Hello Celebration Ministry Family! I hope this note finds you doing well and enjoying God’s grace and mercy today. Wow! What an amazing Easter celebration we had! I want to thank each of you for your hard work and dedication over the last months. If you see Christa Jamison or any of the actors, the sound and media guys and the light guys, please be sure to thank them for their help and dedication as well. What a wonderful celebration of our risen Savior! Here is your weekly update with several announcements, update song and ministry schedules and a devotion, along with loving others and serving the world suggestions. Please let me know if you have any questions about the information provided. I’ll be happy to help in any way I can. God bless you all! ~ Pastor Jeremy Relay for Life - This Friday! What: Relay for Life - Choir to sing! When: 9:45 - 10:15 pm (arrive by 9:15 pm) Where: Lake Benson Park, Garner Who: All choir members! Wearing: Jeans, Tennies, and of course... black tops! Singing what? 1.) I Can Go to God in Prayer, 2.) Victory in Jesus, 3.) God's Promise, 4.) Jesus Will Make a Way, 5.) My Life is in Your Hands, 6.) The Light of that City Raleigh Rescue Mission Festival of Hope - Saturday, May 7th What: RRM Festival of Hope When: 10:00 am (we'll carpool / take vans from RFN at 9:15am) Where: In front of the Raleigh Rescue Mission on E. Hargett St, Raleigh. Who: All choir members! Wearing: shorts, t-shirts, polos, sunglasses, in other words... comfy!!! (please remember to dress modestly) Singing what? 1.) Victory in Jesus, 2.) I Can Go to God in Prayer, 3.) God's Promise, 4.) Jesus Will Make a Way, 5.) Lord, I Believe in You, 6.) This is How it Feels to Be Free Springfest 2011 - Sunday, May 15th What: Springfest 2011 When: Immediately after 2nd service Where: Tapestry Church of the Nazarene Who: All choir members! Wearing: Khakis and Colors! (I've attached a picture of what we wore last year as reference; dress weather-consciously ;) Singing what? 1.) This is How it Feels to Be Free, 2.) Alive, Forever Amen, 3.) Victory in Jesus, 4.) He Made the Difference, 5.) Burdens Rolled Away 6.) I Can Go to God in Prayer Redemption CD Update Please continue to share with your friends and family about our Redemption CD project. I really need your help in pre-selling this CD. Here is a webpage with all of the details that you can feel free to share with others: http://www.raleighfirstnazarene.org/celebration/redemption.html. You can “like” the page to share it with your facebook friends and there’s also a place where you can share it on twitter. Redemption CD Financial Update Our current amount raised is $3828.00 Our expenditures have been $1168.00 (used for mechanical licenses & orchestrations) Current account status = $2660.00 Expenditures left = $4500 ($2500 for studio time; $1000 for mastering; $1000 for duplication) Desired Scholarship = $2500 Fundraising Amount Still Needed = $4500 (covers mastering, duplication & scholarship) Redemption CD Recording Dates—IMPORTANT Our recording dates/times for the CD are July 15th from 7-9pm and July 16th from 9:30am till we’re done. Please make sure these dates are cemented on your calendar as NOT TO BE ABSENT DATES! Song Schedule (see attached schedule for May and June): May 1 Victory in Jesus (Easter 2011) and Beautiful, Terrible Cross (Easter 2011) May 8 Burdens Rolled Away (He Has Been Good) and Say the Name (Start it Up) May 15 He Made the Difference (Start it Up) and No Nothing (Start it Up) May 22 Can I Get a Witness? (Lift Him Higher) and I’m Amazed (I’m Amazed) May 29 Hallelujah to the King (I’ll Say Yes) and Jesus Saves (Easter 2010) Ministry Schedule: April 29 Relay for Life May 7 Raleigh Rescue Mission Festival of Hope May 15 Springfest at Tapestry—Choir to sing like last year July 15-16 Recording dates for Redemption CD Devotion - Add to your faith knowledge... For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. ~2 Peter 1:5-7 What effort can we make to add knowledge to our faith? There are a few suggestions below, but my first counsel is this: go slow and steady. Peter uses a specific Greek word for knowledge: gnosis. Gnosis is a general, generic, one-size-fits-all word for knowledge. It's the knowledge of inquiry and discovery, knowledge that doesn't float down to you, but the kind you have to reach up to or dig down for. The Greek word Peter uses in the other three instances that he speaks of knowledge is epignosis. Same word, just intensified. It means fullness of knowledge. Complete understanding. It's epignosis that is the channel of grace, peace, life and godliness and the key to effectiveness and productivity. So, epignosis--the fullness of understanding--is attained through an accumulation of gnosis. Epignosis--total knowing--comes incrementally, bit by bit. You add some today, some tomorrow, some the next day. Over time, that adds up until it becomes the fullness of knowledge. So where does this gnosis that becomes epignosis come from? There are 4 main sources: 1.) Scripture: The Bible is our primary source of knowledge about the nature and work of God. Apart from the Bible we sometimes, in a fumbling way, grasp a truth or two about God, but there's no substance, no coherence, no connectedness. So we look first to Scripture. 2.) Worship & Prayer: God is revealed in Scripture, but is not bound there. God is a living God. He can and does speak to us, moves in our midst and surprises us with Himself. In many ways its like the scene in Jurassic Park where a palaeontologist, a man who's spent his life digging and dusting dinosaur bones, meets a living dinosaur face-to-face. In that instant, truth becomes real. His knowledge converts into experience, and his life changes with it. 3.) Creation: The heavens proclaim the glory of God, and yet the whole creation groans, waiting for God to finish what He started. Just as you can know something about me--my habits, my preoccupations, my passions--because you have spent time with one of the works of my hands, so too we can know something about God by spying molecules and peering into galaxies, by watching leaves uncurl and geese migrate and fish leap up the stairwells of a waterfall. 4.) Community: Surprised? Community is where we meet God in disguise. In community we work out our love and knowledge of God in earthy and tangible ways, where God often hides among the least of these. We learn, in the mess and the mundaneness of life together, the art of knowing and being known, of loving and being loved. Scripture. Worship and Prayer. Creation. Community. God is hidden in plain sight in all these things. ~Adapted from Mark Buchanan's book, Hidden in Plain Sight Loving People Suggestions: -Connect with a C-Net group! Please mark "C-Net" on your connect card to get involved! -Clear your calendar for the Relay for Life, Festival of Hope and Springfest activities! Serving the World Ideas: - There are plenty of ways you can get involved locally in tornado relief efforts. Each of us can do something to help those who continue to suffer greatly from the storms. -Continue in your support of the Redemption CD project! | 
