Midweek Newsletter: Wednesday, October 4, 2023.

 

NARTHEX NEWS

WEEKLY EDITION

OCTOBER 4TH, 2023

 

FROM THE NEWS DESK

OF

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

LEBANON, INDIANA

128 E. Main St. ~ Lebanon, IN 46052~ (765)482-5959

https://www.lebanonfpc.org ~ office@lebanonfpc.org


In the midweek newsletter this week:

~ Reminders                                      ~ Weekly Devotional

~ Music Notes                                   ~ Prayer Room

~ Celebrations

~ Faith Circle Meeting

~ October 15th Service

~ Downtown Events & Street Closures

 

Reminders:

Live & Learn is at 11:30 in the Church Library: lunch and bible study. Come to learn and laugh and grow together.

Liturgist for October is Arlene Quinn; Elder is Sig Myers.

Second Sunday of the month activities: The second-Sunday-fellowship-lunch and Live for Life focus has been rescheduled for the following Sunday.


Music Notes:
Presbyterian Ringers will have a bells rehearsal on Wednesday the 4th (That’s today!) at 6:30pm in the church sanctuary. Come ring in a new month, enjoy fellowship and music (a great combination!), learn a new skill (if you’ve not been a part of this group before), and have fun!

Celebrations: (Sing to the tune of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”) “Blow, blow, blow your candles, open all your gifts – we hope you have a lovely day and hope that you feel blessed.” 

Happy Birthday to: Bess Wilkes, October 15th
Happy Anniversary to: Lynn and Don Kenyon, October 12th

Faith Circle Meeting:

Faith Circle will meet on Wednesday, October 11th, at 1:30pm in the Church Library. This is the last meeting of the year for Faith Circle.

October 15th Service:

The Live for Life Service for October will be on October 15th. There will be a luncheon following the service, and this will serve as the fellowship luncheon for this month. The co-founder for Live for Life, Michelle Standeford, will be joining FPC that morning. We are excited to welcome her here. As their website states, she and attorney Karen Young started Live for Life “to support local women who need guidance through troubling times.” Michelle now serves as the Director and Chief Advocate for Live for Life. Her personal life experience, as well as her knowledge and connections within the area, give her a foundation from which to support and educate women through this non-profit organization.

Downtown Events and Street Closures:

October 14th:  Klooz Fall Festival    
Time: 4-8pm
Streets closed: (1-11pm) Meridian St. from Washington to Main, Washington St from Meridian Street to East Street, with Washington and Meridian Street intersection closed to traffic


Weekly Devotional: My Heart Awakening

“When morning gilds the skies, my heart awaking cries: may Jesus Christ be praised!

Alike at work and prayer to Jesus I repair: may Jesus Christ be praised!

Does sadness fill my mind? A solace here I find: may Jesus Christ be praised!

Or fades my earthly bliss? My comfort still is this: may Jesus Christ be praised!

Hymn: “When Morning Gilds the Skies”, verses 1 & 2 (verse 3 in “Prayer Room” section); circa 1800s, text by unknown author

“My heart awaking cries”: What arrested my attention when I first read this hymn (spoiler alert: it’s in the service this coming Sunday!), was the image of “my heart awaking cries”. The immediate application of this phrase in the hymn’s first verse may indeed be when we waken in the morning. But I thought of it in terms of when our hearts awaken, and that can be an entirely different time and circumstance.

There are times in our lives when it is as if our hearts are sleeping. Maybe we are moving through grief. Maybe we are numbed by heartbreak. Maybe as a reaction to fear, betrayal, or regret, we closed ourselves off and put our own hearts to sleep, as it were. By God’s grace and mercy, we do not have to live forever with sleeping hearts. One morning (or afternoon, evening, midnight), it may be as if dawn “gilds the skies”. Something new arrives: something breathtaking, revelatory, awe inspiring, or something simply encouraging and kind, and yet at the same time something gentle and quiet. Maybe this is the soft nudge of a kitty against our chin at the start of the day, and, instead of sighing in despair for the loss of the numbness night brings, we smile and cuddle the kitty close. Maybe this is a card we receive in the mail, a song we hear on the radio, a passage we read in our Bible, or a kind word from a co-worker which reaches us at just the right moment and in just the right way. We internalize not only the words of the message but the emotion and intention behind it; something begins to stir within our once-blanketed-hearts.
Maybe the awakening does indeed arrive with the rising of the sun in the morning. We sit on our back patio, coffee cup in hand, sipping the rich brew and hoping it jolts us back into life, when through the tree line a golden light begins to grow. It shimmers through the leaves, climbs the skies to reach the heavens, and arcs itself over our little chair at our little table and the coffee cup in our hand. That jolt we wanted to draw us back into life falls over us as gentle and quiet, but as breathtaking and astounding, as a golden sunrise. 
How do we respond to such a “gilding”? We should enjoy it, savor it, shouldn’t we? We could then get up and move on, not giving it a second thought. But we could also acknowledge the One from whom that awakening came. We could follow the advice of the hymnist and join in praising Jesus Christ. A song, a prayer, or just one word: we lift praise to Heaven and our hearts rise with it.
One more departing thought: the verb “repair” in this hymn, found in the second line of the first verse, is used in the sense “to betake oneself”, to go. This particular meaning of the word has its roots in the Latin word “repatriare”, which means to go home again. I cannot think of a better and more fitting word to use here. Upon discovering our sleeping hearts awakened and finding ourselves gilded in the love and care of our Heavenly Father, where else would we want to go but “home” again, home to our Heavenly Father’s tender embrace.

Prayer Room:

Prayer is important to the body of First Presbyterian Church. Are you interested in joining the prayer chain? Would you like to learn more about the role of prayer in our lives? Please contact Phyllis Duff, Prayer Coordinator, at (765)482-1485/ raduff2@att.net.

Dear Heavenly Father,

“Be this, while life is mine, my canticle divine: may Jesus Christ be praised! Be this the-eternal song through all the ages long: may Jesus Christ be praised!”

 

What more can we say but Amen, O Lord, so be it.

“Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” (Rev. 22:20

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