Bulletin Announcements October 13, 2019
THOUGHTS ON STEWARDSHIP: Luke 17:19 – “And He said to him, ‘Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.’ ” Only one of the 10 lepers who were cleansed returned to give thanks to Jesus. Why is that? Surely the rest were indeed thankful to be freed from such a terrible disease. But only the Samaritan leper had faith, and his faith turned into action, as all true faith does. Our generosity to God’s work in the Church is likewise our faith in action.
FAITH IN ACTION OF BLOOMINGTON/NORMAL: One ride, one visit, one Senior at a time. Need a ride? Want to volunteer? Need more information? Call (309) 827-7780; or email: office@bnfia.org or contact Barry Hamlin at (309) 750-9424.
OUR SUNDAY SCHOOL meets at 9:15 a.m. in the Choir Room which is located on the 2nd level (the west side).
THE ADULT BIBLE CLASS meets in the basement at 9:15 a.m.
TODAY is our monthly door Offering for our adopted Seminary Student Aaron Wendorff. To learn more about Aaron and his family please see the note posted on the bulletin board outside the church office.
GOOD SHEPHERD FRIDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES is this coming Friday, October 18th at 6:30 p.m. The movie that will be shown is titled: “HEAVENLY DEPOSITS”. Please join us for another wonderful movie, delicious food and great fellowship. See you October 18th.
NEXT SUNDAY is the deadline for items to be submitted for the NOVEMBER NEWSLETTER. Any announcements you want to be published in the Newsletter should be submitted via email to: office@goodshepherdblm.org, mail, hand-delivered, or you may call (309) 662-8905 or (309) 838-1552. Thank you!
ANNUAL VOTER’S MEETING: Get this on your calendar for next month. Our Annual Voter’s Meeting will take place on Sunday, November 10th, after the 10:30 worship service.
FROM THE OFFICE: The church now has a new email address. Our new email address is: office@goodshepherdblm.org.
MANY THANKS AND BLESSINGS to all my friends who helped me celebrate my 90th Birthday. I appreciate your thoughtfulness as my church family. In Christ, Cleo Korte.
PORTALS OF PRAYER: The October—December 2019 Portals of Prayer are available on the book rack in the narthex. Pick up your free copy today.
FELLOWSHIP HOSTS: In order to get more people involved in our Coffee/Donut Fellowship for 2019 we have two separate sign-ups: Donut Pick-up and Coffee Set-up. We would like to encourage you to sign-up for one or the other. You may also sign-up for both if you wish. The sign-up sheet is by the door by the north stairwell.
THE LUTHERAN HOUR: “The Lamp Of the Body” is the topic for next Sunday. The sermon text will be from Genesis 16. “If your heart is full of light, then your eyes shine with generosity and grace, and your body follows the light. If your heart is full of darkness, then your eyes are obscured with fear and greed, and the rest of you follows suit. Reverend Dr. Michael Zeigler is the speaker. Hear his message on The Lutheran Hour on WGN (720) at 6:00 a.m.; WJWR (104.7 FM) and WJWR (90.3 FM) both on Sunday at 3:00 p.m. Also, if you can receive Lincoln, IL radio station WLLM (1370 AM) the program is broadcast two times on Sunday at 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. Tune in! You can also listen to The Lutheran Hour on your personal computer at RealAudio, www.lhm.org.
FROM THE CHURCH OFFICE: If you miss church, please be reminded that copies of the previous week’s sermon are available on the table in the narthex. Also, the sermon will be available on our web site at www.goodshepherdblm.org. Thank you.
INFORMATION REQUESTED: Please notify the church office if someone in the congregation or any family or friends are ill or hospitalized.
PRAYER CIRCLE: If you have a prayer request please submit them by email to Mary Anne Kirchner at makirchner@yahoo.com or you may phone a Prayer Request to Mary Anne; her cell phone# is (309) 532-2582. The Prayer Request box is on the table in the narthex for any written requests.
