Sunday, June 30, 2013
Slaves. Who Me?
John 8:31-33
How grateful we are to Rev. Edwards and his wife Iris, for coming and sharing with us this week. They are dear friends and we are thankful for them. Below is the message Rev. Edwards shared.
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Bible Challenge 06/23 - 06/29
Greetings All!
This week we finish up the book of Esther, and read halfway through the book of Job.
This marks a shift from the books of history and now we enter the books of poetry (Job, Psalms, Proverbs and Eccelesiastes). In Jewish tradition, Job is understood to be the grandson of Abraham's brother. So chronologically we are going way back into the history of Israel. The book of Job appears to have been written to address the problem of evil and why the righteous suffer. The first two chapters act as a prologue to set the scene and then we move into cycles of speeches between Job and friends.
Cycle 1 (Chapters 3-11) - Job, Eliphaz, Job, Bildad, Job and Zophar
Cycle 2 (Chapters 12-20) - Job, Eliphaz, Job, Bildad, Job and Zophar
Cycle 3 (Chapters 21-31) - Job, Eliphaz, Job, Bildad, Job
Job's three friends never seem to waver from their belief that Job must have sinned to incite God's punishment. They continually berate him for refusing to confess his sins, even though they themselves are at a loss as to what Job has done wrong. In their theology, God always rewards good and punishes evil, with no exceptions. Job meanwhile maintains his innocence. He refuses to curse God or accuse God of injustice but wants an explanation as to why this is happening to him.
We get introduced to another person in chapters 3-37. Elihu almost takes a mediator's path - attempting to hold together an understanding of God's sovereign power and righteousness along with God's gracious mercy. He condemns the approach by Job's other three friends and argues that God's righteousness is being misrepresented and his loving character discredited. Elihu lifts up many of God's attributes: mighty, just, quick to warn and to forgive. He suggests that Job does need to repent - not from a particular sin - but from his arrogance in presuming to understand God.
When I read through the book of Job I realize that we still wrestle in today's society with these same issues - understanding evil and suffering and supposing to know how God operates. It's comforting in some part to realize that these are not new struggles. But they are definitely issues worth reflecting on.
Here is the schedule:
23, Sunday: Esther 7-10
24, Monday: Job 1-4
25, Tuesday: Job 5-8
26, Wednesday: Job 9-12
27, Thursday: Job 13-16
28, Friday: Job 17-20
29, Saturday: Job 21-24
May God add His richest blessings to the reading, the hearing, the understanding and most importantly the living out of His holy word. Amen.
This week we finish up the book of Esther, and read halfway through the book of Job.
This marks a shift from the books of history and now we enter the books of poetry (Job, Psalms, Proverbs and Eccelesiastes). In Jewish tradition, Job is understood to be the grandson of Abraham's brother. So chronologically we are going way back into the history of Israel. The book of Job appears to have been written to address the problem of evil and why the righteous suffer. The first two chapters act as a prologue to set the scene and then we move into cycles of speeches between Job and friends.
Cycle 1 (Chapters 3-11) - Job, Eliphaz, Job, Bildad, Job and Zophar
Cycle 2 (Chapters 12-20) - Job, Eliphaz, Job, Bildad, Job and Zophar
Cycle 3 (Chapters 21-31) - Job, Eliphaz, Job, Bildad, Job
Job's three friends never seem to waver from their belief that Job must have sinned to incite God's punishment. They continually berate him for refusing to confess his sins, even though they themselves are at a loss as to what Job has done wrong. In their theology, God always rewards good and punishes evil, with no exceptions. Job meanwhile maintains his innocence. He refuses to curse God or accuse God of injustice but wants an explanation as to why this is happening to him.
We get introduced to another person in chapters 3-37. Elihu almost takes a mediator's path - attempting to hold together an understanding of God's sovereign power and righteousness along with God's gracious mercy. He condemns the approach by Job's other three friends and argues that God's righteousness is being misrepresented and his loving character discredited. Elihu lifts up many of God's attributes: mighty, just, quick to warn and to forgive. He suggests that Job does need to repent - not from a particular sin - but from his arrogance in presuming to understand God.
When I read through the book of Job I realize that we still wrestle in today's society with these same issues - understanding evil and suffering and supposing to know how God operates. It's comforting in some part to realize that these are not new struggles. But they are definitely issues worth reflecting on.
Here is the schedule:
23, Sunday: Esther 7-10
24, Monday: Job 1-4
25, Tuesday: Job 5-8
26, Wednesday: Job 9-12
27, Thursday: Job 13-16
28, Friday: Job 17-20
29, Saturday: Job 21-24
May God add His richest blessings to the reading, the hearing, the understanding and most importantly the living out of His holy word. Amen.
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Bible Challenge 06/16 - 06/22
Greetings All!
