Emotional, Physical and Spiritual Healing

"Good morning. How's everyone doing?" Pastor Brad welcomed us and shared a little but about the Ash Wednesday service and the theme for this time of Lent. Lent is forty days, and traditionally a time of new beginnings. The overarching theme is one of healing. There is so much brokenness in the world. It's not just out there but in here as well. What will it take to heal us so we can move forward in our faith walk.

It can be any number of things that hold us back, but what we have is Jesus who promises to make all things new. Brad's prayer for each of us is healing not only now but all through Lent.

Announcements
Next Sunday we are having a special dinner for the contractors who worked on our church. It's our way of saying Thank You.

The quartet opened with Led By The Master's Hand by Mosie Lister. Brad asked for God to bless our gather and we continued with singing. "There's victory in Jesus, my Savior forever." We proceeded to sing choruses from the blue songbook and then took the offering while the quartet raised our spirits with a rousing "Heaven On My Mind."

Susan Jessico called the kids to come forward for a special Valentine time. The kids were asked, "How many times is the word Heart used in the Bible?" The kids guessed numbers from 3 to 21 but the correct answer is 570. Hearts have a lot to do with love... and so she asked how many times the word Love is used. The children guessed much closer this time, and the answer was 551. The best expression of love is found in John 3:16.

The needs of our church family were then lifted up in the time of prayer that preceded the message.

Emotional, Physical and Spiritual Healing

The starting point for the sermon was Psalm 109. In verse 22 the psalmist states, "For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me." But the good news is found a few verses later. "I will praise him. For he stands at the right hand of the needy."

Brad outlined the various ways we can be walking wounded, and encouraged us to be aware that we're not alone, neither the first nor the last. The wounds can be a result of many things, including abuse and horrible things we can't imagine.

What Lent is about finding genuine healing. To this end Brad offered is three prayers to make our own.

1st Prayer: "Lord, renew my mind with Your truth." Romans 12:2
There are all kinds of lies we tell ourselves. What is it that holds you back?
Brad led us to Ephesians 4:22-23 where it says, "Be made new in the attitude of your minds."

2nd Prayer: "God, would you restore in me what has been lost?" God specializes in finding what is lost and healing what is broken. Several of Jesus' parables touch this truth. What have you lost? Maybe it's hope that God wants to restore in your life.
Jeremiah 30:17  "But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds," declares the Lord,

3rd Prayer: "God would You help me release my offender?" Forgiveness is an essential step in moving forward. "Forgive as the Lord forgave you," says the Scriptures. Until we release the one who hurt us, we are forever linked to that hurt. Carrying our hurts gives us false power so that we feel we have a right to behave badly. Holding a grudge against those who hurt you only hurts you more.

Whatever the offense, we have to let it go.

When Jesus was on the cross, and the world had done its worst to Him, he said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

Our prayer during Lent this year is that you would find healing during this time. Let go of your wound, lay it down at the foot of the cross. Allow God to show up and do what only He can do.

Hold On

Trinity Sunday / First Sunday After Pentecost

At the beginning of the service we shared a moment of silence for Chauncey Wargin, who departed to be with the Lord this week.

This was followed by several important announcements including the following.
1. Beginning next Sunday, worship will start at 9:30 for the duration of the summer.
2. Pastor Shannon will be presenting a new series of sermons taken from the Book of James.
3. The last Adventure Club of the year will be Wednesday night, with an Art Show following. Dessert and special entertainment will be enjoyed by all.

Our Sunday School teachers and Adventure Club leaders were also given recognition.

After the reading of Psalm 121, Ed Newman lead the Children’s Challenge, beginning with an examination inside the kids’ mouths to see if he could find something he was looking for. Turns out, no one had an eraser in their mouths. The message: words can be used for good, but can also hurt others, and unfortunately, we do not have an eraser on our tongues.

After Scripture readings from Ps. 8 and Matthew 28:16-20, Pastor Shannon began his message.

Hold On

The message today dealt with very sober issues. Not everything in the world is good. War, rape, abuse, crime, scandals… no matter what part of the newspaper you look at you will see stories that underscore this truth. Real evil exists. No rational person can deny that there is evil in the world.

How did the world get so messed up? The answer is that sin has entered the world. Our sin has done real damage. Before Adam and Eve sinned, the world was perfect. But since then, it is fallen, corrupt, a broken planet.

No one is without sin. I don’t live up to my own standards, let alone those of a perfect God. As the Scriptures state, “All have sinned,” and “There is none righteous, not one.”

Sin causes great damage. In today’s sermon, Pastor Shannon outlined five realms where sin causes harm and suffering… (1) the Natural, (2) the Physical, (3) the Emotional, (4) the Relational, and (5) the Spiritual.

1) Natural disasters occur because the earth is broken, no longer in harmony with God’s order. For this reason we have earthquakes, Tsunamis, and other devastation. In Romans 8:20-22 we read that the whole of creation groans for release from its bondage to decay, caused by the entrance of sin into the world.

2) The physical real is subject to decay and death. Our bodies weaken, we age. All things in this world are subject to the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

In actuality, death is actually good. This world is imperfect, and a source of suffering. Jesus has prepared for us a better place. Death is a door to this better world.

3) Sin also damages us emotionally. At this point he shared how engaged couples often spend as much of a year working out every detail of a wedding, that lasts but a few hours, without working on the important issues of the marriage, which is a lifetime.

4) Sin causes relational damage as well, and this is nowhere more visible than in the context of a marriage. Either we grow up or grow apart. It is the place where we must learn to be unselfish.

Adam and Eve were naked and unashamed. They had no hang-ups, no baggage from abusive parents, bad school experiences, etc. But then, they sinned, and everything changed. In Genesis 3:7 we see that they hid themselves. And clothed themselves in fig leaves. (What’s your fig leaf?) They also blamed, as we still do to this day, blaming others for our bad behavior.

5) Spiritual discontent and sadness is the fifth consequence of sin. Pascal noted that we have a God-shaped who in our hearts, and only God can fill it. Augustine, a thousand years earlier, wrote that “our hearts are restless till they find their rest in Thee.” Only God can satisfy our deepest need.

We live on a broken planet. The tragic surrounds us on all sides, around the globe. No wonder there is epidemic depression.

The prophet Jeremiah was well acquainted with depression and sorrow. Out of his sorrows he wrote the Book of Lamentations. But in this book we see him affirm that the Lord can always be counted on. “Lord, You are all that I need,” he exclaims.

Sin is why the world is such a mess. So why doesn’t God just shut it down? Pull the plug?

God is in control, and the world is moving toward its climax. God is patient and doesn’t want anyone to perish. He puts up with the grief to give us more time and opportunity to receive His grace.

When there is suffering in the world, God feels it deeply. He made us with emotions in His image, and he is not immune to grief when He sees trafficking in women, child abuse, and all the other horrors in our time.

Through the sin of one man, death entered the world, and suffering. This is, however, a temporary world now. It will never be perfect. But in the midst of it, God’s presence and reign are available, her and now.

Once we’ve found His peace, His redemption, we need to share with others what we’ve found.