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This Week at First

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June 9: What is Best?


When your heart is troubled, do you pray? What are you praying for in times of distress? Are you dominating the conversation or do you give God a chance to speak? This week, we will look at two examples of prayer found in the Bible. The attitudes with which the prayer requests were made were very different and so were the outcomes. Our scriptures are taken from 1 Samuel 8:4-20 and Mark 14:32-36. Our message will be “What is Best?”


See you Sunday.


Grace and Peace,

Pastor Jim


 

1 Samuel 8:4-20


4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah,  5 and said to him, “You are old and your sons do not follow in your ways; appoint for us, then, a king to govern us, like other nations.”  6 But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to govern us.” Samuel prayed to the Lord,  7 and the Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.  8 Just as they have done to me,[a] from the day I brought them up out of Egypt to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so also they are doing to you.  9 Now then, listen to their voice; only—you shall solemnly warn them, and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”

 

10 So Samuel reported all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king.  11 He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen, and to run before his chariots;  12 and he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots.  13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers.  14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his courtiers.  15 He will take one-tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and his courtiers.  16 He will take your male and female slaves, and the best of your cattle[b] and donkeys, and put them to his work.  17 He will take one-tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves.  18 And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves; but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”

 

Israel’s Request for a King Granted

19 But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel; they said, “No! but we are determined to have a king over us,  20 so that we also may be like other nations, and that our king may govern us and go out before us and fight our battles.”  


 

Mark 14:32-36


Jesus Prays in Gethsemane

32 They went to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.”  33 He took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be distressed and agitated.  34 And he said to them, “I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and keep awake.”  35 And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him.  36 He said, “Abba,[a] Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want.”  

   

 







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10:30 Service




June 2: Number 4



Second Sunday of Kingdomtide: Have you thought about the Ten Commandments lately? What do they really mean. How strictly must I follow them? This week, we will consider “Number 4” to discern what it means in today’s world. Our scriptures will be taken from Romans 14:1-13 and Mark 2:23-3:6.


See you Sunday.


Grace and Peace,

Pastor Jim


 

Romans 14:1-13


Do Not Judge Another

14 Welcome those who are weak in faith,[a] but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions.  2 Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables.  3 Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat; for God has welcomed them.  4 Who are you to pass judgment on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord[b] is able to make them stand.

 

5 Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds.  6 Those who observe the day, observe it in honor of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in honor of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain, abstain in honor of the Lord and give thanks to God.

 

7 We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves.  8 If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.  9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

 

10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister?[c] Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister?[d] For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.[e]  11 For it is written,

“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,    and every tongue shall give praise to[f] God.”

 

12 So then, each of us will be accountable to God.[g]

 

Do Not Make Another Stumble

13 Let us therefore no longer pass judgment on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of another.[h]  


 

Mark 2:23-3:6


Pronouncement about the Sabbath

23 One sabbath he was going through the grainfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain.  24 The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?”  25 And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food?  26 He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions.”  27 Then he said to them, “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath;  28 so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”

 

The Man with a Withered Hand

3 Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand.  2 They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him.  3 And he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come forward.”  4 Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent.  5 He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.  6 The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

   

 









9am Service



10:30am Service




May 26: Ok, I'm Confused



Trinity Sunday: One of the hardest concepts in Christianity is the Trinity: God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Three persons, One God! Confused? Join the club, but we will try to make sense of the situation in a message titled, “Said What?” Our scriptures will be taken from Isaiah 6:1-8 and John 3:1-17.


See you Sunday.


Grace and Peace,

Pastor Jim


 

Isaiah 6:1-8


A Vision of God in the Temple

6 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple.  2 Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.  3 And one called to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;the whole earth is full of his glory.”

 

4 The pivots[a] on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke.  5 And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

 

6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs.  7 The seraph[b] touched my mouth with it and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.”  8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!”  


 

John 3:1-17


Nicodemus Visits Jesus

3 Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews.  2 He came to Jesus[a] by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.”  3 Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”[b]  4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?”  5 Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.  6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.[c]  7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You[d] must be born from above.’[e]  8 The wind[f] blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”  9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?”  10 Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

 

11 “Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you[g] do not receive our testimony.  12 If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?  13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.[h]  14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,  15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.[i]

 

16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

 

17 “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.  


 







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