New year, new start

Then end of pages on a calendar is a time when most of us look back over the last year, think about the good and the bad and the ugly that happened over that year, but also look forward to a new year, about the ability to start fresh.

We look at the new, empty calendar as if it were a blank sheet. But it's not. Because we bring our old baggage into the new year. When we make those resolutions, and you know you will, they nearly always fail. Because we don't plan for success.

We try to add something new, exercise, eating right, watching TV less, but we haven't really bought into the change. We do it because we feel like the calendar change means we are supposed to do it. So the heart isn't in it and we have set ourselves up to fail. We didn't count the cost.

I speak from experience. I have resolved to lose weight, to eat better, to exercise more nearly every year until last year. I finally decided to stop teasing myself because I wasn't preparing myself to do it, I was just making a claim that I didn't believe could happen.

Fast forward to this past fall, when I went for a routine checkup. I knew my cholesterol would be high (diet and genetics are to blame there. Mostly diet.) but was blindsided by high blood pressure. Suddenly I had an even greater reason to watch what I eat. And I have been for the most part (Thanksgiving to New Years are a season of MGR, much grace required). I've owned my desire to lose weight and eat right.

We all need to do that, not just for our diet, but for every part of our lives. So I resolve that in 2011, I will have no resolutions. Except for one. I resolve to life better each day than the day before. It's a small goal at one level. But imaging the power of multiplication involved. If try to live for others more than yesterday, that life change is exploding all around.

And that is a good thing.

My goal is to try to do this by reading through the Bible in 2011. Sunday I passed out a reading plan to read the entire Bible in 2011. If I'm going to live for others I need to be reminded daily how I'm supposed to do that. Scripture will help me do that.

My hope is to blog about what I'm reading there and to share with you all what God is doing as I seek to live for others intentionally.

I encourage anyone reading this to do the same. Don't make resolutions that will set you up to fail. Take small steps, small attainable goals that you can make wins in but keep your eyes on a larger target. We are called to change this world, and that happens one person at a time.

Let's make that happen this year!

What is new is old and old is new...

It's funny how things can hit you at the most mundane times.

This morning while taking the trash cans to the curb, it was about 20 degrees. My hands were getting numb from the cold. I was thinking how I'm not used to this weather, but I should be. I mean this is where I grew up. I'm not a transplant to New Jersey after all.

A re-transplant, yes, but not a transplant. I feel like at one level my roots are still here. Always have been. But after nearly 20 years away (I haven't lived here full time since 1991!) I've changed and the area has changed. And while no one likes change it is a reality we all deal with.

Then it hit me. My church is much the same.

We are a re-transplant (a replant would be the more correct term for church planters but just keeping with the analogy). We aren't a new church and we haven't been around for years. But we do have a new identity, while keeping much of our old.

The challenge we face is much the same as my personal challenge being back in Jersey. It is not letting the old ways trump the new ways, as well as letting the old ways that were good survive.

For me it is relearning the personality of this area. Even though I grew up here, I've been in Central Pa, Pittsburgh and Jacksonville, and have been influenced by the way of live in all those place, each with similarities and huge differences compared with South Jersey. One great example is that people here are much more direct than in other places I have lived (yes, that is a generalization but one that holds).

For Christ Anglican Mission, we are in the process of relearning what it means to be a church and not an institution. It is one we are embracing but it is a challenge. Doing new things in new ways when you are in the same place you have always been (yes, we are in a new building but still in the same town, etc) is hard.

Especially when our old ways, both personal and church, weren't wrong, just ineffective in new situations. So often though, doing things the old way is comforting and familiar and we all go back to the default setting rather than challenging ourselves to embrace change at a deep level.

It is a process, embracing change. I know I daily have to battle personally to embrace the change. Some days I do better than others, but my hope is to always keep advancing and not retreating. Keep pushing into the changes we are each called to, either personally or as part of this church (or your church). Don't be discouraged by setbacks, but be heartened by the successes.

Sermon for October 10: Faith and the power of God

Lessons: 2 Kings 5:1-3; Psalm 113; 2 Timothy 2:8-15; Luke 17:11-19

Last week I talked about how the righteous shall live by faith, how faith isn’t just a one time thing, but it needs to encompass every aspect of our lives. Over the next few weeks we will be looking at faith and how God demonstrates how His is worthy of our faith.

This week we are going to look at our need to see that God’s power is stronger than what we can see, that we need to have faith in his power. But in order for us to have faith in his power, we need to experience his power. Or rather, realize we have experienced his power. And we need to respond in the right way.

