If you are having difficulty viewing this message please click here.
To ensure you receive your FPC Newsletter, please add daverastetter@faith-pca-akron.com to your address book.
Forward this to your friends and let them subscribe to the FPC Newsletter Subscribe; or Church Newsletter Unsubscribe

May 2008

MAY CALENDAR

in this issue

1. Faith Newsletter

2. The Character of Worship

3. Attention Ladies of Faith Church....

4. Let’s welcome a new covenant child

5. More baby news

6. Ruth Beckley’s 96th birthday

7. Care Package Collection

8. MESS HALL

9. The Young Adults College Group

10. Church-Wide Workday

11. Vacation Bible School

12. Please help keep our church safe and our costs down.

13. Bible Trivia
     

1. Faith Newsletter
From Faith to Faith Newsletter is in it’s twenty-fourth year of publication. We hope you have enjoyed the newsletter each month and have kept you informed of church events in a timely manner. But, now we would like to encourage everyone who can to sign up for the newsletter electronically and have it delivered to your email address. We have been working on an html newsletter email and also links from that email to our newsletter web page for those who cannot view the email properly due to different email configurations. The newsletter email is still “under construction”, but should be ready for the June newsletter.
Going electronically will save the church money, time, office supplies and postage. We hope all who are able will take advantage of this opportunity. We want to still provide you with all the news you have always enjoyed.
Please check out the church web site weekly for any changes and updates regarding church activities. The web site is updated weekly and is always current on church functions.

To register for electronic email newsletters choose one of the following:

1. Go to our church web page and click on the “subscribe to church email newsletter”. Sign up the email or emails you want to receive the newsletter.
2.You may call the church office and leave your email address on the answering machine or with the secretary.
3.You can meet with one of the audio technicians in the back of the sanctuary after church services and sign up at that time.

If you have any questions regarding the electronic newsletter and how it works please see Dave Rastetter who is heading up this program.

2. The Character of Worship
To learn how to worship God in a way that will please God rather than offend him and be judged by him, we must begin by understanding the Bible’s definition of what worship is. The Bible uses the word worship in at least three important ways.

Personal and Corporate Worship

First, worship can refer to the whole life of the Christian. We are to live our lives for God and under God. We should seek to have all we do become loving service to him. Paul had this sense of worship in mind when he wrote at the beginning of the application section of the book of Romans, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—which is your spiritual worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (12:1-2). In these verses all life is looked upon as worship.

Second, worship can refer to those personal times of prayer, praise, reflection, or Bible reading when we focus on God. David worshiped as he prayed and sang alone at night:

On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night.
Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. (Ps. 63:6-7)

Third, worship can refer to times when Christians gather officially as a congregation to praise God. This form of worship is commended and commanded in the Scriptures. “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Heb. 10:25). The Psalms celebrate this privilege of corporate worship:

Praise the LORD.
I will extol the LORD with all my heart
in the council of the upright
and in the assembly. (Ps. 111:1)

Clearly God wants his people to gather as congregations, expressing that they are the body of Christ as they worship him with one another.

This third use of worship, corporate worship, deserves special attention for two reasons. First, the arena of corporate worship is where most of the worship wars are being fought. Changes in corporate worship need careful examination in our time.

Second, many Christians seem to have a measure of prejudice against corporate worship as a priority in the lives of believers. They seem to believe that the official worship of the church is not very important. They find it too formal and impersonal. They feel that individual times of prayer and Bible reading or small group experiences are much more important in cultivating nearness to God than is corporate worship. Some of the recent changes in corporate worship reflect an effort to make it more like a small group activity. However, as we examine the Bible’s teaching about worship and its content, we will see that corporate worship is vitally important for every obedient and growing Christian.

A Critical Text: Hebrews 12:28-29

The book of Hebrews is particularly important here because it shows the connection between the worship of the Old Testament and the worship of the New Testament, and also because it draws attention to the uniqueness of our worship as the New Testament people of God. Hebrews 12:28-29 states:

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

This passage directs us to two key elements for our thinking about worship: first, the character of God as the object of our worship, and second, our response to God in worship.

