Good Lord,
May your strength fill me with passion and conviction to serve you, to proclaim your name, to drop all else and run into your arms, filled with love and gratitude for all you do, for all you have done, for all you will do. May this life I live be one testament to your goodness and glory. May I set myself aside so that I glorify you and your good works. Thank you for everything, for the life within me and the life that awaits me; may I see your hand working in each step I take today.
Amen.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Friday, January 30, 2009
E-Newsletter
Announcements
It’s time for the Souper Bowl of Caring! We’re going to do it a little differently this year—the food will be taken directly to the Chattanooga Rescue Mission on February 14 (what better way to celebrate love?), while the money will go to the Food Bank. Food will be collected from Feb. 1-8. Money will be collected this Sunday.
Calling all young adults (21-40)! If you’re interested, or know anyone who would be interested, in taking part in a young adults group, we’re having a kick-off Super Bowl party at Keith & Rachel’s house. We plan to meet weekly, usually on Saturdays. Activities will include Bible Study, local events (concerts, bowling, etc.), outdoors stuff (hiking, rafting, etc.), and whatever else the Spirit might lead us towards!
This Sunday there will be a new Adult Sunday School class offered in the small classroom off the McMillan Building. The focus will be on what God is doing in our lives, here and now. Join us from 9:30-10:15.
Swing by my office to meet Calvin, Hobbes & Suzie, New Hope’s new resident theologians.
Pray for…
Mike Bryant
Links
'Leave People Better than you found them'
Stories behind Dr. Seuss stories
She spent 13 years working with rice to help the hungry
Yes, looking at this makes you less healthy
The end of solitude--a great read
Church History Quiz (Answer Below)
Q: When was the first protest against the exploitations of the Indians in the New World?
Text for Sunday, February 1
Jonah 3
Conversion of Nineveh
3The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, 2‘Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.’ 3So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across. 4Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, ‘Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!’ 5And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.
6 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: ‘By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water. 8Human beings and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. 9Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.’
10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.
A Reading from the Confessions
THE SCOTS CONFESSION 3.19
The Authority of the Scriptures
As we believe and confess the Scriptures of God sufficient to instruct and make perfect the man of God, so do we affirm and avow their authority to be from God, and not to depend on men or angels. We affirm, therefore, that those who say the Scriptures have no other authority save that which they have received from the Kirk are blasphemous against God and injurious to the true Kirk, which always hears and obeys the voice of her own Spouse and Pastor, but takes not upon her to be mistress over the same.
The Monastic Moment (From The Monastic Way)
January 30
A Sufi tells of the old, old woman who was on pilgrimage to the shrine at the top of the mountain at the height of the monsoon season. ‘You will never be able to climb that mountain in weather like this,’ the innkeeper said on a dark, wet night. ‘Oh, my friend,’ the old woman said, ‘that will be no problem at all. My heart has been there all my life. Now it is simply a matter of taking my body there as well.’ It is time now in religious history to form for pilgrimage; to ignore the storms around us and to press on, press on, press on to where our hearts await our bodies this very day. (Joan Chittister OSB)
Church History Answer
A: 1511. The Dominican Antonio Montesinos preached a sermon in Santo Domingo. The dispute eventually reached the courts in Spain. He was protesting the system of encomienda, in which groups of natives were ‘entrusted’ to a settler who was free to work them in trade for the settler’s ‘guidance’. The settlers were supposed to civilize them and teach them Christian doctrine, but the reality was worse than slavery, for the settlers had no investment in them and therefore no concern for their well-being.
(Answer taken from Justo Gonzalez’s The Story of Christianity , Volume I, pg. 382)
www.newhopechattanooga.org
It’s time for the Souper Bowl of Caring! We’re going to do it a little differently this year—the food will be taken directly to the Chattanooga Rescue Mission on February 14 (what better way to celebrate love?), while the money will go to the Food Bank. Food will be collected from Feb. 1-8. Money will be collected this Sunday.
Calling all young adults (21-40)! If you’re interested, or know anyone who would be interested, in taking part in a young adults group, we’re having a kick-off Super Bowl party at Keith & Rachel’s house. We plan to meet weekly, usually on Saturdays. Activities will include Bible Study, local events (concerts, bowling, etc.), outdoors stuff (hiking, rafting, etc.), and whatever else the Spirit might lead us towards!
