Ash Wednesday Worship

Posted on Feb 11, 2020 in Devotions, Newsletter, Pastor's Blog, Stained Glass |

Ash Wednesday

Worship

February 26th

7:00 am-7:00 pm

Ashes, Prayer, & The Hard Work of Repentance

Lent begins with a rather outlandish idea: let’s come and remember we’re finite and fallible, imperfect and mortal.  Far from the revelry of Springtime, Mardi Gras, and the planning for March Madness brackets, Lent makes for strange counter-programming, and skipping this time of repentance and deep looks inward would definitely be easier.

However, this crazy idea is also the first step in acknowledging our need for God.  Without confessing our sins and asking for forgiveness, we can never have Christ in our hearts, following him as Lord and Savior.  That’s why Ash Wednesday is so important, and why we’ll have the sanctuary open for twelve hours, from 7am-7pm.  Anytime during these hours, you are welcome to prayerfully begin your Lent in this unique worship experience.  You’ll receive a booklet to guide you through the stations, and your experience will end with ashes in the sign of the cross on your forehead.  There will also be booklets for Children and Youth so that they can go through Ash Wednesday in their own special way.  You can take as long as you need to process through the stations; your pace is between you and God.

During the Sundays in Lent, we’ll be diving into prayer through the Gospel of Matthew.  We’ll ask Jesus to teach us to pray so we learn to love, following Jesus as he is tempted in the wilderness (Ch. 4:1-11) and as he gives his disciples the Lord’s prayer during the Sermon on the Mount in Chapter 6.  We’ll also take a Sunday to hear about the work God is doing through our new church start at Lowell Correctional Institute in Reddick.  In all these times of worship, I hope you’ll worship through the ashes of repentant prayer so you may receive the world-changing forgiveness of God’s love.

As outlandish as Lent and Ash Wednesday may seem at first glance, the work to go through them always pays off.  Extracting ourselves from all the distractions around us, we can more effectively work with God to re-make us into the forgiven, loving, joyful, eternally peaceful person God created us to be!

I’ll see you on Ash Wednesday!  ~Robert

 


Lent Devotional Week 4: Christ the Healer

Posted on Mar 11, 2018 in Devotions, Pastor's Blog |

Lenten Devotional: Week 4- Christ the Healer
 
Our Lenten Challenge
God calls all of us to set aside the 40 days before Easter, the season of Lent, to be a time of preparation. We honor this call knowing that on Easter morning our efforts will be rewarded with a renewed sense of hope and awe as we celebrate the resurrection of Christ.
Each week of Lent will include a weekly devotional. Try to answer one question a day, reading the scripture and meditating on its meaning in your life. If you’re having trouble, talk to God or a trusted friend about it. Keep reading the scripture, ask others and involve them in this process. You may be surprised at the results! But whatever you do, do not give up. Lent is about strengthening faith, and like any good muscle, strength in faith requires exercise!
Bring your devotionals back to church each Sunday, and put them in the basket on the altar. Let the time you spend studying and reflecting be part of your offering to God during Lent this year.
 
This week’s Scripture Reading:
Matthew 8:14-17
 
14 Jesus went home with Peter and saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. 15 He touched her hand, and the fever left her. Then she got up and served them. 16 That evening people brought to Jesus many who were demon-possessed. He threw the spirits out with just a word. He healed everyone who was sick. 17 This happened so that what Isaiah the prophet said would be fulfilled: “He is the one who took our illnesses and carried away our diseases.”
*****
Acts of healing, along with Jesus’ teaching about money, are one of the more common themes in the Gospels. They almost seem supernatural and exaggerated as we look at them through our modern eyes. Today, we have doctors and other health professionals who do the healing, and many are convinced that these Gospel healings were just fanciful “fairy tales.”
As Matthew tells us his story of the life of Christ, however, we can’t ignore that healing was a large part of Jesus’ ministry. So, in belief or unbelief, why did Matthew and the other Gospel writers include so many healing stories? What is God, through these Gospel writers, trying to teach us about the Christ? What are these Bible stories trying to teach us about ourselves? Can we still be healed by God?

Lent Devotional-Week2: Buddy Jesus or Suffering Servant?

Posted on Feb 28, 2018 in Devotions, Pastor's Blog |

Our Lenten Challenge

God calls all of us to set aside the 40 days before Easter, the season of Lent, to be a time of preparation.   We honor this call knowing that on Easter morning our efforts will be rewarded with a renewed sense of hope and awe as we celebrate the resurrection of Christ. 

Each week of Lent will include a weekly devotional.  Try to answer one question a day, reading the scripture and meditating on its meaning in your life.  If you’re having trouble, talk to God or a trusted friend about it.  Keep reading the scripture, ask others and involve them in this process.  You may be surprised at the results!  But whatever you do, do not give up.  Lent is about strengthening faith, and like any good muscle, strength in faith requires exercise!

Bring your devotionals back to church each Sunday, and put them in the basket on the altar.  Let the time you spend studying and reflecting be part of your offering to God during Lent this year. 

This week’s scripture reading:

Mark 8:31-38

31 Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

34 He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. 36 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37 Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 38 Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

*****

In a “pain-killer” culture, this passage has a lot of difficult things to say to us about suffering, and about Jesus’ place in it.  Why did Jesus have to suffer?  Didn’t he come to make our lives “positive” and “prosperous?” Aren’t we promised that if we follow Christ, we won’t have to suffer? The short answer, frankly, is “no.” The image of Jesus as the “Suffering Servant,” who does God’s will no matter what the cost, is often hard to swallow, especially when so many TV preachers promise us prosperity in following Jesus. Much danger lies in concluding that suffering and self-sacrifice are undesirable in the Christian life.  They may, in fact, be necessary, as Jesus’ own life tells us. He had many wonderful things happen to him as a result of following God, but he also was killed for it.

All of the disciples, as they left Jerusalem after Easter and began to preach the Gospel to the world, encountered suffering. All ages of Christianity have had suffering servants, and they give us an awe-inspiring picture of faith amid hardship, just like Jesus.  Even today, we may lose our job, be denied promotions, or lose friends & family because of our faith in Christ. However, if we have the confidence & faith to know Who is with us in the suffering, it makes the pain of doing God’s will small compared to the eternal pain of not doing God’s will. Salvation through Christ carries with it a promise and a warning: everyone can be confident at the final judgment that Jesus will follow the Golden Rule – he will treat us the way we have treated him, no matter whether the road was paved with suffering or not!