OUR WEEK — JUNE 27TH - JULY 3RD

REMINDERS —
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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23RD —
PASTOR LYNN IS TAKING A VACATION DAY
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THURSDAY, JUNE 24TH —
CASEY BIBLE STUDY - 9:30 TO 10:30 A.M.
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FRIDAY, JUNE 25TH —
PASTOR LYNN IS TAKING A VACATION DAY
NAOMI IS TAKING A WORKING VACATION DAY.
OFFICE WILL BE CLOSED.≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
SATURDAY, JUNE 26TH —
CASEY U.M.W. GET-TOGETHER - 9 A.M. TO 11 A.M.
POTLUCK BRUNCH • BEVERAGE PROVIDED
Updike-Spoleder Wedding
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SUNDAY, JUNE 27th —
BENEFIT for Max Mackrill —
• AT COMMUNITY CENTRE
• SERVING BEEF AND PORK BURGERS
• SALAD AND DESSERT from 11 A.M. to 1 P.M.
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FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
COLOR: GREEN
Except for
• Trinity Sunday
• All Saints Sunday
• Christ the King Sunday,
the three major Scripture Readings will not
relate to each other.
The Psalm will respond to the
Old Testament reading, however.
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SCRIPTURE READINGS:
2 KINGS 2:1-2, 6-14
(THE MESSAGE)
Eugene Peterson - C. 2002
TRANSITIONS -
There is the transition of Elijah
from life here to life eternal in a chariot of fire.
There is the transition in leadership from Elijah to
Elisha, his student. There is also a transition
through him in the focus of the prophetic work - -
less talk, more miracles. In the broader story,
there is the ongoing transition of leadership in
Israel as Ahaziah, successor to Ahab, leaving the
throne in Samaria to his brother Jehoram. All of
these transitions happen suddenly, with little or
no preparation.
1 Just before God took Elijah to heaven in a whirlwind,
Elijah and Elisha were on a walk out of Gilgal.
2 Elijah said to Elisha, "Stay here. God has sent me
on an errand to Bethel." Elisha said, "Not on your life!
I'm not letting you out of my sight!" So they both went
to Bethel.
6 Then Elijah said to Elisha, "Stay here. God has sent
me on an errand to the Jordan." Elisha said, "Not on
your life! I'm not letting you out of my sight!" And so
the two of them went their way together.
7 Meanwhile, fifty men from the guild of prophets
gathered some distance away while the two of them
stood at the Jordan.
8 Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up, and hit the water
with it. The river divided and the two men walked
through on dry land.
9 When they reached the other side, Elijah said to
Elisha, "What can I do for you before I'm taken from
you? Ask anything." Elisha said, "Your life repeated
in my life. I want to be a holy man just like you."
10 "That's a hard one!" said Elijah. "But if you're
watching when I'm taken from you, you'll get what
you've asked for. But only if you're watching."
11 And so it happened. They were walking along and
talking. Suddenly a chariot and horses of fire came
between them and Elijah went up in a whirlwind to
heaven. 12 Elisha saw it all and shouted, "My father, my father!
You - the chariot and cavalry of Israel!" When he could
no longer see anything, he grabbed his robe and ripped
it to pieces.
13 Then he picked up Elijah's cloak that had fallen
from him, returned to the shore of the Jordan, and stood
there.
14 He took Elijah's cloak - all that was left of Elijah! -
and hit the river with it, saying, "Now where is the God
of Elijah? Where is he?" When he struck the water, the
river divided and Elisha walked through.
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PSALM 77:1-20 (UMH 798)
(THE MESSAGE)
Eugene Peterson - C. 2002
1 I yell out to my God, I yell with all my might, I yell at
the top of my lungs. He listens.
2 I found myself in trouble and went looking for my
Lord; my life was an open wound that wouldn't heal.
When friends said, "Everything will turn out all right,"
I didn't believe a word they said.
3 I remember God - and shake my head. I bow my
head - then wring my hands.
4 I'm awake all night - not a wink of sleep; I can't even
say what's bothering me.
5 I go over the days one by one, I ponder the years
gone by.
6 I strum my lute all through the night, wondering how
to get my life together.7 Will the Lord walk off and leave us for good? Will he
ever smile again?
8 Is his love worn threadbare? Has his salvation
promise burned out?
9 Has God forgotten his manners? Has he angrily
stalked off and left us?
10 "Just my luck," I said. "The High God goes out of
business just the moment I need him."
11 Once again I'll go over what God has done, lay out
on the table the ancient wonders;
12 I'll ponder all the things you've accomplished, and
give a long, loving look at your acts.
13 O God! Your way is holy! No god is great like God!
14 You're the God who makes things happen; you
showed everyone what you can do -
15 You pulled your people out of the worst kind of
trouble, rescued the children of Jacob and Joseph.
16 Ocean saw you in action, God, saw you and
trembled with fear; Deep Ocean was scared to death.
17 Clouds belched buckets of rain, Sky exploded with
thunder, your arrows flashing this way and that.18 From Whirlwind came your thundering voice,
Lightning exposed the world, Earth reeled and rocked.
19 You strode right through Ocean, walked straight
through roaring Ocean, but nobody saw you come or go.20 Hidden in the hands of Moses and Aaron, You led
your people like a flock of sheep.
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GALATIANS 5:1-10, 13-25
(THE MESSAGE)
Eugene Peterson - C. 2002
Two paths, and two results - - enslaved to the
works of the flesh, and freedom in the fruit of the
Spirit. Paul entreats us to be fully who we are in
the world and in our flesh here and now.
