Bulletin 08.20.23

Me and all my friends ; We're all misunderstood
They say we stand for nothing, and; There's no way we ever could

Now we see everything that's going wrong; With the world and those who lead it
We just feel like we don't have the means; To rise above and beat it

So we keep on waiting (waiting) ; Waiting on the world to change

• John Mayer “Waiting On the World to Change” (from the 2006 album, Continuum)

(The Letter to Philemon) shows a lovely example of Christian love. Paul lays himself out for poor Onesimus, and with all his means pleads his cause with his master, and so sets himself as if he were Onesimus and had himself done wrong to Philemon. Yet he does all this, not with force as if he had a right thereto, but strips himself of his right and thus moves Philemon to forego his right also: even as Christ did for us with God the Father; for Christ also stripped Himself of His right and by love and humility moved the Father to lay aside His wrath and power and to take us to His grace for the sake of Christ, who lovingly pleads our cause and with all His heart lays Himself out for us; for we are all His Onesimi.

• Martin Luther, “Preface to the Epistle of St. Paul to Philemon” (1546) in Luther’s Works, Vol. 35, (ed. Jaroslav Pelikan)

If there is no demonstration in our attitude toward other men that we really take seriously the person-to-person relationship, we might as well keep quiet. There must be a demonstration; that is our calling: to show that there is a reality in personal relationship, and not just words about it… If the individual Christian, and if the Church of Christ, is not allowing the Lord Jesus Christ to bring forth His fruit into the world, as a demonstration in the area of personal relationships, we cannot expect the world to believe.

• Francis A. Schaeffer, True Spirituality (CH 12 – “Substantial Healing in Personal Relationships”; 1971)

Reader: Save us, O LORD our God, and gather us from among the nations,

People: To give thanks to Your holy name and glory in Your praise.

Reader: Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, From everlasting even to everlasting. And let all the people say,

People: Amen!

Reader: Praise the LORD!