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From Faith to Faith May 2006 VOL. XXII No. 5 Senior Pastor: Dr. Carl W. Bogue
Ladies of Faith Church: The annual WIC Mother-Daughter Banquet has been scheduled for Friday, May 12th, at 6:00 p.m. All ladies of Faith Church are encouraged to attend this event, and bring as many visitors with you as you wish. There is a sign up sheet on the vestibule table. Ticket prices are: $8 for adults and $5 for children under age 10.Following dinner, at approximately 7:00 p.m., the program will begin in the sanctuary. The theme for this year= s banquet is A Ma-Ma= s Apron Strings.@ If you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact WIC President Kelly Rastetter.
What is fun, gives you blisters, makes you sweat, fills your stomach and makes our church beautiful? It=
s workday, of course! Come and help keep our church nice and spiffy. Come dressed to work Saturday, May 27th, at 8:00 a.m.
If the weather is questionable check the church web site to see if workday is moved to the rain date of June 3rd. Lunch will be provided for all workers at 1:00 p.m.
Vacation Bible School is just around the corner (Aug.) and we are beginning the planning process now. The first meeting will be May 28th following morning worship in the fellowship room. We need teachers and helpers (ages 13 and up) to volunteer their time and love in sharing the gospel. Our VBS is a fun time in the Word of God and our focus is always the Bible and one of our missionaries. If you haven= t been involved in VBS in the past or if you have taken a break for a few years, this year would be an excellent time to rejoin the staff! We can use full time (all five day) helpers or just one day helpers.
FINANCIAL REPORT The leadership of Faith church has made a new policy of quarterly reporting of our progress toward meeting our budget.
Akron Pregnancy Services Akron Pregnancy Services is having their annual walk-a-thon Saturday, May 20th beginning at 10:00 a.m. If you would like to sponsor a walker please see Andy Bogue.
Ladies of Faith Church: Myrna Best is organizing a trip to the National First Ladies Museum in downtown Canton. Please see Myrna Best (in person, call or email her) with the day of the week that would work best for you. The tour will be sometime the last week of June. The tours are every hour starting at 9:30 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. (except for 11:30 a.m.) Prices are: Adults $7, Seniors $6 and children up to 17 years old $5. Space is limited to 15 persons so call Myrna early to reserve your spot! The group will be stopping for lunch before or after the tour depending on the time.
Please note Dr. Bogue will be home and returning to the pulpit on Sunday, May 14th. Preaching Schedule May 7: AM: Pastor Bruce Buchanan May 14: AM: Dr. Bogue A
Unhealthy Zeal@
; Mt. 26:52-54; Jn. 18:10-11 May 21: AM: Dr. Bogue #128 A
Prosperity that Matters@
; Psalm 91 May 28: AM: Dr. Bogue A
Doing All Things Well@
; Mark 7:37
Calvin and Geeta Taylor: The Taylors have moved into their new home. They are thankful for their new house, good neighbors, and a beautiful location. They held their first neighborhood Bible Study the second Sunday in April. Calvin had a good visit with a village evangelist supported by their church. He was introduced to a man named Vijay who has started listening to the gospel because of some serious family problems. Please pray for Vijay and his family. Calvin has been involved in several meetings regarding the future of the Children= s Home. Please pray that God will raise up new sources of funding so that they will be able to continue serving the children. Also, please pray for the upcoming A Living in Grace Conference@ which will be held April 30-May 3. A pastor from MTW= s home office has agreed to lead the conference. Don and Fran McNeill: Don and Fran McNeill will be here at Faith Church May 10th, during our Prayer and Praise at 7:00 p.m. Come and hear first hand what great works God has done in Uganda. Don will be available after Prayer and Praise to answer questions.
