Summer - Kayla's Korner

Psalm 113:3

“From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised!”

The Lord’s name is to be praised! It is something we should do daily! I feel like when summer hits sometimes we lose sight of praising God. We forget to read our Bibles, we forget to pray, and maybe we decide to take the summer off from Church. Do you think God ever takes a break from His relationship with us? I personally don’t think so, so why should we take a break from Him? This summer I hope everyone praises God in the morning and praises God at night. Something I did to help build my relationship with God was download the Bible app on my phone. It can be hard to carry a Bible around with me everywhere I go. If I ever find myself needing to hear God’s word or have an opportunity to share God’s word with someone, I can use the Bible app. There are so many different and unique ways we can praise God in today’s world. So how are you going to praise Him this summer? 

-Kayla

Why does Easter Fall on a Different Day Each Year? - Reece's Peaces

Easter is unlike other holidays. Independence Day is always on July 4th, Christmas is always December 25th, but Easter’s date changes.

Easter is always celebrated on a Sunday between March 22nd and April 25th, but the exact date moves. The reason for this is quite simple.

The date changes on our modern Gregorian calendar, but not on the Jewish calendar. Easter is always celebrated on the Sunday during the Jewish holiday of Passover. Passover always begins on the 15th day of the month of Nisan. The Jewish calendar, unlike our modern Gregorian calendar, uses the rotation of the moon instead of the Sun to divide the year into months.

According to the Jewish calendar Easter does have a fixed date. It is always celebrated on the first Sunday immediately following the 15th of Nisan or, more specifically, the first Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon. While it may seem to us that Easter’s date changes year to year, it was not so for early Christians.

However, that's not the only unique aspect in dating the celebration of Easter because not all Christians celebrate Easter on the same Sunday. This year the Eastern Orthodox Church will celebrate Easter on April 24th, while Western churches will celebrate it on April 17th. This difference has nothing to do with the moon.

Instead, the answer comes down to our calendars. Western Christians use the Gregorian calendar which has leap days while Eastern Christians use the Julian calendar which does not. Over many years the two calendars have become a bit out of sync. This means that the Orthodox Church can date their Easter on one date while the Western churches use a different date.

In general, the reason why Easter’s date changes each year is due to the original Jewish calendar. We celebrate Easter following the cycle of the Moon instead of the cycle of the Sun. It is only due to our modern calendar that Easter has become a moving holiday.

Amazing Grace - Marc's Music Notables

John Newton’s earliest memories were of his godly mother who, despite fragile health, devoted herself to nurturing his soul. At her knee he memorized Bible passages and hymns. Though she died when he was about seven, he later recalled her tearful prayers for him. After her death, John alternated between boarding school and the high seas.

Pressed into service with the British Navy, he deserted, was captured and flogged. More voyages, dangers, toils, and snares followed. It was a life unrivaled in fiction, as he eventually became the slave of a slave in Africa.

Then on the night of March 9, 1748, John, 23, was jolted awake aboard ship by a brutal storm. In great peril, he cried to the Lord and began a slow spiritual journey that eventually transformed his life. The next several years were ones of slow, halting progress; but in the end John Newton became one of the most powerful evangelical preachers in British history, a powerful foe of slavery and the slave trade, and the author of hundreds of hymns.

“Amazing Grace” is his hymn of testimony, originally written to accompany a New Year’s Day sermon Newton preached on January 1, 1773, from the text 1 Chronicles 17:16-17. “I once was lost,” he said, “but now am found; was blind but now I see.”

Hymns are distillations of the richest truths of God, versified, emotionalized, set to music, and released in the mind and from the mouth. They’re miniature Bible studies that lead us effortlessly to worship, testimony, exhortation, prayer, and praise. They’re bursts of devotional richness with rhyme and rhythm. They clear our minds, soothe our nerves, verbalize our worship, summarize our faith, and sing our great Redeemer’s praise.

Everyone should have a hymnbook on their desk and a song of praise in their hearts. Lots of good music will improve our moods, but the great hymns of the faith will fill our hearts with the truths of God and lift our spirits upward in praise

Preparing Ourselves - Kayla's Korner

Ephesians 4:32 “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”

As Christians we are called to be kind to one another. That even includes those we don’t like very much. When I was 15 my best friend and I got into a big fight, and it took me forever to forgive her. If it wasn’t for that fight that we had, I wouldn’t have learned how truly important forgiveness is. God shows each of us kindness, even though we hurt Him time after time sinning. But He still forgives us and shows kindness towards us. When others hurt me or do something I may not consider “right”, I choose to show them kindness and forgiveness because I strive to be a good Christian and do what God calls of me. I also don’t want to live a life full of hate and holding a grudge against others. This month pray for God to give you a forgiving heart, so that others may see Christ through you! If you don’t forgive or show kindness, how are you going to share God’s Word with others?

Shine - Reece's Peaces

“This Little Light of Mine” is a song that we all know. Almost every Christian child is taught it as they grow up. I remember singing it as a child with the children’s chorus at my home church the Sunday before Easter. The song is simple to learn and the message is even simpler to understand. We have a little light of the Lord in us and we need to let it shine.

During the month of February, we're going to discuss the little light that we are given, a light inside of us that Luke describes as, “a light of revelation to the gentiles and for glory to your people Israel” (Luke 2:32). It is that light of revelation which each of us holds in our heart. It shines in us like a candle in a dark room, illuminating our space and allowing us to move freely without the worry of stumbling. The light of the Lord shines for all to see.

This month’s sermon series is “Shine.” We will examine the light of the Lord inside of us, investigating what the Bible says about the call to light up the world and seeing how we are all called to hold our candle to illuminate the way for others. We will also discuss how the light inside us shines brightness into the emptiness, allowing God to fill our very souls with God’s grace. We will further examine how love shines through that light into our lives and into the lives of others.

Finally, our sermon series will end on Transfiguration Sunday, a day that we celebrate the moment in which Jesus was revealed to his disciples as the Son of God. Transfiguration Sunday is not nearly as well-known as many other important days in the church calendar, but it is a significant day. This day celebrates the moment in which Jesus was transfigured from his humanly form into a new form of radiant shining glory appearing on a mountaintop alongside Moses and Elijah to speak to his apostles Peter, James, and John.

He was then called the Son of God by a voice in the clouds. Reminiscent of the same voice calling out at his baptism. In that moment he became the light of God for all to see shine!

Transfiguration Sunday will be the capstone in our call to shine, to live out that line of a song that we learned so long ago: “This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine!”.

Peace,

Ben