1. The Character of God. The first truth about God’s nature that we need always to remember in worship is that our God is a Trinity. The one God exists eternally in three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This aspect of God’s nature is not explicit in Hebrews 12:28-29, but it is pointed to in the immediate context. Thus Hebrews 12:23-24 reminds us that in worship we come by faith to the living God and to Jesus who is “the mediator of a new covenant.” Here two of the persons of the Trinity are distinguished.

As our God is triune, so our worship must be trinitarian. God in his unity is a proper object of worship, but so too are each of the persons of the Godhead. We worship God, and we also worship the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In worshiping any of the divine persons we worship the whole Godhead, for God is one.

Our worship may focus on any one of the divine persons at particular points because the Bible itself shows us that each person of the Trinity is associated with certain divine acts particularly. For example, in the Bible the Father is particularly linked to the planning of salvation in order to reconcile sinners to himself. The Son is linked to accomplishing salvation as the God-man living, dying, and rising in the place of sinners. The Spirit is linked to applying salvation, drawing sinners to Christ, and giving them faith and new life.

Christian worship reflects the Bible’s emphasis on the work of each person in the Godhead. The Father is particularly the object of our worship. We usually pray, as Jesus taught us, “Our Father.” The Son is the mediator of our worship. Jesus opened the way to the Father for us by his saving work, and we always come to the Father in his name. The Spirit empowers and blesses our worship. He warms our hearts and draws us, not to himself, but to Jesus and his Word. The very nature of God leads us to worship the Father through the Son by the Holy Spirit.

The second aspect of God’s character that we see explicitly in Hebrews 12:28-29 is that God is a saving God. He has prepared an unshakable kingdom of eternal life for those who belong to him. This kingdom belongs to Jesus Christ (Heb. 1:8), who is the Savior of his people and the mediator between man and God in all our worship. Jesus and his Gospel must always stand at the heart of our worship. We must remember that he is the eternal second person of the Trinity, made man to be our Savior. We must rejoice in his perfect life of obedience for us, in his death on the cross where he bore all our sins, and in his glorious resurrection to be our ever-living Savior and High Priest. Worship fails utterly if Jesus Christ is not at the center. His person and work must light up the worship of his people. He makes God fully known and fully accessible to us. He is our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble (Ps. 46:1). He saves us from our sins, and our worship must celebrate him.

The third aspect of God’s character that we see in Hebrews 12 is that God is a holy God, one who is jealous for his worship. He is a God who stands in judgment of sin and calls for holy living among his people. Hebrews is quoting Deuteronomy 4 when it states that God is “a consuming fire.” Deuteronomy 4 calls the people of God to faithfulness in all of their lives, but especially in worship:

“Be careful not to forget the covenant of the LORD your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the LORD your God has forbidden. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God” (vv. 23-24).

This passage in Deuteronomy clearly rests on the second of the Ten Commandments, which forbids false worship, as we have seen. The holy character of God must echo as clearly through our worship as does the saving character of God.

These passages show that the Lord takes his worship very seriously. They show us very specifically that our worship must reflect both God’s great saving work in Christ and his holy zeal for the purity of worship. Only such worship will be acceptable to him. When Hebrews 12:28 speaks of acceptable worship, it means worship that is first and foremost acceptable to God.

This priority needs to be reaffirmed especially today Too often today when people speak of acceptable worship they mean worship that is acceptable to themselves or perhaps acceptable especially to the unchurched. While worship must communicate clearly to the gathered congregation, the Bible insists that worship must above all be acceptable to God. And we must always remember that we can only know what is acceptable to God by a careful study of his Word.

- Dr Robert Godfrey

3 .Attention Ladies of Faith Church....
Come one and all to the WIC Mother-Daughter Tea on Saturday, May 10, from 3:00 to 5:30 p.m. Since all ladies are either a mother or a daughter this event is for everyone! “Miss Mary” from Grace Presbyterian Church will speak at the tea. She brings many years of serving “High and Low” teas to women in our area. Come and join the fun of “Talking All Things Tea” and enjoy seeing an old fashioned tea party set up before you. After the program we will enjoy a time of fellowship and a wonderful assortment of food. The cost is $5 per person with a maximum of $15 per family. Please give your ticket money to Dawn Duff. There is a sign up sheet on the vestibule table. If you have any questions please see Avone Blasiman.