This Sunday there will be a new Adult Sunday School class offered in the small classroom off the McMillan Building. The focus will be on what God is doing in our lives, here and now. Join us from 9:30-10:15.
Swing by my office to meet Calvin, Hobbes & Suzie, New Hope’s new resident theologians.
Pray for…
Mike Bryant
Links
'Leave People Better than you found them'
Stories behind Dr. Seuss stories
She spent 13 years working with rice to help the hungry
Yes, looking at this makes you less healthy
The end of solitude--a great read
Church History Quiz (Answer Below)
Q: When was the first protest against the exploitations of the Indians in the New World?
Text for Sunday, February 1
Jonah 3
Conversion of Nineveh
3The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, 2‘Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.’ 3So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across. 4Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, ‘Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!’ 5And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.
6 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: ‘By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water. 8Human beings and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. 9Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.’
10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.
A Reading from the Confessions
THE SCOTS CONFESSION 3.19
The Authority of the Scriptures
As we believe and confess the Scriptures of God sufficient to instruct and make perfect the man of God, so do we affirm and avow their authority to be from God, and not to depend on men or angels. We affirm, therefore, that those who say the Scriptures have no other authority save that which they have received from the Kirk are blasphemous against God and injurious to the true Kirk, which always hears and obeys the voice of her own Spouse and Pastor, but takes not upon her to be mistress over the same.
The Monastic Moment (From The Monastic Way)
January 30
A Sufi tells of the old, old woman who was on pilgrimage to the shrine at the top of the mountain at the height of the monsoon season. ‘You will never be able to climb that mountain in weather like this,’ the innkeeper said on a dark, wet night. ‘Oh, my friend,’ the old woman said, ‘that will be no problem at all. My heart has been there all my life. Now it is simply a matter of taking my body there as well.’ It is time now in religious history to form for pilgrimage; to ignore the storms around us and to press on, press on, press on to where our hearts await our bodies this very day. (Joan Chittister OSB)
Church History Answer
A: 1511. The Dominican Antonio Montesinos preached a sermon in Santo Domingo. The dispute eventually reached the courts in Spain. He was protesting the system of encomienda, in which groups of natives were ‘entrusted’ to a settler who was free to work them in trade for the settler’s ‘guidance’. The settlers were supposed to civilize them and teach them Christian doctrine, but the reality was worse than slavery, for the settlers had no investment in them and therefore no concern for their well-being.
(Answer taken from Justo Gonzalez’s The Story of Christianity , Volume I, pg. 382)
www.newhopechattanooga.org
TGIF
Lord,
You know my thoughts. This terrifies me sometimes, but I believe that you are a God of endless compassion and grace, and I believe that you know my longing to be faithful. I feel like Paul, wanting to serve you but constantly diverted by my own sin. Loving and Gracious God, remind me of my redemption. Help me remember the precious blood of Jesus Christ that lingers still, after all these years, washing away the blemishes I am working so hard to create. Show me your mercy, grace and glory, so that I might look through the cross and see the empty tomb, the risen Christ, and have hope for myself, hope for all of humanity, for I recognize your power and love and know that you are calling, you continue to call, each one of us to bow before your holy and powerful throne so that we might worship, for we have been created to worship you, our King.
Amen.
You know my thoughts. This terrifies me sometimes, but I believe that you are a God of endless compassion and grace, and I believe that you know my longing to be faithful. I feel like Paul, wanting to serve you but constantly diverted by my own sin. Loving and Gracious God, remind me of my redemption. Help me remember the precious blood of Jesus Christ that lingers still, after all these years, washing away the blemishes I am working so hard to create. Show me your mercy, grace and glory, so that I might look through the cross and see the empty tomb, the risen Christ, and have hope for myself, hope for all of humanity, for I recognize your power and love and know that you are calling, you continue to call, each one of us to bow before your holy and powerful throne so that we might worship, for we have been created to worship you, our King.
Amen.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
From Bert Piatt
An Old Farmer's Advice:
* Words that soak into your ears are whispered...not yelled.
* It don't take a very big person to carry a grudge.
* When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.
* The best sermons are lived, not preached.
* Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
* Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment.
* If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around.
* Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God
* Words that soak into your ears are whispered...not yelled.
* It don't take a very big person to carry a grudge.
* When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.
* The best sermons are lived, not preached.
* Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
* Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment.
* If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around.
* Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God
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