August 8, 2021

August 8, 2021

To worship with us online, please visit stmarkknox.org/sermons

Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. - Psalm 136:1

There are always an abundant many reasons to give thanks to God for the great things God has done in our lives.  Most of the time we can admit that we should “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for [us]” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).  As we Endure in our love for God, I believe that we do try to give thanks for the circumstances of our lives, but I can admit, that’s not always easy.  Reality is, many of the things that we should give thanks for we often take for granted. 

In psalm 136, the psalmist takes a slightly different path from the normal metered proven lyrical psalms of the day.  The tone, here, falls in line with our contemporary music of saying the same thing over again and again, always coming back to the point.  That point is “his steadfast love endures forever.”  This line occurs 26 times in Psalm 136, and occurs after each line expressing gratitude for God and what God has done.

I wonder, are we as the people of God today, expressing that same understanding as we give thanks to God? Do we proclaim time after time that “His steadfast love endures forever?”  Are we finding that we are living, serving, and witnessing in all things to this enduring love?

As Christ followers today, we need to be reminded that living with patient faith isn’t always using words, but acts of kindness and compassion are necessary for our lives to become the gospel carried to those who need to know it most. God call us in seedtime and in harvest to bring praise for his enduring steadfast love. I believe we do this by offering the love with which we have been filled to others in word, deed, and especially acts of service and compassion.

Grace & Peace,
Sam

August 4, 2021

August 4, 2021

Submitted by David Petty

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiveness you. — Ephesians 4:32

Two thoughtful and well-respected authors, Philip Yancey and Adam Hamilton, have both recently re-issued previous books on forgiveness.  (Yancey’s has been re-titled and somewhat revised.)  Evidently they, or at least their publishers, felt that this is an important subject right now.  Given the amount of bitterness that exists currently in our country, and in our world and the church, I would agree.

Current events are one good argument for the importance of forgiveness, but there are others.  Another is amount of attention given to the subject in Christian writing — and I‘m not just talking about modern writers like Hamilton and Yancey.  The early church, for example, felt that forgiveness was important to enough to include in the statement of faith (Apostles’ Creed).   Look back at the creed: there stands forgiveness of sins, apparently on equal footing with such theological giants as the trinity and the resurrection.

And Jesus included it in what we call the Lord’s Prayer.  In fact, although that prayer contains general statements about such things as doing God’s will and avoiding evil, the only specific human activity that it references is forgiving others.  Of all the good things we could do (and bad things we could not do) Jesus singled out forgiveness.

Hamilton has observed that knowing forgiveness involves three difficult tasks.  First, we must believe that we have done something wrong; if we hadn’t done anything all that bad we wouldn’t seek forgiveness.  Second, we must believe that God is capable of forgiving us.  Some people are so overcome with the depth of their sin that they don’t believe forgiveness is possible.

The third task is to forgive others.  It seems to me, though, that this can be broken down into the same two steps.  That is, we must first believe that the others have committed a sin.  That usually isn’t difficult.  C. S. Lewis distinguished between excusing and forgiving.  They are not the same thing; in fact, they are in a sense opposites.  If there really is a good excuse for something, it doesn’t require forgiveness.  If it’s inexcusable, forgiveness is the answer.  Lewis said that we tend to overestimate the portion of our own behavior that is excusable and underestimate the portion of others’ behavior that is.

Finally, we must believe that it is possible for us to forgive others.  Sometimes when we have been hurt badly, forgiveness of others seems impossible — but Christian teaching implies otherwise. 

There is a lot more that can be said about the subject, and I’ve probably said a lot that you already knew.  Please forgive me.  Or excuse me.  Or maybe some of both.

Gracefully submitted,
David Petty

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

As our attendance increases weekly we are in need of friendly faces to greet and help usher in our members and guests. Please contact the church office (office@stmarkknox.org) or Dave Stott to volunteer. We thank you for serving.

As we get back into the routine of church, together, we need more help. Especially, in the audio and video department. We are very blessed by those who have stepped up, and in some cases the children who have learned these new skills, but they can't do it alone. If you have a willingness to learn to run sound, or learn how to help with our video presentations/live streaming. Please contact the office or Sam Ward. We could really use the help. 

