Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
I want to thank everyone for honoring my days off. I wish I could say we went somewhere cool or warm, but we didn’t. We sort of hung around a little bit, spending most of our time at our house in Lake Wildwood. It was very nice to have our children and their families there. Christmas is always great, but it takes on a new dimension when young grandchildren are involved. For those who know Charlee, her comment when asked about if Santa was coming, she said, “I think he knows that I am pretty high up there on the good list.” Can’t you see her saying that. Love to have her confidence.
Probably the coolest thing we did was go for a walk at night around the neighborhood. One of my daughters bought about a hundred colorful glow bracelets. Everyone was decked out with at least three of them and we toured the neighborhood. At times, you couldn’t see the person but you saw the glow lights bouncing up and down. There was a lot of racing back and forth. Pretty cool to see. For the record, I was NOT one of them racing back and forth.
Just a quick heads up, my goal for this year is for all of us to work on being apprentices (disciples) of Jesus Christ, instead of just being believers going through the motions. I will pretty much devote my next letter to this idea. If you want a quick peak, we will be working with Practicing the Way curriculum. If you want to take a quick peak, you can go to practicingtheway.com website.
What God mostly does is love you. (excerpt from Mostly What God Does by Savannah Guthrie)
Pastor Tom
815-223-1144
Readings for Baptism of Our Lord – January 12
Isaiah 43:1-7 Psalm 29 Acts 8:14-17 Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
Reading the Bible in a Year- Monday, January 6 to Sunday January 12
Day Judges Psalms Proverbs John
Monday Ch 4-Ch 5 57:1-6 Ch 4:43-Ch 5:15
Tuesday Ch 6-Ch 7:8 57:7-11 Ch 5:16-30
Wednesday Ch 7:9-Ch 8 11:19-28 Ch 5:31-47
Thursday Ch 9 58:1-11 Ch 61-24
Friday Ch 10-Ch11 59:1-8 Ch 6:25-59
Saturday Ch 12-Ch13 59:9-19 Ch 6:60-Vh 7:13
Sunday Ch 14-Ch 15 11:29-12:7 Ch 7-14:44
Judges – The one thing you may not know is the purpose of Judges. It was the Judges that ruled over Israel. The Judges would rule for a particular time and then they would die. It wouldn’t take long for Israel to fall away and worship other gods. They would be oppressed for a length of time and then God would raise up another Judge. And the cycle would occur over again and again.
Psalms – We are told that the Psalms teach us to pray. In these three Psalms we read about the boldness of the psalmist when they petition God. They are not afraid to ask God for things. “Be merciful, … Do not destroy.” But even in all these distressing times, I admire how their faith is not shaken. “…for in you my soul takes refuge.” Let that be said about us.
Proverbs – Pretty simple. People who are righteous or evil have different characteristics. This section of proverbs defines what these characteristics look like.
John – In chapter 2, Mary is found pushing her son into ministry, even though he says, “…it is not my time.”
But when he starts he throws the world upside down. After talking to the Samaritan woman, Jesus starts our reading with a couple of healings. I think the key to this section is how Jesus describes his relationship with his Father, and where he gets his authority because of this relationship. I have read that Jesus only does seven signs (miracles) in the Gospel of John. Well, you will see a couple of them here.