The Way to Up is Down - Pastor Welty

When my daughter Emma was a little girl, we went to Lake Compounce for a day.  I decided that I would to introduce her to the world of the roller coaster.  We made our way to the old rickety wooden roller coaster.   She  just made the height requirement, so I was excited to get strapped into the seats and begin our journey.  As we were climbing the first hill, I realized that I had not adequately prepared my little girl for what she was about to experience. We crested the first hill and then it felt like the bottom dropped out... and the fun began.  I could tell that she wasn't sharing my enthusiasm.  When the ride was completed and we were walking away, she announced to me.  "Thanks Dad, that's the first - AND LAST roller coaster I'll ever ride."   Those words didn't prove true as she became a little bit of a roller coaster nut during her high school years.  It became true for me, however, because age has lessened my appreciation for being tossed around higgledy piggledy.   

Roller coasters serve as a metaphor for life.  We even sometimes use words like "emotional roller coaster" to describe certain experiences.  Life has its ups and downs, and we want to experience  the ups more often and longer than the downs.   But I've found that the downs cause greater appreciation for the ups. 

 Many characters in the Bible experienced the ups and downs of life.  During the upcoming season of Lent we'll be considering some of these people in a series I've called "The way to up is down."  We'll be starting with a look at the life of Joseph from Genesis and concluding by looking at Christ's life on Palm Sunday.  I hope this series will be meaningful to us as we consider our own lives that are sometimes like a roller coaster. 

Reawakening by Pastor Welty

Prayer - What a great way to start a new year!  It's a good way to start every day, so it makes sense to start the year with prayer.  Last year we followed The Christian and Missionary Alliance's emphasis on prayer, and we'll be doing that again this year.

 The theme this year is 'Reawakening to Christ'.  "The aim of this 40-day focus is to fix our gaze on Jesus, remember who He is, what He has done, what He has given us to do, and what He will do in the future."

But what do we mean by reawakening?  Here are some definitions for the word awakening:

·         the act of awaking from sleep.

·         a revival of interest or attention.

·         a recognition, realization, or coming into awareness of something.

·         a renewal of interest in religion, especially in a community; a revival.

It seems to me that all of those definitions are pertinent to this theme.

There have been times in history when the Church  experienced “awakenings”, the First and Second Great Awakenings come to mind. These times were characterized by a deep hunger for Jesus, His presence, His Word, His Spirit, and His gospel.

 I am excited and hopeful of what God will do in us individually and corporately as we pursue this theme, and as we trust Him to reawaken our hearts and minds to follow Him more purposefully. 

 The 40 Days of Prayer will run from January 2 - February 6, 2022. The weekly themes will be:

Week 1: Reawakening to the Glory of Christ
Week 2: Reawakening to the Life, Death and Resurrection of Christ
Week 3: Reawakening to the Spirit of Christ
Week 4: Reawakening to the Church of Christ
Week 5: Reawakening to the Mission of Christ
Week 6: Reawakening to the Return of Christ

There are resources available to you including daily devotionals that go along with the weekly theme.  These are available by using the following link:   https://cmalliance.org/40days/

Let's trust God to reawaken all of us to who He is, to what He is doing in the world, and to what He wants to do through us.

"Don't Make Me Come Down There!" Advent 2021 by Pastor Welty

"Don't make me come up there!"  These words might be heard in homes around the country after parents have supposedly, successfully tucked their children in bed.  But after they go back downstairs and get comfortable, they hear sounds from upstairs that would indicate that they were not that successful in their bed time task.  The shrieks and screams of children are heard down stairs as well as the unmistakable rumbles and thuds of children jumping off of their beds onto the floor.  These activities may be more likely to occur as we get closer to Christmas with the excitement of Christmas eve bringing this energy to a head.  The exhausted parent stands at the bottom of the stairs and yells up,  "Don't make me come up there!"   Words that carry a threat of a non-positive outcome for the children  if they don't settle down.

 That's a rough description of what God did for us.  In the beginning God created us for fellowship with him, but we humans chose to do things our way and rebelled against God.  In my imagined scenario, God looked down from heaven and said "Don't make me come down there!"   But God did come down here.  He faithfully and tenaciously pursued us even to the point of sending His One and Only Son into the world to deliver us from our sin. 

 During this Advent Season we'll be exploring one of the great mysteries of the Christian faith, the incarnation of Christ.  The eternal Christ became a human, walked into our story to deliver us from our sins.  We'll be considering four aspects of incarnation:

 the Promise of incarnation: we made a mess of things, so God chose to intervene,

the Plan for incarnation: God became a human through His Son, Jesus Christ,

the Partnership of incarnation: God invites us to partner with Him in His desire to reach the world by helping us to be incarnate in our world,

and the Principles of incarnation: how we become incarnate in our world.

