Morning Worship, 5/20/12

Does your behavior change when no one is watching?  In today’s passage from John, the resurrected Jesus appears to his disciples.  They tell Jesus, face to face, that they love him.  He says, “If you really love me, you’ll feed my sheep when I’m gone.”  Soon enough, Jesus will leave this world and his ministry to the disciples, and he wants to know if they’re committed to doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.  





Enjoy! 

Morning Worship, 5/13/12

What makes a family?  We hear lots of people, especially those pesky politicians, talk about “the family” these days.  But what is the family, anyway, and why is it so important?  There are all kinds of families, aren’t there?  What makes them a family?  I think the answer is as simple as it is complex, “love.”  

Enjoy! 

Morning Worship, 5/6/12

If a vine is cut off from the root, what happens to it?  It dies.  If a branch is cut off from the vine, what happens to it?  It dies.  If a piece of fruit sits on a branch without being picked, what happens to it?  It dies.  John 15 is a parable about stewardship.  If the garden isn’t tended, then it dies.  Let us begin to talk and think about stewardship.



Enjoy!

Morning Worship, 4/29/12

When a shepherd leads the sheep from the front, that allows the sheep a certain amount of freedom.  They could go in any direction they please.  But if the sheep want to live, they follow the shepherd.  Not the sheep in front of them.  Not the sheep to their left or to their right.  If they want to live, they follow the shepherd.  



Enjoy!

Call for prayer: West Gereif Bible School and Sudanese Presbyterian church destroyed in attack

General Assembly Mission Council

JUDSON TAYLOR

Communications Associate, Presbyterian World Mission

LOUISVILLE

In addition to the continuation of serious inter-ethnic conflict in the newly formed Republic of South Sudan, increased tensions between the Republic of Sudan and South Sudan have led to fighting along the border, and now a global partner of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has seen its Bible school and church attacked and destroyed. According to the Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church (SPEC), a group of individuals has demolished the West Gereif Bible School, a Presbyterian church, and two independent churches.

Presbyterian World Mission has been in communication with the leadership of SPEC regarding this incident, and a statement from the Moderator follows below. Presbyterian World Mission does not have any mission co-workers serving in the Republic of Sudan.

Presbyterian World Mission and the Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church ask all Presbyterians in the United States and Christians everywhere to continue to keep the PC(USA)'s global partners and all the people of Sudan and South Sudan in your prayers.

Statement from the Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church

22 April 2012

Dear members and leaders of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.),

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I am here to inform you briefly about the news from Sudan concerning the burning and destruction of one of the most important places of the Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church (SPEC). This occurred yesterday when more than 500 people from Ansaar Alsoona, which is a fundamentalist Islamic group, announced a jihad against Christianity and immediately attacked the Gereif Bible School and the West Gereif SPEC church on that same compound, as well as two independent churches in West Gereif. The group burned, destroyed, and looted everything in the churches and the Bible school including books, air conditioners, computers, photocopy machines, refrigerators and many other things. They even took the students’ things like books, bags, and clothes, and they burned them, as the students were not there.

SPEC Christians are assembling this afternoon (Sunday, 22 April 2012) at the West Gereif compound, which includes the Gereif Bible School and the church. So please, we need your prayers and the prayers of all churches in the United States, and even all the world.  

Rev. James Par Tap
Moderator 
Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church

Morning Worship, 4/22/12

Today, we celebrate the ancient rite of "Bright Sunday," or "Holy Humor Sunday" as it's now called, joyfully expressing our thanks for the good news of the resurrection! Come...and share a laugh, share a joy, share a smile with us and our risen savior. 

Enjoy! 

Morning Worship, 4/15/12

In a single week, the disciples had…entered Jerusalem as kings and queens, been adored by the masses, betrayed by their own, arrested, executed by the state, and scared into hiding.  It was the worst week.  Everything they thought they knew had been yanked out from under them.  And now, as if that wasn’t enough, it was happening again.  Just when they were beginning to make peace with the death of their teacher, rumors started to fly.  People said he was alive.  The women said the tomb was empty.  A boy said he had been raised from the dead.  Would you have believed the rumors?



Enjoy!