Last Week’s Service June 14,2020

Worship Guide (v1) for June 21, 2020

Readings June 21, 2020

Notes to Share for June 21, 2020

Children’s Worship Ages 4-7 for June 21, 2020

Children’s Worship Ages 8-12 for June 21, 2020

This week is the perfect time to join in our worship online. We simplified our online service and made it even easier to participate, and viewing does not require a Facebook account! Join the video stream on Facebook Live (www.facebook.com/coldspringchurch) or, if you don’t have internet access, use our New call in number: +1 (929) 205-6099. Enter Meeting ID: 875 2479 7260.

You have found a place to encounter God and people who care about you – just as you are, right where you are, anytime. Once you and your family are ready, share the picture with us by posting to Facebook #ColdSpringChurch or Instagram #coldspringchurchnj. You may want to subscribe to our weekly Connections email newsletter. Sign up here!

Get Your Life Right Side Up!

Hi friend.

Does your life feel a bit upside down? Normal is gone. (I know we don’t like to hear this, but this can be a good thing. Reflect on 2 Corinthians 5:17. See what I mean?) Adapting, re-aligning, and gaining new resources are essential skills now more than ever. This week get your life right side up with a message that just might transform you in fantastic ways. Get ready for the Jesus Paradox!

Many of us identify with the gentle Jesus, the welcoming, peacemaking Jesus. We easily picture Jesus with kids on his lap. We like his expressions of compassion and acts of healing. Jesus paid attention to those no one else did. We love seeing Jesus’ laughter and humor, and we marvel at his wisdom. But there is another side of Jesus’ emotional life that we don’t often talk about, let alone reflect on, and that’s Jesus’ anger. Here are a few examples of what I mean. Jesus cursed a fig tree (lots of leaves, no fruit), overturned temple tables (unjust money exchanging and denying all people access to a place of prayer). But the most elevated expression of anger was reserved for anyone who mistreated a child (tie a stone around their neck and drown them in the sea!).

This week we will consider Matthew 10:24-39 (with a backstory about Issac and Ismael from Genesis 21) when Jesus tells us “not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul” and how he has come “not to bring peace, but a sword” which will turn family members against one another. Then comes the hardest part of the Jesus paradox: “Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”

Where have you come from (identity) and where are you going (destiny) are best understood in Jesus’ incarnation (God becoming a human to live among us) and Jesus’ justice (humans to become like Jesus in how we treat one another). Jesus rejects patriarchy. Jesus rejects sexism. Jesus rejects ageism. Jesus rejects nationalism. Jesus rejects racism. How is this possible? Because Jesus affirms our baptism as members of his body (Rom. 6). Our identity and destiny are not limited to our DNA or family, or other identifiers, but in a relationship with Christ and with one another.

Don’t settle for upside living! Together, let’s begin to get right side up at Cold Spring Church.

Sincerely,

Pastor Kevin

Last Week’s Service June 07,2020

Worship Guide (v1) for June 14, 2020

Readings June 14, 2020

Notes to Share for June 14, 2020

Children’s Worship Ages 4-7 for June 14, 2020

Children’s Worship Ages 8-12 for June 14, 2020

This week is the perfect time to join in our worship online. We simplified our online service and made it even easier to participate, and viewing does not require a Facebook account! Join the video stream on Facebook Live (www.facebook.com/coldspringchurch) or, if you don’t have internet access, use our New call in number: +1 (929) 205-6099. Enter Meeting ID: 875 2479 7260.

You have found a place to encounter God and people who care about you – just as you are, right where you are, anytime. Once you and your family are ready, share the picture with us by posting to Facebook #ColdSpringChurch or Instagram #coldspringchurchnj. You may want to subscribe to our weekly Connections email newsletter. Sign up here!

An Abundance of Hope

Hi friends,

Did you know that ice cream is the number one purchase during stressful times? Have you ever eaten ice cream and not felt better?! There is something delightful about ice cream. In the 10th century, emerging glacier’s added milk to the ice only concoction. In the summer of 1851, commercial ice cream production began in Boston but the frozen treat became an international bestseller when the United States Army packaged ice cream with wooden spoons during World War II for our GI’s to enjoy on the battlefield of all places. 90% of American households eat ice cream, the average person consumming 48 pints per year!

It may be hard to think about ice cream and joy when we are personally and nationally affected by a pandemic and persistent racial injustice. A new future is emerging and uncertain, and chaos leaves us feeling overwhelmed. We lack things we need. We lack a cure. We lack treatment. Many lack employment. Businesses lack employees. We lack solutions. We struggle just to feel safe as building restrictions are lessening but confirmed cases and unrest climb. We conclude that injustice is even more complex to solve than COVID-19. What can we do other than just sit it out. Our fainting hope can often leave us disappointed. But, there is Good News!

This week during Worship Online we will discover “An Abundance of Hope” can be your’s. Right now! Yes. Even as we experience stresses, struggles, suffering, and separation from our favorite people and activities, we can possess a “hope that does not disappoint us because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts…” (Rom. 5). Literally, scooped out like ice cream! God’s love in Christ is to be enjoyed even more than ice cream!

But wait! There’s more! Jesus wants us to see opportunities right in front of us when he says, “ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest… proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matt. 9 and 10). We don’t have to wait till things are better. Each of us can do our part, no matter how small or large it may appear to be. What Good News will you experience and share this week?

Its time for an “ice cream-like faith” at Cold Spring Church because we are to enjoy God’s love that has been lavishly scooped out for us. Christ died and rose again for US! And Jesus, lovingly sends you and me outside ourselves to experience the abundance.

Enjoy ice cream this week and remember to invite others to join you online. “Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in God! (Psalm 34:8).

Sincerely,

Pastor Kevin