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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25TH —
GOD SQUAD MEETS AT CASEY U.M.C.
4 P.M. TO 5:30 P.M.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26TH —
HCI Pastor Meeting in Atlantic.
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SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28TH —
A-C FOOD PANTRY IN CASEY U.M.C.
is open from 9 A.M. to 11 A.M.
MARCH IS WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH
Women's history is the study of the role
that women have played in history and
the methods required to do so. It
includes the study of history of the
growth of women's rights throughout
recorded history, the examination of
individual and groups of women of
historical significance, and the effect
that historical events have had on
women. Inherent in the study of
women's history is the belief that more
traditional recordings of history have
minimized or ignored contributions
of women and the effect historical
events had on women as a whole.
SUNDAY, MARCH 1ST —
Happy Birthday Crystal Farnsworth!
Happy Birthday Kassie Nelson!
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT
COLOR: PURPLE
• WE HAVE HOLY COMMUNION TODAY
SCRIPTURE READINGS —
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GENESIS 17:1-7, 15-16
THE MESSAGE (MSG)
El Shaddai (God of the Mountains/God
of Compassion) calls Abram to be
exclusively loyal and offers to covenant
with him to make him (renamed
Abraham) the father and Sarai
(renamed Sarah) the mother of many
nations. 1-2 When Abram was ninety-nine years
old, God showed up and said to him, “I
am The Strong God, live entirely before
me, live to the hilt! I’ll make a covenant
between us and I’ll give you a huge
family.”
face.
Then God said to him, “This is my
covenant with you: You’ll be the father
of many nations. Your name will no
longer be Abram, but Abraham, meaning
that ‘I’m making you the father of many
nations.’ I’ll make you a father of fathers
—I’ll make nations from you, kings will
issue from you. I’m establishing my
covenant between me and you, a
covenant that includes your
descendants, a covenant that goes on
and on and on, a covenant that commits
me to be your God and the God of your
descendants. And I’m giving you and
your descendants this land where
you’re now just camping, this whole
country of Canaan, to own forever. And
I’ll be their God.”
GENESIS 17:15-16
15-16 God continued speaking to
Abraham, “And Sarai your wife: Don’t
call her Sarai any longer; call her Sarah.
I’ll bless her—yes! I’ll give you a son by
her! Oh, how I’ll bless her! Nations will
come from her; kings of nations will
come from her.”
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PSALM 22:23-31 (UMH 752-753)
THE MESSAGE (MSG)
The Lord's acts of deliverance for one
people in one age will lead to many
generations of praise to the Lord
worldwide. Verses 23-24 aren't included
in our hymnal version.
22-24 Here’s the story I’ll tell my friends
when they come to worship,
and punctuate it with Hallelujahs:
Shout Hallelujah, you God-worshipers;
give glory, you sons of Jacob;
adore him, you daughters of Israel.
He has never let you down,
never looked the other way
when you were being kicked around.
He has never wandered off to do his
own thing;
he has been right there, listening.
25-26 Here in this great gathering for
worship
I have discovered this praise-life.
And I’ll do what I promised right here
in front of the God-worshipers.
Down-and-outers sit at God’s table
and eat their fill.
Everyone on the hunt for God
is here, praising him.
“Live it up, from head to toe.
Don’t ever quit!”
27-28 From the four corners of the earth
people are coming to their senses,
are running back to God.
Long-lost families
are falling on their faces before him.
God has taken charge;
from now on he has the last word.
29 All the power-mongers are before
him — worshiping!
All the poor and powerless, too
— worshiping!
Along with those who never got it
together
— worshiping!
30-31 Our children and their children
will get in on this
As the word is passed along
from parent to child.
Babies not yet conceived
will hear the good news—
that God does what he says.
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ROMANS 4:13-25
THE MESSAGE (MSG)
Paul reminds Jewish-Christian congre-
gations in Rome that founding stories
of Judaism point to a God who
graciously offers to include people in
covenant on the basis of faith rather
than perfect obedience to the law.
13-15 That famous promise God gave
Abraham—that he and his children
would possess the earth—was not given
because of something Abraham did or
would do. It was based on God’s
decision to put everything together for
him, which Abraham then entered when
he believed. If those who get what God
gives them only get it by doing every-
thing they are told to do and filling out
all the right forms properly signed, that
eliminates personal trust completely
and turns the promise into an ironclad
contract! That’s not a holy promise;
that’s a business deal. A contract drawn
up by a hard-nosed lawyer and with
plenty of fine print only makes sure that
you will never be able to collect. But if
there is no contract in the first place,
simply a promise—and God’s promise
at that—you can’t break it.
