We live here. We grow here. Let's give here, too. One #GivingTuesday,
Read More
The senior population of New Jersey is rising every year, about 1% per year since 2010. Not all of these seniors have access to information that can help them decide where to live and how they can afford it. Senior Housing Net is looking to change that, with their new Guide to Senior Living in New Jersey. This online guide is a comprehensive look at cost, resources, and even COVID-19 rules for NJ senior living.
Click here for more information
Sometimes we need better light light to help us see where we are. But the risk is that the light will reveal what we are afraid of, or what we didn’t know was there. While we can resist the light, remain hunkered down in our own shadows, God loves us too much to stay there with our limited vision. The hope is that true light will reveal a way forward, a new path, opportunities that for too long had been hidden. The disciples of Jesus were stuck in shadows, paying attention only to what was right in front of them. So Jesus invited them to an experience. An dazzling experience like no other.
To learn and grow, spiritually, mentally, and physically, we need to be open to new inputs. But sometimes our biases and prejudices, our attitudes and habits, can get in the way of authentically seeing and hearing what’s in front of us. That’s why Jesus took his friends up the mountain. So just for a moment, and just long enough, can we suspend belief, suspend our “we know it all” positions to truly see and hear and consider truth?
Why did Jesus take the disciple up that mountain that day?
They needed to know something…. Really know it to trust it. Actually, to know the real Jesus, not just the healing Jesus, the miracle worker Jesus, the leader Jesus. But know Jesus in his essence… he is God. And knowing he is really, really God in person, how does that’s truth inform our life?
Like Moses, like Peter, James, and John, we can get an unobscured sense of God’s glory, Jesus’ light, to shine in the face of our failings. And dispel any misunderstandings about who Jesus is and who God is and who others are and who we are. That would be something! That possibility is available for all of us this week as we gather in worship and are transported to a place of realignment, recalibration, refocus, even revelation in Pastor Kevin’s message from Matthew 17, the Light we Need. Could our assumptions be transfigured right along with Jesus?Find out by listening to this message!
In his book “You Are What You Love, The Spiritual Power of Habit,” James K. Smith says that we are what we love, and that we all live and long for a social vision of what we think society should look like. Cold Spring Church believes that everyone deserves to experience God’s love firsthand, and when they do, the entire neighborhood can be transformed! What is your social and spiritual vision?
Jesus came to fulfill the law, not abolish it. We proclaim Christ crucified, and that means we preach grace, mercy, forgiveness and sacrificial love, humble service, reconciliation, and redemption. We will never get every aspect of God’s law right. We will fail miserably at following Jesus. We will neglec the social vision God desires and, with the Spirit’s help, the kingdom we crave, too.
This week, Pastor Kevin invites us to put Jesus’ love into action as we pass the salt and turn on the light, each a transformational gesture our neighborhoods desperately needs to truly live. Your Light Matters this week, at Cold Spring Church!
This week’s Actionable’s:
- What do you pay attention to day in and day out? What do you ignore? Are there people and issues, places and things, God may be calling you to notice, shine a light on in Christ’s name?
- What do you love? What kingdom vision are you working toward?
- If you were to describe to someone unfamiliar with the Gospel what it means to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth, what would you say?
Information on the Adult Christian Education Classes for February 2020
Read More
Hearing, Tasting, Touching, Smelling. Seeing. Where do you experience the signs of Christmas? This week, Pastor Kevin continues his series using a camera lens metaphor in a message titled: The Ultra Wide Lens: Do You See What I See? from Matthew 11:2-11. An imprisoned and isolated John the Baptizer asks his followers what they see. Like Homeland Security’s often repeated alert: If you see something, say something! Jesus helps John’s followers to see, and then say something.
What do you need to see this Christmas? Where do you see Jesus’ restoration, reconciliation, and healing in your life and in the world? How can you share this good news with those who have not yet experienced it? If you haven’t seen signs of Christmas, keep looking! Maybe in the quiet places you may begin to see the work of God. In the most unexpected encounters you may sense God’s presence no matter how desolate the desert, or dismal the view.
The best way we can experience the signs of Christmas is to receive its healing power firsthand. What are you patiently waiting for this Advent? How do we participate in strengthening our hearts and hands and those of others?
