Church of God Faith Fellowship
www.churchofgodfaithfellowship.com
April 2024 - Vol. 24, No. 4
Meeting place: Gray Summit United Methodist Church
Calendar Notes:
Tuesday, April 10th - New Year’s Day
Sabbath, April 20th - We’ll be in the sanctuary; community breakfast in Fellowship Hall
Monday, April 22nd - Passover Service at GSUMC at 7:30; Bring your own towel and wash basin.
Tuesday, April 23rd - Night to Be Much Observed at Dosses’ at 6 p.m. - Potluck.
Wednesday, April 24th - Holy Day at GSUMC - Seminar and service details coming.
Thursday, April 25th and Friday, April 26th - Saladins’ at noon; Bible study/planned potluck
Sabbath, April 27th - Details coming - place TBD
Sunday, April 28th - Kleeschultes’ at noon - Bible study/planned potluck
Monday, April 29th - Dosses’ at noon - Bible study/planned potluck
Tuesday, April 30th - Holy Day services at GSUMC; Seminar and service details coming.
**Keep an eye on the church website for updates.
⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️
The Gift of Life by Bill Stough
There was a time when you and I did not exist Then suddenly we were! We have no personal memory of what it was like years before we were born, for we were not. Then suddenly, with no planning of our own, we were given life.
A child in a good home has a deep love of life. He enjoys playing, skipping, running, and many more things. I can vividly remember getting up in the morning when I was a child and how much I enjoyed eating, and I still do. I would go out and run up and down my neighborhood in San Francisco. My neighborhood friend (Roy) and I would build forts out of bushes. We would dig holes and hide in them. Why we liked all that is hard to explain other than it is a love of life.
As we got a little older, Roy and I developed a desire to climb every fence in the neighborhood. If it was a difficult job, then we worked on techniques until we could do it. There was something inherent in us that made us want to be able to do what seemed hard to do. The neighbors probably didn’t like us climbing their fences, but they usually let it go without complaining.
Roy and I wanted to explore everything. We played hide-and-seek with kids in the neighborhood. We liked jumping off of wood piles and anything else we could find. My boyhood friend, Roy, with whom I maintained contact until his death, remembered all the things we used to do and marvels at how much we were into life. And all these things are merely types of what is planned for us by God. Life is worth so very much. It is our greatest gift.
Why are we the way we are? We were made to want to learn, to experience life, and to do new things even if they are difficult. God put that in us. I could see that there was some kind of drive in me that wanted to overcome obstacles. That too is something God has put in people. God put it in us because he is that way too. We are, after all, his children, and children are very much like their parents in some ways, even from birth.
Roy and I used to dream about what it would be like to explore the universe, and we’d talk about it. Before we were even yet teenagers, we’d imagine what an incredible thing it would be to stand on the moon. We’d walk around in spacesuits, examine features, and look at the Moon Mountains. And what was Mars like? Nobody had seen a clear picture of Mars at that time. We wished we could go there and find out. This was how we talked in the early 1950s, long before space flight. There was something in us that seemed to know no bounds. Our minds were not tied up in knots. We had been given minds that were creative and that could think in vast ways. That, too, tells us something about God and the kind of mind he has, for all we have comes from him.
I see the love of life in my grandchildren. They become excited and enthusiastic about so many things. Sophia and Ethan love running through puddles barefooted. Do you remember how much fun it was to go running around barefooted? All this would not be possible if we hadn’t been given life and the innate love of life that is just somehow inside us.
What are we to learn from this?
This life and our desires to fully experience the good things of life is merely a shadow - a prototype - of what God intends to give us. It also tells us something about him.
God has given us a desire to live forever. We are driven to love life forever. But the love of life that we have now is only a foretaste of what kind of a life is ahead for us as spirit beings (1 Corinthians 2:9-10). And just as a child who is born didn’t give himself that life, neither can we give ourselves life. But it is something Jesus and the Father want to give us, and they can.
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full . . . My sheep listen to my voice: I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand (John 17:1-2).
There is a time period in this human life when many, if not most, people want to have children. In effect, they want to give life. And when they do, the child is precious to them. They will guard and look out for their child and seek to see that he has a full, abundant life. All of this tells us something about God, for we are given our human desires by God. And this life is nothing compared to the type of life that lies ahead. So many of the desires we find in ourselves were put there by God and tell us something about what he is like.
