Come To PTO Craft Night – Friday 3/27

Join us Friday, March 27th from 6pm –10pm in Fellowship Hall. The event is open to anyone who would like to have FOUR kid-free-uninterrupted hours to complete a craft project – scrapbooking, knitting, or even filing your photos into albums! The $10 donation includes a light dinner and beverage. So, invite a friend, neighbor, or family member and join us for a fun night!

Contribute Used Children’s Shoes To Soles 4 Souls

The NBRC Preschool PTO will be collecting gently used children’s shoes from March 2-27th to donate to Soles4Souls.

Soles4Souls is a non-profit organization that distributes shoes to needy children in the USA and worldwide.

If you are interested in participating, please bind each pair of shoes with a rubberband and include a $2 donation per pair ($10 maximum per family) so
that we can ship them to the Soles4Souls warehouse in Nashville.

There will be a drop-off box at the Preschool office door.

Please see the attached flier for more information and thank you for your participation!

Thank you.
Mrs. Landrieu

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About Soles4Souls

Over 300 million children around the world are without shoes.

Does your child have any shoes he or she has outgrown sitting idle in the closet?

This is an opportunity for our children to experience the concept of philanthropy with something that they can give on their own. We are collecting new and lightly worn shoes for Soles 4 Soles, a non-profit organization that distributes shoes to needy children in the U.S.A and worldwide. Together with their distribution partners, they currently provide shoes for children in over 45 states and 61 countries.

From March 2 – 27, please have your child bring in any shoes he or she no longer needs that are still in good condition. Please gather the pairs together with a rubber band. There will be a collection box set up in school with an envelope attached. We are asking for a two-dollar donation per pair to pay for shipping the shoes to the Soles 4 Souls warehouse in Nashville. However, there is a maximum shipping donation of $10 per family. Please place the rubber-banded shoes in the box and the shipping money in the envelope. I will collect the money daily, so you can use cash or a check made out to Jennifer Russo.

If you would like to learn more about the mission of Soles 4 Soles, you can check out the website, www.giveshoes.org. This should be a unique opportunity for our children to share with other children all over the world. Please consider having your child participate!

Service 02/22/2009

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In the audio podcast of this service, the Scripture Reading starts at 21 min 30 secs: Mark 9:2-9
The Sermon starts at 26 min 15 secs. “Peaks for Valleys”

An old high school basketball hack (me) and a young high school basketball jock (Pastor Mark) were taking on a couple of high school kids. It was shortly before the Super Bowl and we wanted some fresh air. The Buurstra basketball was fetched, and when it was dribbled on our small concrete patio, having gone soft–like the high school basketball hack, it dribbled something like this…thud. But no one wanted to take the effort to pump it up so the geriatric team schooled the young whipper-snappers. Of course, had the basketball been pumped the kids would have won. (Actually, had we played full court…)

This old basketball reminds me of a conversation Scott Pontier of the Hope House and I had about our current national crisis. Scott said that in personal counseling and business consulting he is using the word “resiliency” lately. Resiliency—the ability to bounce back from down times. Where do we find God’s resiliency in deflating times?
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Service 02/15/2009

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In the audio podcast of this service, the Scripture Reading starts at 17 min 20 secs:
Mark 1:40-45

The Sermon starts at 18 min 20 secs.
What is your testimony?
Pastor Mark Swart

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Sermon 02/08/2009 – For God so loved…that we have everlasting life

For God so loved…that we have everlasting life
I Peter 1:3-9

[An audio recording is not available online for this service.]

How are you doing with all of the depressing news lately? I hesitate to remind you:
That the last week of January saw 100,000 jobs lost.
That the Dow Jones is down over 40% since October.
That unemployment claims have hit an all time high.
That every week there is a new Prayer Chain message for people losing jobs or homes.
And now New Jersey is #14 in the Misery Index for bankruptcies and home loss.
I hear/read all of this and I wonder how I would handle job loss like some of you. Where would I find hope in that storm? Where do you find hope with all of this depressing news?

If Paul is the apostle of faith, and John is the apostle of love, then Peter is the apostle of hope. Faith, hope and love. Indeed Peter’s people needed hope. His congrega-tion in today’s Turkey consisted mainly of slaves and feriners. This was a group that was easily spat upon, easily beaten, easily shut out of opportunity. To them God’s spirit says:
By [God’s] great mercy he has given us a new birth in to a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

God didn’t offer these slaves with stripes on their backs just any old hope, but a living hope. What’s that? Ζαω–living, not in the sense of still breathing like Terri Schiavo, but really living like she used to be. Full of life, no matter how life treats you.

On this last week that I preach from his book on John 3:16, Lucado likens us to a dead car battery. He writes: I turned my ignition—no noise. So I did what anyone would do: I doused my car with a fifth of whiskey… Nothing happened. I rolled a television in front of the grill and flipped on the game [because] a good contest perks up the deadest cell, right? Not this time. So I purchased the latest issue of Pent-Garage and let my car feast its headlights on some European beauties. No response… And you think I have the IQ of a screwdriver. Who turns to booze, screens, or bodies for renewal? Too many. Far too many. The only hope for renewal in these discouraging times is the resurrected Christ. As someone once wrote: The man who knocks on the door of a brothel is seeking God.

How can we live in resurrection hope now? In one word? Repent.
Turn from the negative news. A mind can only absorb so much bad news. Soon we twitch when the boss calls our name because we expect a lay off. Or we jump when the phone rings because Grandma has probably died. Then broken shoelaces can depress us.

