Announcements
Hot
Dogs!—Hard
to believe, but the 4th
of July is Wednesday! To celebrate, we'll be having an informal hot
dog cookout after church this Sunday. Plan to join us!
Family
Camp—I
know that Labor Day seems like a long way away, but we're already
making plans for Family Camp at John Knox Center. We've got some
exciting things planned for the year, so be sure to sign up early!
Registration forms are in the Narthex.
VBS—It's
almost that time! VBS will be from July 23-27.
New
Hope News
Sermon
Series—We've
got four sermons left in the series What
the New Testament says about...
This week we're focusing on outsiders.
Sunday
School—We'll
explore Esther this Sunday @ 9:45.
Sunday
Evening Prayer Service—We're
back this week!
6:00
Pray
for:
David
Smith
Links
A
great article from Sunday's paper regarding a struggle with
homosexuality
Book
Recommendation
I
love biographies. There's something wonderful about having in-depth
knowledge of people about whom I previously knew very little. I'd
highly recommend a biography of David Livingstone, the Scottish
missionary to Africa. His life is fascinating, and his devotion to
Christ is inspiring. I've read David
Livingstone: The Truth behind the Legend, (used copies can be had
for $7. I wouldn't recommend paying $80 for it. It's not THAT good)
but any reputable biography of Livingstone should challenge your own
faith in exciting ways.
Random
Thoughts
I've
had all sorts of random thoughts over the past two weeks, and if I
were to record them all it would be a bit wordy. It'd also probably
be very boring.
I
spent most of last week doing some serious housecleaning at mom's. I
hauled several carloads of nothing but collapsed cardboard boxes to a
recycling center. Just like most houses, there were things that had
gotten put in a corner to store and ended up staying there for years.
These things were no longer useful to anyone and needed to be thrown
away—all they needed was someone to take the time to do it.
Because of the busy-ness of life, it simply took years to get around
to actually cleaning these things out.
It's
a fairly simple analogy to make for our own spiritual lives—the
difficult thing is to actually follow up on it. We all need to
devote time to our inner life. It doesn't have to be an extensive
process every day, but once or twice a year it is wise to set some
time aside to spend retreating, focusing on the inner life, thinking
about what kind of cleaning needs to be done—habits that need to be
dropped, old routines that were lost that need to be re-discovered.
Most of us think it's a good idea to set time aside to do this. I
doubt that many of us actually follow through and do it.
It
doesn't have to be a month spent at a mountain retreat. A day
walking in the woods might be what works for you. Perhaps an
overnight sojourn to a motel somewhere, or a weekend at home offered
to God. Your spiritual cleaning and renewal could take any form—just
let it form in your mind and take shape in your life, that it might
be a gift to you going forward.
Text
for Sunday, July 1
Acts 8:26-40
Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch
Then
an angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Get up and go towards the
south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’
(This is a wilderness road.) So he got up and went. Now there
was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of
the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to
Jerusalem to worship and was returning home; seated in his
chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said
to Philip, ‘Go over to this chariot and join it.’ So Philip
ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, ‘Do
you understand what you are reading?’ He replied, ‘How can
I, unless someone guides me?’ And he invited Philip to get in and
sit beside him.
Now the passage of the scripture that he was
reading was this:
‘Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,
and like a lamb silent before its shearer,
so he does not open his mouth.
In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.’
‘Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,
and like a lamb silent before its shearer,
so he does not open his mouth.
In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.’
The eunuch asked Philip, ‘About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?’ Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, ‘Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?’ He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.
New
Hope on iTunes
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