#1 – Join us this Wednesday Night for Wed Worship in the Fellowship Hall. We only have two weeks left! Danny Giffen will be preaching on Patient Endurance from James 5:7-11
#2 – 2nd Annual Chili Cook-Off – This is something you MUST NOT miss. Since most of the kiddos have Thursday off for Veteran’s Day, come celebrate with a youth group sponsored chili cook-off in Homewood Park from 4-7 p.m. There will be a time of teaching and many activities for the kids. Dr. Hay and the Mitchell’s will be some of the celebrity judges. Who’s got it in them this year to knock off last year’s winner? Alonsos? Tortoricis? Wannemuehlers? Hamiltons? Raglands? Padgetts? Or perhaps even the Regans?!?!?!
#3 – Cross Creek Church Particularizing Service – Join us Sunday evening at 5:30 p.m. at Shades Crest Elementary School as our church plant will be established as a particular church (they will no longer be governed by our session). This will be a special service as we see all the prayers and labor come to fruition and join Chris & Patience and Lanier & Leslie. A reception will follow the service. http://crosscreekchurch.net
#4 – God or No God debate- Next Tuesday night in our sanctuary we will host along with Fixed Point Foundation a film screening of the debate between our own Larry Taunton and famed atheist Christopher Hitchens. 6:30 pm and the event is free and open to everyone. http://www.fixed-point.org/
Theology 101: Christ Alone Sufficient
Remember, sinner, it is not thy hold of Christ that saves thee–it is Christ; it is not thy joy in Christ that saves thee–it is Christ; it is not even faith in Christ, though that is the instrument–it is Christ’s blood and merits; therefore, look not to thy hope, but to Christ, the source of thy hope; look not to thy faith, but to Christ, the author and finisher of thy faith; and if thou doest that, ten thousand devils cannot throw thee down…There is one thing which we all of us too much becloud in our preaching, though I believe we do it very unintentionally–namely, the great truth that it is not prayer, it is not faith, it is not our doings, it is not our feelings upon which we must rest, but upon Christ, and on Christ alone. We are apt to think that we are not in a right state, that we do not feel enough, instead of remembering that our business is not with self, but Christ. Let me beseech thee, look only to Christ; never expect delieverance from self, from ministers, or from any means of any kind apart from Christ; keep thine eye simply on Him; let his death, His agonies, His groans, His sufferings, His merits, His glories, His intercession, be fresh upon thy mind; when thou wakest in the morning look for Him; when thou liest down at night look for Him. (The Forgotten Spugeon, Iain Murray, pg. 42.)
“...the gospel is news about what God has already been done for you, rather than instruction and advice about what you are to do for God. The primacy of his work, not our work, is part of the essence of faith. In other religions, God reveals to us how we can find or achieve salvation. In Christianity, God achieves salvation for us. The gospel brings news primarily, rather than instruction.” ...the gospel is all about historic events, and thus it has a public character. “It identifies Christian faith as news that has significance for all people, indeed for the whole world, not merely as esoteric understanding or insight.” [Brownson, p. 46] ...if Jesus is not risen from the dead, Christianity does not “work”. The gospel is that Jesus died and rose for us. If the historic events of his life did not happen, then Christianity does not “work” for the good news is that God has entered the human “now” (history) with the life of the world to come....the gospel is news about what God has done in history to save us, rather than advice about what we must do to reach God. The gospel is news that Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection in history has achieved our salvation...Jesus does not just bring good news; he is the good news.” - Tim Keller
Christ’s all-sufficiency means, by implication, that we are insufficient of ourselves. Indeed the Scripture says “Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God.” 2 Corinthians 3:5 CH Spurgeon
Danny Giffen
Pastor of Discipleship
Covenant Presbyterian Church
Birmingham, AL
205.871.7002
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