"Great Gospel" 
Praise Team
presentation May 27

The CMF Praise Team will present "Great Gospel Music" during our 10 AM worship of God.  Come along and hum along.  You will be blessed.

"Soul Surfer" at YWCA in Sterling on May 19

Sterling – A showing of the movie "Soul Surfer" May 19 at 6 PM Saturday at the YWCA of the Sauk Valley, 412 First Street.

This 2011 TriStar Pictures inspirational film is hosted by Community Mennonite Fellowship. This movie is an account of Bethany Hamilton’s search for meaning and direction before and after the 2003 shark attack that jeopardizes her life and her dreams.

Bethany’s story is told with care so as to keep it family movie for all ages.

Come share in this look at overcoming adversity.

Call the Pastor Dan Rusmisel, 815-238-3421 if you need more information.

Hunger and oppression

Doing your part or not?

The date for Federal Income Tax filing has arrived. What are you thinking? I dislike the idea of paying tax. But when I have to pay tax that I know will be used on things that are in conflict with my moral understandings it is disturbing. I want more choices.

I know I am obligated socially and morally to contribute to the general good of the people and community wherever I find myself. (Jeremiah 29:7)  I also know that my talents, energy, and any increase from my efforts are not mine alone, that these are a gift that come from and still belong to God and so are for the common good. (1 Corinthians 12:4-11)

But I want more choices when I pay tax. I want contributions coming from my civil obligations to contribute to the good, to the purpose of God, something that helps others. Yes, I want to give to God what is God's and to Caesar what is Caesar's. (Luke 20:24-25)  I want a choice about where my time and talent come to purpose.

So, I want to contribute to the peace and purpose of God, actively seeking it and so overcoming evil with good. (1 Peter 3:10-12, Romans 12:20-21)  I want there to be a peace tax I can pay instead of the war tax, the exploitation tax, the assassination tax, the oppression tax, and the torture tax that makes me as a citizen of this place a part of the destruction of human life and so compromises the integrity of each one who calls themselves followers of Jesus, the Christ.

    Excerpts from On A Hill Far Away by John Fischer to consider this Easter

“In old Greenwich, Connecticut, stands a church with a cross in it. Unlike most churches, whose crosses adorn the front wall behind the preacher, this one is bolted down into the concrete floor in front of the platform, not more than three feet from where the preacher stands.

Its positioning defies reason and art and convention. No architect in his right mind would have designed such a placement. It is an obstruction. The preacher's words have to pass through it; the congregation's eyes always have it somewhere in view, so that even when they look away, it is still there, impressed on the back wall of the retina.”

“The minute I walked into the church in Old Greenwich and encountered this startling placement of the cross, I felt as if I had discovered something truly significant. For just as the cross has been placed squarely in the center of this church, so it has always stood in the center of history and in the center of any life that has truly embraced it. And just as the placement of this cross seems uncomfortable, so it is ... and so it should be. There is nothing comfortable about the cross.”

“The bold placement of this particular cross takes on a special significance in this dawning of a new millennium. The church in America has become increasingly accustomed to Christianity without a cross - or, at best, with one hanging harmlessly in the background. In our eagerness to popularize Christianity, we have created a very user-friendly gospel that asks for hardly a sacrifice. We have forgotten that in the middle of this gospel stands a cross - an instrument of execution, the splinters of which are largely ignored by a contemporary Christian world eager to tell mostly the good part of the story.”

He is risen, offering forgiving!       
Thanks be to God. 
 
Each Sunday morning we at CMF gather like the followers of Jesus Christ all over the world to name together what God has offered because of God's love. 

There is life to be lived beyond our sin, for God has forgiven us and shown us how to live that redeemed life by Jesus' example.  Live this message now for it is of little eternal use to you otherwise.

"Passover becomes Love Feast"

Jesus shares the Passover meal with his disciples in the upper room transforming that celebration of God's deliverance from bondage in Egypt to one claiming the deliverance and new life he offers sinners.

On Sunday morning, April 1, we shared in worship, remembering Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.  Then following worship where we have looked at doubt and faith, we gathered around the Lord's table to remember his last supper and claim the new life offered.  This began with a simple fellowship meal, stirred to purpose with sharing the bread and cup of communion, and then defined by Christ's call, become a time of service with feet and hand washing.

Come to name Jesus Lord in your life by servicing as he served.

^"When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. 'Do you understand what I have done for you?' he asked them. 'You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.'"  -John 13:12-17 

A Living Sacrifice

¹ Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. -Romans 12:1-2

     
NOW!
"Someday, in the years to come, you will be wrestling with some great temptation, or trembling under the extreme weight of some great sorrow in your life. But the real struggle is here, now ... Now it is being decided whether, in the day of that sorrow or temptation, you shall miserably fail or gloriously succeed. The character, the personhood, the fortitude, the faith you need for that critical day cannot be made except by a steady, long continued process that begins with diligence and faith now." -quoted

This is what the LORD says: “In the time of my favor I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you; I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land and to reassign its desolate inheritances, to say to the captives, ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Be free!’
“They will feed beside the roads and find pasture on every barren hill. They will neither hunger nor thirst, nor will the desert heat or the sun beat down on them. He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them beside springs of water. I will turn all my mountains into roads, and my highways will be raised up. See, they will come from afar— some from the north, some from the west, some from the region of Aswan.”
Shout for joy, you heavens; rejoice, you earth; burst into song, you mountains! For the LORD comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.    -Isaiah 49:8-13

Your Perfect Ministry

Looking to the future I find that I am both enthused and overwhelmed by the countless possibilities before me.  Where am I (where are we) specifically to invest the energy, effort, and time of our lives as we live the faith we share in Christ Jesus?

