It’s with sadness that we tell you that, yesterday, one of our own, Shannon Ash (daughter-in-law of Terry Ash), was unexpectedly and suddenly taken home to glory. Although she went into the ER yesterday morning, having been unable to keep food down for several days, it was an unknown blood clot that, only hours later, caused her death.

The funeral service for Shannon will be at Desert Springs Church, this Saturday, at 11:00AM.

Of course, please pray for the Ashes — for Terry and Marcia, for Jeff (husband), and for their two little girls. Pray for God’s strength, comfort, peace, nearness, and joy; pray that God would show himself strong and good, and his Word sufficient; pray that we, as a body, would be able to wisely and lovingly begin to bear this burden with them.

And let’s fix our minds on God’s truth at a time like this. Oh how we need passages like this from 2 Cor. 4-5.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you … because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.

Here is a great description of what we’re aiming to be at DSC.

Josh Harris:

Acts 20:28 tells us that Jesus obtained the church with his own blood. Is this what your love for the church is based on? If it’s anything less than it won’t last.

• Don’t love the church because of what it does for you. Because sooner or later it won’t do enough.
• Don’t love the church because of a leader. Because human leaders are fallible and will let you down.
• Don’t love the church because of a program or a building or activities because all those things get old.
• Don’t love the church because of a certain group of friends because friendships change and people move.

Love the church because of who shed his blood to obtain the church. Love the church because of who the church belongs to. Love the church because of who the church worships. Love the church because you love Jesus Christ and his glory. Love the church because Jesus is worthy and faithful and true. Love the church because Jesus loves the church.

(HT:  Pure Church)

Jonathan Dodson has a good post that should be passed around on why Christians should bring their Bibles to church (assuming they live in a country where they can own a Bible).  His main points are:

1. It allows the Bible to make up your mind about meaning, not you make up your own mind about the meaning.
2. It allows you to read the Bible in context.
3. It helps you avoid confusing the medium for the message.

Some good quotes from his piece:

• Follow the argument of Scripture, not just the argument of the preacher.
• When we read in context we get to see the Bible, not in bits and pieces, but as an awe-inspiring whole.
• Reading in PowerPoint prevents us from seeing the Bible as complete thoughts that hang together in context.

Read the whole thing.

Greg Schneeberger, our youth minister, is teaching this round of our membership class (a.k.a, Knowing Christ, Knowing the Church, or KCKC). He shared a wonderfully encouraging story with our leadership today — a story about sacrificial care happening within our membership class (i.e., among new people!).

Here’s how it starts: a lady in the class wrote Greg last week, saying,

Greg,

I’m worried that my husband and I and I won’t be able to make many of the classes left. As embarrassing as it is, I feel you deserve a reason why. A month ago we lost our mini van. My husband had started teaching me to drive his truck. What a pain! But we were thankful that God had left us with an open window sorta say. This past Sunday after church we were headed to my grandmothers for lunch. The clutch in the truck went out. And we were lucky to get to her house. Now with no transportation to speak of, I worry that we won’t be able to get to the church. It pains me to miss church and KCKC, it being the only time I really got out of the apartment. I will however, pray that something changes or at least that we can retake the class in the future.  We do love DCS!

Greg then wrote our leadership today with the rest of the story:

Just wanted to encourage us all with a cool story from last night’s KCKC. In brief:

1. A young mom wrote me that their car had exploded and they would have to drop the class. She said the repairs were under 1k but for their family it might as well have been a million dollars.
2. I told her to try and make it on Wednesday and we would get a strategy going.
3. As she arrived I was talking to a young professional in my home group. He overheard me make a few comments to her about the situation.
4. He proceeded to pull out a set of keys and tossed them her way. “We have three cars and there are only two of us. So why don’t you guys go ahead and use our X-Terra for as long as you need until things get worked out.”
5. The lady just about fell off her chair. The couples talked, got to know each other, and my home group buddy took some time to explain that this is how things are supposed to work in the Kingdom. It was pretty glorious.
6. So, this mom of three left with a ride on loan and the home group couple drove home in their other car. They shared contact info and everyone was very excited about how God was moving in love and generosity.

Even though we all weren’t a part of this, let’s thank God together that this, and many other like-things, are happening at this church. I truly believe that DSC has seen significant growth in this kind of body-care in the last few years.