Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Special Event
Saturday, May 21 and Sunday, May 22, we welcome Alan Shore of Chosen People Ministries who will share a special communion service presentation entitled "Messiah in the Passover." Please join us on Saturday evening, the 21st at 6:00 pm for a Q & A potluck dinner with Mr. Shore, and follow up on Sunday at the 10:30 worship service for the communion service!
Friday, May 6, 2011
Newsletter
A Word from Pastor David
Easter is past and even though there is a late snow storm in the forecast, spring is upon us and summer is just around the corner. Do you have any plans? If you don’t it will be fall and winter again before you know it and you will have missed summer. Our days can roll by one after another, simply chalked up as one long continuum of the same thing or plans can be made to do something extraordinary. You could plan a cruise or trip to some far away place, but making an investment in the future is always important.
As most of you know, recently my Father passed away. We simply called him, “Dad”. His life was ordinary by most standards. He never earned a million bucks, wrote a book, sang or spoke to crowds. He just went to work and did the best he could to be kind to others. He brought home his paycheck and trusted my Mom to spend the family’s money wisely. He never invested in the stock market and when he was horse-trading; he was actually trading real horses! He was a serious homebody living in the same house for over 61 years and within a ½ mile radius since 1933. But, at the prodding of my Mom we vacationed each summer to some exotic place like Ellensburg, Cashmere or a distant shore like Jackson Hole WY or Salt Lake UT. We also took horse trips into the mountains. Far into the mountains. Where alpine forests, heather and the effects of the late snow are always evident, the landscape was magnificent and it was a photographer’s paradise.
Me, I wanted to stay home. I wanted to be with my friends. I wanted to play, hangout and do what I wanted to do. The idea of being cooped up in a car for a week or riding hour after hour on horseback was not my idea of a vacation. In my immaturity I wanted what I wanted, not what I needed and at my age I didn’t even consider what was best for our family. I lived in the day, in the moment, whatever made me feel good and my plans were all about me.
As the years pass by, life has a way of booting us into the future whether we are ready to go or not. Life can be absorbed by a lack of money, lack of time and the busyness of the day. But even though life has little mercy and keeps turning tomorrows into yesterdays, we have to break from the mundane and create the valuable. There are many valuable things in life and keeping our priorities straight is how we can make lasting investments to the future.
In Matthew 4:18-20 the Bible says, “While walking by the Sea of Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him.” I suppose Peter and Andrew could have said, “Thanks, but no thanks.” They could have noted the wants of the day. They could have thought of the costs of the fishing nets and considered the short life of nets left piled on a beach. But what they did was to invest themselves in something important, following Christ. Oh they still fished. We find them in their boat in Matthew 14 and John 6 and in John 21:3 we find Peter and the disciples going fishing again. After all they were fishermen and they needed food and money to survive.
But we also find they spent plenty of time focused on spending time with Christ, worshiping God and teaching others about God’s love for man. So let this be a reminder as you prepare your summer plans and all the things you want to do, there are some things you need to do. There will be a need for VBS teachers, Bible Study teachers, neighbors and friends who need to be invited to Church and at times comforted. These are the things that change communities and turn the mundane to the extraordinary. We need the mundane and we need vacations and trips. But the rest of society needs to know that God loves them and God sent us to spread the good news.
Easter is past and even though there is a late snow storm in the forecast, spring is upon us and summer is just around the corner. Do you have any plans? If you don’t it will be fall and winter again before you know it and you will have missed summer. Our days can roll by one after another, simply chalked up as one long continuum of the same thing or plans can be made to do something extraordinary. You could plan a cruise or trip to some far away place, but making an investment in the future is always important.
As most of you know, recently my Father passed away. We simply called him, “Dad”. His life was ordinary by most standards. He never earned a million bucks, wrote a book, sang or spoke to crowds. He just went to work and did the best he could to be kind to others. He brought home his paycheck and trusted my Mom to spend the family’s money wisely. He never invested in the stock market and when he was horse-trading; he was actually trading real horses! He was a serious homebody living in the same house for over 61 years and within a ½ mile radius since 1933. But, at the prodding of my Mom we vacationed each summer to some exotic place like Ellensburg, Cashmere or a distant shore like Jackson Hole WY or Salt Lake UT. We also took horse trips into the mountains. Far into the mountains. Where alpine forests, heather and the effects of the late snow are always evident, the landscape was magnificent and it was a photographer’s paradise.
Me, I wanted to stay home. I wanted to be with my friends. I wanted to play, hangout and do what I wanted to do. The idea of being cooped up in a car for a week or riding hour after hour on horseback was not my idea of a vacation. In my immaturity I wanted what I wanted, not what I needed and at my age I didn’t even consider what was best for our family. I lived in the day, in the moment, whatever made me feel good and my plans were all about me.
As the years pass by, life has a way of booting us into the future whether we are ready to go or not. Life can be absorbed by a lack of money, lack of time and the busyness of the day. But even though life has little mercy and keeps turning tomorrows into yesterdays, we have to break from the mundane and create the valuable. There are many valuable things in life and keeping our priorities straight is how we can make lasting investments to the future.
In Matthew 4:18-20 the Bible says, “While walking by the Sea of Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him.” I suppose Peter and Andrew could have said, “Thanks, but no thanks.” They could have noted the wants of the day. They could have thought of the costs of the fishing nets and considered the short life of nets left piled on a beach. But what they did was to invest themselves in something important, following Christ. Oh they still fished. We find them in their boat in Matthew 14 and John 6 and in John 21:3 we find Peter and the disciples going fishing again. After all they were fishermen and they needed food and money to survive.
But we also find they spent plenty of time focused on spending time with Christ, worshiping God and teaching others about God’s love for man. So let this be a reminder as you prepare your summer plans and all the things you want to do, there are some things you need to do. There will be a need for VBS teachers, Bible Study teachers, neighbors and friends who need to be invited to Church and at times comforted. These are the things that change communities and turn the mundane to the extraordinary. We need the mundane and we need vacations and trips. But the rest of society needs to know that God loves them and God sent us to spread the good news.
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