I described how Roy and I had some innate craving to overcome obstacles, to accomplish, to create. We also wanted to build things. (Roy, incidentally, became a building contractor.) It may seem trite at times to say “God is Creator.” But it is a profound truth, and it is not just what he has done in the past, for he continues to create. After all, that is his nature. We like to build, do things, and accomplish things. That tells us something about what God is like. He does things. He doesn’t sit on a park bench waiting for things to happen. The Father loves life, and he has put those inclinations right in us.
We must not become discouraged by trials, for a kind of life is ahead that will dwarf the one we know now. And our Father will get us there, for he is not put off by our difficulties. He doesn’t quit, any more than Roy or I would give up when we set our minds to do something. The gift of eternal life lies ahead, so we should not grow weary in well doing.
Think about what God is like in the ordinary things of daily life. Remember God when you see children playing in puddles. Love life now, but know that an even more dramatic, exciting, and fulfilling life lies ahead.
⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️
"A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor."
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️
My Redeemer Liveth
by Cynthia Saladin
I got the phone call that my Uncle Dick died early this morning. There is grief because Uncle Dick was a great guy (as human beings go) and his family loves him so much. But there is also relief because his last two weeks were especially rough; he is now no longer suffering. And overarching all of the mix of emotions is our belief that he will be resurrected again - because of what Jesus did on our behalf (John 3:16). We look forward to seeing so many of our loved ones again because my Redeemer liveth!
Job knew this! For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another (Job 19:25-27).
Jonah knew this! yet I shall again look upon your holy temple. . . . But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord! (Jonah 2:4, 9)
Martha believed that Lazarus would live again! I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day (John 11:24)!
But this hope is predicated on the assumption of a relationship with Jesus Christ. It doesn’t matter what great works you do or how holy you think you are, if you don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, it doesn’t matter (Matthew 7:23). That’s why what we do this month is so important! The communion service is that time of coming before God, having examined ourselves (1 Corinthians 11:27-28) and having reaffirmed that we need Jesus Christ to save us (1 Corinthians 7:24-25), and reaffirming our covenant with Him in Christ (John 13:8, Matthew 26:26-28). It’s followed with our obedience - having just renewed the covenant telling Him that we would obey Him!!! - of celebrating the Days of Unleavened Bread and eating unleavened bread for seven days. It’s an unmistakable picture of taking Jesus Christ into us; in obedience, of hungering for Him and subsisting on that Bread of life so that He exudes from every pore of our being.
This is not just some religious festival. This is Life! And this is not just about our physical life in this world; it’s about eternal life with the Creator of the universe. The stakes are incredibly high; why would you devote less than your full attention to preparing for these days?!
There’s a saying: “You only go around once in life, but if you do it right, once is enough.” Doing it right HAS to be founded on Jesus!
⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️
“Life is truly a ride. We're all strapped in and no one can stop it. When the doctor slaps your behind, he's ripping your ticket and away you go. As you make each passage from youth to adulthood to maturity, sometimes you put your arms up and scream, sometimes you just hang on to that bar in front of you. But the ride is the thing. I think the most you can hope for at the end of life is that your hair's messed, you're out of breath, and you didn't throw up.” - Jerry Seinfeld
Sabbath School
⛵️ Sabbath, April 6th - "Don't let evil get the upper hand, but conquer evil by doing good.” - Romans 12:21
⛵️ Sabbath, April 13th - “Don’t use your freedom as an excuse to sin. . . Serve one another in love” (Paraphrase). - Galatians 5:13
⛵️ Sabbath, April 20th - “Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth” (NIV). - Psalm 86:11
⛵️ Wednesday, April 24th - “The Lord. . . said, ‘I have loved you with a love that lasts forever’” (NIrV). - Jeremiah 31:3
⛵️ Sabbath, April 27th - “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” - Luke 24:5b
⛵️ Tuesday, April 30th - “After his suffering and death, he appeared to them” (NIrV). - Acts 1:3
⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️
Think About It!