Sermon Text 10.6.2019 — Moving Mulberry Trees
October 6, 2019 Text: Luke 17:6
Dear Friends in Christ,
We hear a lot of talk these days how difficult it is to be a Christian, but is it? Many in our world would laugh at our idea of difficult. Was it hard to come to worship? To pray? To do devotions? It may be a little harder to share the faith, but that is always a challenge. I still see respect for the office of Pastor in our community. Why do people say it is harder today to be a follower of Christ?
Much of it comes from biblical principles that are being challenged in all walks of life. Values and practices that we hold sacred because “thus saith the Lord” are not held on to as tightly as they once were.
This was happening with Jesus and His disciples in Luke 17. Jesus was always teaching about everyday values and practices. Here He is telling the disciples they need to forgive others even up to seven times a day. If they were wronged they need to confront another with the sin and voice forgiveness. This is the stuff of everyday relationships.
But oh it can be hard to forgive at times, can’t it? Bitter feelings run deep like the roots of the mulberry tree – stubborn, strong. We can understand the disciples reaction to this challenge of Jesus – “Increase our faith.” Jesus the great teacher doesn’t say, “Uh, ok . . . you have greater faith.” He does say, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.” (v. 6) On this LWML Sunday let’s see what can be done about . . .
“MOVING MULBERRY TREES”
Now Jesus doesn’t really explain what He says, but you have to admit it is quite the image. With just a little faith – faith you have right now – Jesus is saying you can uproot a twenty-five foot mulberry tree and plant it at the bottom of the sea. Have you ever tried that? Well, let’s go take a stab at it, anyone ready to follow? Maybe we need a little more teaching from the Savior.
One thing Jesus is saying is that it is not helpful to quantify our faith. This was what the disciples were asking. Give us heroic faith. We want a faith that will stand up to hard things and hard times. But quantifying that does not help us. Yet we still do it, don’t we? “If I only believed enough.” “If my faith were stronger I wouldn’t be curled up in my pity.” The weight of these statements is upon us. Do we believe enough? Do we trust enough?
So if we don’t quantify faith, then how do we understand the words of Jesus? How can faith send mulberry trees flying into the sea? “Faith like a grain of mustard seed” is simply trust in Him. A faith that trusts and abides in Him. A faith that lives every day in Him. It is only in Christ that we move mulberry trees, even the deep ones like bitterness or a lack of forgiveness. It is possible only as Christ lives in us.
Latin has two words for faith. The first is fides, a faith that says certain things are true like “I believe…that God created the world…that Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead…that the Holy Spirit keeps me in the true faith.” Our creeds are examples of fides. The other Latin word for faith is fiducia. This is relational faith. It is trust in the Lord, being rooted in the power of God. This was Luther’s preferred word for faith. Fiducia is at work in Paul’s words of Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through him (Christ) who strengthens me.
So this faith says that I can forgive not so much because I have enough faith to do it but rather because I live and make decisions inside a strong relationship with Jesus Christ. I have Christ or better, Christ has me! The One who came and died for me. The One who broke through death and came to life for me. The One who called me in Baptism and made me His own. I can move mulberry trees because of this One – Jesus my Savior.
In Christ, then, we can confront the person who has wronged us and offer forgiveness. When can share our faith when it is not easy or convenient. We can drop our coins and dollars in our mite boxes because we know they make a difference. We can hold the hand of someone in the hospital we might not be that warm with. We can reach out to that friend who has drifted from our life.
Our community is not the enemy, it is our mission field. You hear mulberry trees moving – hard things, impossible things, happening because Christ lives within me, because Christ lives within us!
Since 1942 the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League has lived mustard seed faith. Little gifts, small coins and dollar bills put in mite boxes, combined across our synod, make things happen. Big things. Mulberry trees are being moved
Don’t believe the hype that we have such a difficult road in front of us. What appears to be hard may just be what we each need as we live with Christ day-in-day-out. Because Christ abides in us, the difficult thing can be done with joy. May it be said of us, “Those were the days when Christians moved mulberry trees!”
