Calvary Evangelical Free Church, Rochester MN

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The Heart of God

The book of Jonah is all about the heart and passion of God for lost humanity. His love for the wicked and lost people of ancient Nineveh is the main theme of Jonah. This Sunday I complete my four week series in chapter four of the book. Jonah has a pity party under a vine, while God makes it crystal clear that He cares for all people. He even cares for those outside of His covenant people, the nation of Israel. As a Gentile follower of Jesus Christ, I am forever grateful that Jesus did not just come for God's chosen and elect people, but He also came to save the Gentiles.

This message from the Book of Jonah impassions me to be like God and like Jesus in caring for and reaching out to lost people. It also reminds me of the strong missionary nature of biblical Christianity. My desire for our Calvary family is that we too would be missional at our core. I pray the Lord would give us His heart for evangelism and missions. This will be the topic of the message this weekend as we conclude our series in Jonah.

Next week I will be in the Domincan Republic assessing Calvary's mission work. I will be traveling with David Henry and Roy Makosky. Mark Harris will be preaching here at Calvary on March 4th. He will be preaching from John 17 on unity and prayer. I will be preaching in the DR on Revelation 4-5. Both of us would appreicate your prayers as we prepare for the proclamation of God's Word.

When I return from the DR (we are only down there for four days), I will begin a series of messages on fasting and prayer. In a few short weeks we will be celebrating Palm Sunday and Resurrection Sunday (Easter). Please consider inviting your friends to church during this important time of the year.

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written by Ann Knodel, February 22, 2007

You have been talking about being missionaries to are neighbors and the idea of working 2 to 4 hours a month for the community. The CareNet that was set up was for volunteering in the public schools which is very difficult to do if you work during the day. Is there a plan to help match people and voluteer opportunities? It is hard enough to get me to do something new, but if I need to do research to figure out who has needs that I may be able to help with, I will keep putting it off. When we were in the same mini congregation as Denise King, she had a sign up for The Community Food Response. We signed up and thought it was a wonderful program. She has been able to fill it with out us now, so we have not done it. I am not a leader, being lead on one ushering team is about all I can handle. I think I was disappointed that we were to focus on the public schools for the volunteering. I already put in many hours volunteering for Schaeffer and I work so the daytime volunteering will not work. When I had small children I had a hard time finding something useful with them but may be did not find the right connection. Sorry about the rambling, I am not sure how to explain what I want to say. Please continue in pushing us forward. Some of us just are not sure how to go to the next step. The idea is great, but how to get from words to positive action is hard when I am already pushing myself with church activities. The idea of going out myself and looking for something in what you mean is more than I can get myself to do. Carefest was easy, we only needed to show up and work. I appreciate what your doing, but I am scared to go out and do it. How do we get past that point? You have been good for us, hopefully you will be able to see the fruit of us yet.

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