Merciful God,
It seems the one constant in our culture is change and change is difficult. We age. Our children mature. Friends move away. Birth and death are real experiences. There is an ebb and flow in all of life. Nothing remains the same, except for Your love. Forgive us, Loving God, when we build our lives on the sand. May You be the solid rock that gives us stability. Help us to realize that change isn’t a threat to us when we trust in You. In Jesus name we pray. AMEN.
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Please pray for our hospitalized: Ruby Register, Austin Wade, Gene Mason, Margaret Lambke, and Dortha Immel. Ron Maphet was to have been released yesterday.
There is a Women’s Tea this afternoon in the Fellowship Hall. All women of the church are invited.
The Regional youth Lock-in hosted by our youth group was a great success. Approximately 150 people were in attendance.
Today we commission our board members and officers at the beginning of the 10:15 sanctuary service.
The scripture for today is Galatians 3:19-4:7:
Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring would come to whom the promise had been made; and it was ordained through angels by a mediator. Now a mediator involves more than one party; but God is one. Is the law then opposed to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could make alive, then righteousness would indeed come through the law. But the scripture has imprisoned all things under the power of sin, so that what was promised through faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.
My point is this: heirs, as long as they are minors, are no better than slaves, though they are the owners of all the property; but they remain under guardians and trustees until the date set by the father. So with us; while we were minors, we were enslaved to the elemental spirits of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.
The Psalm for the week is Psalm 53:
Fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they commit abominable acts; there is no one who does good.
God looks down from heaven on humankind to see if there are any who are wise, who seek after God.
They have all fallen away, they are all alike perverse; there is no one who does good, no, not one.
Have they no knowledge, those evildoers, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and do not call upon God?
There they shall be in great terror, in terror such as has not been. For God will scatter the bones of the ungodly; they will be put to shame, for God has rejected them.
O that deliverance for Israel would come from Zion! When God restores the fortunes of his people, Jacob will rejoice; Israel will be glad.
Grace and peace,
John McLemore
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