October 5, 2009

Good Morning Everyone!

Another weekend has come and gone and I hope you had a chance to enjoy it.

Social Stuff:

This past Saturday (10-3-09) Jane and I hosted a garage sale at our home for two of our nephews who live south of Pacific, Mo. They live out in the country with thier parents and thier home location is not conducive to holding a garage sale. Jane helped them set everything up and we had a full day Saturday managing the garage sale. Didn't have that much business and our nephews wound up taking back home much of what they brought, but they seemed to enjoy the process. Both Jane and I were pretty tired at the end of the day.

Last week I played golf twice with some of the senior men from Salem Church and we had a very nice time. We have some pretty good golfers in our senior men and I can learn a lot from them. Since I am the newest member I am also the youngest member and this is nice since I find it harder and harder to find a group of men that fit this category.

I thought both of today's (10-4-09) Church services went well. I was liturgist at the first service and then a choir member during the second service. I sang a solo at both services and as usual I was nervous prior to each service but it seems I did OK and it was enjoyable. I thought the entire service went well. Bob Meinz does a tremendous job with our music and Pastor Lyons does a great job with the service. There are a lot of great people at Salem and both Jane and I are happy to be members there.

Koinonia Sunday School Class:

Today's Attendees were: Denise Kelley, Bill Nichols, Cyndie Jones, Alan Scholobohm, Teresa Scholobohm, Josh Scholobohm, Genny Maas, Jane Pursley and Terry Pursley.

Prayers were requested for:
1. Thanks for Genny's granddaughter arriving safely in Australia.
2. Andrew Jones being accepted at Mizzou for next year's fall semester.
3. Continued sever health issues for Cindies friend Chris Jenkerson.
4. Thanks for a "near-miss" of a deer not hitting Alan Scholobohm's car.
5. Teresa's good friend David Heartsock who was badly injured in a skydiving accident.
6. Denise's brother Dough who continues to experience some very difficult personal issues.

A Thank You Card was suggested for:
Helen Ralston for all her work and intgrity with the Church's finances and the card will be sent Monday.

A Thank You card will also be sent to Josh Shlobohm for his outstanding work with the video and audio systems used for the Book of Acts DVD presentation. Josh did a great job setting up the system with a larger screen and louder sound system which made the presentation much better than what was previously used.

Material Studied Today:

We viewed the Book of Acts Chapter 3 today on the DVD and then discussed it during thte class session. The primary action of Chapter 3 is Peter healing a man who had been crippled since birth and then Peter preaching to the resulting crowd about the relationships between the people and Jesus Christ. The DVD did a good job of presenting the scenes and action of healing the crippled man as well as Peter's subsequent message.

A key message occurs in verse 19 when Peter says "Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away." This is a timely message for not only the people listening to Peter but to us who are reading Peter's words. We often find ourselves as a "church community", as well as individuals, attempting to achieve justification from a "sin" by rationalizing that what we are doing is in fact not a sin. This strategy is contrary to what Jesus and Peter are telling us. We are told to confess the sin and seek God's forgiveness, and if we do this sincerely then God will "wipe our sins clean" through Jesus Christ. We ought not waste time trying to ratinalize our sins even though we think we or others will feel better about us if our rationalization is compelling. The fact is, a sin is a sin, is a sin, is a sin, etc. and we cannot resolve it though a rationalization process. We can resolve it however if we simply confess it to God and ask for his forgivenss. I realize this confession process for resolving sin sounds to simple and in fact it is, becasue Jesus did have to die and be resurected to allow this process to work, but die he did and thru his resurection our salvation can be accomplished, if we simply confess and ask for forgiveness.

Closing:

Next week neither Jane nor I will be present at Salem becaue I will be attending a retreat at Lake Ozark for the men in our families, and Jane will be in Wisconsin visiting our daughter Amy and grandchildren. While we are away, Alan and Josh Scholobom will be handling the Sunday School class, and Helen and Larry Ralston will be handling my donut responsibilities. I hope everyone does well and as always -

Have a Great Week and Enjoy Life!

Terry