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You have found a place to encounter God and people who care about you – just as you are, right where you are, anytime. Worship premiers at 10:30 AM in our beautiful and historic Red Brick Church which is simulcast live and available to view anytime on YouTube. We are fully accessible, and street and lot parking is available. Get news and event information in your inbox every week by subscribing to our weekly Connections email newsletter. Just send your email address by text message:
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Message and Music preview!
Will you be my Valentine? —God.
Message Preview
Whether you enjoy or avoid Valentine’s Day, we all have one inescapable need: to feel loved. God is love is a core value of Cold Spring Church. God loves us more than we can imagine. “For God loved the world that he gave his one and only Son…” (John 3:16-17). We seek to “love one another with mutual affection…” and to “outdo one another in showing honor” (Romans 12:10). We want to belong to something meaningful and feel care. Each of us can fulfill our life’s mission of love that God has given us (Ephesians 2:8-10).
God wants love to increase in our lives. Love that we feel. And love that we give. For many, special days like Valentine’s Day only reinforce that we either feel loved or remind us that we feel unloved. While all of us are unlovable from time to time, we can count on God “lavishing his love on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1).
This week we will be challenged to experience love increasing as we continue to consistently and authentically have a heart for everyone. Always listen and show respect to others. Jesus’ love for the world shows us that we will have heart-to-heart contact with neighbors we might disagree with, with people we may not like, or even fear. Our neighbors, young and old, deserve to experience the love of God. However, to “have a heart” as a follower of Jesus is not easy. It is not automatic. Love will increase as we ask ourselves: “How does our worship and community service show the love of God?” “How could I better show God’s love this week?”
As we embrace love’s increase, we will better reflect and demonstrate God’s love for each other and for greater Cape May because God is love.
Music Preview
We begin with a special Valentine’s Day countdown video. Throughout our worship, we pause for several silent reflections to help us focus on the Spirit’s work in our lives. After our Call to Worship, our gathering song is God Welcomes All. Before the scripture readings we will view a mini-movie titled God So Loved the World.
Following the message we will sing Love Divine, All Loves Excelling. On April 29, 2011, millions of people around the world turned on their televisions to watch one of the most anticipated spectacles of the year: the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. The ceremony featured a number of hymns, one of which was “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling,” a hymn that is both appropriate and seemingly paradoxical for a wedding. This ceremony was so celebrated because it represented the “dream” for romance – a prince finding his princess, true loves coming together, and a couple rising above the odds to be together. This, we argue so easily, is love. And yet this hymn reorients us to see that this beautiful wedding and marriage is only, and can only ever be, a reflection of the Love above all loves. We are only able to love one another because Christ first loved us. God is love, and we are the mirrors and bearers of that love to each other. Let us pray that we would continually be filled with Love, that we might bless each other, and become more and more like Jesus who loves us.
Our sending hymn, God You Give Us Recreation, affirms the balanced life that includes times of creative activity and recreation. Written by the Rev. Carolyn Gillette to the tune of There’s A Wideness To God’s Mercy, it is used by many churches to support Souper Bowl Sunday’s collection of food for the hungry.
Whatever your religious affiliation, or none at all, we all hear Jesus say, “Come to me, all who are overburdened, and find rest for your soul!” Everyone is welcome at Cold Spring Church. Yes, everyone!
Enjoy sitting with others from greater Cape May as we worship together. We simplified our service and made participation even easier with our Worship Guide and lyric videos displayed on a large screen.
You have found a place to encounter God and people who care about you – just as you are, right where you are, anytime. Subscribe to our weekly Connections email newsletter. Sign up here!
Energize your life and discover the amazing love of Jesus! This week is the perfect time to join us in person for worship. Enjoy live music, solo, lyric videos, and a message of hope from God’s word.
We are excited to welcome you to worship in our historic Red Brick Church that premiers on Sundays at 10:30 AM.