Our OT lesson tells us the story of Naaman. Naaman was in charge of the army of the king of Syria. Now things seemingly were going well for Naaman. He had favor with his king because he had won victories for Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, he was brave and a strong warrior. This is a surprisingly favorable image of a man who was leading a rival nations army.

And Scripture tells us a couple other things about Naaman. God used this Syrian to gain victory. The power of God is moving and using people even without their knowledge of it. Even those who do not profess Jesus as Lord of their life. God is not passive waiting for us to introduce people to him. He is active moving in the lives of everyone and wants us to come along side people and affirm what He is doing in them and through them.

The second thing we know about Naaman is that he is a leper. He is afflicted with some kind of skin disease that has put a stigma upon him. He needs help. And a Jewish servant in his household told him where he could get that help, a prophet in Samaria. So Naaman goes through official channels, he tries to work within the system, but is rejected. The king of Israel is worried that it is a trap.

But Elisha heard about the incident and sends for Naaman. Not just to heal him, but that he would know that there is a prophet, a man who speaks for God, in Israel. Namaan is told by a messenger to wash in the Jordan River 7 times and your flesh will be restored and you shall be clean. Not only will he be ritually pure, but he will be healed.

But Naaman doesn’t like how God chose to reveal his power. He expected Elisha to come out and pray a prayer and make a show of it! Then he says aren’t our rivers better than the Jordan? Aren’t our ways better? He stormed off angry. We would never do something like this right? Disapprove of how God would choose to reveal himself?

Thankfully his servants speak some reason to him. Healing is right in front of you.

So Naaman does what Elisha said. He goes and dips himself in the Jordan 7 times and his flesh was restored, like the flesh of a little child. And he was clean. His response is to go back to Elisha and announce that he knows that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel.

Naaman is declaring that the Yahweh is the only God. He has had an encounter with the power of God and he responded by turning his heart to the Lord, that he will only offer sacrifices to Him. This man believed. He had an encounter with the power of God and he responded by faith with thanksgiving.

And look at our gospel lesson this morning. Once again, Luke tells us that Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, and he passed between Samaria and Galilee. There he encounters a group of 10 lepers. They are off in the distance, away from anyone so they don’t make anyone ritually unclean.

When they see him, they know who he is, they know he is a powerful man of God and they call out to him “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us”. They know that Jesus is the one who can do something about their condition, they know that God is a God of mercy and so they do the only thing they can do, call out.

Jesus sees them and responds very simply, “Go and show yourselves to the priests”. The priest was the one who would declare if a person was clean or unclean. Now Jesus hasn’t said a prayer, hasn’t laid hands on them, anointed them with oil, just sends them on their way. But they know that there is something different about Jesus, so they go.

And as they go, they were cleansed. Obedience to Jesus, submitting to his way led to their healing. Just like with Naaman. But one of these lepers stopped and turned back. He saw that he was healed and he went back, praising God with a loud voice.

And when he gets back to Jesus, he falls to his face at Jesus’ feet, in a position of submission and gave thanks to Him. Because he knew that it wasn’t his walking down the road that healed him. It was the power of God. And then we find out something very interesting: this man was a Samaritan. Of the 1- lepers, the only one who returned was a Samaritan. A lesser person in the eyes of the Jews, and yet he had the proper response to the power of God. Worship.

God deserves the praise for a miracle like this. He is the only one who deserves praise. Naaman didn’t jump out of the Jordan and start saying, Oh yeah I made my self clean. He didn’t look at the river and think, oh wow, this is a special river. He knew it was God. Just like this Samaritan here. He knew that it was Jesus who healed him, that Jesus had the power. And he praised Jesus for doing it.

The other nine were healed. And they continued on to the priest who declared that yes, they were clean and that they could join society. But it was the one who returned that Jesus says, your faith has made you well, literally has saved you.

Two stories of two men, both healed of leprosy, both respond by worshiping God who healed them, both of them outside of the people of God.

What is our response as people of God to the power of God? Do we respond like the Samaritan when we encounter God is his power by praising him spontaneously? Or do we respond like the other 9 here, just continuing on with out giving God the praise that is due him?

My suspicion is that no one here has been healed of leprosy. But maybe you have been healed of another physical condition. Or an emotional one. Or maybe you are crying out to God to have mercy on you because you are currently suffering, physically or emotionally or spiritually.

