Join us for Lent!

The scenes of Lent are familiar. The Upper Room, the Garden of Gethsemane, the halls of Pontius Pilate, and the hill of Golgotha—these are the places we remember when we meditate on our Lord’s Passion. Yet when Jesus enters a place, He never leaves it as He found it. The most troubling places in our lives become the most amazing places of God’s grace when Jesus visits them.

For this reason, each week in our midweek Lenten series, the Gospel of Luke will take us to a different place, the places of the Passion. Our focus, however, will not be on these physical places. Instead, we will gaze in wonder on the spiritual work that our Lord does there. Jesus will share His strength in our times of weakness. He will fill us with His praise in the midst of our sorrow. We will enter the places of the Passion only to discover our Lord waiting for us, willing to share with us a love that was set in place before the foundations of the world.

Join us for our midweek Lenten Services on Wednesday evenings at 7:00 p.m. Soup and sandwich suppers precede the services beginning March 8th at 6:15 p.m.

 

March 1  A Place at the Table for You (Luke 22:1–13)

Ash Wed. Imposition of Ashes & Holy Communion will be offered.

March 8 The Upper Room: A Place of Service (Luke 22:14–38)

March 15 Gethsemane: A Place of Strength(Luke 22:39–46)

March 22 The Betrayal: A Place of Eternal Love (Luke 22:47–53)

March 29 The Courtyard: A Place of Renewal (Luke 22:54–62)

April 5  The Trial: A Place of God’s Will (Luke 22:63–23:25)

VBS 2017

Save the Date! 

VBS 2017 - June 12-16, 6-8:30 pm

At Mighty Fortress, we’ll learn about Jesus, our Savior, through five Bible stories, meet new friends, do fun activities, sing great songs, make crafts, play games, eat snacks, and more! It’s going to be fun, but it would be more fun with you there. More details to follow!

But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:57)

Love

February is often a time when we reach out to our loved ones and show them how much we love them.  We might do this by buying flowers or a gift.  We could do this by having a special dinner, or we could do this by doing something nice for them.  Whatever it is we do, the meaning behind it is the same – to show our love and appreciation for them.  So what exactly is love? The dictionary states that love is “an intense feeling of deep affection.”  The apostle Paul says that “Love is patient. Love is kind. Love isn’t jealous.  It doesn’t sing its own praises. It isn’t arrogant.  It isn’t rude. It doesn’t think about itself. It isn’t irritable. It doesn’t keep track of wrongs. It isn’t happy when injustice is done, but it is happy with the truth.  Love never stops being patient, never stops believing, never stops hoping, never gives up." 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7

When Jesus breaks bread with the disciples he says to them, “I’m giving you a new commandment: Love each other in the same way that I have loved you.  Everyone will know that you are my disciples because of your love for each other.” John 13: 34-35. Oh to be like Jesus!!!!  He truly did love everyone!  Remember the woman at the well?  How about Zacchaeus?  Bartimaeus? The Bible gives many examples of Jesus and his love, so to love like Jesus is a very tall order!  I am not sure about you, but I often find myself fighting inwardly between what I know Jesus would want me to do and what I want to do.  Truly loving and showing love takes time, and in our busy lives time is something that is very valuable and hard to give.  Sure, we can be nice to one another.  We can easily greet each other with a hug and a smile.  That is the easy stuff.  To take the time to love like Jesus is not easy.  Shamefully I am often a Martha instead of a Mary.  To me loving like Jesus means to take the time to really listen to someone when they are sad or hurting.  It means taking the time out of your busy schedule to help someone who needs help.  Sometimes this means that what we had planned for that day is not going to get done.  If you are a scheduler like me, this can be very hard to give up.  The task of loving becomes even harder when the person who needs your love the most is a person that you do not like.  However, God made it very clear that we are to love our enemies like we love ourselves.  It is our duty as followers of Christ.  “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  Phillipians 4:13 - that includes loving my enemies.

I am so thankful for my church and my church family.  Every Sunday I am able to come to church and renew my spirit which in turn fills my heart with love.  I am also very thankful for my Bible and other religious books that give me something to turn to during the week that also help to fill my heart with love.   By surrounding myself with these positive influences it makes it easier to fulfill God’s commandment and to love others as he has loved us.  Don’t get me wrong, it is still a daily struggle, but without these tools I would be lost.  I am very thankful for, and truly do love, all my brothers and sisters in Christ!

