Lists. Making lists is a special talent of mine; completing my lists is another matter entirely. But I “press on toward the mark” as Paul would say, always hoping to experience the feeling of accomplishment. The author of Peter wrote a list for the persecuted Christians living in areas of Asia Minor. I learned today that Asia Minor, now Anatolia, is the part of Western Asia that touches Europe. Peter’s letters, and lists, were important to the new church. Keep these things in mind this week as you move forward in your relationship with God: Onto your faith, add virtue. And to your virtue add knowledge. To knowledge, self-control (good luck with this one). To self-control, add steadfastness or perseverance (NIV translation). To perseverance, godliness; to Godliness, mutual affection for each other. And finally, church, add love. I am grateful to be on this journey with you. Faithfully and as virtuously as I am able, Mary
-
-
We were all ready for Sunday School, but today we had no kids! What a disappointment. We were ready to talk about God creating living things. It was the fifth and sixth days of creation when God created living things.
The swarming of living things is a description of how all creatures inhabit the earth. God divided the animals into three categories—- sea animals, sky animals, and land animals. Each area of the earth that God created needed different living things.
Fish, sea animals, and water plants needed the nourishment of water. Creatures that lived on land and flew in the sky needed plants and they needed areas to find food and to nest.
God made all living things diverse in color, shape, and size. God knew that each creature would serve a purpose and be a contributing part of creation. God saw all that was created as good and beautiful.
Children can use their imagination to create. Children delight in the beauty around them. Maybe we should start looking at the world through the eyes of a child—slowing our pace, looking at the ground below us, and stopping to give thanks for God’s world of wonder and beauty. See you in church.
-
-
Watch the full service on our YouTube channel by clicking here.
2 Peter 1:5-7 New International Version
5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.
Tags: 2 Peter
-
“An Evening With The Gospel” Concert
I’m giving a concert Saturday night, 6:00 p.m.
This Saturday—the 9th.
St. Matthew has two of the best singers around, our choir director and our “star soloist.”
They are in on most of the shows in our new concert series, but not this one.
It’s just me.
So, tell me again why I am doing this?
It’s a fundraiser to keep Friday’s Word going and to support our music program.
We consider this little box in the paper a kind of ministry. It’s a way to reach—well—you with a sane message about faith when there is so much nonsense around.
But it ain’t cheap.
That’s where our Second Saturday Concerts come in. We’ve had two, and they seem to be working.
But this one is just me.
Ol’ Max.
Or old Max. And can Old Max still sing?
Or could he ever?
I’m clearly not the one to answer that. But I have been doing something like it all my life.
As a teen, I almost had a career singing How Great Thou Art.
When the great Dr. Charles Allen came to our small town to preach, I was trotted out to sing—yes—How Great Thou Art.
I sang it at 17 funerals in a two-year period.
But in recent years, with great singers around, I haven’t done much solo work.
So, why am I doing this concert? Want the truth?
I love to sing. It’s a spiritual experience for me to bring a song to life.
The concert is called An Evening with the Gospel.
It lasts an hour. It’s free, as is the dinner after.
We will take an offering. Consider coming at 6:00, tomorrow night, Saturday the 9th, at St. Matthew.