Thursday, April 18, 2013

4/18 E-Newsletter


Announcements

Prospective Member LuncheonInterested in joining New Hope? Want to learn more about being a member? On May 5, following worship, there will be a luncheon for all those interested in joining.

Family Promise Picnic—On Saturday, April 27, New Hope will present the families at Family Promise with a picnic luncheon. If you're interested in being part of this, please reply and let me know.

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.
8 oz. Styrofoam bowls

New Hope News

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

Session Meeting—Sunday, April 21 @ 12:15.

Pray For:

Christine Dyer

Connie Robinson

Colleen & Gary Smith

David Smith


Links
When God is your therapist (H/T to Troy for this)













Keith's Random Thoughts

Blasts in Boston. Blasts in Texas. Blasts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria... Too many explosions. Too many lives shattered by concusive force, too many hearts torn apart, rendered incomplete, by shrapnel and debris sent flying through the air. Too much violence.

This world is a broken place. Sin and death abound, and our head spins to try and keep track of the places around the globe that are torn asunder by tragedy. Each and every person caught up has family, and those families are never the same. Parents weep for children, children weep for parents, and the world grieves as human life is lost, and we are never the same.

I watch Caleb as he runs around the house, gleefully chasing the cats and genuinely believing that having a toy taken away is the single worst thing in the world, and I hope and pray that I can teach him that the world is a good place, a safe place, filled with good people. I know that this image will one day be shattered like the cheering at the finish line of the Boston marathon, but I want him to see the good in people, in the world. I want him to see the evil and brokenness of the world overwhelmed by the goodness and the love of those who rush to help, to serve, to love, to heal, to console. I want him to see his brothers and sisters in this world as people who can be depended upon to help one another wander this walk of life.

Life is broken. It's no more broken now than it was when Cain usurped God's authority and took the life of his brother Abel. It's no more broken than when David broke relationships and had lives discarded in his pursuit of Bathsheba. It's no more broken than the day Herod had infant boys put to death out of fear of a new king.

The difference is that now we know the one fact that changes everything: love wins. In Romans, Paul writes that we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. The images of Revelation are clear pictures of a God who has the power to destroy sin and death. We know that God reigns forever in peace and in life, and he invites us into his Kingdom of life.

And so we stare into the brokenness of life, and while we endeavor to invest our lives in picking up the pieces of our own lives as well as the lives of those around us, whether they are shattered by violence or have fallen apart due to neglect, we also trust that God knows where all the pieces go and has the power to reassemble them into a mosaic more beautiful than we can picture. In the brightness of the light it will shine anew, and we will recognize how sad the powers of darkness look in comparison to the piercing intensity of Christ's light. In that moment, when we are renewed and made whole, we will recognize what true love is.

Until then, may our own lives be images of that love, and may we share it with our brothers and sisters who are in desperate need of our assistance.


Text for this Sunday
John 2:1-11
On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’ And Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.’ His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’

Now standing there were six stone water-jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, ‘Fill the jars with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, ‘Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.’ So they took it.

When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, ‘Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.’ Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

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