Dear Family at CCC,

     This Sunday we will resume our series in Paul’s letter to the Romans and hear from Romans 12:1-2.  In these words we will hear of God’s call for us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to Him.  As we do so we discover His transformative power to renew our minds.  This renewal is critical to our growth in grace, enabling us to discern God’s will and experience it as blessing.

     Although God accomplishes this work of renewal in each of us individually, we will see throughout chapters 12 and 13 of Romans that He does so in the context of community.  In community we get to live out our status as reconciled brothers and sisters in Christ.  So, it will be especially good for us to partake of the Lord’s Table together this Sunday.  We are called to present our bodies to the Lord, and we are enabled to do so without fear because Jesus gives us His body through the bread and cup.  These means testify to the reality of our forgiveness through Jesus’ blood, and our unity with Him and each other through His covenant of peace. 

     As we prepare to come to the Table this Sunday, let’s ask the Spirit to motivate us with the thought that we do not prepare our hearts merely for our own edification, but for the edification of our fellow saints.  Let’s ask Him to encourage all of us together with the thought that we are reconciled to each other and given the opportunity to build each other up in the knowledge and love of God’s will.  May we be helped through this means of grace to persevere together as the family of God!

In Christ,
Robby