Newsletter

“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland."

-Isaiah 43:19

Last winter, I had an idea: I wanted to use some of the smaller pieces of wood I'd been saving to turn little figures which could become earrings. So I set up my lathe and turned a bunch of little figures. Then I realized I had no idea how to take those figures and make them be earrings.

So I searched the web. And I found 3 different articles about turning wooden earrings. None of them gave me the information I was looking for, but each one began with the same helpful tip. It went something like: "It is impossible to turn these with normal lathe tools. You will need to make specialized tools."

I looked at that tip. And then I looked at the beads in my hands. The ones I had turned with normal lathe tools. And I congratulated myself on having done the impossible.

Of course, it wasn't actually impossible and I didn't do anything all that special. It's just that people often become so caught up in conventional wisdom about "how it's done" that we don't actually stop to ponder what might be possible. And because we don't think to look, we miss out on the new things that could be brought into existence if we could only see them.

Our church has been in a state of rapid transition these last few months. A total staff turnover in under 90 days and a sudden vacancy on the Session will tend to have that effect, especially when one of those staff positions is restructured during the turnover process. 

It can be unsettling, and leave us asking how to carry on when we're doing something we've never done before. I wonder, though, if something new is waiting to be brought forth in our church. Something conventional wisdom tells us is impossible, that we will find is ours to achieve if we are just willing to perceive it. May God do a new thing in our church and in our hearts, and may it replenish us for the days to come.

Blessings,

Pastor Shea

God shed His grace on thee. 

There is much to reflect on in the lyrics of the song, America the Beautiful, that began as a poem written by Katharine Lee Bates (1859-1929), who was a professor of English literature at Wellesley College, Massachusetts. In the summer of 1893, she embarked on a journey across the U.S. to lecture at a school in Colorado Springs.  One day, she joined a group of teachers for a trip by prairie wagon up Pike’s Peak, a summit in the Rocky Mountains. When she saw the view from the top, she felt great joy.  “All the wonder of America seemed displayed there, with sea-like expanse.”  When back at her hotel, she began to write the poem to “America the Beautiful.” In 1910, the words were fitted to the tune “Materna” by composer Samuel A. Ward to which we sing it today.    

We experience God’s grace when He gives us what we do not deserve. God’s grace comes at us two ways: common grace and saving grace. 

Common grace is the good God provides to all people

“That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”  [Matthew 5:45]

A sinner is like a barren landscape – a harsh environment. Yet God gives us what we do not deserve, a fertile land and a beautiful landscape. Compared to the rest of the world, we are a rich, well-educated, and healthy country. We should thank God for these blessings from His common grace.  It is not like God owed us these blessings or we earned them. Everything good flows from His grace.

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”  [James 1:17]

Saving grace is the work Jesus Christ did to save us from our sin

We cannot earn salvation despite our good attempts; He saved us through Christ purely because of grace. 

When we come to Christ and experience His saving grace, we are transformed.  Followers of Christ make the best citizens.  They work to improve lives out of their love for God and love for others. A redeemed person is a better person, which leads to better families, and better families lead to better communities. Where the church has flourished, the community flourished.

If we ignore God and His gracious work in our country, let us not presume He will bless us. But if we acknowledge that what we have is from His gracious heart, we could see a renewed blessing on our country.

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”  [2 Chronicles 7:14]

God mend thine every flaw

This line of the song should be part of our daily prayer.

Confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law

With Confirmation, we are sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit. We are asking God to seal the soul of our nation with self-control, to seal God’s liberty within our laws.

Who more than self their country loved

Jesus tells us we should make everything secondary to Him, we should sacrifice for Him for the greater good.

O beautiful for patriot dream that sees beyond the years

Vision beyond the present day, recognizing the temporary nature of our existence, sacrificing for and leaving behind a legacy for future generations. We are a pilgrim people. What we have and do here is temporary, but will lead to something greater.

God is referenced in all four stanzas. It is a reminder that we need His presence in our lives as individuals and as a nation.  

While Katharine was initially surprised by the poem’s success, she later reflected that its enduring “hold as it has upon our people, is clearly due to the fact that Americans are at heart idealists, with a fundamental faith in human brotherhood.”

God Bless America as we celebrate Independence Day.  

May He shed His grace on all of us.

Lynn DeCondo

Clerk of Session

Birthdays

July

Nolan Gardner 7-14

Nancy Hadlock 7-16

Alexis Kroeger  7-18

Linda Schnittger 7-18

William Hadlock 7-21

Lisa Gallagher  7-31

August

Delinda Sunderland 8-8

Debbie Richards 8-12

Elizabeth Barrigar 8-12

Roger Hadlock 8-13

Nick Winchester 8-14

Evelyn Saphier 8-25

Jen McGregor  8-26

Art Davidson  8-27

Viktor Cole  8-28

September

Randy Salamacha 9-3

Pieter Visscher 9-9

Dorothy Weber 9-9

Olive Reynolds 9-16

Maura Richards 9-16

Sabrina Atherton 9-17

Zero Kroeger  9-25

Mark Schnittger 9-29

DJ Simons  9-29

Anniversaries

July

Pam & Joe Winchester  7-20

August

Greg & Arielle  Demick 8-5

Shea & Jocie Zellweger 8-18