Prayer Chain Requests March 20: Jim Bruder came home from the hospital a week ago and is still weak and has no appetite. He has constant pain in his legs. When he went to the chemo doctor this week his blood work was good. Please pray for more appetite, more strength and relief from the pain. March 24: Susan Brown is asking for prayer for the Lake OPC church plant that their group will grow. Pray specifically that God will bless their upcoming mailing campaign. March 27: Please pray for Howard McKenna (Robbie Jamison= s father). He has been in the hospital since Thursday. He may have had a heart attack. Please pray for the doctors as they determine his problem. March 27: Please pray for Jim Bruder as the visiting nurse who saw him Friday said he had a low fever, was weak and had little appetite. The fever suggests an infection. He has been in the hospital since Friday, but may come home tomorrow. Tests show the tumor on his liver has not grown. However, his spleen is enlarged. Please pray for Jim= s strength and comfort for Edana as she cares for him. March 30: Howard McKenna is home and happy to be there. He will be taking medication and make several trips to the doctor for follow up checks. April 3: Bertha Horvath wasn= t feeling well Sunday with pain in her upper stomach and shoulder. She has been admitted to Akron General Hospital for observation. April 5: Bertha Horvath is home from the hospital and feeling much better. She had a gallbladder attack. April 15: Barb Imke asks for prayer for a friend (Jamie) who has Crohns disease. He is very ill with multiple complications. They have two small children and the wife homeschools on top of trying to work and help her husband. Barb also asks for traveling mercies as she is going out of town. April 17: Please uphold Marianne Sevcik and her family as Marianne= s mother passed away this morning. Please pray for Dan and the children as they travel to Florida to join Marianne for the funeral. Also pray that unsaved family members may be reached. The Ordinary Means of Grace -- Introduction By Rev. Bruce Buchanan In a recent sermon, I mentioned “the ordinary means of grace.” I said, “we are an ordinary means church.” Someone afterward asked me about that description, and I responded that “ordinary” meant “God’s basic.” It occurred to me that it might help to revisit this topic in a few newsletter articles. So, I wish to introduce the topic by defining the term. First, however, what don’t we intend? Well, we don’t intend to speak of grace like a substance or a force. When we speak about the means of grace, we are not talking about a container or method that holds or dispenses grace as if it were found in a cookie tin, or accessible through a wall-outlet. You may be familiar with the Roman view that treats of spiritual matters in this fashion. Rome attaches grace to all kinds of things, both sacramental and otherwise. Just think of the holy places and things, pilgrimages, bones and other assorted relics, to which Rome attributes virtue. The scandal in modern Protestantism generally is that non-Roman churches are adopting this view of spirituality, while simultaneously giving up on the true and ordinary means of grace. Likewise, the Roman view also teaches that the church—by virtue of her being the church—does, in fact, dispense grace through her sacraments. Grace is objectively doled out, like scoops of ice cream, when baptism is administered, or when the consecrated elements of the mass are consumed, or when last rites are given, etc. This version of events is known as ex opere operato, a Latin phrase meaning “worked according to the working.” In other words, by participating, the church gave you a little piece of God’s grace, whether or not you had any honest share in it or spiritual faculty of reception for it. This too is essentially false. No grace is ever received by anyone who does not have faith. Then, second, let me state what we do intend by “the ordinary means of grace.” To begin, here is the Shorter Catechism answer 88: “The outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicateth to us the benefits of redemption, are his ordinances, especially the word, sacraments, and prayer; all which are made effectual to the elect for salvation.” I will unfold this answer in later articles, but for now, note the following: 1) by “grace” we intend the benefits of redemption; 2) only the elect are beneficiaries; 3) the benefits are communicated to the elect, by which we mean that they are appreciably received, for true communication cannot occur in ignorance; 4) the means are instituted by Christ, they are his ordinances; 5) there are three principal means: the Word, Sacraments, and Prayer; 6) by “salvation” we mean not merely the cross of Christ or our individual justification, but the whole work that begins in election and concludes in glorification. The means are of use subjectively, and not all at once, and most extensively in sanctification. |