August 1, 2021

To join us in online worship please visit stmarkknox.org/sermons

August 1, 2021

15 As for man, his days are like grass— he blooms like a flower of the field; 16 when the wind passes over it, it vanishes, and its place is no longer known. 17 But from eternity to eternity the Lord’s faithful love is toward those who fear Him, and His righteousness toward the grandchildren 18 of those who keep His covenant, who remember to observe His precepts. 19 The Lord has established His throne in heaven, and His kingdom rules over all.
- Psalm 103:15-19

The kingdom of heaven is an eternal kingdom. This is a precept that comes down through the ages is passed from generation to generation throughout the history of Israel. Even in those time when Israel is captive in Babylon or under the reign of another authority we find verse eluding to the coming of an eternal kingdom of God, or kingdom of heaven. This same ideology is passed on to the Christians of the first century, who have faith in the resurrection of Jesus, believing that the eternal kingdom is soon at hand, and will be established as Jesus returns to earth. It is now God’s plan that not only the people of Israel to be a part of this kingdom, but all who confess Jesus as Lord, the tent becomes larger.

From this point forward in history, the Christian faith was placed in the notion of when Jesus returns this eternal kingdom will be established. Most of us hold this belief, and have waited and believed that the eternal kingdom of God is coming soon. I still believe this to be true, yet at the same time I have to really understand what ‘eternal’ means.

The idea that an eternal kingdom is something that will be established seems to contradict the idea of eternal, because eternal is forever, meaning forever in the past as well as forever in the future. After all we believe that God is “from everlasting to everlasting.” When we look to the psalmist’s understanding I think we gain a little perspective. Humanity is like the grass, or flowers in the field. We are only a short part of eternity. Yet, the Love of the Lord remains forever. To me this notion of the forever-ness of God and God’s kingdom can’t truly be understood while we are still the grass. We are confined to the passing of time, minutes, hours, days, years pass by and there is nothing we can do to stop them, nor can we go back through them aside from in our memories. Yet, God is outside of all of this, and a part of all of this time simultaneously. The comfort of knowing God is present with us, already puts us in a part of the eternal heavenly kingdom. This eternal kingdom holds us because God hold us in his arms, uplifts us, and share with us an eternal love. Knowing such love establishes in us the sense that God is as in control as God has always been, even when we were unaware.

God’s kingdom is truly eternal, it has been, and always will be. When we become aware of God’s love for us, then we enter in. This kingdom becomes alive in us, and we become truly alive in God’s love. Sharing the truth of this kingdom and it’s love is the greatest gift we receive, and the greatest gift we can offer as well.

Grace & Peace,
Sam

VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL 2021

Thank you to all our volunteers and attendees that made this VBS a great success!!!

July 28, 2021

July 28, 2021

Written by David Petty

You return man to dust; You decreed, “Return you mortals!”  For in Your sight a thousand years are like yesterday that has passed, like a watch of the night.  You engulf men in sleep; at daybreak they are like grass that renews itself; at daybreak it flourishes anew; by dusk it withers and dries up ... Teach us to count our days rightly, that we may obtain a wise heart.
—Psalm 90: 3-6,12

Famous (and sometimes infamous) rock musician David Crosby, now 79, was recently asked by someone roughly the same age, “How can us old people enjoy the time we have left?”  Here’s what Croz answered:

    The question isn’t how much time you have; it’s   

    what you’re going to do with it.  If you agonize over the

    fact that you’re going to die, you’re wasting it.  If you 

    spend that time helping other people, making new 

    things, making anything better for anybody, then the 

    time that you have left, whatever amount it is, will be 

    well spent.  You may die tomorrow, but you’ve got today.

    So why don’t you use the heck out of it?

    (Rolling Stone 1352, June 2021, p.14)

The popular cliche puts it somewhat differently: it’s better to add life to your years than to add years to your life.  Where better to find that life than in the author of life (Acts 3:15), the one who came that we might have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10)?

I can only add that, from a practical standpoint, these things are more easily done in the company of a group of like-minded folks.  That’s why I hope to spend the remainder of my years with the people of St. Mark.

Gracefully submitted,
David Petty

July 25, 2021

July 25, 2021

To join the online worship please visit stmarkknox.org/sermons

For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? 20 Yes, you are our glory and joy! – 1 Thessalonians 2:19-20

There is no better compliment than to know that you are the glory and joy of heaven. You, the person that you are, is loved, forgiven, and known by God. Paul writes to the church, the people of faith at Thessalonica, and lets them know that at the Lord Jesus coming, he will have something in which to boast, those who have come to know God’s grace.

People are the greats treasure that any of us can know. We don’t give ourselves enough credit, we don’t give others enough credit, but the truth is we all need one another, and God knows that. It is why we have this innate sense to be in community. Even the ‘loners’ out there, or the extreme introverts, though their community may be smaller there is no greater joy than sharing life with someone else.

