–17, ESV)

From all of your Pastors, Happy Thanksgiving!

Bishop Carlton McLeod
Pastor Bobby White
Pastor Dennis Meeks
Pastor Jamal Hill
Pastor Rodney Wilson

The Beauty of Holiness

What a loving, merciful, and HOLY God we serve!

After spending a few days in beautiful Asheville, NC, last week considering the Holiness of God, I'm overwhelmed.

My friend Scott Brown wrote this in an email I just received:

"One thing that is apparent from our time studying holiness over the past few days is that a holy people are being beautified. And, they have a beautifying influence in the world as they bring the kingdom of heaven near. Holiness is is always beauty.  Holiness is the backdrop of every doctrine and everything that is beautiful and true."

Amen.  Holiness is always beauty.

I'd like to encourage you to hear the messages that were preached, free until the end of November, 2015.

Highway of Holiness Conference

The LORD bless you today! :)

Three Views of Scripture

The other night, I posted this to Twitter:

"One's view of Scripture is important: authoritative and binding, authoritative but not binding, or neither authoritative nor binding."

I thought about this for a quite awhile afterwards...so much so that it became a part of our family worship the next morning.  Please pardon the chicken scratches! :)

I'd wager that most Christians would claim "authoritative and binding," because that is what God says about His own word:

• Matthew 4:4 ESV  But he answered, "It is written, "'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"
• Luke 11:28 ESV  But he said, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"
• 2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV  All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,  (17)  that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.
• 2 Peter 1:19-21 ESV  And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts,  (20)  knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation.  (21)  For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

However, it sure looks to me like the church in America is stuck in "authoritative but not binding."

But what do I know. I get stuck there myself!

:)