Rest in the New Year

A sunny Sunday morning, but bitterly cold after last night's wind shift. Nevertheless Pastor Brad welcomed us warmly, as is his custom. "How many of you when you woke up this morning felt alive and energized and said, 'This is the day the Lord has made.'? And how many woke up and had a discussion about whether you should venture out into the cold and come to worship this morning?"

Brad suggested that he had a very special message that is both simple and profound and that he hoped he would be able to adequately convey it on this Communion Sunday.

Announcements
Women's Bible Study is suspended for the time being.
Valentine's Day Leonard and Micah will be cooking a special Valentine's meal which will include fresh Alaskan Salmon, among other delights.

Darlene ushered us into worship with yet another beautiful piano solo before we joined in singing several hymns of the faith.

An offering taken, we spent some time in prayer.

Rest in the New Year

Brad wanted to share from a couple of passages. The first is from Revelation 3, the letter to the church at Philadelphia.

7 “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: ‘The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one shall shut, who shuts and no one opens. 8 “‘I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut; I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.

The second passage came from I Corinthians 15:1-8

First he shared an insight about the different verb tenses in Greek. One tense means it happened and is done. The second means it happened but continues to impact the future.

Christ died for our sins. Past completed tense. But in the middle of many factual statements past complete, he uses the alternative tense when referring to the resurrection in verse 4.

And again we looked at Revelation 3. The statement that there is an open door uses this permanently future-facing tense. The open door was not for the church at Philadelphia only. It was for all time.

Soe the question I have again... as you look at the year ahead, what are the open doors God has placed in front of you for 2015?

No matter where you have been, no matter what your brokenness, each day you can begin by asking what open door is before you so that you're not just passing time but living a significant life.

We do not want to be a church that just gets on a drift mode. We want to be a church, and individuals, who live in the excitement of God's presence and possibilities.

At this we turned to share in the Lord's Supper.