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CTPress June 10, 2016

We are only two weeks into the summer months, and already there are great things for which to thank God!

Every year, our wonderful fellowship team schedules a banquet for either the men of the church or the ladies of the church. Last Saturday, we celebrated the ladies of our church family with a banquet that was wonderful and fun! The men of the church, with significant help from the Yokefellows class, served a fantastic dinner to almost 100 women and young ladies, and Allen Rogers gave a heartfelt talk on prayer.

On Sunday, we started our summer schedule with fellowship beginning at 9:00am, Sunday School beginning at 9:15, and worship beginning at 10:15. What a joy it was to celebrate the sacrament of baptism with Caroline Lutman and her family! This coming Sunday we are going to celebrate the baptism of Jackson Smith, Diane and John Mayhew’s grandson, and we will be celebrating the service of Connie Adams, who is retiring in July after 21 years as business administrator of our church. After worship there will be a light reception in the fellowship hall for Connie.

We still have most of the summer ahead of us, and I am excited for what’s coming: the youth mission trip, a visit from missionary Drake Williams, Vacation Bible School, just to name a few things!

Blessings,

Pastor John

CTPress June 3, 2016

Social media. Phones. Portable music. Ongoing commentary on everything from the presidential election to the tragic outcome of the gorilla in the Cincinnati zoo. Sometimes it seems like there is so much information to take in, that it all gets so overwhelming.

Last week I had the good fortune of spending two days of my study leave at a conference for pastors held at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. The speakers were great, the fellowship was great, the food was great. It was one of the most refreshing and challenging conferences I’ve ever been to. But the best part was the morning I did devotions by the lake. I found a quiet place and read some scripture and listened. No phones (though I did use my phone to snap a picture – see above), no email, no social media, no…noise.

In Psalm 46:10 we read these words:

Be still and know that I am God.

How often we do the opposite? We try to know God more by doing more and more. As an old friend told me long ago, God did not creating human doings, he created human beings.

Sometimes, all we need to do is be.

Blessings,

Pastor John

CTPress May 20, 2016

Sometimes I feel like life is so much easier for non-Christians. Sometimes it seems like life is really, really hard. There are times when the difficult stuff we are journeying through is never, ever going to end. Much like we do with the recent weather pattern, we wonder if it will ever end. This Sunday I am preaching on one of my favorite passages – Romans 5:1-5. In this passage, the apostle Paul outlines a process. That process includes suffering, and Paul says we should be thankful for this. The reason we should be thankful is simple: every time we are going through something challenging, God has a chance to work in our lives in significant ways.

Think of it this way: Which have you learned more from, your successes or your failures? Success comes with the temptation to trust our own abilities, and when things are going well, we have a tendency to cruise along and enjoy the moment. Failure and struggle catch our attention, and in that, God has a chance to teach us more than during the times when life is easy! I hope you’re able to join us this Sunday, and we will learn more about this
amazing process that teaches us about God’s grace.

Blessings,

Pastor John

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in
which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has
been given to us.

Romans 5:1-5

CTPress May 13, 2016 (Pentecost)

This Sunday we will celebrate this special day in the life of the Church. Pentecost is typically thought of as the birthday of the Church. Acts 2 recounts how the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, came upon Jesus’ disciples while they were gathered in Jerusalem, waiting for such a move of the Spirit. Jesus told them to wait for the Spirit, and the Spirit came.

Pentecost is not new to the New Testament. Neither is the Holy Spirit. The feast of Pentecost is actually given to the Jewish people in Exodus 34, and was known as one of the migratory feasts – In the case of Pentecost, Jewish males were required to come to Jerusalem to celebrate the wheat harvest. It occurred fifty days after Passover.

The powerful presence of the Holy Spirit is not unique to the New Testament, either. One of my first seminary classes was a very difficult Old Testament course, the final project for which was a paper explaining the appearance of the word ruach (spirit, breath), as a manifestation of God. If memory serves, there are nearly 150 appearances of the Spirit in connection with God’s work. Through the Spirit, God’s servants in the Old Testament perform miracles, give testimony, provide prophecy and even change natural events, like weather! Sounds familiar, right?

When the Holy Spirit comes on Christ’s disciples and enables them to speak in other languages, people celebrating Passover from all over the known world hear the gospel in their language. Peter, the disciple most likely to say the wrong thing, gives a powerful sermon. And the net result is that thousands come to faith in Christ and are saved!

As we prepare to celebrate Passover, let us pray that God will unleash his Spirit and spark revival among us, and that God would so equip us to share his gospel!

Blessings,

Pastor John

REMINDER

Our summer schedule changes begin on Sunday, June 5

9:00 – Fellowship hour begins

9:15 – Sunday School begins

10:15 – Worship