barbecue sandwiches and Frito pies were served up along with homemade cookies and brownies. A big thank you and congratulations goes to Tammy and Gene Coan for organizing this effort. This was the first time this has been done and it went well.
An apology goes out to those who came to eat at the snack bar and were told they had to pay to park their car. That fee was for the Antique Car Show; if you were going to the church there was no cost to park!
Holy week begins with Palm Sunday meanwhile Lent continues with
acts of compassion and justice and personal acts of devotion and prayer.
Encourage young people to connect with God through the internet.
www.devozine.com is a teen devotional site published by the Upper Room
and makes social sharing to Facebook and Twitter easier. The site and the
magazine guide young people through spiritual practice.
Other folks can view and download the first of three films in a five-part series called, Dreaming of Vital Congregationsonline at www.GBOD.org/Dreaming.
Sunday night Pastor Ken took his wife Judy out to eat while she is recovering from minor surgery. The waitress informed them that their supper had been paid for by a group of young people who had just left. She said it was a “God thing” and she did not know why the meal was paid for. Ken mentioned he was a Methodist minister and he could believe the “God thing.”The waitress said she was a Methodist also and had some questions about the Lenten Season. Pastor Ken and Judy were able to inform the young woman about Lent and she was pleased with the knowledge. So a trip to a café because no one felt like cooking became
a spiritual adventure.
Leta Sage served as Worship Leader and song leader for this past Sunday. Pat Beaty did another fine job as pianist. These ladies add so much to our worship service. Thank them every chance you get.
We learned Jo Ann Pate has been in the hospital with pneumonia.
Her family asked for prayers and she was prayed for by name.
The Children’s Lesson was about“The Greatest Gift of All.”
Pastor asked the youngsters what was the best gift you have ever received? Was it a stuffed toy or a bicycle? He said he wanted to tell them about the greatest gift ever given.
It is the gift of eternal life. It is a gift from God to whoever wants to receive it. The Bible says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
It is not polite to ask how much a gift cost, but in this case the Bible tells us the cost was great. It cost God His only Son. Can you imagine how much Jesus loved us to be willing to die on a cross so that we could have
eternal life in heaven?
Rev. Ken Lunsford titled his sermon “Signs of Forgiveness” and gleaned his thoughts from Numbers 21:4-9. It was an Old Testament lesson about a
serpent on a stick.
Numbers recalls an incident in the Exodus of the Hebrews across the Sinai Desert as they went from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised
Land. There was a lot of murmuring about conditions in the desert. We would call it grumbling and complaining. The Hebrews needed food, so God gave them mamma, and then they worried is this all that we are going to get. So God sent them snakes and held back the manna. The people repented so well that God forgave them. He also instructed Moses to make a snake of bronze, put it on a pole and lift it high as a sign that He has forgiven them. If anyone was bitten by a snake, all they had to do was look at the serpent on the pole and they would be healed. A snake coiled around a rod or stick is the symbol of the medical profession even today. In Moses time it meant healing and forgiveness.
As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have life. The fiery copper serpent was placed on a rod, the Christ was nailed on a cross and lifted
up on a hill called Golgotha. It was a sign from God, that the whole world might believe and have eternal life.
Spring is here, the earth is replenished, let us give thanks and praise.