“I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray with the mind also; 

I will sing praise with the spirit, but I will sing praise with the mind also.”

 ~1 Corinthians 14:15

 

With social distancing, masks, contact tracing, and very low COVID numbers in our county; PPC recently added the option of in-person worship. This is in addition to our other platforms of YouTube live-stream, recorded live-stream, and FM parking lot broadcast.

As we did, we also took that moment to “praise” as this ‘next normal’ brought us closer to what we used to know as normal in this COVID 19 season and the comforting hope that comes with that.

We also gave praise that over this past five months of virtual worship only we have continued the actual ministry of Jesus Christ by extending hope however we can make it real; the use of our shower, assisting with simple shelter (another amazing God-timing story), investing in a gentleman so he could take and pass a drug test in order to return to work…

We gave praise for our role in echoing themes throughout the Bible where we continually find God’s assurances of better days ahead.  

Reflecting upon the above Corinthians passage, the late Bible scholar William Barclay took a longer look at this connection between hope and praise:

“The great things are essentially the simple things; the noblest language is essentially the simplest language.

In the end only what which satisfies our minds can comfort our hearts…

…and only what our minds can grasp can bring strength to our lives.”

We gather at 10AM for comfort and strength - for us and for all.

Together We Serve,                                                                                                         

Pastor Mike

 

“Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger” ~Ephesians 4:26

 As a pastor I often preach to myself as much as I preach to others. So a very recent sermon about how we handle frustration was put to the test upon returning home after emailing our virtual worship -- and learning the video froze part way in. 

Just when I thought our return to a recorded YouTube worship answered our problems of dropped live-stream worship, now there was yet another technical frustration.

Frustration is running wild because of the many questions surrounding us today. Life is unsettled. The problem is this frustration is spilling over into people who now think its okay to be mean.

Its from verbal attacks at our nation’s capital to horrible outbursts at local stores over masks. A clerk summed it up: “it’s not that big of a deal to make that big of a deal out of it.”

Psychologist Dr Thomas G Plante writes about this spread: “…there is social contagion with incivility in that if uncivil behavior occurs and is not confronted by corrective feedback or consequences, it tends to be more readily repeated and spreads to others.”

Apparently more than just COVID 19 is contagious.

The above Bible phrase speaks to the reality of anger and what to do about it. When we speak truthfully we put away falsehoods. When we put away falsehoods we no longer feel we must protect our own egos…

…making it easier to say only those things that extend grace to whoever our audience might be.

And while it’s easy to pass this off as some idealistic pie in the sky dream, the concern for evil speech runs throughout the Bible. Like many other behaviors, what we say matters because it can build up or tear down.

Imagine the possibilities if we all took up the challenge to make grace-filled speech contagious.

Together We Serve,

Pastor Mike