ZCC Isaiah 61 Ministries Presents…

Our ZCC Isaiah 61 Ministries expands to bind up the brokenhearted! From Overcomer’s in Christ, to GriefShare - - we now are so very excited and blessed to introduce to you…

Most people will tell you that separation and divorce are the most painful and stressful experiences they’ve ever faced. It’s a confusing time when you feel isolated and have lots of questions about issues you’ve never faced before.

DivorceCare groups meet weekly to help you face these challenges and move toward rebuilding your life. Each DivorceCare session has two distinct elements: During the first 30–40 minutes of the meeting, each DivorceCare group watches a video seminar featuring top experts on divorce and recovery subjects. These videos are produced in an interesting-to-watch television magazine format featuring expert interviews, real-life case studies and on-location video. The group then participants through a time of discussion of what was presented in that week’s video seminar and what is going on in the lives of group members. DivorceCare meets Tuesday evenings from 7:30 PM to 9:00 PM in the Family Room of ZCC and is lead by Pastor Marlene. This ministry provides help, hope AND healing for those who want to grow closer to God while experiencing the pain of being newly separated or divorced. Contact Erin for more information or registration at genesis@patmedia.net. (Scholarships are available).

God, Purity and Rutgers Football
Reprinted from the Home News Tribune Online 10/25/07

ROB CRUVER
I had a conversation with a good friend last week. Wil is passionate about and successful in everything he does — from athletics to business. Even in his 40s, he's still a competitive basketball player who can give the younger guys a good run. He is a very successful businessman and entrepreneur with a keen mind. Wil also began a journey, about 10 years ago, that brought him a new passion in life. He made a choice one day to begin to read the Bible and to make time in his life for God.

During the past 10 years, Wil will tell you that life has become sweeter than ever before. His family and friends agree that he is a better man, a faithful husband and father. No denying, life still has its struggles and challenges, but life is good — and meaningful. Wil has come to see that God is interested in being much more than a compartment of his life. Like many of us, Wil thought faith was a personal thing — something that was kept at home or within the walls of a church and didn't effect business or play. Wil began to understand that God is pursuing our hearts, the very core of who we are, and that encompasses everything. Wil has come to understand God's great love for him and, as a result, he has come to love God more passionately.

When Wil and I spoke together last week, he told me that he's moved from a place of obeying God out of fear to obeying God simply because he's come to love Him. Wil made the profound discovery that if he truly loves God and makes that his priority, then a natural result is that he also will truly love his wife and children, and he'll live a faithful life of integrity that also will impact his business operations.

What do you think of when you hear the word "pure"? Grab a bottle of water and what does it say? It's now labeled "pure water." It used to be that water was just water, but now companies believe it's a good selling point to emphasize that their product is 100 percent H2O, from beginning to end without any additives. Companies who want to move their products off the shelf have found that consumers desire purity in the products they buy. We agree purity is a good thing — at least in food, right?

When I think about the word "pure," I think consistency — from start to finish, inside out, something that just doesn't change. I think that's what Jesus was getting at when he was speaking to people who expressed a desire to follow Him and to know God. Matthew 5:8 records His words: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God."

"Pure in heart" — what is that? Who has that? We can all look inside our hearts and know that there are things within us, at times, that shouldn't be there. Things like: unkind thoughts, bad attitudes, arrogance, anger, selfishness, addictions. And yet, God seems pretty serious about the purity thing. It doesn't seem to be something that He is willing to negotiate. But how can that be possible? Isn't that unfair? Nobody's perfect.

When God was speaking to the nation of Israel through the prophet Ezekiel, He told them how they could have pure hearts: "I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees" (Ezekiel 36:25-27).

Who will do all that cleaning and purifying? God says He will. So, it really isn't up to us. The strategy didn't include a list of projects we need to get working on. Notice the progression here: God offers a new heart — a pure heart — that is now soft, and He offers to fill that heart with his Spirit and bring new power and initiative to know Him and love Him. That's God's game plan for people, and that's what Wil has come to discover. When his focus is on knowing and loving God, everything else falls into place.

God's desire is not to leave us to stumble through life with all of our own limitations. He doesn't sit back and watch us struggle with some religious checklist of dos and don'ts, or to labor endlessly to earn His love. Instead, God desires to give us new hearts, made pure, and filled with His love and presence. And, what do we have to do? Let Him.

A pure person, in God's eyes, isn't someone who simply goes through the motions of a good life. Just reading the Bible, attending church or tossing up a few prayers here and there doesn't make a man or woman pure. Those are good things, but Jesus always takes us to the level of the heart, to the core of the matter, to the very depths of who we are.