16 This is why the fulfillment of God’s
promise depends entirely on trusting
God and his way, and then simply
embracing him and what he does. God’s
promise arrives as pure gift. That’s the
only way everyone can be sure to get in
on it, those who keep the religious
traditions and those who have never
heard of them. For Abraham is father of
us all. He is not our racial father—that’s
reading the story backward. He is our
faith father.
17-18 We call Abraham “father” not
because he got God’s attention by living
like a saint, but because God made
something out of Abraham when he was
a nobody. Isn’t that what we’ve always
read in Scripture, God saying to
Abraham,“I set you up as father of many
peoples”? Abraham was first named
“father” and then became a father
because he dared to trust God to do
what only God could do: raise the dead
to life, with a word make something out
of nothing. When everything was hope-
less, Abraham believed anyway,
deciding to live not on the basis of what
he saw he couldn’t do but on what God
said he would do. And so he was made
father of a multitude of peoples. God
himself said to him, “You’re going to
have a big family, Abraham!”
19-25 Abraham didn’t focus on his own
impotence and say, “It’s hopeless. This
hundred-year-old body could never
father a child.” He didn't survey Sarah’s
decades of infertility and give up. He
didn’t tiptoe around God’s promise
asking cautiously skeptical questions.
He plunged into the promise and came
up strong, ready for God, sure that God
would make good on what he had said.
That’s why it is said, “Abraham was
declared fit before God by trusting God
to set him right.” But it’s not just
Abraham; it’s also us! The same thing
gets said about us when we embrace
and believe the One who brought Jesus
to life when the conditions were equally
hopeless. The sacrificed Jesus made us
fit for God, set us right with God.
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MARK 8:31-38
THE MESSAGE (MSG)
Following Jesus means following him to
his death, and possibly our own. Jesus
tells the disciples he will suffer and die
at the hands of the religious authorities.
Peter rebukes him privately, but Jesus
rebukes Peter in front of all the other
disciples. Jesus then turns to crowds to
declare that all who want to be his
followers must take up their cross and
follow him. If you're in this for yourself,
you will lose everything. But if you're in
this to follow Jesus and see the gospel
lived, even if you die, you've gained all.
30-32 Jesus warned them to keep it
quiet, not to breathe a word of it to any-
one. He then began explaining things
to them: “It is necessary that the Son of
Man proceed to an ordeal of suffering,
be tried and found guilty by the elders,
high priests, and religion scholars, be
killed, and after three days rise up alive.”
He said this simply and clearly so they
couldn’t miss it.
Turning and seeing his disciples
wavering, wondering what to believe,
Jesus confronted Peter. “Peter, get out
of my way! Satan, get lost! You have no
idea how God works.”
34-37 Calling the crowd to join his
disciples, he said, “Anyone who intends
to come with me has to let me lead.
You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am.
Don’t run from suffering; embrace it.
Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-
help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the
way, my way, to saving yourself, your
true self. What good would it do to get
everything you want and lose you, the
real you? What could you ever trade
your soul for?
38 “If any of you are embarrassed over
me and the way I’m leading you when
you get around your fickle and
unfocused friends, know that you’ll be
an even greater embarrassment to the
Son of Man when he arrives in all the
splendor of God, his Father, with an
army of the holy angels.”
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• 1498 - Vasco de Gama landed at what
is now Mozambique on his way to India.
• 1692 - In Salem Village, in the
Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Salem
witch trials began. Four women were
the first to be charged.
• 1781 - In America, the Continental
Congress adopted the Articles of
Confederation.
• 1790 - The U.S. Congress authorized
the first U.S. census.
• 1803 - Ohio became the 17th U.S. state.
• 1815 - Napoleon returned to France
from the island of Elba. He had been
forced to abdicate in April of 1814.
• 1845 - U.S. President Tyler signed the
congressional resolution to annex the
Republic of Texas.
1867 - Nebraska became the 37th U.S.
state.
• 1872 - The U.S. Congress authorized
the creation of Yellowstone National
Park. It's the world's first national park.
• 1907 - In Odessa, Russia, there were
only about 15,000 Jews left due to
evacuations.
• 1937 - U.S. Steel raised workers’ wages
to $5 a day.
