On Sunday, October 20, 2019, we were able to live stream the sermon on the church’s Facebook page.  We hope to be able to continue to provide this service for those who aren’t able to be with us physically.  There are just four things I wanted to make note of now that we have our first service online! (Technically, it was not the first one; Levi’s mom streamed his sermon in September, proving it could be done! 🙂 ) 

1. We can post only the sermons because I, Pastor Scott, hold the copyright on those.  We do not have, and cannot afford, the license to broadcast music over the internet.
2. This Sunday, October 27, we are privileged to host Calvary’s Lux Voces and, because of point #1, we won’t be live streaming anything.
3. Services posted on Facebook and/or Youtube* are recorded so, if you aren’t able to join us live at 9:45, you can watch it any time or even reference it later in the month/year.
4. Over time, we will work to center up the picture and decrease the echo; right now we are using a phone and trying not to obscure the view of anyone in the live audience.

If you have any non-tech questions, feel free to call the church or email me at scott@wordofgrace.org.

Blessings,

Pastor Scott

*We hope to be on YouTube in November 

1. How come you’re standing by the back as we leave?

On Sunday Gary Rogers (the Elder who read scripture – hint, hint) also read the announcements and gave the benediction so that I could get to the back door and greet folks as they left.  Dozens of people asked me why I was doing that, many mentioning that it was a return to the `50’s (which I assume was an intentional exaggeration since I wasn’t alive in the ‘50’s and not only do I remember greeting pastors at the back of the service, I remember being the pastor at the back of the service! 🙂 ).   I do enjoy greeting everybody, but that’s not why I made this change. Nor did I make it, as some teased, so I could hear instant evals of the sermon! I did it because too often I don’t get to meet visitors. After the message I find myself caught up in conversation at the front of the Worship Center, and if a later coming visitor doesn’t stay for fellowship, I never get to even shake his or her hand, so at least this way that presumably will change! 

2. Texter:  “What do you do when you are being pulled in different directions of doing new things out of your comfort zone to help you grow and giving your time and energy into your gifts/strengths?  What wins over when you’re stretched thin on time/mental capabilities?”

The verses that come to mind are in Ephesians 5.  Paul says: “Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. “ (vs 15-17)   From the pulpit I said, in response to this question, “I think you need to seek wise counsel,” and the recitation of this verse doesn’t change that.  It seems to me, especially when life throws so much at us that all seems equally important, it’s helpful to have someone(s) to help us prioritize. I often have to remind myself that God doesn’t expect me to get 26 hours’ worth of work done in a 24 hour day!  🙂

Blessings,

Pastor Scott

Scripture is full of agricultural analogies some of which, I’m afraid, as a child of suburbia, I miss.  Take this one, that anyone raised around sheep would know…

The beautiful, green hills of New Zealand, a country known for its sheep industry, are dotted everywhere with white sheep. During the yearly lambing season, thousands of baby lambs are born. Unfortunately, some lambs die at birth. Many mother sheep are also lost during lambing season; they die giving birth. In an attempt to save the orphaned lambs, the shepherds match baby lambs that have lost their mothers with mother sheep who have lost their lambs. It’s not as easy as it sounds, though—a mother sheep won’t accept a lamb and nurse it unless it is her own.

How, then, do shepherds get a mother sheep to accept an orphaned lamb as her own? The process is as old as shepherding itself. The mother’s own lamb, which has died, is skinned and the skin of the dead lamb is draped over the living lamb as it is placed by the adoptive mother’s side. The mother sheep then smells the skin and accepts the orphaned lamb as her own.

Lambing season in New Zealand reminds us of what Jesus did for us on the cross. When John wrote, in Revelation 7:14 and 12:11, of our being saved by “the blood of the Lamb” it was in terms that people in agrarian societies vividly understood.

Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he…has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility…” (Ephesians 2:13-14). Because of Christ’s blood, God accepts us as his own. Once we were orphans, but now we are God’s adopted children.

Gives a whole new meaning or focus to the fact that Jesus is the Lamb of God, doesn’t it?

Yours, because I’m His,

Pastor Scott

“A woman means by Unselfishness chiefly taking trouble for others; a man means not giving trouble to others…thus, while the woman thinks of doing good offices and the man of respecting other people’s rights, each sex, without any obvious unreason, can and does regard the other as radically selfish.”

― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

Or said another way; she’s trying to “love” him by “mothering” him and that makes him feel belittled and disrespected.  Meanwhile he’s trying to “respect” her by showing her that he believes she can do it by herself – which leaves her feeling completely unloved and alone.  Interesting that God specifically instructs each of us to DO what DOESN’T come naturally, but what the other most NEEDS, isn’t it? (Ephesians 5:33)  Hope to see you tonight at Marriage Matters!