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Visit our Sunday worship services at 8 or 10:30 am. Sunday school and adult Bible class at 9:15. We are "Making Christ Known" by faith, worship and witness to get the message of Jesus Christ to all people.

June 2016

On: By: Rev. G. Michael Rose

“My God, I cried out to you, and you restored me to health.” Psalm 30:2

 

Life is a gift! Health is a gift! As we enter the summer months now, many of us will go out to enjoy these gifts more fully in the wonder which is God’s creation. After winter, and a spring which has been filled with storms, it is good to go out and stretch our legs in the beauty which God surrounds us with. It is a healing.

 

But as we grow older, the gift of health weakens. Or as a friend of mine has told me, “We have to stop thinking of ourselves as high school juniors.” Suddenly, there are aches and pains where there hasn’t been before. Genesis tells us that the oldest man who ever lived was Methuselah, who only made it to 969 years. I wonder how he felt when he got up in the morning? I wonder if he could get up in the morning?

 

Make us glad as many days as you have afflicted us, and as many years as we have seen evil

One of the concepts which Christians has received from Judaism is to take joy in this life. That life is a gift of God, every day of it. Although every now and then a strange group does emerge which basically teaches that the best way to serve God in this life is to make yourself absolutely miserable (I have never figured out such groups’ logic nor theology). In reality the opposite is true. We are to enjoy life, even in the midst of pain and sorrow. Psalm 90 even cries out, “Make us glad as many days as you have afflicted us, and as many years as we have seen evil.” Yes, sometimes life throws affliction and pain and even misery at us. But we are not supposed to wallow in it. Yes, sin and evil are in the world. But they do not have the ultimate authority over us.

 

One of the tasks, if you will, of a Christian is to enjoy life. Think about that. We are supposed to enjoy our lives. What a concept! We are to enjoy the gift of life which God has given to us, now, where we are in our life now. And, by extension, we are to help others also to enjoy their lives, now. Be they sick, infirm, depressed or even dying. One of the things which impressed the pagans in ancient times was how the Christians would come in and care for the sick, cheerfully, even in times of plague. And this continued to happen over the centuries.

This summer, while you enjoy your life in the midst of God’s grand creation, do so joyfully and thankfully. But also remember others. We have many sick who we pray for, and numerous shut-ins. Do not forget them. Maybe you could visit someone in the hospital (the concept of the hospital was begun by the Church), pray for them. Visit or telephone someone who is shut-in or drop them a card (we have lists pinned to the bulletin boards). It is a time to share the joy of life with all people. For truly now is a time of healing and celebration of life in Christ!

 

In Christ,
Pastor Rose

May 2016

On: By: Rev. G. Michael Rose

“Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous.” Psalm 97:12

 

Since we are still in the Season of Easter, and we are all called to be witnesses, some of you have told me that you enjoy it when I do this, I share with you some snippets of some of the great witnesses of the past. Enjoy this snippets of people of great faith.

 

May 2nd (for this year, anyway) is Sts. Philip and James, Apostles Day. Philip was one of the first disciples of Jesus, who after following Jesus invited Nathanael to “come and see.” According to tradition, Philip preached in Asia Minor and died as a martyr in Phrygia. James, the son of Alphaeus, is called “the Less” (meaning “short” or “younger”) to distinguish him from another apostle named James who is commemorated on July 25. Philip and James are commemorated together because the remains of these two saints were placed in the Church of the Apostles in Rome on this day in 561.

 

Also May 2nd, Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, died in 373 (you know him because of the creed that is named after him which we will be saying later this month). Athanasius attended the Council of Nicaea in 325 as a deacon and secretary to the bishop of Alexandria. At the council, and when he himself served as bishop of Alexandria, he defended the full divinity of Christ against the Arian position. One of the oldest and most enduring heresies: that Jesus was just a man, a good man, and God “adopted” him. This position, Arianism, was held by several emperors, magistrates, and some theologians at the time. Because of his defense of the divinity of Christ, he was considered a troublemaker and was banished from Alexandria on five occasions. Once, he escaped in what you would have to call a boat race up the Nile River. If they caught him, they were going to execute him. Because of this, he actually only served about two years in Alexandria. He had to keep escaping. As bishop, one of his paschal letters to surrounding bishops gives a list for books that should be considered canonical scripture. He lists the twenty-seven New Testament books that are recognized today.

 

May 4th, Monica, mother of Augustine, died 387. Monica was married to a pagan husband who was ill-tempered and unfaithful. She rejoiced greatly when both her husband and his mother became Christian. But it is because she is the mother of Augustine that she is best known. Monica had been a disciple of St. Ambrose, and eventually Augustine came under his influence. Almost everything that we know about Monica comes from Augustine’s Confessions, his autobiography. She died far from her home but said to her son, “Do no fret because I am buried far from our home in Africa. Nothing is far from God, and I have no fear that God will not know where to find me, when Christ comes to raise me to life at the end of the world.” Her dying wish was that her son remember her at the altar of the Lord, wherever he was.

 

In Christ,
Pastor Rose