All of us, at least I hope all of us can point to a miracle that God has done in our lives. He has given each and everyone of us, who are in Jesus, a new heart. When he went to the cross to take our sins away, and he rose to conquer death, he did it so that all who believed would have a new life.

That God would be in a relationship with sinful men and women is the biggest miracle you can possibly imagine. It is literally take a dead person and making them alive.

If you have experienced that in your life, if you have been made alive, then your response should be to praise God. Not just Sunday mornings at church but with every part of your life.

If you haven’t experienced that in your life, if you have never been made alive by saying yes to Jesus, I am a sinner and can’t come to you on my own, then I invite you to do that today. If you have been made alive but it doesn’t feel like it. If you life has been stagnant, dry, empty, come to Jesus again today. Ask him to restore you.

God wants to make all things new. That is the goal of His story, to make all things new. We can’t do it ourselves. God has to do it, the good news is that he wants to. In you and in others. And he is already moving well ahead of us. He is at work in the world and in us to accomplish His purpose.

Our response is to step out in faith that God’s power is at work and join him. When you do that, your life will never be the same again. And you will want to do nothing but praise God because of that!

Sermon for October 3: "The Righteous Shall Live By Faith"

Lessons: Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4; Psalm 37; 2 Timothy 1:1-14; Luke 17:5-10

Habakkuk is an interesting man. We know little about him. He was a prophet of the Lord. He was a contemporary of Jeremiah in all likelihood and was writing to warn the people of God about the invasion of Judah by the Babylonians, well before they rose to power. And he struggled with a moral dilemma.

There was sin going unpunished, the oppression of Judah by her leaders. He has been pleading for God to act, for the God of justice to show justice, but he hasn’t seen it and he wonders why God is being idle. I’ve got to admit, I know where he is coming from. All you have to do is watch the news and you can wonder, where is the God of justice.

Now the section in between our lessons today is God’s response to Habakkuk. He says, basically I am doing something even though you don’t notice it. I am at work right now, but you aren’t going to like what I’m doing. God says that he is raising up the Babylonians to come and deal with the injustice in Judah.

Now a word about the Babylonians. This was no lover of justice or of the Lord. They were a cruel and violent nation. This made no sense to Habakkuk.

Why would you use a wicked nation to punish a less wicked one? How can you even look at that sinful people, let alone use them to judge a people who still had a righteous, faithful remnant? How can God allow His people to suffer?

Again these are difficult questions.

God responds again in chapter 2. He tells Habakkuk to write down the vision that he will give so that all can see, but while the vision will be revealed, it will have to wait for its completion. It may take a while, but be patient. God’s people are going to have to trust him.

Why?

Because the righteous shall live by faith. The author of Hebrews tells us that faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. The righteous are those who have been made right with God.

In effect God is telling Habakkuk, and telling us, that my people will trust that I haven’t abandoned them even though it seems like it. Even though you have had hard leaders and I am going to bring in even worse people to judge them, trust me.

Now this verse takes on a whole new meaning in the NT. In fact, 3 times it is directly quoted by NT authors. And each time it helps our understanding of this verse, of how we are to live by faith.

The first place is in Romans 1:17. Paul is talking unpacking the gospel and God’s righteousness. He tells us in verse 16 that the gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. The gospel is more than just a mere message, it is the power of God revealed to everyone, the revelation that God is in control.

And in the Gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed, that is goes forth from God and as it is given to sinners who believe, it shows his nature, that it begins with faith and is lived out by faith, because the righteous shall live by faith.

Our right standing with God begins and is continued by faith in what Jesus did for us not by what we do. And since it is lived out by faith, we need faith to live each and every day. So often I think we think that when we came to Christ we believed by faith and we set that up on a shelf in our hearts but we don’t allow that reality to transform how we live.

And that is what God truly desires, transformed lives. People who don’t live the same way they used to and are seeking to depend on Christ daily for everything in their lives.

So let’s look at the second quote of this, Galatians 3:10-14.

Paul says that if you want to follow the Law for your salvation that you are going to be under a curse if you can’t fulfill all of it. And none of us can. Even one sin nullifies all of the right stuff you have done. You can’t be justified then by trying to keep the law, but “the righteous shall life by faith”. Faith that Christ is sufficient to make you right with God.

So to live by faith here is to depend not on what you can do to measure up to the law, but to rely on what Christ did in fulfilling the law and by taking up the curse that we deserve on the cross. We are able to receive the Holy Spirit, the presence of God himself in us through what Christ did for us on the cross.

