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Dear Calvary Family,

It was wonderful to be back with all of you at church last Sunday morning and share a little about my sabbatical time away. I know I will continue to share more about what God has taught me during those times of solitude and prayer. Even this weekend, the elders and a few pastors will be on a retreat to pray, listen to God, and discuss how we can respond to what God was showing me. How can we simplify? How can we submit to God even more in our healthy fear and awe of him? How can we focus more on making disciples who make disciples? How can we learn from this past year of focusing on our values of dependence and oneness? How can we all experience a deep contentment and rest in the Lord?

Please pray for us this weekend as this group of leaders listens to God for his ultimate leadership of our church.

One other point of celebration from last weekend was our Beach Baptisms where we rejoiced with the 39 people who followed Jesus’ example of being baptized with water. It’s always so encouraging to see and hear about the way God has changed their lives.  Check out the full photo gallery online at CalvaryLife.org/Beach

Finally, I look forward to this Sunday as we continue our fall series Life With God by learning more about the spiritual practice of Sabbath. Sabbath is a potentially odd and interesting biblical custom that the people of Israel took too far into extreme legalism at points in their history. However, Jesus did not come to abolish the law, he came to fulfill the law. He has shown us the proper heart with which to observe the Sabbath. It was God’s model in the 7 days of creation and it’s part of the 10 Commandments. This matters! But we want the Sabbath to be a life-giving spiritual practice for each of us and for us to practice it in a way that draws us closer to God in intentional rest.

I can’t wait to see you Sunday and get a chance to greet many of you I wasn’t able to see last Sunday.

May the Lord bless you and keep you,
Eric