Worship on March 2
The sun was shinning. There was promise of warm weather in the air. The people gathered for worship with a spring in their step reflecting the feel of spring in the air.
Steve Gottschalk, our Lay Leader, was elected as the one to run the announcement time. This was his first time leading this activity. He did a great job.
Vanessa D., Dan C., Jane E., Blake R. and Betsy R. all talked about joys that they have seen in their lives this past week.
Blake R., Rod L., Rusty M., Carolyn H., Buzz D. and Steve G. all talked about prayer concerns in their lives.
Al Remaly was our Liturgist of the morning. He talked about how the men’s Lenten study on Saturday morning and reading the CS Lewis book has helped him to see temptation in new light. We know that we are tempted to sin all the time. Now he sees the many ways we are tempted into the gray area of life that will lead us away from God.
He gave the example that his family ate Culvers the other night. He and his wife both gave up sweets for Lent. Why did they want to eat a sandwich in a place that sells great ice cream? There’s no reason to be in the place where people are doing what they don’t want to do.
Connie Hinesley was our song leader of the morning. Our opening songs were “Ah, Lord God” “The Joy of the Lord” and “Let’s Just Praise the Lord.”
Following the prayer time, Laura Humrickhouse and Anita Lowery taught the children. They showed a promotional video for the church’s summer camping program. They encouraged the kids to take advantage of our camping program.
The hymn following the offering was “How Great Thou Art.”
The scripture reading was from I John 3:1-6.
The pastor taught us that, as believers, we are God’s children. He said that he has never seen a child that’s 5 – 10 years old compete in the Olympics. Some of the gymnasts look that old. None of them actually are. If a child wants to compete on the Olympic they have to focus their life on that goal. Everything else has to be put aside for that goal.
That’s the problem with our spiritual life. We need that Olympic-type training in order to compete in the spiritual world. If we don’t put in that kind of work, we are not going to be able to compete.
Most of us refuse to spend time studying scripture, praying and doing spiritual acts of service. Therefore, our spirits are still on a 5-year-old’s level. We wonder why we cannot win a spiritual battle. We have to do the preparation to be prepared.
There are likely days that an athlete would rather throw her skates across the ice than practice today. It takes the work, even when we don’t want to, that gives us the results.
The pastor also quoted from the CS Lewis book, “The Screwtape Letters” where it said that one of the tempter’s greatest weapons is to make people think that the only way around temptation is to sin.
The pastor pointed out that there is always a way out that doesn’t include sin. God will not abandon us to where we only have the choice to sin. He quoted from I Corinthians 10:13 to support the point.
We closed with “God Will Take Care of You.”
About 150 people enjoyed our day of worship.