A Christian should reflect that great joy of living in a community, it’s the reason we enjoy gathering together, and as Methodists it’s one of the reasons we long for the days of the ‘covered dish.’ There is no great way that we know to show love than to feed one another, and enjoy the conversations that nourish our souls. This is why I believe we are drawn to that line in Acts 2:42 “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, and to the breaking of bread…” We call this the pinnacle of the Christian community the “Acts 2 church,” but what I think we love about it is the sense of true community.

Community is something that has been a struggle for us to gather back into, and some of us are beginning to find it, but it is needed more than ever, to know that we have someone with which to share life, the ups and downs, to know that with them, we can experience the joy and glory of the kingdom that is to come, because we know the joy of being together in Christ.

Grace & Peace,
Sam

July 21, 2021

July 21, 2021

…And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecutions you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers…
- 1 Thessalonians 1:6-7

What does a Christian look like?

Depending on how you read that question, what is on your heart or mind at the moment, or any number of other circumstances the answer to that question might change. Or the questions itself might seem loaded, as if there is some underlying agenda to the answer.

I don’t know why so many people seem to think there are underlying agendas to everything that happens in our world; perhaps they do exist, perhaps not. However, there is a greater agenda in which to place our focus. The agenda of the kingdom of heaven, promised by Jesus, as being so close, yet we feel it is so far away. Paul and his companions of the moment, Timothy and Silas compose a little letter to the church at Thessalonica, which speaks of a great example of faith found in the people there.

This letter is believed by scholars to be the earliest in Christian communication. At least this is the letter for which the earliest manuscripts are found. Before the writings of the gospels, revelation, and even the letters attributed to the disciples Peter or John, Paul’s letter to Thessalonica was written first (as best as we can tell). The early Christians did not have an easy road, and many were severely persecuted for leaving behind an old way of life and worship, and choosing instead to follow a patter of the man named Jesus. The teachers called Jesus the Christ, meaning king, but he was not an earthly king, but a heavenly one, teaching and living among the people to show them a better way.

The term Christian, in those days, meant that people were imitating the teachings of Christ and his followers. Paul says to the church ‘you became imitators of us and of the Lord…” And from that joy, “…became an example to all the believers…”

The lesson for the church, here, is that we might recapture what it means to truly be a disciple of Christ or Christian, to recapture the joy of sampling being the presence of Christ our God, knowing that He is with us now and always, and beginning to live in his example offering compassion, love, grace with everyone whom we meet, teaching through living our best life in Him. Then maybe we, too, can become the example our community needs to see, and example of how to live free in Christ – living into a kingdom we don’t yet see, but believe is here and still to come.

Grace & Peace,
Sam

July 18, 2021

July 18, 2021

To join our online worship please go to stmarkknox.org/sermons

34 Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
 – Matthew 24:34-35

There are times when being a disciple of Jesus is hard. We want to be obedient to the call to love our neighbors, we want to share in the peace of Christ, we want to believe the best in humanity. However, humanity often doesn’t care. We look around us and if we listen too much to the news or believe the things we read that get shared the most, it would seem as though people are working harder for the world to end than for the kingdom of God to become a reality.

Jesus taught his disciples many things about an end. He told them about desolations and persecutions. He told them to look for signs, then he told them that they would not pass away until they saw these things.  Jesus told them the truth. During the remaining days of the disciples, from the time of the resurrection until their deaths each of them saw horrible things happening to those who believed in the words of Jesus. And for those who made it to 70 AD, they saw the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, forever marking an end to a Jewish way of life. The disciples, now apostles were starting something new, in Jesus name, that would change the world.

It’s hard for us to imagine, about 2000 years removed from these events how the world changed, but it did. The ushering in of a new kingdom had begun in that generation. However, so many have looked at their world since then and thought, this can’t be the kingdom of God because it’s not perfect. Some have tried to re-predict an end based on their interpretations of signs in our world, others have worked to burn down (and perhaps still are) the world as we know it, in hopes that something new would arrive.

In all my studying, what I have come to understand is that the kingdom of God is here. It is being formed and created as people capture what it means to live together in community, sharing as each has need, and offer the reconciliation of God’s love to others.

We often want to see massive justice happen where God would end the chaos, and peace would come swiftly restoring all things to how they should be. Unfortunately the restoration of anything takes time and passion. Time and passion that those who believe in God must put in to see any change at all.  The world may never cease to want to destroy itself, but the words of Jesus, that live in us, that we share to offer peace, reconciliation, and love will work against those things that want to destroy, in order to create something better.

