May

2016

My HeartChrist’s Home, Part 2

With the help of Rev. Robert Boyd Munger, we continue our look at the “rooms” of our heart and how we welcome Jesus within us.

The Dining Room

From the study we went into the dining room, the room of appetites and desires. Now this was a very large room. I spent a good deal of time in the dining room and much effort in satisfying my wants.

I said to Him, “This is a favorite room. I am quite sure You will be pleased with what we serve.” He seated Himself at the table with me and asked, “What is on the menu for dinner?”

“Well,” I said, “my favorite dishes: money, academic degrees and stocks, with newspa-per articles of fame and fortune as side dishes.” These were the things I liked—worldly fare. I suppose there was nothing radically wrong in any particular item, but it was not the food that should satisfy the life of a real Christian. When the food was

placed before Him, He said nothing about it. However, I observed that He did not eat it, and I said to Him, somewhat disturbed, “Master, don't You care for this food? What is the trouble?”

He answered, “I have meat to eat that you do not know of. My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me.” He looked at me again and said, “If you want food that really satisfies you, seek the will of the Father, not your own pleasures, not your own desires, and not your own satisfaction. Seek to please Me and that food will satisfy you.” And there at the table He gave me a taste of doing God’s will. What a flavor! There is no food like it in all the world. It alone sat-isfies. Everything else is dissatisfying in the end.

Now if Christ is in your heart, and I trust He is, what kind of food are you serving Him and what kind of food are you eating yourself? Are you living for the lust of the flesh and the pride of life—selfishly? Or are you choosing God’s will for your meat and drink?

Pastor Herring

The King’s

Grace Lutheran

Busi-

Stewardship MomentLoving People

Charlie Brown’s young friend Linus made the mistake of confessing to his big sister Lucy that he wanted to be a doctor when he grew up. Lucy was astounded at her brother’s declaration. “You, a doctor!” That’s a laugh! You could never be a doc-tor! You know why? Because you don’t love human kind!”

Young Linus immediately responded, “I do love humankind! It’s people I can’t stand!”

Linus’ comment may give us a chuckle. We find humor in it because we identify with Linus. Apart from the power of God’s Spirit working in us, our love for others is weak and shallow at best. But God calls us to love all people and enables us to do so. Whether we are doctors, carpenters, police-men, teachers, secretaries, or plumbers, we are to love those whom we work with as well as all people. God places us in differ-ent vocations where we can share God’s love. We are His instruments through which He works.

In his letter to the church in Corinth, the Apostle Paul wrote, “Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to Him and to which God has called him” (1 Corinthians 7:17). God has a purpose, a plan, in mind for each of us. Like Linus, one might consider being a doctor, but God may have a much different vocation in mind. No vocation is to be viewed higher or lower than another, and we are called, re-

gardless of where we are placed by God, to let His love within us overflow to others.

Pastor Herring

AscensionThe Day of Ascension this year is May 5. This commemorates the bodily Ascension of Jesus into heaven. It is one of the ecu-menical feasts (i.e., universally celebrated) of Christian churches, ranking with the feasts of the Passion, of Easter, and Pente-cost, Ascension Day is traditionally cele-brated on a Thursday, the fortieth day of Easter (following the count given in Acts 1:3), although some Christian denomina-tions have moved the observance to the following Sunday.

In Western Christianity, the earliest possi-ble date is April 30, the latest possible date is June 3. Because the Orthodox churches have a different way to calculate Easter, the dates for Ascension vary accordingly. The observance of this feast is of great antiquity. Eusebius seems to hint at the celebration of it in the 4th century. At the beginning of the 5th century, St. Augus-tine says that it is of Apostolic origin, and he speaks of it in a way that shows it was the universal observance of the Church long before his time.

Johann Sebastian Bach composed sever-al cantatas and the Ascension Oratorio to be performed in church services on the feast day.

Ladies GuildThe guild voted to give $100.00 to boy scouts eagle project. The guild voted to give Hilda's grand-daughter $100.00  to help fund a mission trip to Hong Kong.  The next meeting of the Ladies Guild will be May 3rd and it will be at the Keeter Cen-ter with a possible tour afterwards.  Watch for more information to come soon.  All ladies of the congregation are invited. There will be a Kitchen clean up this sum-mer watch for information to come out for this activity. The next formal meeting of Ladies Guild will be September 21st.  The 3rd Wednesday of the month.  This is a change from what we have been doing.  We hope this will work into people’s schedules better. 

Kathy StephensSecretary

Men’s Fellowship Group

Our May meeting is May 9th. We have a topic after breakfast, a devotion and a brief business meeting. We invite all the men of the congregation to join us for this time of Christian fellowship.

Our schedule for meetings is:☧ May:  Cooks:  Myles and Allen:  Pro-

gram:  Myles, subject: tbd.

Mid-Week Bible Study

Our mid-week bible Study will continue through May 19th and then take a break for the summer. We plan to resume after Labor Day. However, join us until May 19th.

Words of GraceWe at Grace Lutheran Church

are called to reach, teach and be the people of God, as stewards of

the Word and gifts of God.

Last month we got to help Norma Rix cele-brate her birthday – God’s blessings, Norma, and many more.

Some of our members helped Norma clean out and plant flowers in a small ‘garden’ area just outside her patio. This had not been tended before Norma moved in and we hope it will make for more pleasant viewing this summer. Thank you to our helpers: Maurice, Sharon and Bernie.

