Septuagesima 2023
Notes from Grace
This week we remember that we are the Lord's workers in His vineyard. We do not own our time, everything we have is given to us by the Lord. In everything we do, as His people, purchased by Jesus' Blood, let us seek God's glory and the true good of our neighbor. Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart (Galatians 6:9).
What's Happening This Week?
- Mon-Thurs: Little Lambs 8am-11am
- Tues: Elders 5:30pm; Council 6pm
- Wed: Youth Confirmation 6pm
- Thurs: Adult Confirmation 9:30am
- Sun: Sexagesima: Bible Class/Sunday School 9am; Divine Service 10am; after the service will be our monthly mission dinner. This month we're collecting for community needs, especially for our food pantry and little clothes closet.
Looking Ahead
- Feb 14 10am-3pm: Our Congregation is Hosting the Pastors' Circuit Winkel
- Feb 19: Quinquagesima Divine Service
- Feb. 22 6pm: Ash Wed service
- Feb. 26 2:30pm (Lent 1): Nursing Home Service
Devotional Life
- Feb 5: Jacob (Israel), Patriarch Genesis 28:10-22
- Feb 10: Silas Fellow Worker of St. Peter & St. Paul Acts 16:16-34
- Here are the hymns, readings, and prayers for Sun, Feb 12 so that on Friday and Saturday you can prepare for church.
A Prayer at Calving Season:
Dear heavenly Father, You have given life to me and all creatures. Every beast of the forest is Yours, the cattle on a thousand hills, all that moves in the field is Yours. The cattle in my pastures is Yours that You have given to me, please care for these animals, especially as they begin to bring forth their young. At Your voice the deer in the forest give birth to their young, so too, let Your voice be heard among my cattle. Bless my herd as you blessed Jacob. Let the cows bring forth in health and let the young be nourished by their milk and grow strong. Thank You Lord for letting us witness Your miracle of life. Keep me and all who watch with me safe in the daytime and in dark of night. Let the sleep we have be restful, that we may have the strength to do the work You give us. Open our ears that we may hear the voice of Our Shepherd, and following Him through this life, enter into Your eternal sheepfold. Amen.
Salt, Light, & Signs of the Times
The people who write to newspapers are, it may be supposed, a small, eccentric body, like most of those that sway a modern state. But at least, unlike the lawyers, or the financiers, or the members of Parliament, or the men of science, they are people of all kinds scattered all over the country, of all classes, counties, ages, sects, sexes, and stages of insanity. -G.K. Chesterton
There are, however, still some married couples who understand themselves as belonging to their marriage, to each other, and to their children. What they have they have in common, and so, to them, helping each other does not seem merely to damage their ability to compete against each other. To them, ‘mine’ is not so powerful or necessary a pronoun as ‘ours.’ - Wendell Berry
And what is it that makes you so desirous to go to Mount Zion? CHRISTIAN: Why, there I hope to see him alive that did hang dead on the cross; and there I hope to be rid of all those things that to this day are in me an annoyance to me; there, they say, there is no death; and there I shall dwell with such company as I like best. [Isa. 25:8; Rev. 21:4] For, to tell you truth, I love him, because I was by him eased of my burden; and I am weary of my inward sickness. I would fain be where I shall die no more, and with the company that shall continually cry, "Holy, Holy, Holy!" -John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress
That's it for now.
In Christ,
Pastor Sherman