Sunday, May 13, 2012

Since it’s Mother’s Day and some of our families are dedicating their children today, I thought it might be helpful to share some thoughts about what we do to develop spiritual life in children.

John 1:12-13 is a good place to begin. There John writes, “But as many as received Him [Christ], to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” Being born into a Christian family does not automatically confer spiritual life on someone. No one becomes a child of God apart from personally receiving Christ.

Yet Jesus expressed confidence that even young children could receive him. On one occasion when His disciples tried to prevent some parents from bringing their children to Jesus to receive a blessing, He said, “Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all” (Mark 10:14b-15).

So what can a parent do to encourage their children to have genuine faith in Christ?

First, parents can model sincere faith.  In his letter to his assistant Timothy, the Apostle Paul wrote, “For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well” (2 Tim 1:5). There’s no indication whether Timothy’s father was a believer, but his mother and grandmother set a good example for him to follow.

Second, parents can teach their children the Scripture. In 2 Timothy 3:15, Paul said of Timothy, “from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” The knowledge of Scripture alone does not save, but someone cannot be saved apart from that knowledge.

Some parents, conscious of shortcomings in their own knowledge of Scripture, are overwhelmed by this responsibility. That’s where the church comes in. The church can never take the place of parental example and teaching, but the church can come alongside parents. Both parents and their children can benefit from the dynamics of church life that Paul described in Ephesians 4:15, “speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ.”

Finally, parents can pray for their children. In a sense, that’s what those parents were doing in Mark 10:13-16 when they brought their children to Jesus. They were enlisting other godly people, in this case Jesus Himself, to pray for their children.

I’m grateful for the passion that so many people at Calvary East have for investing in the spiritual lives of children. We have faithful people serving in our Children’s Ministry who faithfully love, model, teach, and pray for our children every week.

Together all of us as a church family can invest in the spiritual lives our children in the hope that as they mature they will receive Christ and then pass on His truth to others.

- Bryan Craddock

Friday, May 4, 2012

There are certain parts of the Christian life in which most of us always feel we need to improve. This came out last week in a survey we did for our discipleship ministry. Several people expressed interest in learning how to pray.

In one sense prayer is simple and instinctive for a true child of God. It’s us crying out to our Heavenly Father as Paul mentions in Romans 8:15. In commenting on this verse, a scholar named C. E. B. Cranfield wrote, “Nothing more is required of us than that we should cry to the one true God,  ‘Abba, Father’ with full sincerity and with full seriousness.” This fundamental reliance upon God is the essence of what it means to relate to God as a believer.

But some times when the storms of life rage around us, we bow our heads to pray and find ourselves at a complete loss for words. Paul says in Romans 8:26 that in those moments the Holy Spirit intercedes for us, speaking to God on our behalf, asking for the perfect solution to our troubles even though we ourselves do not know what that solution is.

Perhaps the more common problem is that our prayers become repetitive and routine. We feel that God deserves to hear something passionate and profound in our prayers. But  instead we stumble around awkwardly and find our minds wandering off to other thoughts. In 1 Timothy 4:7, Paul tells Timothy, “Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.” And I think it’s safe to say that one of those areas where we have to exert Holy Spirit empowered discipline is in learning to pray.

This month we’re going to make learning to pray the focus of our Adult Sunday School class. Of course, learning to pray takes a lifetime. There’s no way that we can really accomplish  such a lofty goal over a few weeks. To be more specific, my hope for these class times is that God will kindle in our hearts a new devotion to praying and to deepening our prayer life.

So what do you think that you need to learn about prayer? Have you ever asked yourself that question? Think about it and come share your thoughts with the rest of us as I Iead our discussions on this topic at 9 a.m. each Sunday morning in May.

- Bryan Craddock

Monday, April 9, 2012

Dear Calvary East Church Family,

Jared Ransom and I had the great privilege of representing all of you this afternoon. We delivered to Comstock North Elementary all of your donations to our last minute playground supplies drive for Easter Sunday. The principal was thrilled. You donated 8 basketballs, 11 bounce balls, 6 soccer balls, 1 football, 6 plastic bats, 22 plastic baseballs, 3 double jump ropes, 29 single jump ropes, 4 frisbees, 18 boxes of sidewalk chalk, and an 8 pack of bubble solution. Great job! I praise God for your generosity and concern for our community. Simple projects like this are one way to let our light shine before men in such a way that they may see our good works, and glorify our Father who is in heaven (Matt 5:16).

- Bryan Craddock

Friday, April 6, 2012

This weekend at Calvary East, we get to observe both ordinances of the church: communion Friday night and baptism on Sunday morning. Some churches call these sacraments, believing that God gives us saving grace through these acts, but we do not see any biblical support for this sacramental view. We understand baptism and communion to be symbolic acts that Jesus ordained for His followers to do.

According to 1 Corinthians 11:23-29, communion (often called the Lord’s Supper or the Eucharist) is a symbolic way for us to remember and proclaim the death of Jesus Christ. The bread reminds us of the sufferings of Christ’s body. The cup reminds us of the shedding of Christ’s blood. 1 Corinthians emphasizes that those who participate should examine themselves so that they don’t participate in an “unworthy manner.” In other words, if you trust Christ as your Lord and Savior and are turning away from sin in your life, then it’s right and good for you to participate in communion. If these things are not true of your life, then participating in communion becomes a mockery rather than a proclamation of Christ’s death. Aside from Good Friday, we generally observe communion at Calvary East in our Sunday morning worship service on the first Sunday of every month.

According to Romans 6:4, baptism symbolizes that a believer has died and risen with Christ. In our study of Romans, we have been learning that sin condemns us before God and enslaves us. But through His death, Jesus bore the condemnation for sin and through His resurrection, He broke the power of sin’s mastery. We receive forgiveness for sin and freedom from its power when we personally trust Christ as our Lord and Savior. Baptism, then, is a proclamation and a personal commitment to honor that forgiveness and freedom in how we live (1 Peter 3:21). We observe baptism in our Sunday morning worship services at Calvary East whenever we learn of someone who wants to be baptized. Contact us here if you would like to be baptized.

- Bryan Craddock

Friday, April 6, 2012

Sometimes you have to take hold of unexpected opportunities.

For the past few years, we’ve been looking for meaningful ways for Calvary East to serve the Comstock community.

• We’ve helped out at Comstock Daze, a community fundraiser for the Great Lakes Burn Camp.
• We’ve hosted a monthly release time Bible class for children from Comstock North Elementary.
• We’ve filled backpacks with supplies for Comstock Kindergarteners.
• We’ve collected cleaning supplies for Comstock seniors in need.
• We’ve provided Christmas gifts for a few local families who were financially struggling.
• A few of our members have started helping tutor Comstock kids in reading.

This Wednesday I heard of another opportunity: playground supplies. With tight school budgets, Comstock North Elementary, just around the corner from our building, is in need of some basic playground supplies: kickballs, basketballs, soccer balls, waffle balls and bats, jump ropes, double dutch jump ropes, and sidewalk chalk.

My first thought was that this was a simple, tangible way for all of us at Calvary East to show our interest in serving our community. But then it struck me. Wouldn’t it be great if we could provide these playground supplies as an Easter present?

Let’s see what we can do this weekend to provide an Easter surprise for Comstock North on Monday morning.

 - Bryan Craddock