Pastor’s Notes (Page 25)

• Thankful to wake up this morning (9/11) and see nothing in the news of a tragic nature. I sometimes wonder how many people didn’t sleep last night, or maybe most of last month, because they were watching over the rest of us. • As background for the discussion with Dr. Derek Halvorson, president of Covenant College, next Monday at 6:00 p.m., here are a few thoughts on…

[like] • In the beginning of Ephesians 5 Paul is giving the sort of straight-up ethical counsel we are familiar with: “ sexual immorality must not even be named among you” and “ let there be no… foolish talk or crude joking.” He outlines parallel but opposing characters, distinguishing between those who have an inheritance in Christ and “the sons of…

• A decisive ethic of the Christian faith is the refusal to defend or protect the self, learning instead to think of your life as something to be spent rather than sheltered. This is Jesus “oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth” (Isa 53:7), refusing to stand on his rights and instead “taking the form of a servant” (Php 2:7). This is Paul “poured out like…

• It was good to be with you and back in worship this week. Included are some comments on the Mark Driscoll/Mars Hill debacle. • A good insight into the deterioration at Mars Hill can be found here by Ron Wheeler. It’s powerful. And there’s more than you’ll ever want to read at the Patheos website by Dr. Warren Throckmorton. As I began to read Wheeler’s post I was…

• Sunday July 6 will be our opportunity to show appreciation for Luke and Karen’s ministry and service among us. Please join us after worship for fellowship, finger-food and cake. • A key issue at this General Assembly was the so-called Insider Movements (IM), a term usually used to speak of Muslim converts to Christianity who, if they were to make their conversions…

• The first prominent congregation in the Southern Baptist denomination has decided, following the pastor’s lead, to affirm same-sex relationships. What is important and interesting about this particular trend in conservative Evangelical churches is that it requires a thorough reinterpretation of several clear biblical passages, and overturns two millennia of virtually…

• Consider this: “Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?” Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill.…

• All things being equal, our children will become some version of who we are — not what we teach them, but who we are. Most people who read the two great imperatives of Deut. 6:5 and following (“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart… you shall teach [these words] diligently to your children”), pass over the former and invest heavily in the…

I occasionally wonder if my walk with God is not a form of compromise, a shadow of what the New Testament portrays as an ordinary life with God. When the mother of James and John, and the brothers themselves, reveal their undying interest in self-promotion and exaltation (Mt 20:20ff), Jesus asks “are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?” Answering in…

• Please consider joining us for the Light and Life Banquet in support of Care Net of Puget Sound. This is a ministry primarily to teenage girls who are in a frightening, dark hour, and who find at Care Net clinics older women who surround them with the love of Christ and provide answers to their questions. The banquet is Saturday March 29th from 6:30p.m. to 8:30. We have…