This week we finish up the book of Ezra, work our way through Nehemiah and most of Esther.
Remember Ezra and Nehemiah used to be one book and both deal with the return of the Israelites toJerusalem after captivity. Nehemiah is about 20 years after Ezra. He is the cupbearer to King Artaxerses of Cyrus and is sent to help build up the wall around the city of Jerusalem and reform the people according to the law of Moses. The first part of the book is all hard work - rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem, setting up guards along the wall and gates, taking a census of the people, having the law of Moses read to the people, leading the people in repenting for their sins and beginning a new covenant with God. After twelve years of hard work, Nehemiah returns to Susa. Later he comes back to Jersualem and finds that the people have backslid in his absence. So he takes measure to enforce his earlier reforms and asks for God's favor.
Next we turn to another book of the exile, Esther. The book of Esther is interesting because while the name of God is never explicitly mentioned in the book, God's action is certainly implied. Esther is a Jewish woman living in exile in Persia. When the Persian king Xerses banishes his wife, a contest starts to seek a new queen. Esther is one of the women presented and ultimately Xerses' choice. Tensions arise between Xerses' right hand man Haaman and Esther's uncle Mordecai until the life of all Jews are threatened. My favorite part of the book is Mordecai's question to Esther which spurs her to take a risk: "And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?"(Esther 4:14)
I love how we see God working things out among his people for a return after the exile..... prompting the leaders of foreign nations to help rebuild Jerusalem and provide native leaders for oversight. It reminds me of the truth of what Paul wrote centuries later in Romans 8:31: "If God is for us, who can be against us?"
Here is the schedule:
16, Sunday: Ezra 2-5
17, Monday: Ezra 6-9
18, Tuesday: Ezra 10 - Nehemiah 3
19, Wednesday: Nehemiah 4-7
20, Thursday: Nehemiah 8-11
21, Friday: Nehemiah 12 - Esther 2
22, Saturday: Esther 3-6
May God add His richest blessings to the reading, the hearing, the understanding and most importantly the living out of His holy word. Amen.
This week we finish up the book of Ezra, work our way through Nehemiah and most of Esther.
Remember Ezra and Nehemiah used to be one book and both deal with the return of the Israelites toJerusalem after captivity. Nehemiah is about 20 years after Ezra. He is the cupbearer to King Artaxerses of Cyrus and is sent to help build up the wall around the city of Jerusalem and reform the people according to the law of Moses. The first part of the book is all hard work - rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem, setting up guards along the wall and gates, taking a census of the people, having the law of Moses read to the people, leading the people in repenting for their sins and beginning a new covenant with God. After twelve years of hard work, Nehemiah returns to Susa. Later he comes back to Jersualem and finds that the people have backslid in his absence. So he takes measure to enforce his earlier reforms and asks for God's favor.
Next we turn to another book of the exile, Esther. The book of Esther is interesting because while the name of God is never explicitly mentioned in the book, God's action is certainly implied. Esther is a Jewish woman living in exile in Persia. When the Persian king Xerses banishes his wife, a contest starts to seek a new queen. Esther is one of the women presented and ultimately Xerses' choice. Tensions arise between Xerses' right hand man Haaman and Esther's uncle Mordecai until the life of all Jews are threatened. My favorite part of the book is Mordecai's question to Esther which spurs her to take a risk: "And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?"(Esther 4:14)
I love how we see God working things out among his people for a return after the exile..... prompting the leaders of foreign nations to help rebuild Jerusalem and provide native leaders for oversight. It reminds me of the truth of what Paul wrote centuries later in Romans 8:31: "If God is for us, who can be against us?"
Here is the schedule:
16, Sunday: Ezra 2-5
17, Monday: Ezra 6-9
18, Tuesday: Ezra 10 - Nehemiah 3
19, Wednesday: Nehemiah 4-7
20, Thursday: Nehemiah 8-11
21, Friday: Nehemiah 12 - Esther 2
22, Saturday: Esther 3-6
May God add His richest blessings to the reading, the hearing, the understanding and most importantly the living out of His holy word. Amen.
Friday, June 14, 2013
Friday Fives
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| Statue of King David just outside his tomb in Jerusalem |
2. Upcoming Worship - June 23rd and June 30th I will not be with you. However, I have lined up two guestspeakers to come and share with you during worship on those days. On June 23rd, Mark Nelson and his wife Beth, will be with you. Mark is a representative from the Florida United Methodist Children's Home and with the focus we place on our support of that ministry I know you will enjoy your time together. Then on June 30th, Rev. Walter Edwards will come and spend time with us. We have hosted Rev. Edwards before and he always brings a wonderful message. I encourage you to come and bring a friend as we welcome these friends into our family.
