Core Community Church of Omaha

Our HTML5 video player has launched.
You can now watch and listen to Core sermons on your iphone or on your laptop.
We are posting the EXODUS sermons and more is to follow soon.

Get the video.

http://corecommunity.org/resources/sermons/

Our sermon podcasts make it easier for you to download our weekly sermon audio files. Instead of coming to the site and manually downloading MP3  files, you can set your podcast software to copy new files to your computer automatically as they’re posted each week. You can then listen to the sermon on your iPod, iPad, or computer; burn a CD; or copy the file to an MP3 player.

If you use iTunes, you may use this link: Add to iTunes

NOTE: This is a special guest post from Kathy Hitt, a deacon for Core.  It is a follow up to the Fasting Seminar that was hosted on Sunday, March 28, 2010.

Reflecting upon my talk the other day on Fasting (audio here), I thought I did not speak enough of the joy I have found in fasting – not joy because of fasting, or despite fasting, or after fasting, but joy in fasting, for I believe the Lord has met me in a special way in fasting and has granted much joy.

Now, don’t get me wrong, fasting is not fun. Being hungry is not enjoyable. It can make you grumpy, irritable, and anxious. Each time, I look forward to the time when I can break my fast and eat again. And I don’t look forward to being hungry again.

But even so, there is joy to be found in the hunger and suffering of fasting because of the way it connects us to Christ and His suffering.

2 Corinthians 7:4: I am filled with comfort. In all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy. Fasting reminds me not only of my need, but of the abundance I have in the Lord and so I rejoice.

Hebrews 12:1-2: Let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. In fasting I lay aside my perceptions of my needs and desires, place them at His feet, and allow the perfecter of my faith to fill me.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. In fasting, I choose to identify with the poor, the broken, the oppressed, and plead to God for comfort so that I may share His comfort and joy with others.

Romans 5:3-5: More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. And I rejoice in fasting, for I know He is increasing my hope and dependence upon my Father, who will never fail or forsake His children.

We would encourage you this year to draw close to God and identify with his suffering this Good Friday by choosing to fast for a meal before our service together. If you are unable to abstain from food, then ask Him to reveal another way you can sacrifice a pleasure to Him in acknowledgment of the ways in which He has sacrificed for you.

Please join us for the Good Friday service, 6pm, 1316 Jones.  And May He fill you with the Joy of His Resurrection this Easter Sunday.

Last month our members met in downtown Omaha at Kaneko Gallery to hear a report on what God had done in 2009 and what we are anticipating him to do in 2010.  Listen to our 2009 Vision Talk:

[audio:http://corecommunity.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Membership-Meeting-August-2009.mp3]