1 Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take
your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of
slavery on you.
2 I am emphatic about this. The moment any one of
you submits to circumcision or any other rule-keeping
system, at that same moment Christ's hard-won gift
of freedom is squandered.
3 I repeat my warning: The person who accepts the
ways of circumcision trades all the advantages of the
free life in Christ for the obligations of the slave life
of the law.
4 I suspect you would never intend this, but this is
what happens. When you attempt to live by your own
religious plans and projects, you are cut off from
Christ, you fall out of grace.
5 Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying
relationship with the Spirit.
6 For in Christ, neither our most conscientious
religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything.
What matters is something far more interior: faith
expressed in love.
7 You were running superbly! Who cut in on you, deflecting you from the true
course of obedience?
8 This detour doesn't come from the One who called
you into the race in the first place.
9 And please don't toss this off as insignificant.
It only takes a minute amount of yeast, you know, to
permeate an entire loaf of bread.
10 Deep down, the Master has given me confidence
that you will not defect. But the one who is upsetting
you, whoever he is, will bear the divine judgment.
13 It is absolutely clear that God has called you to
a free life. Just make sure that you don't use this
freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to
do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your
Freedom to serve one another in love; that's how
freedom grows.
14 For everything we know about God's Word is
summed up in a single sentence: Love others as
you love yourself. That's an act of true freedom.
15 If you bite and ravage each other, watch out -
in no time at all you will be annihilating each other,
and where will your precious freedom be then?
16 My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and
motivated by God's Spirit. Then you won't feed the
compulsions of selfishness.
17 For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us
that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit
is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of
life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times
one way and at times another way according to how
you feel on any given day.
18 Why don't you choose to be led by the Spirit and
so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated
existence?
19 It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying
to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless,
cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and
emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for
happiness;
20 trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid
loneliness; cutthroat competition;
all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal
temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided
homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided
pursuits;
21 the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into
a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions;
ugly parodies of community. I could go on. This isn't
the first time I have warned you, you know. If you
use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God's
kingdom.
22 But what happens when we live God's way?
He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way
that fruit appears in an orchard - things like affection
for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We
develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense
of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a
basic holiness permeates things and people. We
find ourselves involved in loyal commitments,
23 not needing to force our way in life, able to
marshal and direct our energies wisely. Legalism is
helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way.
24 Among those who belong to Christ, everything
connected with getting our own way and mindlessly
responding to what everyone else calls necessities
is killed off for good - crucified.
25 Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the
life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just
hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our
hearts, but work out its implications in every detail
of our lives.
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LUKE 9:51-62
(THE MESSAGE)
Eugene Peterson - C. 2002
The people of Samaria want little to do with Jesus
when they hear he's headed for Jerusalem.
Jesus seems too strange and foreign, and his
concerns don't match their own.
His own disciples seem to have ignored his
teaching about how to treat enemies
(with prayer, love and respect!) and ask about
calling down fire on them. One person seems
eager to follow Jesus, but apparently backs
away when Jesus indicates there's no place
one can call home in his ministry. Jesus says
sternly: "No one is fit for the kingdom who
puts hand to the plow and then turns back."
You're in, or you're not. There's no
"in between." Jesus "keeps plowing" and
keeps leading those who will follow him.
51 When it came close to the time for his Ascension,
he gathered up his courage and steeled himself for
the journey to Jerusalem.
52 He sent messengers on ahead. They came to a
Samaritan village to make arrangements for his
hospitality.
53 But when the Samaritans learned that his
destination was Jerusalem, they refused hospitality.
54 When the disciples James and John learned of it,
they said, "Master, do you want us to call a bolt of
lightning down out of the sky and incinerate them?"
55 Jesus turned on them: "Of course not!"
56 And they traveled on to another village. 57 On the road someone asked if he could go along.
"I'll go with you, wherever," he said.
58 Jesus was curt: "Are you ready to rough it? We're
not staying in the best inns, you know."
59 Jesus said to another, "Follow me." He said,
"Certainly, but first excuse me for a couple of days,
please. I have to make arrangements for my father's
funeral."
60 Jesus refused. "First things first. Your business is
life, not death. And life is urgent:
Announce God's kingdom!"
61 Then another said, "I'm ready to follow you,
Master, but first excuse me while I get things
straightened out at home."
62 Jesus said, "No procrastination. No backward looks.
You can't put God's kingdom off till tomorrow.
Seize the day."≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
MONDAY, JUNE 28TH —
This is Pastor Lynn and Naomi's day off.
The office is closed today.
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TUESDAY, JUNE 29TH —
Bible Study is canceled today.
Pastor Lynn is taking a vacation day today.
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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 30TH —
Pastor Lynn is taking a vacation day today.
(Do you suppose Pastor Lynn is a Grandmother?)
Exciting!
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> > > WE ARE INTO JULY NOW! < < <
VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL UPDATE —
ADAIR IN THE MORNINGS - JULY 12 - 16
CASEY IN THE EVENINGS - JULY 11 - 15THE TROOPS WILL BE IN CHARGE OF
HERO HEADQUARTERS FOR VERY IMPORTANT
EXERCISES THIS WEEK
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CASEY IS NEEDING A CRAFTS LEADER AND
A PRESCHOOL LEADER.
ADAIR WON'T HAVE A PRESCHOOL CLASS
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NEXT SUNDAY IS ––––––God Bless and Keep You,
Pastor Lynn