3. Sources of Information - If you are looking for good information about our church, its activities, and/or our denomination, you can always go to our church website. On our website we have the weekly bulletin, monthly newsletter, pages about our ministries and outreach groups, and we have just added two new pages about Relay for Life and our Connectional Life. If have never been to the website, just click here. If it has been awhile, come back and see what's new. This is a great tool to keep us all connected, so click on over and discover something new!
4. Prayer Chain Coordinator - After seven faithful years, Mary Lou Welsh stepped down as our PrayerChain Coordinator. Mary Lou did an exceptional job getting our prayer requests out to those who pledged to be our prayer partners. She was always faithful to this ministry, doing everything she could to make sure it was done properly. Mary Lou, thank you so much for sharing your gifts with this congregation through our Prayer Chain. Therefore, we now have a new Prayer Chain Coordinator, Jenny Hosey. I am so grateful to Jenny for graciously stepping into this role to make sure we can continue to lift up one another in prayer. If you have a request for Jenny, please send it to her email address listed in the Church Directory. Thank you Mary Lou!! Thank you Jenny!!
Have a great weekend and I will see you Sunday!
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Midweek Moment
This week the Annual Conference of the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church will be gathering in Lakeland. What a mouthful huh? We boil it down to just Annual Conference. For anyone that
may be unfamiliar with Annual Conference, this is the one time that we gather as a Conference to conduct business, set goals, fellowship, and celebrate victories. Every clergy that is a member of the Florida Conference is required to attend, whether they are appointed to a church in Florida, an extension ministry in Florida, or anywhere across the globe. In fact, if you cannot attend you must explain your absence to the Bishop and seek approval. Each church in the Florida Conference is also entitled to send lay delegates, with the number dependent on the size of the church. For our congregation, we are entitled to one delegate and this year that is Carole Newlin. Therefore, this is a very important time in the life of the church. But what makes this year unique, is that we will have a new presiding Bishop for the first time in a decade. I am very grateful for the wonderful community Bishop Whitaker created and lead during his time with us and I wish him a wonderful retirement. However, I am also very excited to see what Bishop Ken Carter will bring to our Conference and our DNA.
One of the exciting things we will continue this year at Annual Conference is participating in a mission project. The year we are partnering with the agency, Stop Hunger Now. This mission of Stop Hunger Now is “to end hunger in our lifetime by providing food and life-saving aid to the world's most vulnerable and by creating a global commitment to mobilize the necessary resources.” There will be meal packaging stations setup at Annual Conference and the goal is to package 100,000 meals with volunteers on Wednesday and Thursday before the business sessions begin. This is just a part of the Florida Conference goal to pack 1,000,000 meals during this calendar year.
As you can see, this gathering is more than just business, it is exploring how we can be a better church, a more faithful church. With that in mind, I ask for your prayers. As Carole and I represent Druid Hills, and as other clergy and laity the Conference over represent their churches, pray for us all. Pray for the Holy Spirit to move within us, pray that we will follow God’s direction, and all the events and decisions made will enable us to continue building God’s Kingdom here on earth.
Have a great week and I will see you Sunday!
may be unfamiliar with Annual Conference, this is the one time that we gather as a Conference to conduct business, set goals, fellowship, and celebrate victories. Every clergy that is a member of the Florida Conference is required to attend, whether they are appointed to a church in Florida, an extension ministry in Florida, or anywhere across the globe. In fact, if you cannot attend you must explain your absence to the Bishop and seek approval. Each church in the Florida Conference is also entitled to send lay delegates, with the number dependent on the size of the church. For our congregation, we are entitled to one delegate and this year that is Carole Newlin. Therefore, this is a very important time in the life of the church. But what makes this year unique, is that we will have a new presiding Bishop for the first time in a decade. I am very grateful for the wonderful community Bishop Whitaker created and lead during his time with us and I wish him a wonderful retirement. However, I am also very excited to see what Bishop Ken Carter will bring to our Conference and our DNA.
One of the exciting things we will continue this year at Annual Conference is participating in a mission project. The year we are partnering with the agency, Stop Hunger Now. This mission of Stop Hunger Now is “to end hunger in our lifetime by providing food and life-saving aid to the world's most vulnerable and by creating a global commitment to mobilize the necessary resources.” There will be meal packaging stations setup at Annual Conference and the goal is to package 100,000 meals with volunteers on Wednesday and Thursday before the business sessions begin. This is just a part of the Florida Conference goal to pack 1,000,000 meals during this calendar year.
As you can see, this gathering is more than just business, it is exploring how we can be a better church, a more faithful church. With that in mind, I ask for your prayers. As Carole and I represent Druid Hills, and as other clergy and laity the Conference over represent their churches, pray for us all. Pray for the Holy Spirit to move within us, pray that we will follow God’s direction, and all the events and decisions made will enable us to continue building God’s Kingdom here on earth.
Have a great week and I will see you Sunday!
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