Monday, March 31 will be at Whiskey River in Palo.
MONDAY MEN’S CONNECTION – All men are invited Mondays at 6pm to for drinks and trivia. The group rotates between different area bars and pubs. Check the weekly bulletin for the most updated location! Contact Gary Sager for details.
You Belong: An Orientation to God’s Family at Cedar Hills
We make deeper connections with God and each other when we belong. In “You Belong” you will also discover how God heals brokenness and restores all he created through a community of people who love one another. Together we will grow hospitality, authenticity, forgiveness, and restoration that transforms us and our neighbors!
You Belong is a six week class that meets on Sundays at 9:45am beginning March 30. (We will not meet on Easter Sunday). Anyone is welcome to attend even if they do not wish to become members.
At the end of the class, students can choose to pursue membership. Following the class, you will meet with an elder to affirm your faith in Jesus, and then we publicly receive into a membership at a worship service (date TBD).
Nursery for ages 0-36 months is available at this same time, as well as classes for children of all ages.
No registration is needed, but letting us know you’re coming is helpful. You can do that by contacting the office below.
APRIL 6 – THE GIDEON ENCOUNTER, 5:30-8:00pm – An experience that will transform the way you see God, yourself and the people around you. Come and learn to see yourself through the eyes of God and take ownership over what He reveals. www.cedarhillscr.org/gideon
APRIL 13 – PALM SUNDAY. Regular services at 8:30am & 11am with palm branches. Breakfast will served by the Boy Scouts in the Gathering Space 7:30am-11:15am (free-will donation). The menu is pancakes, eggs, sausage, juice/milk/coffee.
APRIL 17 – MAUNDY THURSDAY. Worship service at 6:30pm. We will celebrate the Last Supper and walk through the last hours of Jesus’ life. (Dinner served 5:15pm-6:15pm – please kindly RSVP on the bulletin response April 13.)
APRIL 20 – EASTER SUNDAY. Worship services at regular times. The 8:30am service will feature the choir and the classic Easter hymns. The 11am service is modern worship with a large musical accompaniment. No Sunday classes. Special Easter egg hunt in between services at 9:45am. MORE INFORMATION
A LIVE experience that will transform the way you see God, yourself and the people around you. How you see yourself and How God sees you are two different perspectives. But why? Why is it so hard for us to see ourselves through the eyes of God and take ownership over what He reveals?
Welcome to the Gideon Encounter.
We all need an identity shift and only God can do it. All God needs is your yes. Our Journey Youth will be attending this night of worship and teaching, but we are extending the invite to anyone who wishes to come.
Sunday, April 6, 5:30pm – 8:00pm
Cedar Hills Community Church – Gathering Space
Seats are limited to 60. Reserve your seat today.
Anyone over the age of 13 can attend.
(Youth under 15 must be accompanied by an adult)
The Boy Scouts that meet weekly at our church are planning a Palm Sunday Pancake breakfast! Sunday, April 13 serving 7:30-11:15am. Free-will donations will be collected.
The full menu is pancakes, sausage and eggs with juice, coffee or milk. Plan to come early to enjoy breakfast and support this troupe.
Join the choir! Rehearsals are on Wednesdays, 6:45pm in the Lime Room (right hallway, all the way to the end). Choir is open to high school age and up. If you know your voice part (Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass) that is helpful! But we can also help you find your voice part by range.
Practice Recordings on YouTube
Here is the Spring/Summer choir schedule. We begin rehearsals on Rehearsals will be around 7:05pm, immediately after the Lent worship services concludes until the week of Easter.
MIDWEEK SERVICES – On Wednesday nights until Easter (except for the week of Maundy Thursday) we have midweek worship services at 6:30pm. These will run approximately 30 minutes with a meal beforehand. There is also a meal served prior to the service 5:15-6:15pm. Please kindly RSVP weekly to the office or on the bulletin response if you plan to attend the meal.
