It's so good to sleep in one's own bed. Even if my mattress has permanent indentations that match my body...it's nice to be home.
Synod went well; it was a relatively quiet week. There were no grand theological debates (although I think those are coming in the next few years). What there was was a good bit of talk about vision and purpose and plans for the RP Church as a whole. As of right now, there's no one really tasked with setting forth an encompassing vision. It had fallen for a while to the finance committee, but that doesn't seem to be lasting. The Home Mission Board did some work on it, though; they recommended synod adopt a vision for planting 20 new churches by 2020 (2020 vision, it's called). Although the final wording of the recommendation didn't have the same strength of language (it went from calling evangelism and church planting our highest priority to making it a renewed priority), it was good for the church to commit itself to a good plan like that.
So here are some prayer requests for our denomination, if you're so inclined:
1. Pray that we might be blessed with many new pastors in the coming two decades. The fields remain white for harvest and we must continue to importune God to grant us laborers for those fields.
2. Pray for the current new churches and those yet in the womb (which includes our church).
3. Pray for those appointed to the committee to revise the Directory for Worship. This will not be an easy task, but a very important one.
4. Pray for peace and unity among our churches; pray also for peace and unity across denominations.
This week I'm preparing my lessons for the junior high students at our family camp next week. [spoiler] I have decided to move through the Lord's Prayer, focusing both on improving our communication to God and the wonderful theology underlying our great prayer-example. As I work on it this week, I hope to post some quotes from cool books I'm working with.
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- Jared
- I have: One God in three persons. One great wife and 4 great kids. A pulpit to preach from and a warm home to sleep in, good friends and good books for when my friends shun me.
3 comments:
Hey Jared,
This will seem like it is coming out of nowhere. But, lately I have been curious about who the mother of King David was. I know his father was Jesse, but his mother was not named in the Bible. I went to the internet to investigate. I actually didn't find too much information. I did find some rabbinical text on it. But, I don't know if their claims are valid since I don't know how they got the information. Here is a website that I found intriguing. What do you think about the validity? I know Psalms are an important part of worship. (Especially in the RPC) I thought you would at least find this essay interesting even if it came off as fiction because it isn't straight out of the Bible.
http://www.chabad.org/magazine/article.asp?AID=280332
the creationism debate.. and the deaconate.. wine.. (as always..)
and anything else i m forgetting??
robbie - are you adding prayer requests or adding to the debates?
tamara - interesting article. As you point out, it seems to come from rabbinic/midrashic tradition. This is not to discount it, but we have no guarantee on it. It is interesting to think about those who influenced Biblical characters we know so well. We could even ask the question: Why doesn't God tell us about them? Aren't there hundreds of mothers you'd like to read about? I suppose that's one of the great things about eternity with God's people in heaven. Those questions will be answered joyfully; for now we must believe that God's Word is sufficient, though not comprehensive.
Thanks for the link; I'd never heard of that story before.
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