12/20/2011

Dear CCSE family,

It is my sincere prayer that you all have a blessed Christmas as you spend time with your families and friends.  I pray that Christ would truly be at the center of your Christmas.  I pray as families you might worship together, Him who came down from heaven to dwell among us and ultimately save us from sin and death.

As we approach the New Year, it opens us up for new and fresh challenges and I pray this year will be a year of tremendous spiritual growth as we increase in the Knowledge of Christ and learn to discern His will and purpose for our lives.  There is so much God has for us if we would just yield our lives completely over to Him.

While none of us knows what this New Year holds, we know the One who holds the New Year.  He and He alone is our hope and strength and no matter what challenges we may face in the days ahead we have a God who loves us and seeks to make Himself known to us.  Wise men still seek Him.

THE NEW YEAR CHALLENGE:  THE ONE YEAR BIBLE

This past year many of you joined with me in reading "The Divine Mentor” by Wayne Cordeiro, in which he challenges believers to develop a healthy self-feeding program in the Word of God.   A number of you have shared with me what a great impact this book has made in your own personal devotions with the Lord.  We all need a steady diet of the truth of His Word.

The other day the pastoral staff and I thought of an idea we believe would be a great inspiration to all of us here at CCSE.

We would like to encourage all of you to join us in going through the One Year Bible reading program.  This program consists of daily readings from the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs and works out to approximately fifteen (15) minutes a day; however, the blessings far outweigh the time.   Janet and I have personally enjoyed this over the years and thus would also suggest doing this as a family.  This year as a church body we will start the One Year Bible reading program January 1st, 2012.

There are several ways to accomplish this one.

1)   You can purchase the One Year Bible with your own preferred translation, by ordering it either from Amazon.com or ordering it through our book store.   Of course most Bible book stores carry it.

2)  You can get the daily reading program for free by downloading it in PDF format by going to http://www.oneyearbibleonline.com/readingplan.asp.

3)  We will also make free copies of the reading plan available here at the church in the bookstore.

4)  For those of you with Droids or iPhones, you can download the free “You Version” app which also includes the One Year Bible reading plan the translation of your choice.  This is a great way to go as You Version keeps a log of your status and allows you to pick up or catch up should you happen to miss some days.

Please consider joining with us as we as a church share in this Bible reading program that I believe will enrich all of our lives in the coming year. At the minimum it will develop beneficial blessings and stir up conversation that will enhance our walks with Christ.

May the Lord Bless you all,

Pastor Doug