Announcements
Outreach
Committee—Meets
tonight @ 6
Sunday
Evening Prayer Service—Come
check out a prayer service this Sundy evening @ 6:00 in the McMillan
Building. This week will be a taize service.
Potluck—This
Sunday!
New
Hope News
Sunday
School—We'll
explore 1 Kings this Sunday @ 9:45.
Pray
for:
Christine
Dyer, Gerai's daughter, as she recovers from surgery
David
Smith
Madeline
Sims—give her a call if you get the chance
Eleanor
Hall
Links
Book
Recommendation
Curious
about the Reformation? Ever wanted to increase your knowledge about
the roots of Protestantism? Alistair McGrath's Christianity's
Dangerous Idea is
a great place to start. It's a history of the Protestant church from
the beginning to present day.
Random
Thoughts
I've
been spending a lot of time in the Old Testament lately (it's only
fair after spending 2.5 years wrapped up in Luke), and I can't help
but wonder what the prophets would say to the 21st
century American Christian church. It's easy to read the invective
that the prophets hurled without restraint at Israel and see all the
reasons that God was angry with the Israelites. It's a lot harder to
look at our own lives and wonder if God might be angry with us for
many of the choices we make. I believe and trust in God's mercy, but
I also believe that God calls us to a level of discipleship that
demands a life offered completely to God.
Are
we living a life that testifies to God's love for all of creation?
Do the poor and the outcast, the blind and the prisoner, the
oppressed and the lost, register on our awareness? Or are we so
caught up in our own lives, in our own struggles, that we've lost
sight of the bigger picture? Are we so concerned with surviving
until tomorrow that we're missing the bigger mission of God?
I
worry about the church. I worry that the prophets might say the same
things to us today, but we don't hear the message as one for us , and
if we can't hear the message, how will we ever change?
Text
for Sunday, May 6
Matthew 2:1-12
2In
the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea,
wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2asking,
“Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we
observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him
homage.” 3When King Herod heard
this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; 4and
calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he
inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.
5They
told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the
prophet: 6‘And you, Bethlehem, in
the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people
Israel.’” 7Then Herod secretly
called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the
star had appeared. 8Then he sent
them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child;
and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and
pay him homage.”
9When
they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went
the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the
place where the child was.
10When
they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with
joy. 11On entering the house, they
saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him
homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts
of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12And
having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for
their own country by another road.
New
Hope on iTunes
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