Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Wow, have you ever seen a bigger baptism? That was special. Don’t ever forget that you too are part of the baptismal ceremony. You made some promises that are important to keep. You know it is hard enough to raise a child with parents. There is no question that it takes a village and all of you are the village. I hope you will keep your promises that you will help Brielle to come to know God and to walk in the Christian faith. I hope you will take your job seriously.
One more week of quarter wars. I knew they would. The women are slowly creeping up on the men. I am not going to give names but a woman put a twenty-dollar bill into the guy’s jar. That just wiped out eighty quarters. Question? Are the guys going to just let this happen? With one more week, it is now time to sprint to the finish. I find it fun to have this little competition but let’s not forget why we are doing this. Doing a load of laundry probably doesn’t mean much to most people. But for some, it is spending money that they use for food, medicine, gas etc. We are going out on March 8 and the 15 to the laundromat. I’m hoping for a great turnout to help. Please sign up in the Narthex to volunteer.
Lent is right around the corner. Lent starts on Ash Wednesday which is March 5. Couple of things you should know. We will have drive-by ashes from 7:00 a.m. – 8:30 a.m. We will also have a 12:00 p.m. service in the lounge and a 6:30 p.m. service in either the lounge or the church. The second thing I want to call your attention to is we will be having a Lenten. Service on Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m. We will do this throughout the Lenten season.
I am taking over the duties of the Council President in terms of writing a letter after our council meeting. The main discussion stems from our decrease in monetary funds. Giving was down last year and it is continuing its downward trend early 2025. We talked about ways to increase support but it really comes down to all of us. Can we take a deeper look at our pledges and see if we can increase it? I hope you find us to be good stewards of your giving. If that is the issue, please come talk to one of the council members. Just think what it would do if everyone increased their pledge by what it cost for a dozen eggs a week, it will help put our church on good footing. Take it to prayer. Someone in the council said, “Pastor, you need to do a sermon on tithing.” Would that help?
Within the next couple of weeks, we will have 3 groups working on or starting the Discipleship class. That is a great start for now. Your pastor will probably like to start another group within the next month. They say it should be one gender. It helps with sharing. Guys are weird that way and so are women but in the other direction. If you have interest in the class, please come talk to me. I will also be presenting this program at the Congregational Resource Event, (CRE) later on in March. I’m pretty passionate about making disciples.
What God mostly does is love you. (excerpt from Mostly What God Does by Savannah Guthrie)
Pastor Tom
815-223-1144
Readings for Transfiguration Weekend – March 1 & 2
Exodus 34:29-35 Psalm 99 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2 Luke 9:28-36[37-43a]
Reading the Bible in a Year- Monday, February 24 to Sunday March 2 (Halfway!!!!)
Day 1 Kings Psalms Proverbs Acts
Monday Ch 12:25-Ch 14:20 78:1-8 Ch 16:1-15
Tuesday Ch 14:21- Ch 16:7 15:21-30 Ch 16:16-40
Wednesday Ch 16:8-Ch 18:15 78:9-16 Ch 17:1-21
Thursday Ch 18:16 – Ch 19 78:17-31 Ch 17:22-Ch 18:8
Friday Ch 20 – Ch 21 78:32-39 Ch 18:9-Ch 19:13
Saturday Ch 22:1-53 15:31-16:7 Ch 19:14-41
2 Kings
Sunday Ch 1-Ch 2:25 78:40-55 Ch 20:1-38
1st Kings – Okay, it gets a little confusing. Let me see if I can help. After Solomon, the country of Israel split into 2 kingdoms. One kingdom is the Northern Kingdom which actually has the name of Israel. Its capital is called Samaria. The other kingdom is the Southern Kingdom. It is called Judah and its capital is Jerusalem. The problem is that they fight each other and other countries. The saying goes, where ever the king goes, so does the country. Out of the 36 combined kings, only 6 of them were pleasing to the Lord. We will meet one of them in our reading this week. That’s not good. We are also introduced to Elijah and Elisha towards the end of 1Kings. 2 major prophets of the Old Testament.
Psalm – The major point I received from Psalm 78 is the importance to teaching your children. This way, the next generation will not forget God.
Proverbs – I feel the writer of Proverbs often returns to the theme of the evil person and the righteous person. We have in these proverbs how to recognize the difference between the two.
Acts- Paul and Barnabas are preaching everywhere. When they get to a city, they seem to go immediately to the synagogue and begin to preach. Many are converted. However, you have a set of people who follow them and cause an uproar. Sometimes, they get beaten. Sometimes they get thrown in jail. Other times they flee to preach another day. These people always seem to catch up to them eventually and the same cycle continues. Don’t forget that Paul and Barnabas split after a disagreement. Paul wants to return to the places they have already gone and try to build them up. Women are introduced many times this week.