Announcements
Potluck!--
This
Sunday
Community
Kitchen Spot
There
are a lot of hungry and homeless children of God and the community
needs some help feeding them. If you would like to help out, please
bring the following items to church this Sunday & put them on the
bookshelf.
Plastic
Forks, Knives, Spoons
Dinner
Napkins
Heavy
Duty Sectional Dinner Plates
Dessert
Plates
New
Hope News
May
Newsletter—If
you have anything you'd like included in the May Newsletter, please
submit it to the church office by Monday.
Sunday
School—Don
Kaller is going to be teaching the adult Sunday School class through
May 4.
Session
Meeting—May
4, 5:30-7.
Pray
For:
Norma
Capone
Peggy
& John L.
For
those in darkness struggling to see the light bursting forth from the
empty tomb
For
the kids in confirmation class
Links
Keith's
Random Thoughts
The last few years have
seen a huge rise in participation in endurance athletic events. Full
& Half-marathons and Full & Half-Ironman Triathlons are more
popular than ever. Thousands of people spends thousands of hours
preparing for such events. In order to complete such an event,
training has to become a certain way of life. You can't just walk
out the door and complete and Ironman. (Well, I can't. I used to
think I wanted to do an Ironman. Then I did an Olympic distance tri,
which is ¼ of an Ironman, and I realized that I'm good with the
sprint races, which are ½ of those. Moving in a straight line for
12-17 hours in a row doesn't actually seem like something I'm
particularly called to do.)
Picking up training for
such an event disturbs rhythms and patterns in life. There was a
fascinating article some years back about rifts in relationships,
including divorces, that are caused by one partner dedicating
themselves to training for such an event, while their partner gets
left behind if they don't take up the training. One feels guilty
criticizing the other for choosing physical fitness, but there can be
no room left for the other partner when solo training takes hours
each morning or evening.
Paul talks about this in
1 Timothy. He says that physical training is of some value, and it
certainly is. It's good to be healthy, and it can enable us to
participate more fully in various opportunities.
Paul goes on, however,
to say that training in godliness is valuable in every way,
holding promise in this life as well as the one to come.
Suddenly, we recognize
the limits of physical training. No matter how good my physical
fitness may be, I can't beat death, and it won't help me beyond the
grave. Resurrection doesn't depend on one's ability to do 40
pushups.
But training in
godliness—that will help us beyond death, and it helps us here and
now. It helps release us from fear and anxiety and to live with
boldness today, and it prepares us for the eternal life that is to
come.
Wouldn't it be great if
we dedicated ourselves to godliness training with the same passion we
dedicate ourselves to physical training? Wouldn't it be wonderful if
we recognized the benefits of spending 30 minutes a day getting
spiritual exercise? I believe the benefits would compound, and we'd
grow deeper and more faithful over the years, recognizing God at work
in our hearts and lives. We may not end up with the fancy race
t-shirts, but the ability to recognizing God's blessings around us
would surely make up for that!
Text
for this Sunday
(Click on Link below to read)
Acts
17:16-34
(Common
English Bible)
New
Hope on iTunes
Keith's
Blog
& Devotionals
for your Kindle
No comments:
Post a Comment