URC Weekly 8/14/2011: Lessons from Camping
Hi Everyone!
All of our campers returned home safely yesterday! Thank you for your prayers. We prayed together during worship and right before we left, and God really answered us by keeping us safe. Praise God!
Our safe return could be looked at as an ordinary event, something that happened as a routine. Millions of people travel on any given day and do come home unharmed. However, when this is looked at as God answering our prayers, but when you look at every small thing as a creation of God, life will become just oh-so-wondrous (you may then feel that this is just a psychological gimmick, but this is where faith comes in). We talked about this point during the first morning at camping using Romans 1:19-20.
Since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – has been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
Paul says that God’s invisible qualities are clearly seen. How can something invisible be clearly seen, let alone simply be seen in the first place? Doesn’t this defeat the whole definition of being invisible?
Well, we may not see God but we see God through His creations. God has made Himself known to us through his creations in nature. This is because God loves what He creates. We know this because of the creation accounts in the book of Genesis. Yet the most prized creation of them all is man (woman). This is why God wants us to love each other, for we are the most deeply beloved of everything that God loves. We talked about this on the second morning using John 13:34-35.
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
This passage happens to be our theme verse this year. What is ironic is that whenever we set out to do something that God has commanded, the devil does things to ensure that we do not end up doing it. Many of us have been dealing with struggles, problems, headaches, heartaches, anger, loneliness, etc. in both our personal and church lives.
So I want to take this time to encourage you to keep being committed to God and our church. The word love is easily mistaken for emotion, but we must stay committed through the ups and downs in order to truly love someone. This is what a relationship is all about, isn’t it?
I also want to thank you for being a part of my life and letting me be a part in yours. The level of joy I have for belonging in the same community with you has become a better reality to me during the camping trip. Thank you for being a friend. Thank you for being a brother. Thank you for being a sister. Thank you for being you.
• COMMUNITY GROUP: 8/26 (Fri) @ Hyonroh’s, Food is on Church
• BACKPACKS FOR KIDS: Please bring your backpacks and letters by 8/21 (Sun)
• EXODUS: R2B’s new album will be released on 8/21 (Sun)
• CAFÉ NIGHT: Multi-ethnic and multi-cultural event on 9/11 (Sun)
• MEN’S SMALL GROUP LEADER DRAFT: 8/28 (Sun), details coming soon
• URC DIRECTORY: Updated information needed in September
• BABYSITTER WANTED: One paid position, Sun 7am-3pm
• SNACKS: James Kim
• SCRIPTURE READING/OFFERING: David Kwon
• DEVOTIONS: Ephesians 4 – Philippians 3
someone needs to upload some pictures
! if im in the latest photos, must be outdated lol
for reals. i need to do that stat. hahaha