One day, Jesus was responding to some questions by a group of religious leaders who believed it was necessary to wash the hands a certain ceremonial way before eating or a person would be spiritually unclean. Jesus basically said, that's ridiculous: "Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a person unclean. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a person unclean" (Matthew 15:17-20).

Now before there's an uprising, and all the "Employees Must Wash Hands Before Returning to Work" signs are torn from restaurant bathroom walls, let me say that it is still a good thing to wash our hands. Please don't stop. But, that will only make our hands clean — not our hearts. Jesus emphasizes to the religious leaders that what comes out of our mouths — our speech — is reflective of a pure or impure heart, and that's what God cares about.

Basically, God's desire is for our hearts, and His offer — to all of us — is to purify them.

So, what does all this about God and purity have to do with Rutgers football? (Now, if you're not a big football fan, hang with me, this isn't going to turn into a locker room chat.) Last week was the game between Rutgers and the No. 2 ranked undefeated South Florida team. This was a huge game for Rutgers and a must-win for the impact of their season. Rutgers showed up — big time! It was an amazing game — a true battle — and we saw Rutgers do some very unexpected things: a 36-yard pass on a fake punt on the opening series to set up a field goal; a fake field goal late in the third quarter that resulted in a touchdown and a 27-17 lead; Rutgers blitzed up a storm in the second half resulting in sacks/loss of yardage, including the final drive of the game. Basically, they played some incredible football. And, the result: Rutgers won 30-27! The fans stormed the field in celebration.

The bottom line is that Rutgers refused to play simply as expected. In fact, they did the unusual, the unexpected. They refused to be pigeonholed — to be boxed in — and play status quo. They were creative; they were brave; they took risks. I believe that if we lived our lives like Rutgers played football that night — if we refused to fall into the common patterns of life and choose, instead, to be creative and brave risk takers — then we won't get "tackled" by the things that weigh our hearts down. We can choose today to allow God to purify our hearts and replace our hearts of stone with hearts of flesh. We can live lives that truly make a difference for this and future generations.

My friend, Wil, has chosen to step out of the mainstream. He's a man who allows God daily to chip away at his heart and work within him the ability to live a life of integrity and purity. Wil is not a perfect man, but he is creative, he is brave and he takes risks. Wil's not sitting on a shelf somewhere collecting dust because God has labeled him "pure Wil."

Can you imagine what would happen to our society (even the world) if each of us would dare to hand our hearts over to God for a good rinse? We'd finally be able to let go of those things deep within us that are turning (or have turned) our hearts to stone. God wants to remove the anger, selfishness, addictions and everything else that weighs us down and replace them with the power to live a life of purity. That's why Jesus came.

Are you with me?

Rob Cruver is senior pastor of Zarephath Christian Church, a ministry partner of Pillar of Fire. For more info, visit www.zarephath.org and www.pillar.org. To see a slide show of Zarephath and some of the Pillar of Fire ministries, visit the multimedia section of www.thnt.com.

India Missions Trip

December 27, 2007 - January 7, 2008

An update from our Youth Pastor, Jamie Damm...

Wow, our ZCC mission team to Tipitapa, Nicaragua had a wonderful time. Thirteen of us ventured out with a desire to serve people and share the love of Jesus. It was great to reconnect with the gracious people there and begin building a school house. We were able to spend quality time with people in the small town of Saint George, run a VBS, teach some women’s Bible classes, have a couple of evangelistic services and have a small basketball outreach. Our main focus, however, was to begin building a three room school house for the children of Saint George. Most of the children who attend school, attend a half day school session each day. This new school house will allow many children to be better educated and, more importantly, these children will have a foundation in the message of the love of Jesus Christ! What a blessing to be a small part of what God is doing in Nicaragua.

Here on the home front, I am privileged to spend time with teens from ZCC’s Creed 412 Youth Ministry! The teen years can be difficult in a world saturated with anti biblical messages, so when teens take being a disciple of Jesus seriously, it does my heart good and I am sure that God smiles. There is a wonderful core group of teens here at ZCC that make living for Jesus a priority. We are privileged to come along side these teenagers and their families by providing discipleship small groups. Presently, we have six groups that meet at different times throughout the week. Each of these groups meet weekly to build relationships, do a Bible study, pray together and have accountability. The purpose is to pick up where the one time events leave off. Here we are serious about building relationships and living life with teens so that we may help them to see that living for Jesus is what this life is really all about. This is probably the most effective aspect of our youth ministry. We pray that the long term impact would be men and women who are leaders for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is what ZCC Creed 412 Youth Ministry desires to be about!

For more information on how you or someone you know can GET CONNECTED to one of our ZCC/Isaiah 61 Ministry Growth Groups, contact Pastor Marlene at mmoncho@zarephath.org.