These are the great words of hope that we hold on to from Jesus, that will live forever, that we would choose to bring new birth into this world, by sharing in expectant hope the love we have first know from the one who is love incarnate, Jesus our Lord.

Grace & Peace,
Sam

July 14, 2021

July 14, 2021

Written by David Petty

For you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness.  So then let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.
—First Thessalonians 5:5-6

For everything that becomes visible is light.  Therefore it says, “Sleeper awake!  Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you,” —Ephesians 5:14

Images of light and dark are used often in the Bible.  Occasionally this is taken a step further to talk about sleep and wakefulness.  In Ephesians Paul quotes what is probably an early Christians hymn; it might refer to baptism, but he uses it for a different purpose: to elaborate the idea he used much earlier in First Thessalonians.  Jesus says something similar in Mark 13:33-36.

One way to think of the past year is as a sort of sleep. Now, I hope, we are coming out of that.  We know that sleep can be healthy, and it gives us an opportunity to dream.  I don’t see anything wrong with that.  The Lenten season can function somewhat the same way.

When you first wake up, there’s often a brief bit of confusion.  Perhaps we are passing through that now, and that’s alright too.  But it’s getting to be time to focus on waking up. 

Two things about wakefulness might be worth recalling.  First, to be awake means to have all our faculties engaged.  All of us have limited gifts, but to the extent that we do have abilities we should be prepared to use them right away.

Second, to be awake means to be aware of our surroundings.  It’s easy for me to think of religion as just something between God and myself.  That won’t do.  Christianity in a vacuum isn’t Christianity.  It has to be practiced in relation to others, both inside and outside our church family.

Gracefully submitted,
David Petty

UMW YARD SALE - AUGUST 14

SILENT AUCTION 2021

July 11, 2021

July 11, 2021

Join our online worship service at stmarkknox.org/sermons

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me…” – Matthew 28:18

Today marks the beginning of vacation bible school (VBS). It might seem a common thing, here in the middle of the summer to host VBS, like something we would normally do, but this year I think things are a little different. Last year, we didn’t get to hold a VBS, and as we began hoping and praying that we would hold one this year, it was initially unclear that would be reality.

Even as we began to put dates on the calendar, it was still unclear as to whether we would have to ask participants to wear a facemask, or if we would be able to do our rotations. We were unclear if we would have willing volunteers, given the risks that might be associated with the ongoing pandemic.  We needed to trust that God would see things through, and our trust and faith paved a way for Jesus power to be revealed.  It might seem like a strange way to look at the way restrictions began to be dropped and the world started to move back into its normal rhythms. Yet, as our students will learn this week, “Jesus Power Pulls Us Through.”

The truth of this year’s theme is to help us trust in the authority and power of Christ, given to all who believe, but more importantly is ever leading us forward. After the resurrection, Jesus appears to his disciples, and in Matthew 28, Jesus prepared his disciples to carry on the work of building the kingdom of God until Christ would one day return.

Jesus tells them that all authority in heave and on earth have been given to him. In the resurrection, God has given all to Jesus, and by his resurrection, now all can be saved. He commissions the disciples to share the power of his name, giving them the Holy Spirit, and the task that was passed from them to the next generation of disciples, to the next, and so on down to us.  Now, it is us, we are the ones to continue to share this message, knowing we have the same power, to preach and teach the love of Jesus and build the kingdom. We can do this because Jesus power will pull us through, no matter how bad things might look at times, we know that Jesus will pull us through.

Grace & Peace,
Sam

July 7, 2021

July 7, 2021

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. – 1 Peter 1:3-5

You might have heard the old saying “where there’s life, there’s hope”. That saying tells us how important hope is to people, because if we reverse it, it says “where there’s hope, there’s life” – which means that where there’s no hope, there may only be death. As humans, we live on hope. It feeds us, it keeps us going from day to day. It gives us something, some possibility to look forward to, something better to grasp hold of. When we hear of tragedy in life, we might find some who have lost hope. They can’t see any light at the end of the tunnel. Nothing’s going to get any better in their minds. Without hope, there’s death – emotional death, spiritual death, physical death. We need hope.

The quest is, in what should we hope? Peter teaches the churches of his day that as God’s people, chosen through Christ we all have something better in which to look forward. Peter is excited about the future, it may not happen for him in this life, but he hold to a future that is amazing with God the Father, and Jesus His Lord. God had given him, and all of us new birth, and now we have a living hope. A hope that will never perish, spoil or fade, a hope that is kept secure, that is in God, and with God.

