Thursday, June 23, 2011
Vacation Bible School Coming Soon!
Plan to set aside the week of July 25-29 for our annual VBS! Details will be coming soon!
Friday, June 3, 2011
Newsletter
Wanted: Dead or Alive
In the old west, wanted posters went out to the sheriffs offices throughout the country. These posters bore names, pictures whenever possible, a reward when applicable and for the most violent offenders the call was to capture them, “dead or alive”. Sheriffs and their deputies were busy people, taking care of the needs of their towns and communities. So they were not able to spend the time it took to capture these wanted outlaws. This gave rise to the vocation of Bounty Hunting. In those tough times, brave men would make a living or extra money by hunting down outlaws to collect the reward money. That sounds to me like a very dangerous way to make a living, especially since the bounty hunters had to hustle to find the outlaws before the sheriffs found them. But the law did whatever it took to apprehend those who broke the law.
As we begin reading our Bible, we don’t read very far before someone broke the law. It was chapter 3 of Genesis when Adam, Eve and the serpent cooperated in breaking the only law God had issued (do not eat from the tree in the center of the garden). Things only got more complicated from there.
By the time we reach Genesis 6:11, God finds the whole earth is corrupt (except Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord), so God sent a flood to destroy the Earth because people were breaking the Law. Then God implemented more laws to keep the peace. Genesis 9:6-7 adds, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man. As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.”
Looking at life in those days, we think it must have been simple for the folks to live within the bonds of the law. After all, all they had to do was be nice to one another and multiply on the Earth. But in chapter 11 we find the people refusing to occupy the whole and deciding to all live in one city. So God confuses their language, which causes them to scatter throughout the world. Once again trouble gets out of hand in chapter 19 in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Once again they weren’t being nice and they weren’t multiplying, so—ZAP —God torches the place. Are you starting to see a pattern?
In Exodus the Hebrews are held as slaves by the Egyptians, who weren’t being nice or allowing them to multiply over the Earth and guess what? You know it; God sent the plagues and the Pharaoh set the people free. Now Moses is leading the people and God adds the 10 Commandments in order to keep the peace. Moses didn’t even make it down from the mountain before the people were causing trouble. So God continues like a sheriff from the old west enforcing the laws, arresting, killing and rehabilitating the outlaws.
More and more laws were added to the list and all that really did was to increase the opportunity for people to break laws, which increased their chance of punishment. It was a vicious cycle repeated over and over again. No matter how many laws and how much punishment was issued people just couldn’t get it right. There can never be enough sheriffs, enough jails or enough bounty hunters to stop people from breaking the law.
So God changed the rules. He abolished the law (Eph. 2:15). He opened the prisons and set the captives free (Lk 4:18). In order to ensure justice He placed the sin of us all on Jesus, then cleansed us from our sin by Jesus’ blood (1Jn 1:7). God, if you will, returned us to the Garden of Eden where only a single law existed, “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die” (Gen. 2:17). Now the only Law that exists is failure to call upon the Lord Jesus for salvation, (Jn 3:18, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”)
Because of this gift of grace, God has managed to shut down the jails and the bondage of sin that entangles us and defeats us. By removing the Law, God has effectively laid off every sheriff and put every bounty hunter out of work by replacing the Law with grace. An amazing grace, amazing love, and an amazing life. In John 8:31-36, “… Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” …. “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
Special Events
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Join us as we celebrate our graduates! We will honor them during our 10:30 Worship Service, and afterward in the Fellowship Hall. We have seven young people to fete this year!
Also on Sunday, Vance and Carol Johnson will be with us! There will be a Q&A session with them at 6:30 pm in the Sanctuary. Please join us!
Join us as we celebrate our graduates! We will honor them during our 10:30 Worship Service, and afterward in the Fellowship Hall. We have seven young people to fete this year!
Also on Sunday, Vance and Carol Johnson will be with us! There will be a Q&A session with them at 6:30 pm in the Sanctuary. Please join us!
Duty Roster
6/5: Nursery-Christine, Children’s Church-Jim, Clean-VanCamps, Greet-LeRoy & Maury
6/12: Nursery-Mary, Children’s Church-Colleen, Clean-Wilcox & Jamison, Greet-Jamisons
6/19: Nursery-Melissa, Children’s Church-Sue, Clean-Horner & Swanson, Greet-Nobles
6/26: Nursery-Crystal, Children’s Church-Troy & Melissa, Clean-Nobles, Greet-Eddies
Calendar
What's happening this month:
Sundays:
June 5, 12, 19 - 8:45 am Worship Team
9:30 Sunday School
10:30 Worship
June 5 - Celebrate our Graduates at 10:30 Worship Service
June 5 - 6:30 Evening Q & A with Vance Johnson
Tuesdays:
June 14 - 7:00 Beyond Reasonable Doubt last class
Wednesdays
June 22 & 29 6:15 Worship Practice
Thursdays:
11:00 Prayer Hour
3:30 Women's Bible Study
June 16 - 7:00 Church Council
Saturdays:
June 4 - Men's Breakfast @ IHOP
June 25- Men's Breakfast @ Chimacum Cafe
Sundays:
June 5, 12, 19 - 8:45 am Worship Team
9:30 Sunday School
10:30 Worship
June 5 - Celebrate our Graduates at 10:30 Worship Service
June 5 - 6:30 Evening Q & A with Vance Johnson
Tuesdays:
June 14 - 7:00 Beyond Reasonable Doubt last class
Wednesdays
June 22 & 29 6:15 Worship Practice
Thursdays:
11:00 Prayer Hour
3:30 Women's Bible Study
June 16 - 7:00 Church Council
Saturdays:
June 4 - Men's Breakfast @ IHOP
June 25- Men's Breakfast @ Chimacum Cafe
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)