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Notes & Quotes
from this weekend at Church of the Spirit, your Kingstowne Community Ghurch
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Notes & Quotes
Welcome to our weekly feature from The Spirit, your Kingstowne Community Church.
Notes & Quotes will give you some updates from the past weekend, something to think about, maybe even something for you to work on this week. 'Cause no matter where you are, you can still worship God, and serve one another, and follow Jesus.
Get the rest here
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9:00 Bible Reading
"You also must be ready all the time. For the Son of Man will come when least expected."
[Matthew 24:44]
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11:00 Bible Reading
This new resurrection life you have received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Dad?"
[Romans 8:15 The Message]
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Listen again
This is one we've only been singing at The Spirit for the last couple of years, but it's really grown on me. From the group Among Thorns. Here is there official version. And the words for you to sing along.
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Embrace this place Oh Lord
How we want to see your glory
Embrace this place Oh Lord
How we long to feel your Spirit
Lord we seek your voice to hear it
And believe all your ways
Draw us near to your heart Oh God
Let us rest our heads on your chest
Place our hands in yours Oh Lord
Hold us face to face
Embrace this place
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Kingstowne's Community Church
Where Communion with God and Community with one another changes lives ...
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Church of the Spirit
5775 Barclay Drive Alexandria, Virginia 22315 cotsva@aol.com
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Notes from 9:00
The word faith can be used for a lot of different things. Things you do, like good deeds and service projects, things you say, like a church creed, and things you have to accept, like doctrines. But when we leave faith to these things it stops being a living thing that can help us live differently.
Faithfulness is another word for loyalty to someone. We understand this when it comes to relationships, marriages. No wonder God used this image to describe how we would relate to him. We are to be loyal to God. That's faithfulness, or, we could say, "faith in action." It's about trusting in God
whatever, whenever and always.
When you trust in God you live in a new way. It can be seen in the things you say and do and believe, but it comes down to a change in your character. Faithfulness happens when you trade in your need for certainty about what will happen, for a sense of confidence in God.
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A Challenge
Place an empty chair in the room where you work, or where you relax. Keep the front seat open in your car this week. Lay an extra place at the table when you sit down to eat. Keep that empty chair near you all week and when you see it, remember that God has promised to be with you, always. Live as if Jesus were seated in that chair. Make decisions, choose your words, act ... faithfully, all because you are doing your day with God and for God. Let the empty chair be your reminder. And soon enough what is empty in the chair will be something you feel filling your heart.
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Quotes from 9:00
"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the entire staircase."
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Notes from 11:00
Times have changed but we miss seeing God today because he does not show up the way we expect; God does not do what we ask, or act like the hero we want him to be. He has not returned ... at least not yet, not fully. So it is easy to forget about God and just try to do without him. It's far too easy (and common these days) to trade in living expectantly for wanting God to live up to our expectations. But God's not about to do that. Good thing, too. God has so much more to offer than we can ask for, or imagine, or expect.
It's when God does not live up to your expectations that you have a chance to get rid of them. Not get rid of God. When your expectations don't come true, it's a good time to look again at what you expect. It's time for you and me to change, not God. I think that's exactly why God does not always live up to all we expect. If he did we'd never learn to expect more than we can put on a wish list, or a prayer list.
So we each have two challenges. You can expect too much, get disappointed and turn away from God. Just give up on expecting anything at all. Or you can expect all the wrong things, and hold onto those expectations, even if by doing so you stop expecting the real God to arrive, just some hero of your own imagination. In both extremes, there is one solution. It's not complicated. It's something we can all start doing today. It's time to trade in your disappointment and your specific wish list of expectations for something better. It's time to learn how to live in expectation.
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Quotes from 11:00
"Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light ..."
Helen Keller
Or the power for us to see the world as it is, behind the one we take for granted. Faith allows God's presence to emerge for us in this world. That's because faith is"the evidence of things we cannot see." [Hebrews 11:1]
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This week's challenge
Jesus told us to start with the small things. But we are to do them in a big way. That's because every choice helps determine what will happen; every choice also determines who you will become.
 In looking at the oncoming of war and the nature of evil, one of the main characters in JRR Tolkein's Fellowship of the Ring states: "I wish it need not have happened in my time." Tolkien, speaking through the character Gandalf, tells us what our Christian responsibility is, regardless of the day or the situation. "So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us." Later Tolkein added: "It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succor of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they may have is not ours to control." [from Return of the King]
Jesus told us to seek first his kingdom and leave the results to God. We are to be faithful in small things, he said. That's where we all can start. This week.
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Parish News
God's Protection in Difficult Times Women's Ministry Event -- December 7 9:00 am Pastor Robert Jones will lead a workshop on how to deal with difficulties as they arise in your life. He's using as inspiration Psalms 46 and 91 ... which may be familiar to you in another form, for they are the basis for the old hymn: 
A mighty fortress is our God A bulwark never failing Our helper, he amid the flood Of mortal ills prevailing So, how can faith in God help you face the practical challenges you face? And the inevitable disappointments that come along? Join us for food and fellowship, and for a day of spiritual reflection, as a way to get your Advent off on the right start. Please sign up in the Foyer to let us know you'd like to come. _____________________________________ Volunteers are also needed to help provide food and to help with set up for this event. Please sign up in the Foyer if you can help us. Thanks. Parent's Night Out There's a sign up sheet in the Foyer for Parent's Night Out, on Friday, December 6th. Leave your kids with us anytime between 6:00 and 9:00 and then go shopping, or go to a movie, or go home and decorate, wrap presents, take a long bath. We'll watch your kids for free as a service from your family here at The Spirit. and remember you can use this free service as a way to introduce Church of the Spirit to friends and neighbors. 
We'll have games and crafts and food and fun ... there will be sitters for infants and folks to play with older kids, and we're offering a premiere showing of the newest Veggie Tales Christmas show: Merry Larry (which includes vocal work by none other than Si Robertson from Duck Dynasty). Sign up in person in theFoyer Or sign up by email to cotsva@aol.com And feel free to sign up if you want to volunteer for the evening! |
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