Around and Around It Goes

Sunshine filled the sanctuary for today's service. Outside, blustery weather reminded us what season it is. Pastor Brad, as always, welcomed us warmly. "Good morning! I'm grateful you're here today. This morning I will be looking at a subject that is important, that we all face... that is decision making."

Darlene and Chuck were away this weekend, so Ed filled in on the accompaniment for our worship and the traveling music that accompanied taking of the offering.

After a time of prayer, the pastor delivered this important message.

Around and Around It Goes

Brad began by reading Galatian 6:7-8
Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.

There is a law of consequences, and we ignore it to our own peril. Brad illustrated this with a story about riding down to the corner on an ATV with Brooke on a dirt bike to meet incoming relatives from out of town... knowing it is against the law

God is calling us to make better choices. The book of Judges became our lesson source.

Judges 1:5-7 tells a story about a king who had his thumbs and big toes cut off, As it turns out, he actually had done the same for 70 other kings whom he victimized in the same way and made them eat scraps from under his table.

In short, we reap what we sow. Justice doesn't go unaddressed, though it may seem so for a time.

If you ignore God, if you do what is wrong, if you sin... there are consequences.

Judges 2:11ff explains how the people of Israel stopped obeying God, and how God raised judges when they cried out to God. But when God delivered they got back into worse things. And a cycle begins and continues of peace leading to complacency about evil and each time they fall into the hands of their enemies, the cried out to the Lord again, and He raised up a deliverer.

Deliverance is followed by peace, but then they go back to their old ways, then suffering follows, and they cry out again to God. Some of these experiences are horrors.

For the duration of judges we read about this cycle of peace and followed by bad decisions, then judgment. The cycle repeats itself twelve times in this book. Sin followed by pain.

Ultimately, this verse sums up what was going on: "In those days there was no king in Israel. People did whatever they felt like doing." ~Judges 17:6

Sounds a lot like our world today.

What are you sowing right now that you don't want to reap in the future? Here are some questions to ask yourself.
If I am a parent am I sowing peace?
If I am dating am I sowing honor and maturity and sexual purity?
In my financial life and I sowing generosity and simplicity?
In my friendships am I sowing loyalty?
In my speech am I sowing truth?
In my habits am I sowing self-control?
In my family am I sowing compassion?

The book of Judges is about cycles that represent the cycles we all go through.
If you ask Jesus to be your savior, he will deliver us  from our own cycles of bondage.

After this, we transitioned into a celebration of the Lord's Supper.

Current status of our new building's interior.