Dear Members and Friends of IBCZ, It is good to be back with you after several weeks of vacation with our family in the US. We had a wonderful time and are so grateful for the time we shared with our loved ones. And now we are glad to be
Continue readingDear Members and Friends of IBCZ, In a couple weeks, the year 2020 will come to an end. It has certainly been a year unlike any other. The Covid virus disrupted our lives in ways we would not have imagined. And yet, in the midst of whatever disappointments and hardships
Continue readingDear Members and Friends of IBCZ, On Wednesday evening, Dec. 9th, your Elders and Deacons had an online meeting to consider our Christmas Eve Worship Service, as well as our Sunday worship services for January. Like all of you, we had been hoping that the spread of the Covid 19
Continue readingDear Members and Friends of IBCZ, Usually in December, the Women’s Ministry sponsors a Christmas gathering and meal for the women of our church. As a part of that, they give an offering, that in recent years has been given to the Open Door Foundation in Romania. This is a
Continue readingDear Members and Friends of IBCZ, This coming Sunday, Nov. 29th, is the first Sunday of Advent. Advent includes the four Sundays before Christmas, and so it leads us into the final days of the year. Probably many of us will be happy to see 2020 come to an end.
Continue readingDear Members and Friends of IBCZ, On Wednesday evening, Nov 18, the Elders and Deacons met online to discuss our worship services for December – specifically, whether or not we should open the church for people to attend our worship services. We know that all of us are eager to
Continue readingDear Members and Friends of IBCZ, In the sermon last Sunday, I challenged us in one particular way relating to our use of time. I asked us to consider what the impact on our relationship with God would be if for every hour we spent watching television, we spent one
Continue readingDear Members and Friends of IBCZ, This past Sunday we considered the second half of the phrase from the Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” We saw that the word “forgive” literally means “to release.” When we forgive someone who has hurt us or wronged
Continue readingDear Members and Friends of IBCZ, By now, I’m sure most of you are aware that the Elders and Deacons met last week and concluded it is best to suspend “in person worship services” for the month of November. We will, of course, continue to live stream the services, with
Continue readingDear Members and Friends of IBCZ, Chinese Christian leader and author Watchman Nee (1903-1972), made this observation about prayer: “Our prayers lay the track down upon which God’s power can come. Like a mighty locomotive, his power is irresistible, but it cannot reach us without rails.” Last Sunday in our
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