Q: How many surrealists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A: Two. One to hold the giraffe and the other to fill the bathtub with brightly colored machine tools.
www.churchofgodfaithfellowship.com
April 2024 - Vol. 24, No. 4
Meeting place: Gray Summit United Methodist Church
Calendar Notes:
Tuesday, April 10th - New Year’s Day
Sabbath, April 20th - We’ll be in the sanctuary; community breakfast in Fellowship Hall
Monday, April 22nd - Passover Service at GSUMC at 7:30; Bring your own towel and wash basin.
Tuesday, April 23rd - Night to Be Much Observed at Dosses’ at 6 p.m. - Potluck.
Wednesday, April 24th - Holy Day at GSUMC - Seminar and service details coming.
Thursday, April 25th and Friday, April 26th - Saladins’ at noon; Bible study/planned potluck
Sabbath, April 27th - Details coming - place TBD
Sunday, April 28th - Kleeschultes’ at noon - Bible study/planned potluck
Monday, April 29th - Dosses’ at noon - Bible study/planned potluck
Tuesday, April 30th - Holy Day services at GSUMC; Seminar and service details coming.
**Keep an eye on the church website for updates.
⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️
The Gift of Life by Bill Stough
There was a time when you and I did not exist Then suddenly we were! We have no personal memory of what it was like years before we were born, for we were not. Then suddenly, with no planning of our own, we were given life.
A child in a good home has a deep love of life. He enjoys playing, skipping, running, and many more things. I can vividly remember getting up in the morning when I was a child and how much I enjoyed eating, and I still do. I would go out and run up and down my neighborhood in San Francisco. My neighborhood friend (Roy) and I would build forts out of bushes. We would dig holes and hide in them. Why we liked all that is hard to explain other than it is a love of life.
As we got a little older, Roy and I developed a desire to climb every fence in the neighborhood. If it was a difficult job, then we worked on techniques until we could do it. There was something inherent in us that made us want to be able to do what seemed hard to do. The neighbors probably didn’t like us climbing their fences, but they usually let it go without complaining.
Roy and I wanted to explore everything. We played hide-and-seek with kids in the neighborhood. We liked jumping off of wood piles and anything else we could find. My boyhood friend, Roy, with whom I maintained contact until his death, remembered all the things we used to do and marvels at how much we were into life. And all these things are merely types of what is planned for us by God. Life is worth so very much. It is our greatest gift.
Why are we the way we are? We were made to want to learn, to experience life, and to do new things even if they are difficult. God put that in us. I could see that there was some kind of drive in me that wanted to overcome obstacles. That too is something God has put in people. God put it in us because he is that way too. We are, after all, his children, and children are very much like their parents in some ways, even from birth.
Roy and I used to dream about what it would be like to explore the universe, and we’d talk about it. Before we were even yet teenagers, we’d imagine what an incredible thing it would be to stand on the moon. We’d walk around in spacesuits, examine features, and look at the Moon Mountains. And what was Mars like? Nobody had seen a clear picture of Mars at that time. We wished we could go there and find out. This was how we talked in the early 1950s, long before space flight. There was something in us that seemed to know no bounds. Our minds were not tied up in knots. We had been given minds that were creative and that could think in vast ways. That, too, tells us something about God and the kind of mind he has, for all we have comes from him.
I see the love of life in my grandchildren. They become excited and enthusiastic about so many things. Sophia and Ethan love running through puddles barefooted. Do you remember how much fun it was to go running around barefooted? All this would not be possible if we hadn’t been given life and the innate love of life that is just somehow inside us.
What are we to learn from this?
This life and our desires to fully experience the good things of life is merely a shadow - a prototype - of what God intends to give us. It also tells us something about him.
God has given us a desire to live forever. We are driven to love life forever. But the love of life that we have now is only a foretaste of what kind of a life is ahead for us as spirit beings (1 Corinthians 2:9-10). And just as a child who is born didn’t give himself that life, neither can we give ourselves life. But it is something Jesus and the Father want to give us, and they can.
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full . . . My sheep listen to my voice: I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand (John 17:1-2).
There is a time period in this human life when many, if not most, people want to have children. In effect, they want to give life. And when they do, the child is precious to them. They will guard and look out for their child and seek to see that he has a full, abundant life. All of this tells us something about God, for we are given our human desires by God. And this life is nothing compared to the type of life that lies ahead. So many of the desires we find in ourselves were put there by God and tell us something about what he is like.
