Lord of Life New Stuff

This page is not going to be anything fancy. Even the fonts may be different colors and sizes- whatever I get will go in here as is- only minor editing to speed up the process.

This is just a place to add new things that are happening in the church so folks can have a place to check on events, new information, etc. Please scroll through it for the latest.

Some of it will be repeats of Pastor Paul's email "Blasts" and "Refrigerator Postings." Please be aware there will be no special formatting- just messages and information that are copied and pasted- that will be the norm.

If you see something old or that should be removed or you have something of interest send an email to Jim Fraser jhfras@gmail.com (new email address)

Faith is when the search for visible evidence is given up.

~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer

REMINDERS

Check the Mast Calendar for February that is on the web site (www.lolssi.org).

The weekly Worship Bulletins are now posted on the LOL web site-

The choir is beginning to practice for the Good Friday Cantata.

There are several members who are practicing just for the Cantata. Members and friends: join us for just this special time even if your schedule won't permit you to join the choir for the entire year.

February 17

Have a Heart for Manna House Dinner Dance. Buy your tickets now. . .

Don't forget to bring your "white" for the "snow bank" that is arising in the fellowship hall lobby.

If you missed the bulletin read it again on the website www.lolssi.org

New pictures and information is being posted on a regular basis.

Commemorations this week

Sunday	The Martyrs of Japan, died 1597
	Christianity was brought to Japan in the sixteenth century by Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries. The religion was suppressed, however, and in 1597 twenty-six missionaries and converts were crucified. Nevertheless, Christianity survived and later prospered.

WORSHIP AND AWE [Mark 1:29-39]

This beautifully concise account in which Jesus frees a leper from his affliction is not simply a story of healing. It is an encapsulation of the very nature and purpose of worship.

Note the stages of the leper's interaction with Jesus - supplication, presentation, and thanksgiving. He approaches Jesus on his knees, humankind's most penitential posture. He opens himself fully to Jesus in all his vulnerability, begging him, "If you choose, you can make me clean." When Jesus acts accordingly, the man is overcome with gratitude so that, despite Jesus' stern warning not to tell anyone (and to go straight to the priest for certification of his cleansing), he promptly goes out and spreads the news far and wide.

Are not these stages the same as ours in the act of worship? We enter in humility and reverence. We pray fervently to be freed from all that turns our hearts away from God. Through the act of opening our hearts fully to God's mercy and grace, we experience healing. We are not simply cured but are set free,just as the leper in was in Mark's account: "Immediately, the leprosy left him." Finally, we are moved through our experience of healing and grace to the act of evangelism - spreading the good news, just as did the healed leper.

Every encounter with the living God offers us endless possibilities for healing and transformation. Let us enter into worship with the same reverence and awe as the leper brought to his encounter with Jesus, so that through our example others may be moved to do the same.

E.M Bounds: "It was said that Augustus Caesar found Rome a city of wood and left it a city of marble. The pastor who succeeds in changing his people from a prayer - less to a prayerful people has done a greater work than Augustus did in changing a city from wood to marble. After all, this is the major work of the preacher. Primarily, he is dealing with prayerless people, of whom it is said, "God is not in all [their] thoughts"(Psalm 10:4).

"The pastor meets such people everywhere all the time. His main business is to turn them from being forgetful about God, from lacking faith, from being prayerless, into people who habitually pray, believe in God, remember Him, and do His will. The preacher is not sent simply to persuade men to join the church or to get them to do better. He is sent to get them to pray, to trust in God, and to keep God ever before their eyes so that they may not sin against Him."

[Every Wednesday evening a small group gathers to lift up the pain, suffering, despair; the joy, the praise, the relief of the congregation and friends. Don't leave this heavy lifting to only a few. Join us at 7:00 PM.]

Martin Luther: Abraham is described as sitting at the door and running to meet his guests, whose appearance showed that they were not evil men and that they were in need of someone else's generosity. Let us also be generous in the same way, and let us open the door to poor brethren and receive them with a joyful countenance. If we are deceived now and then, well and good. In spite of this our good will is demonstrated to God, and the kind act which is lost on an evil and ungrateful person is not lost on Christ, in whose name we are generous. Hence just as we should no intentionally and knowingly support the idleness of slothful people, so, when we have been deceived, we should not give up this eagerness to do good to others.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Every day brings to the Christian many hours in which he will be alone in an unchristian environment. These are the times of testing. This is the test of true meditation and true Christian community. Has the fellowship served to make the individual free, strong, and mature, or has it made him weak and dependent? Has it taken him by the hand for a while in order that he may learn again to walk by himself, or has it made him uneasy and unsure? This is one of the most searching and critical questions that can be put to any Christian fellowship.

Furthermore, this is the place where we find out whether the Christian's meditation has led him into the unreal, from which he awakens in terror when he returns to the workaday world, or whether it has led him into a real contact with God, from which he emerges strengthened and purified. Has it transported him for a moment into a spiritual ecstasy that vanishes when everyday life returns, or has it lodged the Word of God so securely and deeply in his heart that it holds and fortifies him impelling him to active love, to obedience, to good works? Only the day can decide.

PRAYER
You have called us into your presence, O God. Be therefore light for our darkness, and strength for every high purpose wherein we are weak. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
		~ From, For All the Saints