POTLUCK LUNCHEON — This Coming Sunday!
Our monthly Potluck Luncheon is this Sunday, November 24th. As always, members of our church family are asked to bring a Main Dish, or a Side Dish and desert. Visitors are our guests and do not have to bring a thing. Everyone enjoys our monthly Potluck Luncheons and there is always plenty of good food so be sure to invite your family and friends!
MUST SEE VIDEO ATTACHED
I am attaching for you an hour video titled, The Hebrew Gospel of Matthew with Nehemia Gordon. This video was produced in 2011, some five years after the video The Hebrew Yeshua vs. The Greek Jesus which we just saw at church.
This is a video you will not want to miss! In it Nehemia Gordon continues to teach about the Shem Tov Hebrew Gospel of Matthew and how it clarifies our faith for us. In this presentation Gordon focuses on the Lord’s Prayer, the Our Father. I was so blessed by the video and you will be blessed too. Here is this link. Enjoy!
STUDY GUIDE HANDOUTS THIS SUNDAY!
I will be handing out Study Guides this Sunday for both the adult Christian Education class and for my sermon at the Holy Eucharist. You will find these handouts very helpful in going deeper into God’s Word.
In our adult Christian Education class we will be studying the Gospel. Most Christians today so confuse the Gospel with the Plan of Salvation that they have no idea what the Gospel really is. The lack of understanding is so serious that when many Christians are told what the authentic Gospel is they reject it out of hand as something they have never heard of before. This is tragic.
This handout is an updated version of a handout that I used to give to my students decades ago when I was a college teacher teaching ministerial students. You will want a copy of this helpful multipage handout. Christian Education class is at 8:30 AM. The public is invited. I hope to see you there.
This Sunday is the last Sunday before Advent and I will be preaching on End Time Bible Prophecy. To go with my sermon I will be distributing a multipage handout titled, ISRAEL — GOD’S PROPHETIC TIMECLOCK. You will want a copy for your studies. Join us for the Holy Eucharist at 10:00 AM. Everyone is invited and visitors are always welcome.
THE MOST POST-CHRISTIAN CITIES IN AMERICA: 2019
I am attaching for you a very troubling research report from the highly respected Barna Group titled, The Most Post-Christian Cities in America: 2019. A big thank you goes out to my friend Bishop Anthony Bondi for forwarding this report on to me.
The Barna Group looked at 100 American cities. The top ten “Most Post-Christian” cities consisted of eight from the Northeastern United States, with Springfield-Holyoake, Massachusetts coming in #1 as the most Post-Christian city in America.
The top ten Most Post-Christian cities included Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-San Louis Obispo, California at #9, and Seattle-Tacoma, Washington at #10. That the Northeastern United States has eight of the ten most Post-Christian cities in America should not be a surprise to anyone, nor should the fact that this roll of shame was completed by two cities from the left coast.
What should trouble us the most at Holy Cross parish is that out of the 100 cities in the report ranked from #1 (Most Post-Christian) to #100 (Least Post-Christian), Omaha came in #34. We just missed being in the top third. Lincoln-Hastings-Kearney did better, coming it at #61, but still much worse than our neighbors in Wichita-Hutchinson-Dodge City-Salina-Manhattan, Kansas who came it at #97. Seven of the ten least Post-Christian cities were in the South, the Bible Belt. No surprise there.
We have a lot of work to do and I am truly thankful for our new radio ministry in Omaha (660 AM) and Lincoln (106.7 FM). Rather than merely cursing the darkness we are letting the light shine. Please help us.
Here is the link to the Barna Group Report on the Most Post-Christian Cities in America:
LAST CHANCE BEFORE THANKSGIVING — PARISH FOOD BINS
Every day of the year the Open Door Mission serves more than 2,300 meals to the homeless and to the very poor. That’s right, 2,300 meals! In addition, every night the Open Door Mission provides more than 800 beds for homeless men, women and children. With Thanksgiving upon us the Open Door Mission really needs our help right now.
Our parish food bins are about two-thirds full. Let’s make an extra effort to fill them to overflowing so a delivery can be made to the Open Door Mission before Thanksgiving. PLEASE bring donations of food on Sunday. All of us have our basic needs met right now. Let us help those who have little or nothing.