Now let’s look at Hebrews 11:38-39. Again, faith in Jesus Christ is not a one time thing. It is a way of living and because of that, we are called to persevere. We all go through rough patches in our life. Seasons where we look that our situation and we wonder where is God in the midst of this.

And all too often we have to make a decision in those situations, will I walk by faith or will I shrink back and depend on my flesh? Will I remember what Christ has done for me or will I only look at my situation and act based on it?

The righteous shall live by faith. They will push through those hard times and honor God in them. They will have faith that even though it doesn’t seem like it, God is with them.

But how much faith do you need? How much faith is enough? Jesus tells us in our Gospel today.

The disciples were complaining once again, this time that they needed more faith. Jesus tells them “if you have faith as big as a grain of mustard seed, you can tell a mulberry tree to get up and plant yourself in the sea and it would obey.”

Here Jesus is saying that if you have even the tiniest bit of faith, the amount of faith it takes to say yes to him and to follow him, than you can tell a tree to replant itself. You can do anything. Well almost anything.

Because as Jesus continues on, he tells us that servants do what they are commanded, they do their duty. What is our duty? What are we obligated to do?

As we learned, it isn’t to keep the law. It is following him daily, embracing out salvation daily and persevering daily. In short it is being obedient to him, not to save us, but because of what he has done for us.

Each and every day we are called to live by faith, to trust God, for our salvation and for all the needs of our life. We are called to trust him in the good times and the bad times.

It is much easier to do that when it feels like everything is going your way, when you are certain that God is pouring out blessings on you. It is much harder to do that when things aren’t going so well.

It is hard to walk by faith when life is a challenge, when work is difficult, when your family life seems more like a battle ground than home, when the thought of dealing with others makes you want to hide.

In those hard times and hard places and difficult decisions in your life, be obedient. Weigh everything against Scripture and seek good Godly council.

That is what Habakkuk did. He went right to the source, God, and called out to Him and God answered him. Not in the way he hoped, but he answered. And what was his response? Was it to sulk or to keep looking for another answer?

No, he rejoiced in the Lord. And that is what we are to do. Have the faith that God will act in what ever situation we are going through and rejoice not in the situation, but in the faithfulness of God.

This is the final 3 verses of Habakkuk:

Though the fig tree should not blossom,

nor fruit be on the vines,

the produce of the olive fail

and the fields yield no food,

the flock be cut off from the fold

and there be no herd in the stalls,

yet I will rejoice in the LORD;

I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

GOD, the Lord, is my strength;

he makes my feet like the deer's;

he makes me tread on my high places.

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.

(Habakkuk 3:17-19 ESV)

Take joy in the God of your salvation.

The lover of money and the lover of God (Sermon from Sept 25)

Lessons: Luke 16:19-31

1 Timothy 6:6-19

Amos 6:1a, 4-7

Psalm 146

Here is the text of my sermon from this past Sunday (Sept 25):

In our Gospel lesson today, we have two different kinds of people. One who loves God and one who doesn’t. Now my bible has the little headings in it and it calls this “The Rich Man and Lazarus”. But it really should be called the lover of God and the lover of money. Because that is what is at the heart of all the lessons today.

Let’s look at the parable that Jesus tells. He talks about two men: a rich man and Lazarus. The rich man is clothed in purple, which is expensive, and fine linen, again very expensive. He feasted sumptuously daily and lived in a gated house, you get the idea that this man lived what we would call the American dream.

And then there is Lazarus. He laid at the gate of this rich man, begging for food. In fact Jesus tells us that he desired to be fed with what fell from this man’s table. He couldn’t even imagine being in a situation where he could have his own food. It was enough for him to dream about the scraps that fell from a table.

Lazarus was also covered in sores, we don’t know why we suffered in this way, and even dogs came and licked the sores. Now these weren’t the neighborhood pet dogs that came and kissed him as a greeting. These were wild scavenger dogs, not much different than rats in our modern context.

And Jesus tells us that they both died. Lazarus died and was carried by angels to Abraham’s side, he was taken up to heaven. He is seated at the banquet, accepted into the eternal fellowship with God.

The rich man also died and he was buried, Lazarus wasn’t, another earthly insult. But he wasn’t carried to heaven. Instead he was in Hades. Hell.