 Incarnation is going where people are and offering them the help they need. That's what Jesus did.  May He help us to do the same.

"Jesus is Better" by Pastor Welty

When I was a kid I remember seeing a commercial on television for dog food, “Ken L Ration”. A catchy little jingle was the message of the commercial: “My dog’s better than your dog. My dog’s better than yours. My dog’s better cause he eats Ken L Ration. My dog’s better than yours.” For some of you that reminded you of a little ditty from your past but others of you have no idea what I’m talking about. You can google it if you like, and then thank me for a new ear worm.

This commercial captures something about human nature. The desire to be better than others. Comparing ourselves to others is part of our American psyche or perhaps just part of our human condition. Thinking that our situation is better than others is important to us.

Having grown up in Ohio, I cheered for the Ohio State football team. I think they have other sports teams too, but I wasn’t that interested. I was interested, however, in their marching band which they call TBDBITL or “The Best D….. Band in the Land.” I have to agree with that, especially when they perform the “Script Ohio”. (Again you could google that, but it might make you jealous.)

We like to take pride in where we grew up, where we went to school, where we live and work. We like to think that we made good choices in our lives and that those choices put us in a better place. But that is hard to quantify because our value systems can be so varied.

The book of Hebrews has been called “the book of better things”. The words “better” or “superior” appear about 15 times in the book. The author was making the case that Jesus’ new way of having access to God is far superior to the old way. The new covenant is superior to the old covenant.

The people in the early church had a tendency to return to the old way of relating to God, the way that was established in the Old Testament. The Apostle Paul addressed that in his epistles. People wanted to hold onto the Old Testament rituals and legalism, perhaps because they found comfort in those familiar forms, or perhaps because it made them feel that they were in control. The audience of the book of Hebrews was susceptible to that same tendency, so the author built a case that Jesus is better.

This Fall, I’ll be leading us through a study of the book of Hebrews entitled, “A Better Way”. We’ll consider Jesus as a better messenger than the prophets or angels, Jesus as a better apostle than Moses, Jesus as a better priest than Aaron. We’ll look at the reality that Jesus introduced a better covenant, based on better promises, with a better sanctuary and a better sacrifice. Lastly we’ll consider that faith in Christ is the better way to relate to God.

I hope and pray that this series will be beneficial and encouraging to our faith and that we’ll realize how blessed we are to serve Jesus – our better way.

"Home for Easter" by Pastor Welty

When most people think of coming home for a holiday, they think of Christmas.  Families have special traditions that they have enjoyed for years and are much better when the family is together.

 In our family, coming home for Easter is equally  important.  Perhaps that's because of my first wife Stephanie's Armenian heritage.  We would have many Armenian foods including leg of lamb, which became shish kabob.  The process has theological significance.  We  cut up the lamb on Good Friday; then let it marinate until Sunday when we skewer it up and grill it.   (The marinate is a carefully guarded secret.)    My daughter observed that this process reflects what happened to Jesus.  He was crucified and laid in the tomb for three days; then he rose from the dead.

 Shish kabob and the other Armenian treats are delicious as Douglas Kalajian says: Spring lamb is an ancient rite that cuts across cultural and religious lines. To the Jews at Passover, the Paschal lamb is a sacrifice to God. To Christians, lamb at the Easter table symbolizes The Lamb of God and His sacrifice for mankind.  As a kid, I didn’t get it. To me, eating lamb was no sacrifice. It was just…dinner.  

 Easter is one of the most important days in the church calendar.  Celebrating the resurrection of Christ from the dead, and the hope that that brings, is of vital importance to us as followers of Jesus Christ. It is our faith.

 It was disappointing to not be able to gather as a family for Easter last year, but  this year looks a little more hopeful especially with Governor Lamont's order allowing for more opening of the various activities in the state including houses of worship as of March 19. 

 So I want to encourage us to come home for Easter.  To come back to church and worship our risen Lord together.  We will of course continue to wear face masks and strive to maintain the six feet of distance that is required.   Also if it is a nice day, the patio doors  will be open or at least the patio will be available for fellowship time following the worship time.

 And speaking of the patio, we'll have an outdoor Sunrise Service on the patio at 7:00 Easter morning, so if you are concerned about gathering inside, you can join us and worship outside.

 Resurrection means a new start, so perhaps this Easter Sunday, April 4, we can have a re-gathering of our church family.  I hope that you will prayerfully consider this. 

 Let's come home for Easter.!