• 1954 - Five U.S. congressmen were
wounded when four Puerto Rican
nationalists opened fire from the gallery
of the U.S. House of Representatives.
• 1961 - The Peace Corps was
established by U.S. President Kennedy.
• 1971 - A bomb exploded in a restroom
in the Senate wing of the U.S. Capitol.
There were no injuries. A U.S. group
protesting the Vietnam War claimed
responsibility.
• 1993 - The U.S. government announced
that the number of food stamp recipients
had reached a record number of
26.6 million.
• 1995 - Yahoo! was incorporated.
• 2003 - In the U.S., about 180,000
personnel from 22 organizations around
the government became part of the
Department of Homeland Security. This
completed the largest government
reorganization since the beginning of
the Cold War.
• 2003 - Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was
captured by CIA and Pakistani agents
near Islamabad. He is the suspected
mastermind behind the terrorist attacks
on United States, September 11, 2001.
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MONDAY, MARCH 2ND —
THE OFFICE IS CLOSED TODAY.
• 1807 - The U.S. Congress passed an
act to "prohibiting importation of slaves
into any port or place within the
jurisdiction of the United States... from
any foreign kingdom, place, or country."
• 1836 - Texas declared independence
from Mexico and an ad interim
government was formed.
• 1861 - The U.S. Congress created the
Territory of Nevada.
• 1877 - In the U.S., Rutherford B. Hayes
was declared the winner of the 1876
presidential election by the U.S.
Congress. Samuel J. Tilden, however,
had won the popular vote on November
7, 1876.
• 1897 - U.S. President Cleveland vetoed
legislation that would have required a
literacy test for immigrants entering the
country.
• 1900 - The U.S. Congress voted to give
$2 million in aid to Puerto Rico.
• 1906 - A tornado in Mississippi killed 33
and did $5 million in damage.
• 1917 - The Russian Revolution began
with Czar Nicholas II abdicating.
• 1917 - Citizens of Puerto Rico were
granted U.S. citizenship with the
enactment of the Jones Act.
• 1939 - The Massachusetts legislature
voted to ratify the Bill of Rights to the
U.S. Constitution. These first ten
amendments had gone into effect 147
years before.
• 2011 - Steve Jobs unveiled Apple's
iPad 2.
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TUESDAY, MARCH 3RD —
Happy Birthday Matt Hall!
Happy Birthday Tate Richter!
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• 1791 - The U.S. Congress passed a
resolution that created the U.S. Mint.
• 1817 - The first commercial steamboat
route from Louisville to New Orleans
was opened.
• 1845 - Florida became the 27th U.S.
state.
• 1849 - The U.S. Congress created the
territory of Minnesota.
• 1851 - The U.S. Congress authorized
the 3-cent piece. It was the smallest U.S.
silver coin.
• 1875 - The U.S. Congress authorized
the 20-cent piece. It was only used for
3 years.
• 1885 - The U.S. Post Office began
offering special delivery for first-class
mail.
• 1903 - In St. Louis, MO, Barney Gilmore
was arrested for spitting.
• 1931 - The "Star Spangled Banner,"
written by Francis Scott Key, was
adopted as the American national
anthem. The song was originally a poem
known as "Defense of Fort McHenry."
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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4TH —
Happy Birthday Joy Downing!
• ADAIR U.M.W. MEETS AT 1:30 P.M.
• LENTEN SERVICES AT ADAIR
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH AT 7 P.M.
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• 1681 - England's King Charles II
granted a charter to William Penn for an
area that later became the state of
Pennsylvania.
• 1789 - The first Congress of the United
States met in New York and declared the
U.S. Constitution was now in effect.
• 1791 - Vermont was admitted as the
14th state in the union. It was the first
addition to the original 13 American
colonies.
• 1837 - The state of Illinois granted a
city charter to Chicago.
• 1908 - New York board of education
banned the act of whipping students in
school.
• 1917 - Jeanette Rankin of Montana
took her seat as the first woman elected
to the House of Representatives.
• 1933 - President Franklin Roosevelt
gave his inauguration speech in which
he said "We have nothing to fear, but
fear itself."
• 1954 - In Boston, Peter Bent Brigham
Hospital reported the first successful
kidney transplant.
• 2012 - Vladimir Putin won re-election
in Russia's presidential election.
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THURSDAY, MARCH 5TH —
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• 1766 - The first Spanish governor of
Louisiana, Antonio de Ulloa, arrived in
New Orleans.
