Words for Reflection

We need to face the truth of the limits of our perceptions and look again at who Jesus is revealing Himself to be.  Jesus' words are an invitation to contemplation, a call to awareness.  His admonition is the gentle but powerful reminder that a great deal of the work we do as we follow Him along the Way is to keep opening our eyes and ears to the truth of who He is.  He can never be exhaustively described by us.  There is always more about Him to discover.  The ingredients of mystery and humility are part of what fuels our journey with Him.

David Rohrer, The Sacred Wilderness of Pastoral Ministry

 

Premodernism asserted that there was an objective truth that could be known by those who had the skill to see it.  Modernism objected that truth was relative, that different people saw truth differently according to their own situations.  Postmodernism insists that there is no truth at all, that whatever truth there might be must be created by each person, for any larger claims to truth are in reality disguised bids for power.  The meta-narrative of the Christian community compassionately demonstrates that Jesus is the Truth, an objective Truth who can be known.  We know Him only partially, but because we know Him we do not have to try to create truth for ourselves.  Furthermore, His truth is not oppressive, for as Mark Schwehn emphasizes,

     For Christianity, the quest for truth is bound up inextricably with discipleship, and therefore the  

     shape of power is for them always cruciform...So long as Christians remember that, for disciples,

     power is not dominion but obedience, faithfulness, and suffering servanthood, they can rightly

     claim an integral connection between truth and power.

The Christian story we offer to our neighbors introduces them to Jesus, the Truth, who brings healing to postmodernists' fractured souls.

Marva Dawn, A Royal Waste of Time

 

Order of Worship, April 28 2013

Grace Presbyterian Church



 

 

 

Words for reflection

A familiar phrase coursing through culture is, "The only constant in life is change." Weather changes, people change, relationships and attitudes change   Colors fade from clothing, our faces and bodies change shape and texture over the years.  Most change is small and unnoticeable,  but we'd be hard-pressed to find anything that does not change considerably over time.

For a guy like me, that's hard.  I spend hours perfecting one thing or another, honing life to my specifications.   Wood-working, a project, the beds I plant in the yard.   I even spent years perfecting my penmanship so I could write faster and neater and that my letters would look exactly the way I wanted. Yet, looking back, everything has changed.  Sometimes subtly, sometimes obviously.

Scripture teaches us again and again that Yahweh does not change.  "I Am that I Am," God told Moses.  Numerous authors of scripture have articulated the same truth.  God does not change.  We need to hear it, meditate on it, and see what difference it makes in our lives.  It doesn't make Him archaic, irrelevant, obsolete, or discarded; in fact, it should make Him the most significant part of our lives.  Everything else is fading away, and He remains.

Nate Conrad

Sermon Notes -- Psalm 102:1-28

We tend to rely on things that change to give us abiding contentment.  But that won't work -- we must rely on something that abides unchanged.  

His unchangingness makes Him God -- if He could be even more or less of what He is now, He wouldn't be God.  But His promises are sure and set.  If He changed, we couldn't depend on His promises, or even our own faith in who He is.  But He does not change & He keeps His promises.  

God brings change in our lives to show His perfect, unchanging goodness.  

Order of Worship, February 10 2013

Grace Presbyterian Church

Prayer of Confession
Holy Father and Merciful King
Our lives are not hidden from your sight.
You hear our thoughts, know our hearts, and see every moment of our lives:
Our whining and pride, our laziness and fear of risk, our grumbling and envy.
All that we are, we are before You.  Even so we wrestle against your grace, pretending that we can hide our sin behind our self-righteous deceit.

We confess not only our sin, but the shame of our attempts to fight against the grace of your love for sinners.

Humble us with the gospel.
Father cover us in the righteousness of Christ.
Let us hear Your Spirit assuring us that Christ's sacrifice is our peace
and His resurrection the seal of our adoption as sons.

May the peace of Christ guard our hearts so that we might seve you with feedom and joy, now and forever more.
Amen

Assurance of Pardon
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  1 John 1:8-9

Order of Worship, December 12 2010

Grace Presbyterian Church