Recent Happenings at Grace

I Want to thank Lisa Bennett, Delores Weiss, Kathy Stephens and  Sharon Schultz for contributing flowers for our church planter.   Below is a picture of the new flowers in the planter.  We have a few things coming up from last year including the blue salvia.    Blessings.   Bernie [PS: watch for pictures as the flowers grow]

An Outing

A number of our members went to the Sight and Sound Theater in Branson to see:

Two faithful leaders!Another view of Norma’s garden/

But it well grow!

Mary Jane, Fred ,,, and ‘friend’

ThoughtsFrom

The

Board

Riches

I recently ran across a tidbit of information. It said: If you have $77,000 dollars in assets you are among the wealthiest 10% in the world. Of course this said ‘world’ not “USA”. This gave me pause to reflect a bit on the idea of ‘riches’.

No, this is not an article about giving thanks, although we should thank God for all that we have. I also will only mention the thought I had that when the politicians say they will only tax ‘the rich’, just to whom are they referring? Do you remem-ber Willie Sutton? What then is the point?

My thoughts really turned to how we de-scribe what ‘rich’ means. Our society seems to define it, like that first tidbit, in terms of ‘stuff’ that we have. Commercials are always telling us we need more new and/or improved ‘stuff’. It will make you happier, more popular, more secure, safer, more confident and you will look and smell better.

Are ‘things’ always bad? Should we re-nounce all and ‘get thee to a monastery’? Of course not! There are indeed many things we need in this life. In the Small Catechism Luther reminds us that God pro-vides “all that we need to support this body and life.” So where are we going with this?

St. Paul says in Colossians 3:1-4:1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.  3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  4 When Christ who is your life ap-

pears, then you also will appear with him in glory. 

As Christian we live a new life, one not di-rected by what Luther calls the three big threats tempting us: the devil, the world, and our flesh (sinful nature). We are freed to follow God’s directions which we find revealed and empowered by God’s Word and the Sacraments. It is something to cele-brate and remember each day of the life God has given us.

Take note of verse two above. Where do we set our hearts? On God or the world? True riches come from God who is the cre-ator of all. Only God is eternal and not this world we live in now. As Paul reminds us, we look forward to the time when Christ has promised to return and take us to an eternal dwelling place. While this world has much in it that is good and desirable, it is all only temporary. Finally we are deal-ing with priorities because we cannot and will not have all the ‘stuff’ which the world offers and promises. Only that which God has promised and gives can be eternal.

It can be difficult to keep our perspective and balance when the world around us bombards us with different and conflicting messages. God has promised that when we take our problems and temptations to Him, He will help. 13 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted be-yond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. (1 Corinthians 10:13)

Or, as the hymns says: “Take it to the Lord in Prayer.”

God’s blessings to all!Rev. Kenneth Haydon

Pentecost

Pentecost (Ancient Greek: Πεντηκοστή [ἡμέρα], Pentēkostē [hēmera], "the fiftieth [day]") is the Greek name for Shavuot (He-brew: ,שבועות lit. "Weeks"), the Feast of Weeks, a prominent feast in the calendar of ancient Israel celebrating the giving of the Law to Moses at Sinai. In Christianity, Pen-tecost is celebrated fifty days after Easter Sunday, inclusively (i.e., 49 days with the first day counted, seven weeks), hence its name. In Judaism, Shavuot is on the sixth day of the Hebrew month of Sivan (late May or early June). Pentecost falls on the tenth day after Ascension Thursday (which itself is 40 days after Easter).

The feast is also called White Sunday, or "Whitsunday", especially in the United Kingdom, where traditionally the next day, Whit Monday, was also a public holiday. In Eastern Christianity, Pentecost can also re-fer to the entire fifty days between Easter and Pentecost, hence the book containing the liturgical texts for Paschaltide is called the Pentecostarion.

In the New Testament, Pentecost was the occasion of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other followers of Jesus Christ, as described in the Acts of the Apostles 2:1–31. Therefore in the Christian

liturgical year, it became a feast commemo-rating this occasion. For this reason, Pente-cost is described by some Christians as the "Birthday of the Church".

The biblical narrative of Pentecost is given in the second chapter of the Book of Acts. Present were about one hundred and twenty followers of Christ (Acts 1:15), including the Twelve Apostles (i.e. the Eleven faithful disciples and Matthias who was Judas' replacement) (Acts 1:13, 26), his mother Mary, various other women disciples and his brothers (Acts 1:14).

MayBirthdays

Robert Herring 6Ellen Bjork 7Kathy Stephens 7

MayAnniver-

sariesMike & Myrtle Tharp 8Ed & Lori Schmidt 17

Coming EventsMay 3rd – Ladies Guild LuncheonMay 5th – The Ascension of Our LordMay 6 & 7 – Pastors’ Wives RetreatMay 9-13 – Meals on wheelsMay 9th – Men’s FellowshipMay 10th – Elders and CouncilMay 15th – PentecostMay 16 to 18 – District Pastors’ ConferenceJuly 9 to 14 – Synodical ConventionJuly 17th – Nation Youth Gathering begins

Office Times at GraceExcept for emergencies and special events, Pastor will be

in the office at Grace:

Monday – Thursday8:30am - Noon

Other times by appointment