• 1770 - "The Boston Massacre" took
place when British troops fired into a
crowd in Boston killing five people. Two
British troops were later convicted of
manslaughter.
• 1845 - The U.S. Congress appropriated
$30,000 to ship camels to western U.S.
• 1902 - In France, a National Congress
of Miners decided to call for a general
strike for an 8-hour day.
• 1912 - The Italians became the first to
use dirigibles for military purposes.
They used them for reconnaissance
flights behind Turkish lines.
• 1918 - The Soviets moved the capital
of Russia from Petrograd to Moscow.
• 1922 - "Annie Oakley", who was
Phoebe Ann Moses, broke all existing
records for women's trap shooting. She
hit 98 out of 100 targets.
• 1923 - Old-age pension laws were
enacted in Montana and Nevada.
• 1933 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt
ordered a four-day bank holiday in order
to stop large amounts of money from
being withdrawn from banks.
• 1943 - Germany called fifteen and
sixteen-year-olds up for military service
due to very heavy war losses.
• 1956 - U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the
ban on segregation in public schools.
• 1984 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled
that cities had the right to display the
Nativity scene as part of their Christmas
display.
• 1998 - It was announced that Air Force
Lt. Col. Eileen Collins would lead crew
of Columbia on a mission to launch a
large X-ray telescope. She was the first
woman to command a space shuttle
mission.
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FRIDAY, MARCH 6TH —
Pastor Melodee at Course of Study in
Sioux City
THIS IS WORLD DAY OF PRAYER
• 1521 - Ferdinand Magellan discovered
Guam.
• 1808 - At Harvard University, the first
college orchestra was founded.
• 1820 - The Missouri Compromise was
enacted by the U.S. Congress - signed
by U.S. President James Monroe. The act
admitted Missouri into the Union as a
slave state, but prohibited slavery in the
rest of the northern Louisiana Purchase
territory.
• 1834 - The city of York in Upper Canada
was incorporated as Toronto.
• 1836 - The thirteen-day siege of the
Alamo by Santa Anna and his army
ended. The Mexican army of three
thousand men defeated the 189 Texas
volunteers.
• 1899 - Aspirin was patented by German
researchers Felix Hoffman and Hermann
Dreser.
• 1973 - U.S. President Richard Nixon
imposed price controls on oil and gas.
• 1981 - President Reagan announced a
plan to cut 37,000 federal jobs.
• 1997 - A gunman stole
"Tete de Femme," a million-dollar
Picasso portrait, from a London gallery.
The painting was recovered a week later.
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SATURDAY, MARCH 7TH —
Pastor Melodee at Course of Study in
Sioux City.
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• 0322 BC - Greek philosopher,Aristotle,
died.
• 1774 - The British closed the port of
Boston to all commerce.
• 1850 - U.S. Senator Daniel Webster
endorsed the Compromise of 1850 as a
method of preserving the Union.
• 1876 - Alexander Graham Bell received
a patent (U.S. Patent No. 174,465) for his
telephone.
• 1901 - It was announced that blacks
were still found enslaved in parts of
South Carolina.
• 1906 - Finland granted women the
right to vote.
• 1908 - Cincinnati's Mayor Leopold
Markbreit announced before the city
council that, "Women are not physically
fit to operate automobiles."
• 1911 - In the wake of the Mexican
Revolution, the U.S. sent 20,000 troops
to the border of Mexico.
• 1927 - Texas law that banned Negroes
from voting was ruled unconstitutional
by the U.S. Supreme Court.
• 1965 - State troopers and a sheriff's
posse broke up a march by civil rights
demonstrators in Selma, Alabama.
• 1971 - A thousand U.S. planes bombed
Cambodia and Laos.
• 1994 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled
that parodies poking fun at an original
work can be considered "fair use" that
does not require permission from the
copyright holder.
• 2012 - The successor to Apple's iPad2
was unveiled.
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MARCH 8TH — DAYLIGHT SAVINGS
TIME WILL BEGIN —
MARCH 11TH —
GOD SQUAD MEETS - 4 TO 5:30 P.M.
A-C FOOD PANTRY FROM 6 TO 8 P.M.
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Thank you for your kind cooperation in
our church life this week. I know, it has
been incredibly cold most of the time,
so take all necessary precautions to
preserve life for awhile longer. The first
day of Spring is March 20th. It will
certainly be welcome this year.
God Bless and Keep You,
Donna