EASTER WORSHIP – Sunday, April 20 at 8:30am & 11am. There will be no Sunday classes on Easter Sunday.
Dust to Dust.
Dust shows up in the Bible 100 times. The first is in Genesis 2:7. “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”
We were made from dust and to dust we will return. This is the central theme of Ash Wednesday. The entire season of Lent can be framed with this same phrase. We are frail, temporary, transient. Life is fleeting like a mist or a vapor. Dust to dust.
And of course – we are sin-full.
One of the preparations for Passover is to remove all yeast from the home. This command is found in Exodus 12:15. “For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel.”
To comply with this command, Jewish families thoroughly cleaned the entire home to remove all traces of bread, pastries, crackers, and anything containing yeast.
This process involves a deep clean of every nook and cranny in the house, including cupboards, appliances, counter tops, floors, and even furniture crevices.
In Jewish tradition, a feather is used to sweep up crumbs. The feather sweeps crumbs into a spoon.
The spoon scoops the crumbs into a paper bag.
The paper bag is thrown away – or burned.
Yeast in the Bible represents sin.
When I learned about the feather used to sweep crumbs of yeast, I thought about all the dust in my home. I wondered, would a feather help get in every nook and cranny. The feather might be particularly helpful in small crevices. Or with the window blinds.
A feather duster. Leave no sin behind.
Did you know that between 20-40% of the dust in our homes is skin? We leave little pieces of ourselves behind. Dust to dust.
The feather is also a symbolic tool representing the spiritual process of self-reflection. I hope you are self-reflecting right now – connecting the dots between yeast, dust, sin, and Jesus.
We grieve the sin in our lives. One way to show our grief is to sit in dust and ashes. This reminds us of our true condition. It is also a mark of repentance.
Of course, another central theme of Ash Wednesday – and the season of Lent – is that our real hope in our dusty lives is in Jesus. We can never account for every last crumb of sin – so Jesus took care of it for us.
In Jesus there is forgiveness. “Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.” Acts 13:38.
Dust to dust. We still find hope. In Jesus.
May the Lord be with you,
Pastor Kent
Kent Landhuis
Pastor of Teaching & Leadership
ANGEL TREE UPDATE: Cedar Hills had the opportunity to bless 25 area kids, who have incarcerated parents, with Christmas gifts. Caregivers commented, “I’ve never felt love like this before. I’ve never felt like I belong as much as I do when I walk through these doors.” This week, we received a letter from an incarcerated parent saying thank you! Thank you for sharing Jesus’ love, Church!
Every few months, a community I’m a part of holds a scripture memory challenge. We have one week to memorize whatever passage of scripture we want. How long the passage is, which book, the subject–those are all up to us.
Every time they hold this challenge, I try to work my way through a Psalm and have worked up to Psalm 4. I like this Psalm. It has a nice progression of feelings and emotions.
It opens with despair:
Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness!
You have given me relief when I was in distress.
Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!
And ends in quiet rest:
In peace I will both lie down and sleep;
for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.
The journey in between these two phrases is a wild ride of remembering and declaring promises of God’s faithfulness to his righteous ones. Promises of light, protection and his attuned ear when we cry.
I like this Psalm, because it follows a workable pattern of the human heart toward God: first despair, and then remembering who God is to remind ourselves of His faithfulness, and then relief and hope when we again remember his goodness to us, enough so that we can find rest for another day.
Many of the Psalms model this pattern, which is probably why it’s my favorite book to use when I am lamenting or depressed. The question, “Answer me, God!!!” is a cry of my heart to say, “I can’t see or hear you right now and I’m alone and scared.” I’m convinced God loves the question. He is not bothered by the asking nor the heart, but is excited to again show Himself and His goodness all over again.
Want to memorize Psalm 4 with me? I finished up putting it to music this past week and have it playing on repeat.
Leah Carolan
Pastor of Worship & Media
