Midweek: Wednesday, November 16th, 2022
IN THIS ISSUE:
- Reminders
- Music Notes
- Candle Lighting for Advent
- Summary of General Assembly Actions
- Christmas Concert
- Harvest Dinner
- Celebrations
- Live and Learn on Saturdays!
- PPM Christmas Program!
- P.R.A.Y.E.R. R.E.Q.U.E.S.T.:
- Poet’s Corner & Quotable Quotes
“. . . that we may be mutually
encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.” Romans 1:12
Reminders: This Sunday’s after-service-treat from by Bess Wilkes will be served with the other delectable in the fellowship hall following service. This Sunday the greeters will be Lynna and Steve Shaw . There is an opportunity to sign up to bring a treat November 27th and all through December. We invite you to sign up to share something one of those weeks. Whether you’re here to greet or to share a treat, the real treat we enjoy is you!
Chancel
Choir: Rehearsal Thursday at 7pm, Sanctuary.
Summary of General Assembly Actions: Attached to the email by which this Midweek newsletter is sent there will be a copy of the General Assembly Actions. Should you wish a paper copy sent or given to you, please contact Gretel in the office (Gretel@lebanonfpc.org or 765-482-5959 or 128 E. Main St./Lebanon, IN 46052) and she will print you a copy and connect it with you in the matter that works best for you.
“Congratulations to you! We celebrate with you! Know that we love you, and God loves you too!” Happy birthday to: Ralph Willard, 11/17; Cindy Goodnight, 11/18; Samuel Piper, 11/18; Lois Morog, 11/22; Jane Myers, 11/22.
We have covered P for Pause, R
for reflect and remember, A for adore, Y for yield, E for extol, and S for
surrender. Today I would like to cover several all at once: R for request or
release, E for entreat and enjoy, Q for question and U for unite, but I’d like
to address them through one word as an umbrella over them all: S for Strength.
Sometimes it is hard to ask
questions. Sometimes it is daunting to request help or entreat someone’s
assistance – even if that Someone is God and you are confident He is abundantly
able. Some folks have an easier time than others asking questions or requesting
help. For some people it is easier to give to others than to receive. Can we
turn the tables a moment and consider that if everyone gave, who would there be
left to receive? To give by its very definition requires someone to receive. They
go hand in hand, like peanut butter and jelly, salt and pepper, “thank” and
“you”. Some folks need strength to offer help. Some need strength to ask for
and receive help. There is a quiet and subtle but incredible thing that happens
the more we go to our Father for help, trusting Him to hear our requests, to be
patient with our questions, to consider our entreaties: a bond forms. When He
gives and we receive and acknowledge it came from Him, we grow closer to our
Heavenly Father. The same happens when we work together as the body of Christ;
a bond of unity forms through the give and take or lending and receiving. To
ask implies we need room to receive it. We cannot receive what the Father has
for us if we go to Him with clenched fists. We have to release what we are gripping,
and come to Him empty handed. To release may require more strength than it ever
took to hold on. Where does that strength come from?
“I can do all things through
Christ who strengthens me.” (Phil. 4:13) Have you ever said to the Lord: “I can’t do this.”? Have you ever
approached Him from such a place of honesty as to reveal to Him: “Lord, even with Your strength – I still
can’t do this. I know You say nothing is impossible with You. I hear You say
that I can do all things through Christ’s strength. Lord, it is not Your part
of the equation I doubt – it’s my part. And I’m telling You –it just isn’t
there. I’ve got nothing.” In my opinion, no matter if we are needing help
or giving help, entreating, requesting, releasing, questioning, or offering, we
might as well start from a place of honesty. The Lord knows our heart anyway so
there is little point in hiding it from Him. And if we are hiding it from ourselves
that is extra reason to be honest. Perhaps the most important two words of that
verse are smack dab in the middle: “through Christ”. What we can do and the
strength that comes hinges on those two words. “I” may come first in the verse
and “me” may end it, but the crux of the whole matter is Christ.
It is “through” Christ – as in the tunnel
through the mountain, the giant lifting the mountain, the Creator who made the
mountain! If we are confident we have nothing, if we are totally spent and have
zip left, if we see that challenge and just don’t see within us anything to
meet it, let alone conquer it, maybe that’s ok. If we come to the Lord with
open hands and confess that the empty part is easy because there is no fund
from which to draw – maybe that’s ok. The nothing turns to something through Christ. The can’t becomes “can” through Christ. That sounds very
Hallmark-y and I apologize for sounding trite. Sometimes the “can” is only
realized after the fact. Sometimes it is not us but others who see the
“something”. But again, maybe that’s ok.
Lord, how do we go forward? Through Christ. How do we move this
mountain? Through Christ. How do we get around this road block? Through Christ.
How do we handle the pressure we feel bowed beneath? Through Christ. And if we
still struggle? If we still wrestle? If we still weep and groan? We can do so
through Christ. Perhaps the “all things” even includes struggling, wrestling,
weeping and groaning. May it be through Christ that we go forward step by step,
work this puzzle piece by piece, and move through our day breath by breath.
Through Christ we pray, through Christ we praise, through Christ we yield and
surrender all. Amen.
E for enjoy: did you think I
forgot? I didn’t! Let’s enjoy that strength. Let’s enjoy the grace which lays down
that rug on which we bend our knee, bow our head, surrender, and feel His
gentle hand.
Poet’s Corner and quotable quotes are combined with prayer today.
Prayer taken from hymns “In the
Garden” (verse 1), by Austin Miles (1868-1946), “Be Still, My Soul” (verse 1) by
Kathrina von Schlegel (1697-1797), and “Away in a Manger” (verse 3 by John T.
McFarland (1892)
Dear Heavenly Father,
I come to the garden alone while
the dew is still on the roses and the voice I hear falling on my ear the Son of
God discloses. And He walks with me and He talks with me, and He tells me I am
His own; and the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known.
Be still, my soul: the Lord is on
thy side. Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain. Leave to thy God to order
and provide, who through all changes, faithful will remain. Be still, my soul:
thy best, thy heavenly Friend, through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.
Be near me, Lord Jesus; I ask
thee to stay close by me forever and love me, I pray. Bless all the dear children in thy
tender care, and fit us for heaven to live with thee there.
Amen.
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