He looked up to heaven and saw, far off, Abraham and Lazarus. He knows that something has gone very wrong. But even in his eternal torment, he doesn’t change. He calls out to Abraham, asks for mercy in the way of sending Lazarus to him with a bit of water for his tongue. Even in the flames of hell, he sees Lazarus as nothing more than a servant to him.

Abraham tells him that now the roles have been reversed, you had your good things, and now you are in anguish, where Lazarus was in anguish and now is comforted. And not only have the roles been reversed, but there is a great chasm between the two realities, the two places: heaven and hell. At this point, no one can cross from one to the other. Your fate has been determined.

Now the rich man shows he does have a bit of heart. He worries for his brothers. Again, he asks that Lazarus would be sent, this time to appear to them and warn them about his condition and location. Because he knows they will end up like him.

But Abraham again tells him no. They have a better witness, Moses and the Prophets. They have the word of God, the should be listening to that. That should point them to God.

The rich man pleading desperately, in the pain of the flames and anguish, says that someone raised from the dead will cause them to repent. Jesus is pointing here to his resurrection. And he says that if people aren’t listening to what Moses and the Prophets have to say, even someone rising from the dead won’t convince them of the need to repent.

And that is what this parable is about, the need to repent. Not to repent from being rich to being poor. The rich man’s issue wasn’t being rich. His issue was that his heart was focused on his wealth. He had a man outside his gate, someone he saw daily, someone whose name he knew and someone he did nothing to help.

The rich man fears for his brothers, because he knows of their need to repent of their behavior. Not of their status, but their attitude towards wealth.

Paul in the close of his first letter to Timothy encourages the same kind of behavior. In 6:8-10, he tells Timothy that those who desire to be rich all into temptation, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. Now he doesn’t say that this happens to those who are rich, but those who desire to be rich.

The desire for anything other than God puts us into temptation, because we have already broken the first commandment, “I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other gods before me”.

Paul warns Timothy that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Money isn’t the root. It is the love of it. The idolatry of it. And through this craving some have walked away from the faith. By loving money many have walked away from the faith, and I think many have done this without ever leaving the church.

So Paul tells Timothy to flee these things, the love and desire of money. Run as fast and as far from these things as you can. So what do you run to?

“Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.” In short, run to God. In order to get away from an unhealthy desire, you have to go to God.

Have you ever taken a picture of something and when you look at it, the thing you wanted to take a picture of was blurry, but something else in the picture was clear as a bell?

It is because your focus is on the wrong thing. And when you focus on something, everything else will be blurred into the background.

That is why we need to focus on God, to pursue God, to follow him with every aspect of our life so we don’t lose focus.

So how do we do it? How do we pursue God and focus on him?

Paul tells us. “Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called”. First, it is a fight. We don’t try to pursue God without a fight from the enemy through temptations. He prowls around us like a lion waiting for the opportunity, so we need to take the initiative and pursue God in all things and in all ways, especially when tempted, taking hold of that eternal life, clinging to the gospel and not your earthly condition for your salvation.

We need to remember that not only did we do nothing to earn our salvation, but that Christ did it all for us. Our call is to trust that fact when we are tempted to give our focus to something else, whether its money or another desire that pulls us from God.

Paul gives some more practical council in verse 17 and following for the rich in this present age. Today that is us. Each and every one of us would be considered rich globally. Set your hopes not on the uncertainty of riches, words we all know too well in this economy. Instead set your hope on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. Again, this isn’t a prosperity gospel, but as we pursue God, he will give us the desires of our hearts because our hearts will be focused on him and not on the frivolity of the world.

Money isn’t the issue. Trusting money for your comfort, you contentment and your passions is. Trusting anything for your security, your joy, your passion, your salvation, your life is sin and idolatry. And the only solution is to repent to turn away from those things and to turn to Jesus and rejoice in what He has done for you at the cross.

It is only in his work at the cross that you will find comfort in your life, contentment in any situation, the meaning your life needs. Keep coming back to Jesus. Only He will never disappoint or lead you astray.

Our current Wednesday night study

For the last few weeks, we have been going through the "Gospel in Life" study by Timothy Keller. It is such a good study we have had to slow it down in order to let the material sink in and work on us!

The study "is an intensive course on the gospel and how it is lived out in all of live- first in your heart, then in your community, and then out into the world."

What really excites me about it is that it isn't just a "hey you need to go and do outreach" or "hey people need to hear about Jesus" kind of study. Those things are true and outreach and evangelism are needed everywhere, even in Millville! What is exciting is that Keller lays out the gospel ground work in our lives first, before we even deal with what it means for our community or our world.