Yours in Christ,

Becky Aragon, GSLC President

Sign up today for Financial Peace!

YOU'RE INVITED TO FINANCIAL PEACE UNIVERSITY! 

Good Shepherd will be hosting another session of this life-changing program from Dave Ramsey. Participants will learn God's way of handling money as FPU presents Biblical, practical steps to get from where you are to where you've dreamed you could be. This plan will show you how to get rid of debt, manage your money, spend and save wisely, and much more!  This class will meet each Sunday from February 12 through April 9 at 6:00 p.m. in the Family Life Center.  Course materials cost $93 plus shipping per family.  To ensure that your materials arrive in time, please register in advance by clicking here. Hope to see you there!

A Note from the GSLC President

I have always been a fan of Garth Brooks, and always liked the song “I Will Sail my Vessel.”  I always found so much truth in the lyrics and was inspired to always do my best even when the tide would change. As we all know, life truly is a journey and we never know what tomorrow brings.  This reality has hit my home very hard in recent months, and it has hit other homes in our church as well.  I was blessed to attend the funeral of Barbara Brown this past Saturday and meet some of her family.  In listening to her family members talk about her life, all she had done, and her love for Christ it became apparent I had missed out on really getting to know a truly awesome person.  She lived her life to the fullest and made each moment count.  It makes you sit back and reflect on your own life and wonder if you are truly living your life the way God wants you to.  We have the ability to reach out and touch many people, but are we doing this or are we focusing too much on ourselves? I am guilty of focusing on myself.  I have a really hard time dropping my agenda even though I know someone needs my help.  After all, I worked really hard on putting my schedule together and I need to make sure it gets finished!  This past week we had several people in our congregation drop their schedules to help prepare for this funeral.  These people that I am speaking of are members of our congregation.  They just dropped everything to help ensure that everything that needed to get taken care of got taken care of to help out a family who is in need and hurting.  I was truly inspired and touched by this and once again felt blessed to be a part of such an awesome church family!  The love, compassion, and caring that our church shows for those who need help is truly amazing!  1 John 4:19 says: “We love because he first loved us.”  I feel that love at Good Shepherd.  Thank you for showing your love this past week and helping with the funeral! 

-Becky Aragon, GSLC President

Notes from the Head Elder

You are missed when you are not at Church on Sunday.

Good Shepherd was the location for a funeral on Saturday. We had several members in attendance and one who was the reason for our gathering. Last Sunday she was at church and this Sunday her husband and a few of their kids showed up for the worship service. She was missed by all this Sunday.

Why do we go to church every Sunday? I am sometimes asked this question. When I hear the question, my mind always goes back to an old joke about eating that a Pastor would tell when asked a similar question. The story goes that we cannot remember the dinner we had last Thursday or the topic of last week’s sermon (okay some of you may know, you are the exception). Both were beneficial even though we may not recall the specifics about either one.

Here are three thoughts on why we should develop the regular habit of attending worship:

  1. God’s commandment.
    1. “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.”
    2. This Sunday’s gospel lesson had this reminder: “From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” Matthew 4:17
  2. God’s blessing.
    1. Today in the adult Sunday school class we studied Psalm 128. Verse 1 says: “Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways!” All who attended this class were blessed by the lesson. This blessing is also for you.
    2. Our Old Testament reading today pointed out that “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.” Isaiah 9:2. If we can see the light we are blessed by God.
  3. God calls us to come together for worship.
    1. Our sermon hymn today was “Come Follow Me” LSB 688. The message that went with the Gospel of Matthew chapter 4 was that Christ is calling each of us to Him to worship Him. 
    2. Our master is calling us to worship. We say these words in our liturgy: “Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.” Joel 2:13. Our God is a loving God and wants us together to worship.

Faith grows when we are in fellowship with other believers. Yes, we are reminded that we are poor, sinful beings. We are also reminded that our God loves us and wants us to be saved. This is where we find the answers to the questions in our hearts.

Now is the time to begin the regular habit of Sunday morning worship. It is time to remove the barriers and distractions that cause us to stay at home on Sunday mornings. We are all missed when we are not in church.

See you at church on Sunday. 

-Glen Leavens, Head Elder