I described how Roy and I had some innate craving to overcome obstacles, to accomplish, to create. We also wanted to build things. (Roy, incidentally, became a building contractor.) It may seem trite at times to say “God is Creator.” But it is a profound truth, and it is not just what he has done in the past, for he continues to create. After all, that is his nature. We like to build, do things, and accomplish things. That tells us something about what God is like. He does things. He doesn’t sit on a park bench waiting for things to happen. The Father loves life, and he has put those inclinations right in us.
We must not become discouraged by trials, for a kind of life is ahead that will dwarf the one we know now. And our Father will get us there, for he is not put off by our difficulties. He doesn’t quit, any more than Roy or I would give up when we set our minds to do something. The gift of eternal life lies ahead, so we should not grow weary in well doing.
Think about what God is like in the ordinary things of daily life. Remember God when you see children playing in puddles. Love life now, but know that an even more dramatic, exciting, and fulfilling life lies ahead.
⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️
"A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor."
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️
My Redeemer Liveth
by Cynthia Saladin
I got the phone call that my Uncle Dick died early this morning. There is grief because Uncle Dick was a great guy (as human beings go) and his family loves him so much. But there is also relief because his last two weeks were especially rough; he is now no longer suffering. And overarching all of the mix of emotions is our belief that he will be resurrected again - because of what Jesus did on our behalf (John 3:16). We look forward to seeing so many of our loved ones again because my Redeemer liveth!
Job knew this! For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another (Job 19:25-27).
Jonah knew this! yet I shall again look upon your holy temple. . . . But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord! (Jonah 2:4, 9)
Martha believed that Lazarus would live again! I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day (John 11:24)!
But this hope is predicated on the assumption of a relationship with Jesus Christ. It doesn’t matter what great works you do or how holy you think you are, if you don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, it doesn’t matter (Matthew 7:23). That’s why what we do this month is so important! The communion service is that time of coming before God, having examined ourselves (1 Corinthians 11:27-28) and having reaffirmed that we need Jesus Christ to save us (1 Corinthians 7:24-25), and reaffirming our covenant with Him in Christ (John 13:8, Matthew 26:26-28). It’s followed with our obedience - having just renewed the covenant telling Him that we would obey Him!!! - of celebrating the Days of Unleavened Bread and eating unleavened bread for seven days. It’s an unmistakable picture of taking Jesus Christ into us; in obedience, of hungering for Him and subsisting on that Bread of life so that He exudes from every pore of our being.
This is not just some religious festival. This is Life! And this is not just about our physical life in this world; it’s about eternal life with the Creator of the universe. The stakes are incredibly high; why would you devote less than your full attention to preparing for these days?!
There’s a saying: “You only go around once in life, but if you do it right, once is enough.” Doing it right HAS to be founded on Jesus!
⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️
“Life is truly a ride. We're all strapped in and no one can stop it. When the doctor slaps your behind, he's ripping your ticket and away you go. As you make each passage from youth to adulthood to maturity, sometimes you put your arms up and scream, sometimes you just hang on to that bar in front of you. But the ride is the thing. I think the most you can hope for at the end of life is that your hair's messed, you're out of breath, and you didn't throw up.” - Jerry Seinfeld
Sabbath School
⛵️ Sabbath, April 6th - "Don't let evil get the upper hand, but conquer evil by doing good.” - Romans 12:21
⛵️ Sabbath, April 13th - “Don’t use your freedom as an excuse to sin. . . Serve one another in love” (Paraphrase). - Galatians 5:13
⛵️ Sabbath, April 20th - “Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth” (NIV). - Psalm 86:11
⛵️ Wednesday, April 24th - “The Lord. . . said, ‘I have loved you with a love that lasts forever’” (NIrV). - Jeremiah 31:3
⛵️ Sabbath, April 27th - “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” - Luke 24:5b
⛵️ Tuesday, April 30th - “After his suffering and death, he appeared to them” (NIrV). - Acts 1:3
⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️
Think About It!
Q: How many surrealists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A: Two. One to hold the giraffe and the other to fill the bathtub with brightly colored machine tools.