Peter has a great hope that this new life is being revealed every day, and that soon we will see it in completion. We know that soon is a difficult word, but still today, as Christians who have faith in God’s salvation we must hold to the hope that soon we will know the joy and glory of the heavenly kingdom. Until then, we wait with patient hope, knowing that day by day Jesus is with us, leading us forward in life, in love, in faith.

Grace & Peace,
Sam

July 4, 2021

July 4, 2021

Worship with us online at stmarkknox.org/sermons

1For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery… 4 You who want to be justified by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working through love. Galatians 5:1; 4-6

Happy Independence Day! Today marks 245 years since our founding fathers signed the declaration of independence starting a new nation, and choosing to no longer be under the rule of another. The story of our independence which we learn in elementary school, seems pretty heroic and simplistic, and even makes it sound as if from this one document truly all would be considered equal in our new nations. However, we know this is not really the truth. The past of our nation isn’t always pretty, and things have been messy at times, and some could argue that it’s always been messy. Ideals have benefited some, while harming others. Freedom in some aspects has meant subjugation of others. Freedom isn’t always cut and dry.

Paul, long before our nation was founded, long before England was established, even before the formation of the Catholic Church in Rome, wrote about true freedom, and shows us that it isn’t as neat as we would like. In the letter to the Galatians, we hear the words that Christ has set us free, and it is simply for freedom’s sake. As someone who was an expert in the law of God passed down from the time of Moses, Paul, after receiving salvation from Christ, feels as though he better understands how oppressive the law was. When someone is trying to follow a set of regulation and rules rather than understanding the point, they scrutinize too much the daily life, and are slave to trying to do the right thing.  Instead, Paul understands and tries to teach the church that we have been justified by Christ. God knows we can’t get it right by focusing on doing right all the time, we have to back up and see the bigger picture. “The only thing that counts is faith working through love.”

By this, Paul is saying that there are going to be moral rules, there are going to be those who decide that people should be, or act, or behave in a particular way to please God, but that isn’t the gospel. The gospel is that freedom from Christ is freedom to be who you are, and what matters is that you are allowing your faith in God to lead you to better love God and the people you encounter in your life (your neighbor). This is the foundation of true freedom, to know that you are loved in order to love, that you are accepted in order to accept, that you are free that you might share your freedom to help others be free.

Grace & Peace,
Sam

June 30, 2021

June 30, 2021

The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. – 2 Peter 3:9

From the time of his forgiveness and restoration (John 21), the apostle Peter spent the rest of his life sharing the gospel of His Lord. The great promise from Peter is that the day of the Lord will soon be with us. Peter’s sermon on Pentecost starts a revolution of people who want a new kind of kingdom, they are tired of the tyranny of which they have been a part, and now hope in something better.

As the message spreads, it’s Peter who initially takes the gospel to the gentiles (Acts 10), to those who were not Jewish, or a promise of the prophets. In doing so, Peter then has to defend his actions to the rest of the community in Jerusalem who didn’t understand the broadness of the gospel that could go to those who were on the outside (Acts 11). As the church broadens and expands to places all over the known world, those who are already in continue to question who should be in and who should be out. Who is accepted and loved by the Lord, what must be changed, who can be saved.  Yet, all of these questions arise from human origin, and human interpretation, and not from God. 

In his second letter to the churches dispersed across the known world, Peter’s hope was that this letter would be shared from church to church, as was done with other letters from the apostles. He shares again the wonder of being an apostle of the Lord, witness to God’s true messiah, and calling to those who have heard this message to remain faithful in the midst of what could be coming in the future.

Peter, at this point is near the end of his time, he knows that soon persecution will remove him from this earth, yet he remains faithful to his Lord, and knows that the Lord will come with great glory, but patience and endurance is needed in our faith; to grow a disciples, and to continue the work of sharing the gospel of peace.

Peter, I believe, after all he had seen in the broadness of the Lord’s forgiveness, reconciliation, and love saw that the work had not yet been complete. That God would not stop until all had the opportunity to hear and accept the grace and life God is freely giving. Therefore, he speaks to those who have heard him and throughout the ages, that if the Lord’s coming is delayed, it is because the work of the believers is not yet complete. The Lord is being patient with humanity, with all people, and even with you and me. The lord is being patient so that we can finally understand that the kingdom of heaven is big enough for all, that all have access to God’s grace, mercy and love. As the lord is patient in his coming, it is for our own opportunity of salvation. As Peter ends this letter he reminds us to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord, who did not shun anyone, but called all to be loved, to worship in spirit and truth, to receive life and forgiveness of sin, and go forward rejoicing at what God has done. I hope the Lord finds us rejoicing at the glory of God for what he is doing even now, and may our hearts look to who we can offer the love of Christ to continue to build the kingdom of heaven.