Because let's face it, if we don't get it, and after going through the first 2 sections of this study most of us really don't, then how will those outside the church get it. The first section dealt with the city, what God's intention for cities was and how that has been corrupted because of sin. And because of that there are different ways for the church to interact with cities: to remove ourselves from them and the influence of culture, to resemble them and the culture or to love and serve them so that they prosper (Jeremiah 29:4-14).

The question at hand is, how will we love and serve Millville? There are so many areas and ways to serve and love, it can be overwhelming to decide, what will we do, how will we serve others. Thankfully, we have begun to do this already with our Second Sunday ministry and other ways. God will continue to push us out there and get us engaged as we remain faithful to his call.

The second, and much more challenging, lesson dealt with the heart, with gospel living as opposed to religious or irreligious living. Self righteousness is deadly and yet I think we fall back on it more often than we care to admit as Christians. It is much harder to do all things out of our love for God than out of a desire to get from God. Much harder.

And yet ultimately, it is only when we do all things out of love that we begin to understand the depths of grace.

Tonight (and next week I believe) we will be looking at Idolatry. Very hard hitting and eye opening and humbling. My guess is that there will be more repenting and more pursuit of God after this week! I know I'm being challenged each time!

Prayer initiative for Christ Anglican Mission

This past Sunday during my sermon, I announced the beginning of a new prayer initiative for our church.

As I read the OT and Gospel lessons for Sunday, the idea of us needing to pray for the city of Millville captured me. Our OT lesson was Genesis 18, Abraham pleads for Sodom, while the Gospel was from Luke 11, where Jesus teaches the disciples how to pray, through the Lord's Prayer, but also through constant, intentional repeated prayer, asking, seeking and knocking.

He led me to talk about our need to pray not just once, but to begin a campaign of prayer for the city as we ask Him what areas and people He would have us reach. In my devotional time the morning I sat down to write, I read Acts 18, where I came across the part that tied it all together. God told Paul that he would allow him to keep speaking in Corinth, even though people were trying to harm him, because He had many people in that city. He spared Paul so that his people could hear the word proclaimed.

And I thought, God has many in our city who are His, but they haven't heard the word proclaimed yet. He has many in this city who haven't heard the word because we haven't told them.

So we need to pray.

• For leaders in the fields of politics, business, education, religion, the arts, and media, for Godly wisdom and direction
• For God to break strongholds that hold back the movement of the word, including violence, drug use, poverty, violence, hopelessness, broken families, sexual immorality and depression.
• For open doors to communicate the Gospel message in word and deed.
• For God's will to be done.

I absolutely believe that God has his hands on this campaign, that He will lead us and this city into the place he wants us to go, as we seek his will first and continuously!

If you are visiting the blog from outside of our body, I invite you to join with us as we pray for our city!

Second Sunday Ministry

The Second Sunday event is one that I am excited to see the unfolding of over the coming months, because of the amazing potential of God.

What is Second Sunday? Well, on the second Sunday of every month, a group from Christ Anglican Mission heads over to Elwyn in Vineland where residents from several area group homes dealing with developmentally challenged adults come for what could best be described as a worship service.

As people come in early, we give out snacks and lead them in a craft relating to the message. Our message this type was "Jesus was a man just like us, only without sin". The leader of the event, our own Dr. Barbara West, helped to get everyone to identify with Jesus' humanity and with the reality that even though we sin, Jesus didn't.

We sung "Jesus Loves Me" and prayed the Lord's Prayer. It was amazing listening to the innocence in their voices as they sung and prayed, you could hear their heart coming out, the excitement of it all.

I really enjoyed helping with the craft, which reinforced lesson from the month before, "Jesus is God's gift to us". We took a square of cardboard and helped them paste a bit of wrapping paper to the front of it, and put "Jesus is God's gift to" and wrote their name on it, topping it off with a bow.

It was great to help the guys that I worked with put the glue on, or encourage them doing it and to explain the concept of Jesus being a gift to each of us.

We closed with a puppet show which they loved completely, then dismissed them with a passing of the peace.

It truly was an event where God was glorified through out, where the men and women who came were shown the love of Jesus in a real hands on way, through word and action, by receiving our love and our message. I'm excited to see what will happen in the coming months as we continue with this show of Christ's love!

Exciting News!

Christ Anglican Mission will welcome The Rev. Patrick Kelly to be Rector in July of 2010. Check back for more information!