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The TV show Seinfeld pointed out interesting little quirks about the mundane parts of our lives - in fact, that was it's purpose statement: be a show about nothing! One of those was about how to look busy. Check out this brief clip in which George Costanza explains his technique. Why does this fool people into thinking you're really busy? I think it's because our society has embraced stress as one of the signs of a truly successful and productive person. The belief is that stress (and all of the things that go along with it: irritability, ulcers, overly-busy schedules, etc.) is the sign that someone is working really hard and accomplishing big things. Now there's nothing wrong with working hard and striving to be successful in life, but stress is not something that God intended for us to have dominate our lives. Even in those instances in which the stress originates from things outside of our control (financial troubles, illness), it does not have to overwhelm us with anxiety. In our next passage from Paul's letter to the Jesus-followers in the Greek city of Philippi, he tells his friends, "Don't be anxious about anything." What? How can anyone follow those instructions? Fortunately, Paul goes on to tell us how to let go of anxiety and live in the peace that God desires for us and intends for us to experience. That's what we'll be talking about this Sunday, August 16th. I hope you'll be able to join us! Church Picnic this Sunday! I hope you can stick around following Worship this Sunday for a picnic. We will be out in the gazebo. We'll be having burgers and dogs, Barbecue Beans, corn on the cob, drinks, fixings for the sandwiches and ice cream. As you can see there is not much need for anything else so if you have something you would like to share please bring it, but if not come and enjoy the fellowship.
This would also be a great opportunity to invite a friend to church! Three churches - Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian - worked together to sponsor a community-wide revival. After the revival had concluded, the three pastors were discussing the results with one another. The Methodist minister said, "The revival worked great for us. We gained four families as new members of our congregation." The Baptist preacher said, "We did even better than that. We gained six new families as members of our congregation." The Presbyterian pastor said, "Well, we did even better than that! We got rid of ten of our biggest troublemakers!"
Conflict is pretty hard to avoid in life. If it weren't for other people, we might have a pretty peaceful existence... However, being alone still leaves me with myself and he often gets on my nerves, too! So the only real answer is getting beyond the conflict and experiencing reconciliation. We're moving into the fourth chapter of Philippians this Sunday, August 9th, and Paul gets pretty specific as he finds an application for his previous teaching on humbly "thinking of others as better than yourself." (Phil. 2:3) And it's not just Paul who thinks unity is a big deal. God emphasizes it over and over throughout scripture. Why? That's what we're going to discuss on Sunday. I hope you can join us. |
Pastor JeffThoughts about living as a Jesus follower and life at Community Covenant Church Archives
December 2020
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