Announcements
St.
Paul's Episcopal is hosting a reception for Charlie Hughes, who is
retiring from the Community Kitchen after 25 years of service. It
will be Tuesday, June 17 from 5-7 (brief remarks at 5:30).
Purpose-Driven
Life!--
This
Sunday will be our last week summary as we focus on evangelism. Next
Sunday (6/22), we'll wrap up the whole experience. If you have
feedback or want to study particular chapters/topics more, please
speak with Andy Sanislo.
New
Hope News
Sunday
School—For
the next three weeks, we'll be studying the first 6 chapters of
Nehemiah.
Pray
For:
Norma
Capone
Links
Keith's
Random Thoughts
Our
house is pretty clean.
This
is a rare thing in our lives. Neither Rachel nor I are obsessive
about a clean house, and we both have more than enough on our plates
to push dusting and cleaning way down on the list of things to do
when we have some time and the kids aren't screaming or placing their
own lives in imminent danger.
But
with the cats gone, that has drastically cut down on litter dust and
cat hair. With the big move coming up, we've had to de-clutter and
clean counters and rooms and make the house look presentable. We
keep walking into rooms and being amazed and surprised at how clean
they are. We wonder why we didn't do this sooner.
We
realize that we didn't clean sooner because nothing was forcing us
to. There was no external impetus driving us to clean the house.
Now, though, that strangers are going to be wandering through my
bedroom deciding whether or not they want to make it their bedroom,
there is a reason to clean it.
This
isn't the only time this happens in life. I think it happens quite
frequently—we refuse to change until we have to. Doctors tell us
to change our lifestyles, but we just don't get around to it until
some drastic event forces us to change. In school, I was always
waiting until the deadline to write a paper, often staying up late
into the night because there hadn't been enough of a drive to finish
it early. Often, I write my sermons on Saturday night, because on
Thursday there is still so much time...
The
temptation in our spiritual life is to never examine what we're doing
and change. It's easy to drift along, not pushing ourselves forward
to grow, because there often isn't an impulse. We don't feel
pressured to change or grow, so we stay in the same spot. The danger
is that we can grow stagnant, gather moss, and find that in a moment
of crisis our faith hasn't grown deep enough to be a true resource
when we most need it.
It's
not easy to push ourselves to grow, but it's necessary, I believe,
that we continue to encourage one another and push ourselves to grow
in faith, that we recognize the importance of continuing to become
more like Christ each and every day.
Text
for this Sunday
(Click on Link below to read)
New
Hope on iTunes
Keith's
Blog
& Devotionals
for your Kindle
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