Blessings in Christ,
I hope that each of you had a blessed week and continue to find yourself growing in Christ as we go through the Advent Season. I know I rather enjoyed the Thursday reading from the Lutheran Hour devotional, specifically this point, “Sometimes it takes a voice from the wilderness to shake us out of our usual ways of looking at the world. And clearly, God didn’t send John to follow in the same paths everyone else had trod for years and years. No, it was his job to shake up his hearers, getting them ready for the coming of God Himself—Jesus, our Savior. John prepared His way—and Jesus came to us, to forgive us and to save us and to make us His own. Through His birth, life, death, and resurrection, Jesus brought us up out from the wilderness into the promised land of God’s own kingdom.”
You can read the full devotional at the following link, https://www.lhm.org/dailydevotions/default.asp?date=20241219&fbclid=IwY2xjawHR4JRleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHVE9qrLZ-B0v_8yjqQSGwNsnJOdoc03E997G7gXMN_OQDpoi-QkpeHg9pg_aem_gIkCnMDbqxuBtipO1PrIDg
A few announcements;
We will not have Saturday Morning Bible Study on 12/21.
Also, we will not have Adult Sunday School on Sunday, 12/22.
You might say, we have gone into “holiday schedule”.
On Sunday, 12/22, we will gather at 10:30am for a time of Christmas songs and games, including but not limited to the “Secret Santa”. On Sunday, from 5pm – 9:30pm, we will host The Attic Thrift Mintry: Free Christmas Thrift.
We will have a Christmas Eve Worship Service, ‘The JOY of Christmas” on Tuesday, December 24th at 6pm eastern, this will include a candle-lighting ceremony as well.
Please see and share the attached graphics.
A few resources to share for your edification as well;
You can review this past Sunday’s sermon, an Introduction to the Gospel of John, at the following YouTube link, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1IB1nHVy-Y&t=723s
Also, you can find a “Throwback” video to our beginning the New Testament back into July 2021 at the following YouTube link, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ-JOxi5dJo
Tomorrow, Fri., Dec. 20th, the 2024 Christmas Edition of the LIC Public Press will be released. You will be able to find the updated resources at https://licpublicpress.wordpress.com/
We continue to pray for Terri and Collette, as well as other friends and family members we have in thought and prayer. Might God continue to give us testimonies of praise regarding His sustaining, healing, maturing hand in our lives and in the lives of our loved ones. We pray for those in pain, in need, and lonely this season. Might God stir each of us to be used by Him in this seaosn and as we move toward the new year. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for all we have, lead us to use all for the “healing of the nations”. In Jesus’ mighty we pray.
I look forward to the fellowship, worship, and service to be had this week, and of course the celebration of food, family, friends, children, gifts, and more, as we move into the Christmas season.
By His goodness & grace,
Pastor Michael Miano