Mission & Ministry

Mercy Ships Update

7/31/2008 News from Mercy Ships 08

6/11/2008 Daily Office Summer 2008

4/10/2008 2008-2009 Preschool Brochure

4/10/2008 2008-2009 Preschool Registration Form

Worship

Sunday Morning Worship
9:00 & 10:45 AM
Nursery and Sunday School Offered Both Hours

PASTOR CHRIS TWEITMANN'S THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK.
What does it mean to speak of the holiness of God?
How are we to understand God's call to us as his people to be holy as he is holy?
As we wrestle with the biblical text of Leviticus, these are the two questions that continue to stand before us. To speak of the holiness of God is to recognize the otherness, the distinctiveness of God. It is to contemplate that the essence of what and who God is - perfect and without compromise. God's name, "I am that I am, I will be what I will be" underscores the consistency and purity of God's being. God's nature and character cannot be manipulated or diluted. It is impossible for God to be less than who he is.
This is hard for us to comprehend let alone accept. After all, we live at a time when it generally understood that no one maintains an objective or detached perspective. We are, each of us, influenced by our experiences and our beliefs. We see others, the world, and ourselves from a biased perspective. Our biases frequently lead us to manipulate or to be manipulated by, those around us. Compromise is the way of life. We tend to find it easier and safer to be less than we are in order to get along in this world. No one is pure; nothing is perfect. Truth is relative. Reality is subjective.
Surprisingly, this isn't a new idea-it's a biblical one! It's another way of stating the reality of our infection by sin. We are inherently self-focused no matter from what perspective we look-inward or outward. We are fixated, blinded, even dominated, by our own sense of self. But contrary to some of the rhetoric, everything isn't relative. We may be subjective. But there is an objective reality-an unbiased perspective-and that's God. God is the only objective reality. As the origin and sustainer of all things-including us, God's view is THE view; God's definition of reality is REALITY-everything else is a false reality-or the byproduct of sin.
And there's the rub, if our perspective is inherently subjective and therefore limited, how can we know and encounter the objective reality of God and God's will? We can't. This is what Karl Barth called "the divine crisis"-there is no pathway from us to God unless God himself initiates one towards us. Hence the glory of the Gospel-the story of God's revelation of himself, of his holiness, to us through the Word, in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ, and by the power of the Holy Spirit. God engages us relationally. God enters into our limited view of time and broadens our horizons into eternity. In the midst of our skewed and competing perceptions of this life, God declares his holiness and thus reveals a benchmark for knowing what is real, what is true and what is lasting.
To speak of God's redemption and reconciliation of the world is to tell of God's holiness saturating, healing and transforming the world. It is to speak of the cessation of arbitrary distinctions between the sacred and the mundane. All of life belongs to God and therefore is holy. It is to speak of the end of compromising truth for the sake of peace. Wholeness and unity are brittle and suspect apart from obedience to God's instructions for life. It is to believe that what is good cannot be achieved through manipulation, that what is perfect cannot be diluted. Only God is good and the presence of God cannot be earned, domesticated or altered by what and who we would have God do and be.
But God's revelation is not a static expression; just some exposition, signs and wonders. When God speaks, God creates-God brings something new into being. Through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God invites us into his holiness, to become not just who we were created to be, but something even more. In Christ, we are justified before God, that is, we receive forgiveness, but we are also sanctified, we are set apart, remade, transformed into the very embodiment of God's holiness.
The Bible offers many different descriptions of this on-going transformation in our lives as believers and followers of Jesus: "ambassadors," "offerings," "a priesthood," "the body of Christ". What all of these images seek to convey is that God's plan is for his holiness to infiltrate and transform this world through his people. Hence, we are to be holy as he is holy. As shocking and unbelievable as it may sound, God reveals his holiness through those he is making holy. We who profess and follow Jesus Christ are the means by which God seeks to reveal, teach, point and embody-the forgiveness, the peace, the love, the grace and the presence of God in Jesus Christ to the world.
How are we to live into such a calling? What are we to do when as the people of God we disagree as to where, when and how God is leading us? These are questions for another time. Stay tuned.

Looking Ahead

Prayer Meeting
Tuesday, August 5, 6:30 PM
Nursery care provided for kids 3 years and under

Senior High Mission Trip Reoprt
Sunday, August 10th, during each service. Refreshments served between services.