This is the last Sunday before Thanksgiving. We need to get the bins filled on Sunday so our food donations can be delivered to the Open Door Mission before Thanksgiving. Let us show our thanks to God for our many blessings by blessing those most in need. Thank you!!!
FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT — December 1st
The season of Advent begins the ecclesiastical year, and with the beginning of the new ecclesiastical year we are returning to the New Calendar after six years on the Old Calendar. The Old Calendar did not work well for us, and we are all looking forward to returning to the Calendar that more than 99% of American Christians follow.
Mark your calendar. December 1st is the First Sunday in Advent! Jesus is the Reason for the Season!
ADVENT SERMON SERIES
In Advent we will begin a new four week sermon series focusing on the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. In this sermon series you will learn things that you have never known before. This will be an eye opening, faith building and exciting sermon series as we dig beneath the surface and uncover how the text was understood by first century believers.
The topics of the Advent Sermon Series are as follows:
First Sunday in Advent, December 1st —
Why celebrate the birth of Jesus on December 25th? Is Christmas a pagan holiday? When was Jesus really born? Should his birth even be celebrated?
Second Sunday in Advent, December 8th —
The Genealogies in Matthew and Luke’s Gospels are very different and apparently contradictory. Are they contradictory? Are they important? What do they tell us?
Third Sunday in Advent, December 15th —
Who really were the Shepherds that were caring for their sheep on the night in which Jesus was born? Were they poor shepherds and were the sheep ordinary sheep? The truth will both surprise you and thrill you!
Fourth Sunday in Advent, December 22nd —
Was Jesus really born in a stable, in a cave? Were the people of Bethlehem so cold hearted that no one would provide a place in a house for a young mother to deliver her baby? Why didn’t the local priests or rabbis intervene? The surprising truth will warm your heart and give you a new perspective on humanity. You will not want to miss this sermon!
THIS SUNDAY’S SERMON
This Sunday, I will be speaking on End Time Bible Prophecy. The title of my sermon is, Israel — God’s Prophetic Time-Clock. If you have ever wondered about what Bible Prophecy has to say about the future — and who hasn’t? — then you will not want to miss this sermon. We will be putting aside speculation, human tradition and sensationalism, and will simply be exploring what is revealed in the Holy Scriptures.
NO MIDWEEK SERVICE NEXT WEEK — Have a Great Thanksgiving!
There will be no celebration of the Liturgy of the Holy Eucharist on Wednesday, November 27th.
SATURDAY’S RADIO BROADCAST
This Saturday’s broadcast of THE FAITH ONCE DELIVERED is the fourth and final part in our four part series on the authentic Gospel proclaimed by Jesus and his apostles. What you think you know about the Gospel may be very different from the Gospel found in the Holy Scriptures. Saturday morning we will be studying the Gospel as found in the Holy Scriptures, and debunking the false Gospel of human tradition. This is a broadcast you will not want to miss!
THE FAITH ONCE DELIVERED is heard every Saturday morning at 9:30 AM CST on KCRO Radio 660 AM in Omaha, and 106.7 FM in Lincoln, and can be heard throughout eastern Nebraska and western Iowa. Not in eastern Nebraska or western Iowa? No problem! You can listen live over the Internet. Just go to the KCRO Radio website and click Listen Live:
THE FAITH ONCE DELIVERED — PODCASTS
In addition to the radio broadcast every Saturday morning at 9:30 AM Central Time on KCRO Radio 660 AM in Omaha and 106.7 FM in Lincoln, each episode of THE FAITH ONCE DELIVERED is being archived and can be listened to anytime as a Podcast. You can access past radio programs here:
SUNDAY SERVICES
Sunday Christian Education is at 8:30 AM, followed by Morning Prayer at 9:15 AM, and the Liturgy of the Holy Eucharist at 10:00 AM, with our monthly Potluck Luncheon after Services.
Holy Cross is an Orthodox Bible-believing congregation where the Holy Scriptures are taught in their proper textual, historical and cultural context. At Holy Cross parish God is worshipped in a spirit of holiness and the uncompromised Word of God is taught. Everyone is invited to attend and visitors are always welcome. We are a faithful and friendly parish, and we have a place for you. We hope to see you on Sunday!
HOLY CROSS ORTHODOX CHURCH
7545 Main Street
Ralston, Nebraska 68127
(402) 573-6558