Listen to this message of hope! Come to worship on Sunday and experience the full, ultra wide view of Jesus and the whole life wholeness that he offers now.
One question kids never tire of asking is Why? Why, why, why, why, why! Kid’s really want help getting the answers they seek. They deserve our loving and generous attention. We affirm their value and address their concerns so they feel heard.
This week, we get to see how Jesus responds to a persistent and controversial questions. But its obvious the questioners aren’t looking for answers, and only seek vindication for their own points of view, and if they can, embarrass Jesus while they’re at it! How did Jesus react?
Pastor Kevin’s message from Luke 20:27-38, Your Questions Welcomed Here!, will assure you that whatever your motivations or questions, or how persistently you ask them, Jesus never tires of listening. And those dilemmas you’re facing? He with you. And no matter the depth of your pain, or the anxiety you feel, Jesus welcomes and receives you just the way you are.
Get to the heart of the matter, what matters to you, this week at Cold Spring Church.
We live here. We grow here. Let's give here, too. One #GivingTuesday,
Read More
As Jesus connected with Zacchaeus, he was transformed by thankfulness for his experience of God’s love. We, too, having experienced the transformative power of meeting the Son of God, can put our thanksgiving out there through tangible expressions of loving kindness, justice, and live into a future of possibilities. We, like Zacchaeus, can choose to express the joy that comes in recognizing our mutual dependence and God-created connections in community. Gratitude fuels our mission as we invite others to participate in genuine reconciliation, restoration, and renewal.
Spiritual experiences, like religion, can be both private and communal. In Jesus’ life, you see private expressions of faith (Luke 5:16, Matthew 6:5-6), but there are decidedly more public expressions of faith, faith in action, obvious, measurable, and expressed in justice and mercy.
For many of us, calling religion private is convenient. Easy. We can put faith into a box or a small compartment in our life and no one pays attention to it. Including us. It is not challenged, exercised, or strengthened. While a solely private faith can bring personal comfort, its impact is limited. A so-called private faith can may result in unwanted behaviors like pride, hypocrisy, judgement, and a kind of spiritual phoniness that becomes boring and unremarkable. We can do better.
God created us to live an authentic, amazing life. Pastor Kevin’s message this week about Jesus and his new friend Zacchaeus describes what happen when faith becomes public, obvious, and community-facing. While everyone else saw a “sinner,” a corrupt tax collector in a tree, Jesus saw an incredible person who could experience God’s grace, give thanks, and actually do good! An entire community was transformed. That’s transformation!
We should expect others to notice our faith in action and want to join in. When we do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God in obvious, public, ways, all of us can live authentic, amazing lives.
Thanks to a special community-directed $5,000 mission grant from the Presbytery of West Jersey, the session approved and has begun to implement our very exciting two-part mission initiative. Here is a summary of our project.
- Podcasts and Streaming Videos: As part of our mission we will develop new ways to engage those who find it difficult or impossible to attend worship services, and those who are homebound, remote members, by delivering the worship experience as a video livestream, with post-worship video download as a podcast/online via our website. Anyone with a computer, tablet, or smart phone can participate. Eventually, we may take realtime prayer requests, as well. This initiative is expected to incur costs of under $4500.
- Conquering the Opioid Abuse Epidemic: As part of our mission, we will support families affected by addictions, especially affected by the opioid crisis, through group ministry of spiritual resources, small groups. Last year, more than 35 attended our Opioid Abuse and Prevention training in partnership with Rutgers University and Youth Advocate Program. Our new initiative, Thriving Families, will be implemented in 2020 and is not expected to incur costs over $500.
Getting Started—Campus Online Access: To extend our reach into the community, we encourage you to use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or other social media share the good news with your friends and followers. Post photos or maybe a inspirational Bible verse or something you heard in the message, or song.
Facebook: coldspringchurch — Twitter: @coldspringnj
We want our WiFi network to enhance your experience while attending worship or another event, you may use our networks as listed below:
Price Hall Network Name: ColdSpringChurchWiFi Guest (no password required).
Red Brick Church Network Name: CSPCRedBrickWifi Password: See the password printed isn’t he weekly bulletin.
We are grateful for our friends in West Jersey Presbytery for their commitment to community mission and investing in our mission! Get connected and share your experience!