Thursday, March 7, 2013

3/7 E-News


Announcements

Outreach CommitteeMeets next Wednesday @ 5:30


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 in the grocery cart.
Grits
Oatmeal
Coffee/Creamer
Pasta
Black Pepper
Cereal
Dry Milk

New Hope News

Sunday School—This Sunday, the adult class will study 2 Corinthians.




Pray For:

Christine Dyer

The people in Venezuela

Pray for those who do not know Christ.

Links







Keith's Random Thoughts

'Lives change when habits change' (Matthew Kelly)

We all want change in some facet or another. Some people want to be smarter, some want to be skinnier, some want to meet more people. It's easy to sit around and wish for change. Using this method, the desired change rarely occurs, no matter how much you talk about it or how strongly you wish for it. Change only comes when we rearrange our lives to make the desired changes happen, when we make time for the things we want.

If you're reading this note, you probably want to grow closer to God. Otherwise, the ramblings of a Presbyterian minister are probably not of much value to you. And if you want to grow closer to God, the question to ask is what habits you need to alter in order to make change happen. Your life won't change just because you occasionally hope you grow closer to God.

It's easy to say there isn't time. And time won't appear unless we make time for the things we value most. If you won free tickets to see your favorite band you'd probably rearrange some things to make time for that. If you discovered there was free dinner at your favorite restaurant, I bet you'd make time for that. So what's preventing you from making time to grow closer to God?

If you want to grow closer to God, it requires work & effort. God is always present, working in our lives, working in the world around us. What we need to do is slow down, quiet down, enough to see when and how God is at work. It's not easy, and there will always be a thousand distractions, but over time, our efforts to pay attention to God's work pay dividends. We grow, slowly, as the Holy Spirit grows us up into the person God wants us to be. Sometimes the pace of growth is glacially slow, but God is always leaning on us, pushing us into the future he has prepared for us. If we want to work with God, if we want to pay attention to God, it takes a lifetime's worth of effort on our part to pay attention, to show up, to pray and to listen, in the hopes of hearing God's call and offering up our lives.



Text for this Sunday
1 John 2:12-17



I am writing to you, little children,
because your sins are forgiven on account of his name.
I am writing to you, fathers,
because you know him who is from the beginning.
I am writing to you, young people,
because you have conquered the evil one.
I write to you, children,
because you know the Father.
I write to you, fathers,
because you know him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young people,
because you are strong
and the word of God abides in you,
and you have overcome the evil one.


Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world; for all that is in the world—the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches—comes not from the Father but from the world. And the world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God live for ever.


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