Charles Town Presbyterian Church

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

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

Dear Friends,

A few weeks ago, I reviewed Nancy Jo Sales’ American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers. I was not yet finished the book when I wrote that review. I was so captivated by the content of her reporting, I felt I needed to make people aware of this book. In the wake of this powerful work, I am left wondering how to respond. One of the conclusions the book makes is that teenagers are not learning how to share intimately, learning about what people like and dislike, who they are. This lack of relational bonding is due to the fact that so often, kids are glued to a screen of some kind – a phone, a tablet, a gaming device, a computer.

These are wonderful tools. They help us stay in touch, to work, to play and they entertain us. But do they need to be on all the time? What would happen if we stopped letting these devices control us, and we started being in charge?

Some of us are threatened by those questions. Some of us are addicted to our devices, and the idea of ignoring them, even for a little while, is horrifying. I ‘d like to offer these suggestions for how to start changing social media habits:

• ONE meal each day that is “no cell phone zone.” Put the phones in a box or in a another room for one meal each day so you can talk to each other.
• ONE night each week with no phones, screens, or electronic devices for a couple hours. Go one a date with your spouse, have a family game night – do something that allows you to talk with your family.
• ONE day each month where you and your spouse/family go do something outside the house that does not involve electronics for at least half the day.

If you have adolescents in your house, they will fight you on this. Do it anyway. Don’t cave! Life is too short to spend it digitally. Engage, and really live!