4; Let’s welcome a new covenant child...new baby girl Duff due in June! WIC will be collecting welcoming gifts (handmade items or small store purchased items). Please place your gifts in the large gift bags under the coat rack in the vestibule during the month of May and June. The gifts will be delivered for you when the baby arrives.

5. More baby news...Rich and Jennifer Lewis presented their infant daughter, Geneva Lea Lewis, for baptism on April 6^th. Little Geneva was born January 28^th. We praise God for this newest covenant child.

6. Ruth Beckley’s 96^th birthday is May 11^th. Everyone please remember her with a card, phone call or visit! I know she would appreciate it.

7. Care Package Collection
Have you heard the good news? We are taking up a collection to support our new adopted chaplain, Lt. Garland Mason, who is currently deployed in Iraq. Let’s show him our love and support with a care package filled with goodies and essentials. Look for a collection box in the vestibule throughout May and June for your donations.

Needed items include:

snack sized packages of Pringles, crackers, trail mix, energy bars, granola bars, beef jerky

chewing gum and hard candy (NO CHOCOLATE)

commercial cookies (NO HOMEMADE COOKIES)

travel sized personal hygiene items such as deodorant, toothbrushes, lip balm, lotion, razors, baby wipes, sun screen, or hand sanitizers

stationary, blank greeting cards

INTERNATIONAL CALLING CARDS

small toys for the soldiers to give out to the Iraqi children (beanie babies, deflated soccer balls, tops, dolls, harmonicas, anything unbreakable and small).

8.MESS HALL will meet at the Scholten’s home on Thursday, May 15^th. Bring your Bible and blue notebook.

 The Sevcik Family is planning a MESS Hall activity for May 30^th. More details will follow closer to the actual date, but it will most likely be games, fun and food!

9. The Young Adults College Group will meet at Covenant Fellowship Church on Friday, May 2^nd at 7:00 p.m. and on Friday, May 23^rd at 7:00 p.m.

10.Church-Wide Workday

Saturday May 3rd
8:00 A.M. to ?

Come one...come all! We have jobs for everyone big and small. Let’s help get the church into shape with a good, spring cleaning and fix up. If you have them please bring buckets, rags, brushes, rakes, paint brushes, paint rollers and trays, and ladders.

Workday will begin at 8:00 a.m. Come when you can and stay as long as you can. Lunch will be provided for all workers. We will have sub sandwiches, salad, chips and cookies.
If anyone has any questions regarding workday please see Greg Blasiman.

11.Vacation Bible School will have it’s first planning meeting on Sunday, May 18^th following morning worship in the fellowship room. Anyone interested in helping out or just curious and seeking more information should come to the fellowship room for the short meeting. Anyone seeking more information can also contact Dave Rastetter. Vacation Bible School will be the first full week of August 2008.

12.Please help keep our church safe and our costs down. If you open a window at church please shut AND LOCK the window. Please do not open windows if the heat or air conditioning is on. Please remember that even though you don’t live in the church building it needs to be treated as you would your own home. Thank you.

13.Bible Trivia

1.What did Christ say about his power over his own life?
2.Finish Christ’s saying, “Let your light so shine before men —“
3.To whom did Peter say, “Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money?”
4.Who said, “My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.”? To whom did he speak?
5.Who said at the cross, “Truly this was the Son of God?”
6.In what Book is the saying, “A wise son maketh a glad father?”
7.Who wrote, “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth?”
8.Who prayed, “Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow?”
 

Answers:
1.“I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it up again.” John 10:18
2.“ — that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Matthew 5:16
3.Simon the sorcerer. Acts 8:20
4.Abraham speaking to Isaac. Genesis 22:8
5.The Roman centurion and soldiers. Matthew 27:54
6.Proverbs 15:20
7.David. Psalm 98:4
8.David. Psalm 51:7

You may unsubscribe if you no longer wish to receive our emails.
Please add daverastetter@faith-pca-akron.com to your contact lists to receive these emails in the right form

Email our Pastor       Church Secretary       Join Our Prayer Chain