6th Week Continued

Welcome to the sixth week of transition in spiritual renewal! This week's sermon, God with us, gave an excellent overview of The Grand Story from the theme or perspective of God's abandonment, our resulting anger and frustration and finally redemption made possible by Christ's helping to fill our cup, which we pretend is full, but Why Can't We Just Come Clean? This sermon is available on the web or CD at the LMCC library and highly recommended!!! Meanwhile, at our Bible in 90 day study attended by Charles, Stan, Jamie and Ron, ably facilitated by Rick Adler, we discussed aspects of the video, taking care to understand the historical perspective of this week's reading taking place AFTER the exile. Ezra and Nehamiah worked to get the Israelite's back on track by re-establishing the foundation for the "Law" and then rebuilding the temple, all in an effort to cease the abandonment in the sermon. A major point is, no matter what decision the people made, God used it to work good, pursuant to his plan, The Grand Story! Exciting! Great things happening in Esther ( the origin of Purim, still celebrated today), Job(who was this man Elihu who got Job thinking a different perspective so he could finally listen to God speak) and the Psalms where yes, it seems God is on trial in our desparate search to know that God can be relied upon.

Now for Transitions, our Marketplace Ministry, now studying the personal assessment tool entitled "The Call". A perspective of daily, spiritual renewal was touched on last week as we centered on the activities of "study and meditation" and "value clarification and commitment". We are becoming aware of the results of Bible reading and reflection but are we in a process of clarifying our values and most importantly, if we have, have we definitely committed to them? For anyone wishing a powerful example of commitment,please request a quote from H.Murray which I can send to you. It is profound! To look at the big picture of personal renewal, one may wish to consider how the spiritual dimension of man relates to his physical, social-emotional and mental dimensions. Anyone of them is enhanced by renewing any or all of the others. Activities associated with the physical are nutrition, excercise and stress management; with social-emotional: service, empathy, intrinsic security and synergy and with mental: reading, visualizing,planning and writing. A balanced focused plan is required to keep this all on track for effectivenss, usefulness and peacefulness. More, later; in the meantime have a blessed week!