Musings From Behind The Pulpit
This issue of "The Trumpeter" covers what we call "The Holiday Season," the season during which we celebrate that grand trio of end of the year holidays: Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's.
Instead of writing three separate "Musings" I tried to find a meaningful way to share something that in some way will recognize all three of the holidays that make up the season.
I found a way to do that in our recently completed Covenant Bible Study.
Now, I had hoped that more would take advantage of this opportunity. But I am truly grateful to those who did participate, especially the thirteen who made at least three quarters of the classes. Their participation enriched my own study and I am sure will strengthen the congregation.
And so, as we approach Thanksgiving, I observe that holiday by giving thanks to the participants and giving thanks to God for them.
Of course, right after Thanksgiving, we begin to prepare for Christmas. As I thought of how to celebrate it with you, I realized that I could give you the gift of sharing a bit of what we encountered in the CBS. I realized too, that by giving you this in advance of Christmas, it could be of help to you and our congregation during the stress of seasonal preparations.
So, I have chosen five passages from the study. I ask that each of you read one at the beginning of each week starting on Christ The King Sunday and continuing through each Sunday in Advent. After you read the week's passage, I urge you to ponder, pray and think about it throughout the week - alone or with others. None of these will take more than one minute to read and thus even the busiest of us should be able to find the time.
My gift selections are:
November 23: "Don't you realize that God's kindness is supposed to lead you to change your heart and life?" [Romans 2:4b]
November 30: "Eventually you must grow up and learn that the gospel isn't really about you after all. It's about being one part in a huge community across time and space ...His (Paul's) desire is to cultivate a covenant relationship where each person in the community depends on each other." [P. 73-74 of CBS Participant's Guide]
December 7: "Let's also think about how to motivate each other to show love and to do good works. Don't stop meeting together with other believers, which some people have gotten into the habit of doing. Instead encourage each other ..." [Hebrews 10: 24-25]
December 14: "Only by extending the grace we have received from God to others can we truly claim to understand what God has done for us [P. 60 of CBS Participant's Guide] and "God will evaluate you with the same standard you use to evaluate others." [Mark 4:24]
But there is a third holiday, New Year's Day. That is a day of resolutions rather than gifts. And so I ask that on that day, we each take another look at the gifts I have given you and then build our resolutions for 2015 on them.
If we do, I will be grateful - for giving thanks is not something we do only on one Thursday in November.
Jim