JUNE 18, 2021 VIEW FROM DA PEWS

​Weekly View From Da Pews
June 18, 2021
Matthew 18: 21-22
“Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me?”  Jesus answered,”….seventy-seven times.”
  Seems to me God gives a lot more grace than we’d ever imagine.
  We could do the same.
  I’m not for watering down the truth or compromising the gospel.  But if a fellow with a pure heart calls God, Father, can’t I call that same man, Brother?  If God doesn’t make doctrinal perfection a requirement for family membership, should I?
  And if we never agree, can’t we agree to disagree?  If God can tolerate my mistakes, can’t I tolerate the mistakes of others?... If God allows me with my foibles and failures to call him Father, shouldn’t I extend the same grace to others?  (from “When God Whispers Your Name” by Max Lucado)
  I felt that this was a good message for this Father’s Day weekend.  Just a reminder that we all have the greatest Father ever.  Always in our corner, ready to give us a hand up or a boot in the butt when we need it.  I find it a great comfort that I have a Father that I can take all my cares and my joys to.  A great friend and a brother has been in the hospital this last week and this morning he passed away.  It gave me comfort that I could reach out to my Father in heaven and that he would wipe away my tears of grief and replace them with shouts of joy because Steve was no longer in pain and his suffering had been replaced with the loving arms of Christ as he entered his heavenly home.
  Church council met last night and we had some very good discussion.  We decided that we would hold a church wide picnic on August 22nd.  This will be a good opportunity to get us all back together with a potluck type meal and good conversation.  We also discussed reinstituting “All Committee” night.  It was decided that we would again meet on September 14 at 6:30pm, in the Fellowship Hall.  If you are a committee chair, now would be a good time to recruit some new blood into your committee in order to bring some new fresh ideas to the church.
   We also discussed fully reopening the church for worship and it was decided that we would shoot for July 4th.  We will still have the parking lot service and also the Fellowship hall will still be available.  And yes, we will be able to sing our hearts out in praise of our Lord.  We are hoping that this will be permanent, however, if the infection numbers spike upwards due to the variants, we might have to re-examine our options. 
This Sunday our parking lot ushers are Pete Holzman, Bob Acker and Jerry Carncross.  The sanctuary ushers are Sharon Kampon, Bill Priske and Sara Schroeder. 
Happy Father’s Day to all the dads.  Yours is an awesome responsibility, not to be taken lightly.  A great role model for you is our heavenly Father, slow to anger, quick to love and eager to guide us in the right paths. 
Enough for this week, see you all on Sunday.
 
William