This Week's Update

Greetings in Christ! 

 

Announcements

• The 2015 Virginia Synod Assembly is June 5th-7th at Roanoke College in Salem. Judy Flickinger is your congregational representative.
  
  
  • As a new pastor in the synod, Pastor Andrew is also required to attend a boundaries training on June 4th in Salem.
    
    
• The Annual Church picnic is June 14th at 12:15pm in Bissett Park, Shelter #2.
  
  

Devotional

Last Sunday’s sermon explored how the Holy Spirit comes to make us storytellers, to make each of us witnesses that tell others about God’s work in our lives and in the world. If you missed it or want to hear that again, it’s available on our website.

 

Isaiah received a similar commission in a vision. So overcome with the gravity of this call, he cried out, “Mourn for me; I'm ruined! I'm a man with unclean lips, and I live among a people with unclean lips. Yet I've seen the king, the LORD Almighty!” In the midst of his dream, an angel, one of God’s messengers, came to him and touched his lips with a burning coal. Yikes!

This burning coal reflects images of purification. Much like the process of separating precious metals from rock requires massive amounts of heat, so the process of preparing us to tell God’s story requires preparation and purification. Of course, we also remember that on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came in tongues of fire upon the entire church. Soon after, they spoke languages of the world as they shared the story of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection.

 

When the Holy Spirit dwells within us, when that tongue of fire takes up residence in our bodies, a constant burning coal remains at work preparing and purifying us for the work of sharing the Gospel. Though we must take this call seriously, we need not fear our uncleanliness, for God chose each of us for this task. God gave us each stories to tell, and more so, prepared us through the Holy Spirit to share those stories faithfully.

 

This week, share a God story, one of those stories where God is an actor, where you must name God as an active part of your daily life. Share that story with someone you care about, who might need to hear it, who God might bless through that story.