Announcements
UTC
BBQ—The
UTC campus ministry (808 Vine St, Chattanooga) is hosting a BBQ this
Sunday from 11-4. Feel free to drop in and enjoy their hospitality.
Food
Collection—Thank
you for your generosity! We
will continue to collect food for East Brainerd Elementary over the
summer. Please remember to bring in individual size fruit cups
during the month of May.
New
Hope News
Kid's
Musical—Sunday,
May 20.
Sunday
School—We'll
explore 1 Chronicles this Sunday @ 9:45.
Sunday
Evening Prayer Service—Come
check out a prayer service this Sundy evening @ 6:00 in the McMillan
Building.
Pray
for:
Danny
MacDonald, Sean's father, who is undergoing very tough surgery this
morning
David
Smith
Madeline
Sims, who's having a tough time of late
Links
Book
Recommendation
I've
been reading A.W. Tozer's The
Knowledge of the Holy
in the evenings. It's a small book, but it's one to savor in small
bites as Tozer discusses different attributes of God. It's a great
way to wrap up a day.
Random
Thoughts
It
is fascinating to me to read the books of the Old Testament and think
about the lives they were living. It's not like they lived in such a
way because they knew their lives would be immortalized in the Bible
someday. They lived their lives, and because they were part of God's
people, the stories of their lives were added to the larger story,
and that was eventually recorded, and now we read it today to
discover what we can learn about them and, more importantly, what we
can learn about God. The Bible records so many ways that God reaches
out to his people, even in the midst of their sin.
Are
our lives so different? The world has changed around us, but we are
still a part of a larger congregation, and we are called to live
faithfully now. If your life was going to be recorded in a book and
studied two thousand years from now, would you live differently?
What story does your life tell—does it testify to the reality of
God reaching out to you, or does it tell a different story? Do we
tell a story of joining in with God's mission of reaching out to the
world, or is our discipleship too timid, too limited, too small?
Text
for Sunday, May 27
Ezekiel 37:1-14
The Valley of Dry Bones
The
hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the
spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a
valley; it was full of bones. He led me all round them; there
were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. He
said to me, ‘Mortal, can these bones live?’ I answered,
‘O Lord God, you know.’ Then he said to me,
‘Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear
the word of theLord. Thus says the Lord God to these
bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I
will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and
cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live;
and you shall know that I am the Lord.’
So
I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly
there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to
its bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had
come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in
them. Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath, prophesy,
mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God:
Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these
slain, that they may live.’I prophesied as he commanded me, and the
breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a
vast multitude.
Then
he said to me, ‘Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel.
They say, “Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut
off completely.” Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus
says the Lord God:
I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves,
O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of
Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord,
when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my
people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and
I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I,
the Lord,
have spoken and will act, says the Lord.’
New
Hope on iTunes
No comments:
Post a Comment