From several sources I see this matter of being equipped and called for a purpose named.  One, in part, is the devotions from Our Daily Bread for January 11, 2012 called “A Perfect Fit”  It says, “What if we already had the perfect set of skills required to accomplish what God wants us to do? Well—as a matter of fact—we do! The spiritual gifts we possess, along with our experiences, training, natural talents, and a submissive heart make up a unique individual (and gathering) who has the skills needed for the ‘good works’ that God has ‘prepared beforehand’ (Ephesians 2:10). If God has something He wants to accomplish and that you feel He is calling you to do, He will provide what you need to complete the task. Or, as one paraphrase emphasizes, God wants us ‘to join Him in the work He does, the good work He has gotten ready for us to do’ (Ephesians 2:10 The Message). The one thing He requires of us is that we ‘be found faithful’ (1 Corinthians 4:2).

Have you found a place in God's service where you can be used of Him? Let's ‘do good’ and ‘be rich in good works’ (1 Timothy 6:18)”

A second way this ideas is addressed comes from Isaiah 44:1-5 and Psalm 139.  These texts tell me God knew me before I was born and made for a purpose that was part of God’s very plan.

This idea then must apply to us as a gathering of believers as well.  God knew us before we came to be a fellowship and has had a part, the primary part in drawing us together because we have a task in God’s work that will bless those gathered and those whom God has called us to live his hope with.

A third way it is vital we seek and live this purpose of God is: ‘Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.’ (1 Corinthians 12:7)

So if our experiences, training, natural talents, and even personal faith are for the good of all, we must have a perfect task to live, because God has prepared and placed us for it.       –DR

God will provide what you need to complete the tasks, calling, & ministry that are yours as defined by God, because you are loved. 

Claim a living faith:
 “True evangelical faith is of such a nature it cannot lie dormant, but spreads itself out in all kinds of righteousness and fruits of love; it dies to flesh and blood (1); it destroys all lusts and forbidden desires (2); it seeks, serves and fears God in its inmost soul (3); it clothes the naked (4); it feeds the hungry (5); it comforts the sorrowful (6); it shelters the destitute (7); it aids and consoles the sad (8); it does good to those who do it harm (9); it serves those that harm it (10); it prays for those who persecute it (11); it teaches, admonishes and judges us with the Word of the Lord (12); it seeks those who are lost (13); it binds up what is wounded (14); it heals the sick (15); it saves what is strong (sound) (16); it becomes all things to all people (17). The persecution, suffering and anguish that come to it for the sake of the Lord’s truth have become a glorious joy and comfort to it.” – 17 injunctions for embodied Christian faith, written in 1539 by Menno Simons (1496-1561) a Dutch forbearer of Anabaptist Christianity.

"I am a weak and sinful man, but God put His hands on me, that is all." - Alan Paton, Cry, The Beloved Country, Ch. 29

Who are the Mennonite?
Might your response to
God's love
and Jesus' salvation
call you to such a life
of faith.

Iron Cross

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.”  Exploring the cost of warring President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered his Iron Cross speech on April 16, 1953 to the American Society of Newspaper Editors built around this statement.

There is no measure for the cost of war in human terms considering the pain, suffering, and death of people.  But to grasp the volume of loss and give some measure to war, the Treaty of Versaille demanded that Germany paid 100,000 tonnes of pure gold (more than half the gold ever mined on earth) in reparation for the loss and damage suffered by the Allies in WW1. The last financial payment was made on October 4, 2010, so officially ending WW1.  

The cost in human terms will never be undone. There is a better way for humans to relate and resolve our differences.   God forgive us for refusing your instruction and our ongoing sin against you and each other.  You have repeatedly called us to you and we continue to refuse to live as you made us to live.  Jesus you bore our sin, now lead us unto life and living defined by your Spirit.

A celebration of Jesus' life & resurrection is ongoing as we claim the very hopes of God, living lives redeemed in Jesus our Savior.
 
1 John 4:7-12 “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”

Justice
What is a just investment of our lives?  Should persons be exploited for business? What might the laborer do?  The consumer?  “Therefore let us sell our labour for what it is worth. And if an industry cannot buy our labour, let that industry die. But let us not sell our labour cheap to keep an industry alive.”    -Alan Paton,  Cry, the Beloved Country

"It is not permissible to add to one's possesions if these things can only be done at the cost of other men. Such development has only one true name, and that is exploitation." - Alan Paton, Cry, The Beloved Country, Ch. 20

Christian youth Taize' gathering in Chicago, May 25-28, 2012