SPECIAL Sew-In For Joni and Friends Ministry: February 18th

Come Join Us for our "Sew In!" We are sewing special pockets for Joni and Friends Ministry! We have a GREAT opportunity to Bless Joni and Friends International Ministry! Come to our Sew In! Marilyn Rosenberg and Jean Acquavella are hosting another "Sew-In" for JAF on Saturday, February 18th from 10:00 am to 2pm with a light lunch provided. Materials are also provided. Please contact Marilyn or Jean to let them know if you will be able to be there so they will be able to plan appropriately for lunch and set up! Hope you can join us whether you sew or not! Cutting, ironing and other help will be needed! And ... we always have a great time working together!

LIFT Special Events

Two special events coming up for you to look forward to being a part of:

Our CITC Women's LIFT Retreat! Women of all ages ... yes, we want you to join us! Stay tuned for more info! Guaranteed fun and a beautiful time in the Word together!

Women of Faith Seminar "Celebrate!" Next September we are headed to Anaheim! Questions? Want to be involved in planning? Contact Kathleen Brooks at LIFT@churchinthecanyon.org.

Save the date: Church Painting

March 3rd at 8 A.M. we gather to prep the outside of our buildings for painting; March 10th 8 A.M. painting begins!

Pastor's Note: Love Does Not Boast: Christian, would you grow in your relationships through a more faithful expression of the kind of love that God both desires and requires that we show to one another? Let's ask the Lord to help us stop boasting as we grow in humble commitment to one another.
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Pastor’s Note:As You Resolve to Change: Although I am generally in favor of New Years’ resolutions, I do have one problem with them. Generally speaking, the resolutions we make year after year don’t work. We begin January with wonderful thoughts about what we are going to change in order to improve ourselves. “I am going to lose ten pounds.” Or, “I am going to quit smoking.” These resolutions are typical of the types of changes we hope to implement. And they are good changes! But how many such resolutions fail to bring the desired change for every such resolution that “sticks?”
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Pastor’s Note: Spiritual Gifts: This year, as you make your lists (and check them twice!), take some time to consider what gifts God has given you – not what gifts you want, but what gifts he has determined to give you.  Commit yourself to accepting help from and being supportive of others in areas where you are not gifted.
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Pastor's Note: It's Thanksgiving – So Run Like an Ostrich, not a Rat!: Once again Thanksgiving is just around the corner and we have a wonderful opportunity to consider all that God has done for us! But if you are at all like me, sometimes it is difficult to truly give thanks with genuine happiness. It is far easier to rejoice with gratitude than it is to be grateful with joy.
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Pastor’s Note: Spiritual Health Knows No Half Measures: Is it wrong to eat chocolate on October 31?  Of course not!  As Christians we should take care of our physical bodies, but “junk food” in moderation is no sin.  But spiritually speaking, there is no such thing as “in moderation” when it comes to “junk” thoughts, feelings, or actions.  “We must rid ourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from our lips.” 
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Pastor’s Note: Grandparents’ Bibles: I have inherited two books that I consider priceless.  One is an old, black, leather bound King James’ Bible embossed on the front cover with the name Margaret Egstad.  On the presentation page it notes that it was given to her by Mom J.  My Great-Grandmother Johnson gave this Bible to my Grandmother long before I was born.  The other is a book that is far less impressive on first sight.  It was obviously rebound by a practical yet amateur book binder in order to keep it in one piece.  It is my Grandfather Jay Bjerkaas’ well used pocket New Testament and Psalms.
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Pastor’s Note: “All Alone” or allelon?: When we all, simply as Christians, see the “one-anothering” of souls as our mutual opportunity and responsibility, we will be able to better experience the communion of saints in all of its biblical glory.  The Greek word allelon shows up exactly one hundred times in your New Testament.  Let’s commit ourselves to finding as many ways of giving and receiving this faithful allelon ministry – and I suspect that you and I will find our feelings of “all alone” distressing us less and less!
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Pastor’s Note: Worshipping on Vacation: Over the next two months, many of us will be away from Church in the Canyon for at least one Sunday.  The reason?  School is out!  It is time for summer vacations!  For some of us, this poses a problem: where should we go to worship on Sunday morning?  This month, I would like to offer three pieces of pastoral advice to help us worship on vacation.
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Pastor’s Note: Keep Watch!: Is Christ returning?  Yes!  Is his return immanent?  I believe so.  Do I know the date?  Absolutely not.  Had the prophetic warning that Christ will return stopped short of that last question, my feelings on the hubbub surrounding May 21 would be far less mixed.
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Pastor’s Note: Ask God!: The Israelites made the best decision they could be expected to make if their own wisdom and their own resources were all they had to go on. But, like many of us, they thought their own experience, opinions, and judgments were sufficient to resolve their own dilemmas without seeking the word of God on the matter. You and I are often confronted with opportunities and dilemmas and, all too often, we take our counsel from the people around us, from our own experiences, and from the evidence as we interpret it… but we also do not enquire of the LORD.
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Pastor's Note: Polonius or Paul?: More and more, we are encouraged to "be who we are." We are told to resist calls to conform our lives to external standards. To "know thyself" is the foundational commandment and the determination to act in light of who we are is the guiding principle behind our morality and ethics. As a pastor, I can assure you that all of our inter-personal struggles are the direct result of people being true to themselves; of people acting exactly like who they are; of people 'to their own selves being true.'
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Pastor's Note: What Are You Lookin' At?: I will set before my eyes no vile thing! Friends, please consider two absolute truths that you must apply in your life if you aspire to live in a manner worthy of God's children. First, you are responsible for what you look at. You must ask yourself the tough question: "What do I set before my own eyes?" And second, and oh so important, some things that we might chose to look at are vile.
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Pastor's Note: Love Does Not Envy; or, “Annie Don’t Get Your Gun”: Love delights in whatever good comes to or from our loved ones.  This February let’s evaluate our relationships, especially our marriages, and “put our guns away.”  Let’s stop ungodly competition and simply rejoice at how God has gifted and blessed one another.
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January Pastor’s Note:A Timely Lesson from Sharks: January always brings an opportunity to choose a new (or a renewed!) direction in life.  This year let’s choose forward.  As our dear friends Joni and Judy are fond of saying, let’s make 2011 be a year of “onwards and upwards!”  We must press on and strain forward!  And, as Peter says, we must “crave pure spiritual milk so that we may grow up in our salvation.”  (1 Peter 2:2).  Like sharks, we too must be committed to moving forwards with our mouths open!
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December Pastor's Note: How Many Gifts Is Enough?: or many of us, this year is a "Dursley" kind of year. There will be fewer gifts under the trees in many of our homes. So as a pastoral word that will, I hope, be both memorable enough and portable enough to carry us through both shopping and unwrapping, I want to think about counting presents to the glory of God. Any of us can do this. All it requires is the ability to count to one.
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