Turn from mostly bad news and turn toward the good news. The news that God so loved the world that God gave his only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life! That’s a verse to attach to your refrigerator or car dashboard. Read that 3 times a day and call me in the morning. See if you don’t feel more hopeful.
One classic bulletin blooper tries to look at life positively. It reads: The Pastor will preach his farewell message after which the choir will sing: ‘ Break Forth Into Joy.’

And yet even with powerful positive affirmations of God’s love you may not land a job soon, your investments may never recover, and depression’s cloud may never fully lift.

So find hope by repenting from today’s news to the Good News, and perfect your hope by renewing your heavenly vision. Our apostle of hope, teaches this by writing:
By [God’s] great mercy he has given us a new birth in to a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ…into an inheritance that is imperishable.

In heaven God promises that all will be fully employed and fulfilled. Your garden will produce full ears of corn. As Lucado suggests, you may oversee the orbits of a distant planetary system or design a mural in the holy city. Me? I think I’ll sing great barbershop.
Heaven’s hope is that creation will be renewed. No more ozone hole so you won’t need sunscreen. No fear of bear in the woods because all creation will enjoy each other.
And, heaven’s hope will be complete in the Grand Reunion. My two aunts who always argued with Aunt Tressa doing one of these—will finally hold hands. You’ll meet your loved ones, and all believers will enjoy the incredible, inexpressible presence of God.

Even in tough times God gives hope for now and especially forever. Last Lucado story: In the early 1800s young John Todd’s parents died and he was shipped to an aunt whom he never met. She sent a servant to bring Johnny on horseback. Johnny asked:
Will she be there? Oh yes, she’ll be waiting for you, Caesar replied.
Will I like living with her? My son, you fall into good hands.
Will she love me? Ah, she has a big heart.
Will she go to bed before we get there? Oh no, you’ll see her candle in the window.
Indeed John Todd’s aunt proved to be an excellent step-mother. And so Johnny grew up to be a pastor. One day when he heard that his aunt was dying, he sent her this letter:

As are you, believer, so that you can live in hope now and forever, Amen.

The Messenger February 2009

Click to read North Branch Reformed Church’s monthly newsletter:
The Messenger February 2009

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The Shepherd’s Kids and Young Adult News February 2009

Click to read the latest issue of North Branch Reformed Church’s monthly newsletter for children, teens and college students:
The Shepherd’s Kids and Young Adult News February 2009

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Event Calendar February 2009

Click here to see our scheduled events for February 2009.

NBRC Service 02/01/2009

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The Scripture Reading starts at 24 min 00 secs:
John 10:22-33

The Sermon starts at 26 min 15 secs.
3:16: Believers Shall Not Perish
Pastor Todd Buurstra

Some toddlers don’t care to be held or cuddled. When picked up these tikes keep pawing the dirt and squirming so that they can get away. I go! I GO! is their mantra. Taken to the extreme as adults these independent cusses spend their lives telling God to leave them alone. And at the moment of their final breath, he honors their request. But, Max: How could a loving God send sinners to hell? He doesn’t. They volunteer.

Just like the Jews, in verse 31, were already fingering those rocks circling Jesus. For which of my good works are you going to stone me? They snarled, That’s not why we’re going to stone you, it’s because of blasphemy—you called yourself God, but you’re just a man! When God reached down to hug his children in Jesus, even the Chosen ones squirmed out of his arms. Indeed, 13% of Jesus’ teaching was about hell. He called it Gehenna after the smoldering garbage heap just outside of Jerusalem. Eternal Hell.

But most babies and toddlers thrive in Mommy and Daddy’s arms. They feel safe, warm and happy. Pretty soon Johnny will gain such confidence in Daddy’s arms that he’ll learn to run and climb the slider. This is the way Jesus describes his chosen believers S3b vv. 28, 29… Listen to me: God has chosen you. You are God’s beloved. That’s why the benediction reminds us that Jesus is beneath you to carry you. You are ever safe in the Father’s hand. Nothing can snatch you away from the Father’s hand! Eternal Salvation.

So what does God’s gracious grip have to do with today? A lot. For God so loved the world that whoever believes will not perish—now or ever. We experience little deaths or hells on earth, but the Father still holds us. And so, we get up and leap in faith again.

Take Ignite! I believe God gave us a dream of a daughter church, but it didn’t grow fast enough to sustain itself. So, sadly, we had to let Ignite! flicker out. Tough lessons we can share at the Annual Meeting, but I asked Ignite! core … did God bless you in this risk?

God’s hand keeps us safe in eternity and risking in time. Brenda, the checkout girl, told Kurtis, the stock boy, No. As a beautiful 26 year old she was used to 22 year old men hitting on her, but she was through. After her husband left her with two children, one a Downs Syndrome paraplegic, she couldn’t risk another relationship. But Kurtis wouldn’t give up. He offered her a ride on the way home from the supermarket. When she gave the excuse that she couldn’t afford a babysitter to go out with him, he offered to pay. But when Kurtis showed up Brenda stopped him at the door because the babysitter canceled. So he insisted on taking the kids along. What could she say? When he picked up her son out of his wheelchair to lovingly take him to the bathroom Brenda knew she had found a special man. Indeed he is. A man of faith secure enough in the Father’s hand to take risks. You know him as Kurt Warner quarterback of the Arizona Cardinals in this evening’s Super Bowl. What risk is God calling you to take from the safety of the Father’s hand?

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Audio Recordings:
Learn how you can listen to the audio files streamed over the Internet, download files to your computer or download files to your portable media player. Visit our Podcast page for complete details.