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Thursday, September 24, 2015

Scripture for Sunday (9/27/15)

Announcements 

  • From Mindy Supak:  My Mom (Dolores Ball) is in the hospital here in Junction. She has pneumonia and other issues and isn't expected to recover. We are keeping her comfortable and have been fortunate to have family and friends around. Please keep Mom in your prayers. Thank you.
  • Dr. Franklin House is doing better.
  • Shirley Winship is in Hill Country Care Center now, Bob will be joining her there tomorrow.
  • Kids for Christ After School Program K-5th grades Tuesday 3:30-5:00 PM.
  • Presbyterian Youth Fellowship 6-12th grades Wednesday 6:00 PM.
Scripture 

Genesis 32:22-32 (ESV)  
The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. [23] He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. [24] And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. [25] When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. [26] Then he said, "Let me go, for the day has broken." But Jacob said, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." [27] And he said to him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob." [28] Then he said, "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed." [29] Then Jacob asked him, "Please tell me your name." But he said, "Why is it that you ask my name?" And there he blessed him. [30] So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, "For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered." [31] The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. [32] Therefore to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob's hip on the sinew of the thigh. 

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Scripture for Sunday (9/20/15)

Announcements
  • Please continue to pray for healing, Dr. Franklin House is in need of our prayers.
  • Session Meeting tonight 6:00 PM
  • Kids for Christ After School Program K-5th grades Tuesday 3:30 PM
  • Presbyterian Youth Fellowship 6-12th grades Wednesday 6:00 PM
Scripture for Sunday
Genesis 18:1-15 (ESV)  
And the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. [2] He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth [3] and said, "O Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. [4] Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, [5] while I bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on— since you have come to your servant." So they said, "Do as you have said." [6] And Abraham went quickly into the tent to Sarah and said, "Quick! Three seahs of fine flour! Knead it, and make cakes." [7] And Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to a young man, who prepared it quickly. [8] Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them. And he stood by them under the tree while they ate.  [9] They said to him, "Where is Sarah your wife?" And he said, "She is in the tent." [10] The Lord said, "I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son." And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. [11] Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. [12] So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, "After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?" [13] The Lord said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh and say, 'Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?' [14] Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son." [15] But Sarah denied it, saying, "I did not laugh," for she was afraid. He said, "No, but you did laugh." 
Genesis 21:1-7 (ESV)  
The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. [2] And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. [3] Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac. [4] And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. [5] Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. [6] And Sarah said, "God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me." [7] And she said, "Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age." 

Prayer of the Day
God of promise, Abraham scoffed and Sarah laughed when they were told of your plans for them and their family. Yet you remained faithful to your promise, and gave them a son, Isaac. Help us to trust in your promises for our lives, and to live according to your will. Amen.

Friday, September 11, 2015

Announcements, Scripture for Sunday (9/13/15)

Just to let you know one of our college youth, Katherine Kneese, has written a blog post that I find to be very insightful and goes along with our theme this year of God in the Center. Give it a look. https://eoverby.wordpress.com/

Quote: "That is how it happens, that is where relationships are found. Focusing and centering everything we do on Christ and watching as everything else beautifully falls into place."

Today marks the 14th anniversary of the terrorist attack that shocked our nation. I don't think any of us will forget the images of the destruction of the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Laurie and I have shared many times our story of arriving in Junction on September 11, 2001. For us that day not only is a day to remember solemnly but it is also a day that we celebrate becoming part of this great community and church family. We love you all and are thankful that God called us to be here, and we are thankful for the work of the Pastor Nominating Committee that found us.

Announcements
  • Session Meeting Tuesday at 6:00 PM
  • Kids for Christ After School Program K-5th grades Tuesday 3:30
  • Presbyterian Youth Fellowship 6-12th grades Wednesday 6:00 PM
Scripture for Sunday

Genesis 1:26-28 (ESV)  
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."  [27] So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. [28] And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." 
Genesis 2:4-9 (ESV)  
These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.  [5] When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, [6] and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— [7] then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. [8] And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. [9] And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 
Genesis 2:16-23 (ESV)  
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, [17] but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."  [18] Then the Lord God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him." [19] So out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. [20] The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. [21] So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. [22] And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. [23] Then the man said, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."

Friday, September 4, 2015

Scripture & Questions for Sunday (9/6/15)

Announcements

  • Men's Breakfast tomorrow at 8:00am come join us!
  • Presbyterian Women will meet Tuesday at 9:45 AM  
  • Kids for Christ our afterschool program for children in K-5 will resume Tuesday September 8. The church van picks the children up from school at 3:30 and we are done at 5:00. 
  • Our Wednesday evening Presbyterian Youth Fellowship will resume September 9th, we will meet from 6-7:30 dinner will be provided. 
  • The Presbyterian Women's study guides are now available in the church narthex. Please pick up the one with your name on it. 
  • Presbyterian Women's Hill Country Fall Gathering will be held at Memorial Presbyterian Church in Fredericksburg, Saturday September 12, from 9:00 to to 2:00. RSVP to Kathy McNeil 830-997-2376.  
Scripture 

Hebrews 11:1-16 (ESV)  
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. [2] For by it the people of old received their commendation. [3] By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. 
[4] By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. [5] By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. [6] And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. [7] By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. 
[8] By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. [9] By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. [10] For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. [11] By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. [12] Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore. 
[13] These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. [14] For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. [15] If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. [16] But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. 

Hebrews 12:1-2 (ESV)  
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, [2] looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 

Questions for Reflection

  1. What do you consider the greatest example of faith you have ever seen? Why?
  2. What role does faith play in approaching and pleasing God? (11:6)
  3. How does faith change a person’s focus and perspective? (11:13-16)
  4. What prompts committed followers of Christ to continue to exercise faith even when He never seems to “come through” for them?
  5. Why do you think the author said that “the world was not worthy of” the heroes of faith mentioned in Hebrews 11?
  6. How do you think the individuals praised in Hebrews 11 were looked upon by those of their day?
  7. Why do you think God sometimes leaves us in the dark about His will?
  8. What are some examples from your life of both trusting God and doubting Him? 

September 2015 Newsletter

Click on the link to view this month's newsletter.

September 2015 Newsletter

Have a fabulous month!
~ Carmen