the Logos

I trust that everyone enjoyed their Christmas celebrating the birth of our Savior. Men, don't forget to sign-up for the Men's Retreat in August at the Welcome Center. We want to get a good count for planning purposes. Everyone is invited to join us for our New Year's Eve Celebration on Wednesday, December 31st, starting at 9:00pm. Starting in January, I'm starting an important 2 part series entitled "Practical Atheist". Are you who you say you are?

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." (Isaiah 9:6) What is so special about Christmas? Many believers make a big fuss about keeping Christ in Christmas. What is so special about this baby being born? Babies are born all the time. What is so special about the baby Jesus? Religion is man's attempt to reach God. Man sets up rules and regulations in order to work and obtain the favor of God. The reality is that you cannot reach God through your good works, your good personality, your good deeds, your good education, or your good family connections. The reason why the birth of Jesus is so significant is because it represents God coming to reach man. We could not reach Him, so He came in flesh to reach us! So this Christmas, remember that it's not about that present under the tree, but it's about this Child th...

I hope you will enjoy a stress-free (or at least a reduced stress) Christmas. We often stress ourselves out by spending way too much on meaningless gifts. Rick Warren said, "We buy things we don't need, with money we don't have, to impress people we don't even like." So this Christmas, don't worry with trying to please others with material gifts, but enjoy the gift of family and the gift of God's Son, Jesus Christ. And most importantly, share the gift of Christ with someone else. Due to the holidays and to allow our deacons to enjoy extra time with family, there will be no more Bible Study (Wednesday evening and Thursday morning) or Prayer Meetings for the remainder of the year. Of course, this doesn't mean that you should not be studying the Bible and praying at home. Everyone is invited to join us for our New Year's Eve Celebration on Wednesday, December 31st, starting at 9:00pm. Next Sunday, we want you to give generously to the love offe...

Thanks to all who came out to and participated in this year's Christmas Program. We had a great time celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Special thanks to the Fine Arts Ministry for putting together an awesome program Join the Outreach Ministry for an afternoon of Christmas Caroling on Saturday, December 20th. We will be visiting four nursing homes in the Cary area. Departure time from Mt. Zion will be 3:30pm. Directions and the route will be provided. Also, thanks for those that came out to support Deacon Zane Hankins has he delivered his Initial Sermon on Sunday afternoon.

I finished up the "Discerning God's Call in Your Life" series last week. If you missed any part of this series or just want to review the entire series again, order a free copy of the series on Audio CD. Don't forget about a couple of cool ways to earn money for Mt. Zion : Our Online Shopping Mall gives a percentage back to the church on purchases you make online and GoodSearch gives the church money when you search the internet. Men, the Men's Ministry need to know how many of you are interested in the 2009 Men's Retreat which is being planned for Thursday, August 13th through Saturday, August 15th. A sign-up sheet is located at the Welcome Center. It's very important for planning purposes that you sign up now if you are interested. Everyone is invited to attend the Christmas Program on Saturday, December 13th, beginning at 5pm. Please invite people to come along for the program, food, fun and fellowship. Pastor Snead and Christ First Christian Fel...

Today is Cyber Monday so shop online and avoid the stores! And don't forget to go through our shopping mall so a percentage will go back to the church. http://family.mtzionmb.org/home/resources/shopping_mall.html http://news.cnet.com/8301-13845_3-10110111-58.html Here's a Acer laptop for $299. It's a refurb and the specs are a bit old (Pentium Centrino processor, 512 MB RAM, and 80 GB harddrive), but it should be sufficient for basic use like email, internet, Word processing: http://bit.ly/SHuu