Grace & Peace,
Sam

June 30, 2021

June 30, 2021

The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. – 2 Peter 3:9

From the time of his forgiveness and restoration (John 21), the apostle Peter spent the rest of his life sharing the gospel of His Lord. The great promise from Peter is that the day of the Lord will soon be with us. Peter’s sermon on Pentecost starts a revolution of people who want a new kind of kingdom, they are tired of the tyranny of which they have been a part, and now hope in something better.

As the message spreads, it’s Peter who initially takes the gospel to the gentiles (Acts 10), to those who were not Jewish, or a promise of the prophets. In doing so, Peter then has to defend his actions to the rest of the community in Jerusalem who didn’t understand the broadness of the gospel that could go to those who were on the outside (Acts 11). As the church broadens and expands to places all over the known world, those who are already in continue to question who should be in and who should be out. Who is accepted and loved by the Lord, what must be changed, who can be saved.  Yet, all of these questions arise from human origin, and human interpretation, and not from God. 

In his second letter to the churches dispersed across the known world, Peter’s hope was that this letter would be shared from church to church, as was done with other letters from the apostles. He shares again the wonder of being an apostle of the Lord, witness to God’s true messiah, and calling to those who have heard this message to remain faithful in the midst of what could be coming in the future.

Peter, at this point is near the end of his time, he knows that soon persecution will remove him from this earth, yet he remains faithful to his Lord, and knows that the Lord will come with great glory, but patience and endurance is needed in our faith; to grow a disciples, and to continue the work of sharing the gospel of peace.

Peter, I believe, after all he had seen in the broadness of the Lord’s forgiveness, reconciliation, and love saw that the work had not yet been complete. That God would not stop until all had the opportunity to hear and accept the grace and life God is freely giving. Therefore, he speaks to those who have heard him and throughout the ages, that if the Lord’s coming is delayed, it is because the work of the believers is not yet complete. The Lord is being patient with humanity, with all people, and even with you and me. The lord is being patient so that we can finally understand that the kingdom of heaven is big enough for all, that all have access to God’s grace, mercy and love. As the lord is patient in his coming, it is for our own opportunity of salvation. As Peter ends this letter he reminds us to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord, who did not shun anyone, but called all to be loved, to worship in spirit and truth, to receive life and forgiveness of sin, and go forward rejoicing at what God has done. I hope the Lord finds us rejoicing at the glory of God for what he is doing even now, and may our hearts look to who we can offer the love of Christ to continue to build the kingdom of heaven.

Grace & Peace,
Sam

VBS - July 11 -15

VBS TRAINING/DECORATING DAY

June 27, 2021

June 27, 2021

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I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope… - Psalm 130:5

Reading the messages to the seven churches in the book of Revelation, we should recognize that each of these churches are in a time of transition. It could be said that all churches, and all people, from the time of the resurrection are living in a time of transition.  We are living in the transition of the time that is already and yet to come.  We are living in the reality of the kingdom of heaven that is around us, but it not yet made perfect.

Transitional times are hard, and they call us, as the psalmists says, to wait and hope. The churches of revelation as with the church today we need to wait with patient hope, and hang on the words that come from our Lord. God can and does speak to each day, unfortunately, many refuse to listen, or aren’t attune to hear what God is saying. We get distracted by the many things in our current world that can lead us to be preoccupied here, and then we allow our selective hearing to only hear the things that align with our own desires.

When Jesus was on earth with his disciples, they were told about the time of transition, and to be ready, however, they did not understand his meaning. They refused to believe, or were scared of his words, until they saw it all happen. After Jesus transition from living prophet to resurrected Lord, the disciples became open to the work of the Holy Spirit in them and through them, from there the disciples began preparing the church, sharing the gospel, and sharing the love that Christ had shown them. 

Today, we still wait with patient endurance, and great hope for the Lord to make everything right and good, but in our waiting, we must continue to listen, to grow, to experience the love of Jesus, and offer it to those whom we share this life, as we await the life eternal that is still to come. The same Spirit that was working with Jesus and the disciples is now working with us, to lead us towards God’s perfect grace, mercy, and love.

Grace & Peace,
Sam