Moving Day

Today we sign the papers to sell our present house and to buy the new one. Moving day is Friday. The adventure begins (actually, the packing has been going on for a number of weeks--maybe a better statement is "the heavy lifting begins).

Who Sinned?

In John 5 Jesus is getting ready to heal a man and his disciples asked "who sinned so that this man was born blind--himself or his parents?". In the office today, taking this quote completely out of context and destroying all fidelity to the Biblical text, we asked the same question, "who sinned?" This past week we have been without internet, fax, and phones for more than 24 hours during a time when we needed them for one of our biggest registrations of the year (Arts Camp). Finally our phones came back up but our internet crashed on more than--shall we say 5 occasions. Then as we were joyfully all back up and running this morning the power to the area around EverGreen went out--so also our phones, internet, and fax, plus all internal ability to use our network for printing etc.

So who sinned so that we are experiencing this 21st century technological blindness? Was it you?

Hope is for Sissies

In a recent episode of the show "House" the main character tells a patient that hope is for sissies. Those words became the theme for our next series based on the book of 1 Peter. 1 Peter is filled with words of hope for a people who are facing trials and dangers for doing the things that we take for granted like gathering for worship and telling others about our faith. As we make our way through the book we will explore whether House's words are reality or foolishness.

This Sunday our text is 1 Peter 1.1-9 Our service starts out with that bit of video from "House" where he tells a patient that hope is for sissies. Next comes the songs of the day
Sing to the King; Holines, and Jesus Paid it all.

We continue our worship with prayer and the giving of our gifts. A drama comes just before the message entitled, "We've got time". The message for this week is "Hope is for sissies: a living hope". We'll close with prayer and a final song, "No Sacrifice".

Dealing with the Pain of $4.00 a Gallon

I came across a sure fire way to increase mpg by up to 30%. Sadly it involves what most of us can't imagine doing--driving slower. A recent article from the San Franscico Chronicle puts it out there for us:

...cars get the best mileage between 45 and 55 mph, Monahan said. As speeds creep higher, fuel efficiency drops. For every mile per hour over 60 mph, she said, fuel economy drops by an average of around 1 percent.

"Going 65 is really lowering your fuel efficiency," she said. "And it gets worse at 75."

How much you stand to save depends on a lot of factors. With gas at $4 a gallon, a person who drives 400 miles a week and a vehicle getting 20 mpg would save $18.74 a week by slowing down from 75 to 55 mph, extrapolating from the government's most recent figures on the subject. Even a more moderate deceleration - from 70 to 60 mph - would save that driver $11.74 a week..

The results are striking. Slowing from 70 to 60 mph improved average fuel efficiency by 17.2 percent. A big slowdown - from 75 to 55 mph - improved fuel efficiency by a whopping 30.6 percent.

Just thought you'd like to know.

Thoughts that make you go, "hmm..."

"...we are not happier. ...we are just cleaner, more attractive sad people than we used to be."

Peggy Noonan commenting on our lives compared to those who lived in the middle ages.

Really?

Over the years I've heard the argument that basically goes something like this, "If you were born in an ______________ then you would be a person of that particular religion." You can fill in the blank with whatever you desire (such as "an Islalmic home", "a Latter Day Saints home", "a Christian home"). The basic idea of the argument is that we are people of a particular faith by chance. On the surface this is a perfectly rational argument. From a Biblical perspective however, it is a specious one. Over and over again the Bible points out that God is a God of covenant putting people in families of faith so that they are led toward faith. People don't end up in families by "chance" rather they are there by God's design. The book of Malachi says that God brings covenant parents together because he is seeking godly offspring (Malachi 2.15). From a Biblical perspective I could not have ended up in another family, I am where God wants me to be.

more than words: status

This Sunday we are completing our celebration series. It's going to be a great day of celebration. Many of our youth are making profession of faith, we are having a great time of fellowship between services that included food from the 7 different countries that we serve and we have the opportunity to bring in our service commitments for next year.

So here's the line up

Text: Proverbs 22.6
Opening Drama
Songs of Worship
Professions of Faith
Offering
Message
Bringing of our commitment for ministry
Song
God's Blessing

See