Amen.
Bulletin Announcements October 6, 2019
THOUGHTS ON STEWARDSHIP: Luke 17:10 – “So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’ ” We can never put God in our debt. Even if we lived in perfect compliance with the Law, we would still only be unworthy servants. Our giving to the Lord’s work in the Church is a sign that we recognize our role as servants. Furthermore, we give because we recognize our own need for that work of the Lord in the Church. And what a blessing it is to give to the Church so that the ministry of His Word and Sacraments may reach all in the community.
FAITH IN ACTION OF BLOOMINGTON/NORMAL: One ride, one visit, one Senior at a time. Need a ride? Want to volunteer? Need more information? Call (309) 827-7780; or email: office@bnfia.org or contact Barry Hamlin at (309) 750-9424.
OUR SUNDAY SCHOOL meets at 9:15 a.m. in the Choir Room which is located on the 2nd level (the west side).
THE ADULT BIBLE CLASS meets in the basement at 9:15 a.m.
FROM THE OFFICE: We received a thank you note from our Seminary Student, Aaron Wendorff. It is posted on the bulletin board outside the church office. NEXT SUNDAY, October 13th, will be our monthly door Offering for Aaron and his family.
FROM THE OFFICE: The church now has a new email address. Our new email address is: office@goodshepherdblm.org.
MANY THANKS AND BLESSINGS to all my friends who helped me celebrate my 90th Birthday. I appreciate your thoughtfulness as my church family. In Christ, Cleo Korte.
PORTALS OF PRAYER: The October—December 2019 Portals of Prayer are available on the book rack in the narthex. Pick up your free copy today.
FELLOWSHIP HOSTS: In order to get more people involved in our Coffee/Donut Fellowship for 2019 we have two separate sign-ups: Donut Pick-up and Coffee Set-up. We would like to encourage you to sign-up for one or the other. You may also sign-up for both if you wish. The sign-up sheet is by the door by the north stairwell.
FROM THE OFFICE: Christ wants you to know who He is and what He has done for us. Concordia Publishing House is here to help you with that. We are dedicated to helping Christ’s families read, study, teach, and learn about the miracles that God has shown us. Our newest releases, such as the Portals of Prayer; Devotional Bible, Enduring Faith Sunday School Curriculum, The Mighty and The Mysterious, and The Growing in Faith Bible Storybook, in addition to thousands of other resources, allow for families of all ages and stages to share in Christ’s love. CPH is overjoyed to be able to offer these resources for your family to grow with Christ for generations to come. To see all we have to offer, please visit us at cph.org.
THE LUTHERAN HOUR: “Faith Unafraid” is the topic for next Sunday. The sermon text will be from Genesis 15. People sometimes talk of “cutting a deal.” In times past, this was more than a figure of speech! Pastor Ryan Tinetti is the speaker. Hear his message on The Lutheran Hour on WGN (720) at 6:00 a.m.; WJWR (104.7 FM) and WJWR (90.3 FM) both on Sunday at 3:00 p.m. Also, if you can receive Lincoln, IL radio station WLLM (1370 AM) the program is broadcast two times on Sunday at 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. Tune in! You can also listen to The Lutheran Hour on your personal computer at RealAudio, www.lhm.org.
FROM THE CHURCH OFFICE: If you miss church, please be reminded that copies of the previous week’s sermon are available on the table in the narthex. Also, the sermon will be available on our web site at www.goodshepherdblm.org. Thank you.
PRAYER CIRCLE: If you have a prayer request please submit them by email to Mary Anne Kirchner at makirchner@yahoo.com or you may phone a Prayer Request to Mary Anne; her cell phone# is (309) 532-2582. The Prayer Request box is on the table in the narthex for any written requests.