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CCOG Newsletter
Weekly Updates
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Reflections from Pastor Jennifer
If you were able to attend the Ladies Game Night, thank you for your attendance. I had a great time, and I hope that you all did too! The snacks were tasty, the games were fun, and the fellowship was a blessing.
If you are a mom, stepmom, bonus mom, adopted mom, foster mom, godmother, or mother figure, we greatly appreciate you! God made mothers very special. He created Eve to be a helper - a mighty warrior to surround her family. The same blessing is upon each of you women reading this today. God has gifted you with a special burden for lifting your family in prayer. I encourage each of you to intercede for your husbands, the children born to you, and the children that God has brought into your lives. You may be the only one standing in the gap for these individuals.
May Focus: Study
For the month of May, our churchwide focus is study. Please continue to practice the memory verses that we learn every Sunday. Remember to follow CCOG on the YouVersion Bible app. Also, check out the study helps that are available under the "Resources" tab on the church website.
OCC
For May we are bringing rainbow items. This could include rainbow colored toys, coloring books, crayons, chalk, markers, and/or colored pencils. You might also want to contribute shoeboxes or shipping costs. Thank you for your generosity!
Clean Up
Roll up your sleeves for a church clean up day. On Wednesday, May 22, we will clean up around the church in preparation for Homecoming. Arrive no later than 7pm. We appreciate your care and maintenance of God's house!
HoCo 2024
Sunday, June 2, is CCOG Homecoming! Remember to invite plenty of guests to attend this event with you. The man and woman who bring the most guests will be crowned CCOG Homecoming king and queen.
3 Things We Must Believe about God’s Word
In Psalm 119 we see at least three essential, irreducible characteristics we should believe about God’s word.
1. God’s word says what is true.
Like the psalmist, we can trust in the word (v. 42), knowing that it is altogether true (v. 142). We can’t trust everything we read on the Internet. We can’t trust everything we hear from our professors. We certainly can’t trust all the facts given by our politicians. We can’t even trust the fact-checkers who check those facts! Statistics can be manipulated. Photographs can be faked. Magazine covers can be airbrushed. Our teachers, our friends, our science, our studies, even our eyes can deceive us. But the word of God is entirely true and always true:
God’s word is firmly fixed in the heavens (v. 89); it doesn’t change. There is no limit to its perfection (v. 96); it contains nothing corrupt. All God’s righteous rules endure forever (v. 160); they never get old and never wear out.
If you ever think to yourself, “I need to know what is true— what is true about me, true about people, true about the world, true about the future, true about the past, true about the good life, and true about God,” then come to God’s word. It teaches only what is true: “Sanctify them in the truth,” Jesus said; “your word is truth” (John 17:17).
2. God’s word demands what is right.
The psalmist gladly acknowledges God’s right to issue commands and humbly accepts that all these commands are right. “I know, O Lord, that your rules are righteous,” he says (Ps. 119:75). All God’s commandments are sure (v. 86). All his precepts are right (v. 128). I sometimes hear Christians admit that they don’t like what the Bible says, but since it’s the Bible they have to obey it. On one level, this is an admirable example of submitting oneself to the word of God. And yet, we should go one step further and learn to see the goodness and rightness in all that God commands. We should love what God loves and delight in whatever he says. God does not lay down arbitrary rules. He does not give orders so that we might be restricted and miserable. He never requires what is impure, unloving, or unwise. His demands are always noble, always just, and always righteous.
3. God’s word provides what is good.
According to Psalm 119, the word of God is the way of happiness (vv. 1–2), the way to avoid shame (v. 6), the way of safety (v. 9), and the way of good counsel (v. 24). The word gives us strength (v. 28) and hope (v. 43). It provides wisdom (vv. 98–100, 130) and shows us the way we should go (v. 105). God’s verbal revelation, whether in spoken form in redemptive history or in the covenantal documents of redemptive history (i.e., the Bible), is unfailingly perfect. As the people of God, we believe the word of God can be trusted in every way to speak what is true, command what is right, and provide us with what is good.