Southwood Lutheran Church

USE it on Wednesday.

This week Pastor Greg preached about our jobs. If you didn't get a chance to hear the sermon, click here to listen. What is it like to really have a sense of purpose in vision in your work? Maybe this is a concept you haven't spent much time thinking about. What is your purpose in work and in life? Are you living out that purpose? Is that purpose honoring God? Is it led by God?

If you'd like to think more about this here are a couple of books that my be helpful to you. They are both in Southwood's Library, stop by and check them out.

Chazown, A Different Way to See Your Life, by Craig Groeschel. Do you wake up each day motivated by knowing exactly why you were created? Guided by intention in every step? Enter: Chazown. Hebrew for “vision,” God wants to give His for you, and this book will reveal it! Living God’s dream will rock your world and align every area of your life, from your relationships to your finances and health. Chazown is packed with storytelling graphics, in-your-face honesty, bite-sized chapterettes, step-by-step guidance, surprising self-assessments, and scarcely containable energy in a fast-paced style that will drive you forward with purpose!

What Now, Making Sense of Who You Are and Where You're Going, by Marc Estes. There are times in life when the road is unclear, advice is scarce, and the question on your lips is "What now?" Author and pastor Marc Estes addresses this question in What Now as he takes the reader from inspiration to action on a journey of self-discovery. Along the way, he provides the tools necessary for a safe arrival.

Let me know if you find these books helpful!

Pastor Sara

Act 18 - A Blog in 28 Acts

Keep it Up. Read all of Acts 18 here.

 One night the Master spoke to Paul in a dream: "Keep it up, and don't let anyone intimidate or silence you. [10] No matter what happens, I'm with you and no one is going to be able to hurt you. You have no idea how many people I have on my side in this city." Acts 18:109- (Msg) 

Paul was preaching in Corinth.  There was great resistance and push-back to his Gospel message.  It had to be discouraging.  Then God speaks to him with these words. 

"Keep it up, and don't let anyone intimidate or silence you."  It can be discouraging to be sharing the Good News and nobody listens.  It can get discouraging to desire someone to know Christ and yet they demonstrate through their lives that they don't know him.  God says to St. Paul as well as to you and me, don't give up.  Hang in there.  Keep being the light of Christ in the world. Keep sharing the Gospel.  Sometimes it takes a long time before people get.  But they will never get it if you stop sharing it.  Be strong and courageous!

"No matter what happens, I'm with you and no one is going to be able to hurt you." Remember this promise.  Always remember this promise.  God is with us!  Always!  You are never alone!  Nothing can separate you from the love of God! So, share the gospel!

"You have no idea how many people I have on my side in this city."  There is spiritual strength in the Body of Christ.  We need to stay connected with the Church to sense that strength for we can carry each other's burdens and encourage one another along the way. 

So how are you doing in sharing the gospel?  Are you afraid of sharing your faith?  Do you get push-back when you share your faith?  Are you ignored or ridiculed because of your faith? Take a lesson from Acts...

• Keep sharing your faith and never give up.  There is someone's eternity at stake.
• Remember that God will be with you.  You are never alone.
• Keep connected into the church.  Worship regularly.  Get into a small group that prays and studies scripture. 

Keep on sharing the Gospel.  WE are Christ's voice in the world.  If we don't do it, it will not be heard.

Pastor Greg

This 28 part blog will post each Tuesday through Friday from April 1 through May 16. We'll post on one chapter of Acts each day. Be sure to join us in reading this entire book. We'll learn about Jesus, about his disciples, and about how we can become more fully devoted followers of Christ.

Lord I Lift Your Name On High

“Let them praise the name of the LORD, for his name alone is exalted; his glory is above earth and heaven.” (Psalm 148:13 NRSV)

The song, “Lord, I Lift Your name on High” was written by Rick Founds. The song was written when he was serving as the music director at a church in California. It was born out of Rick’s typical morning devotions. He had a small Macintosh computer and an electronic Bible, which he would bring up on his monitor and begin reading where he had left off the precious day. Rick had developed a habit of playing his guitar while reading the Bible on his computer screen.

One day, As Rick was having his daily devotional, the Lord impressed on his heart that His work on our behalf was a cycle of events—Christ came from heaven to earth, gave His life on the cross for us, was buried and three days later rose from the dead, and went back to His heavenly Father, making the cycle and our salvation complete. That, essentially, is the lyrics of the song. Rick picked up his guitar and began to sing “Lord, I Lift Your Name on High.” Rick explained, “It is just a simple song, but it is what the Lord dropped into my heart. The whole song came quickly; I didn’t struggle with it at all. . . I sang it for an evening Bible study. They seemed to love the song. At the time I had no idea that it would be so popular—I had simply written another song, much as I had done so many times before.” The song has become widely popular and now can be heard in other countries of the world, in many languages.

From The Sacrifice of Praise; by Lindsay Terry.

Lord I Lift Your Name On High
Words & Music by Rick Founds

Lord, I lift Your name on high
Lord, I love to sing Your praises
I'm so glad You're in my life
I'm so glad You came to save us
You came from heaven to earth
To show the way
From the earth to the cross
My debt to pay
From the cross to the grave
From the grave to the sky
Lord, I lift Your name on high

Confirmation: A Rite of Passage But Not a Graduation

For me, Confirmation Sunday is a mix of great joy and sadness. I celebrate our work as a church to connect students to Christ and to model life as a follower of Christ. And I mourn because I will never see more than half of the students again. They’ll think they’ve “graduated” from church and will disappear from Southwood altogether.

Studies show that 88% of students will leave the church by the age of 18. If that holds true, 42 of our 48 confirmands this year will leave the church by age 18. But there’s hope! The same studies show that if all of our 48 confirmands have parents who model their faith and share their faith with others, only 2 of them (5%) will leave the church. The difference is staggering and highlights the importance of parental involvement in the discipleship process of their children.

I frequently tell parents that what happens at home will have a far greater impact on the hearts, minds, and choices of their children than what happens at church will. An average middle or high school student probably spends 3-4 hours at church per month. They spend 200+ hours at home with their parents. If parents aren’t teaching their children how to become followers of Christ, then sending them to church and expecting the church to “educate” them won’t have the impact that they desire, and it won’t fulfill the vision of Southwood for our youth.

My prayer is that parents will actively model the life of faith for their students and encourage them to stay involved with Southwood throughout their lives. I hope that every year fewer and fewer students will leave the church after they are confirmed.

Make no mistake, growing Christ followers is a difficult task. But it is the most important gift we can give our children. What are you doing at home to actively disciple your children? How do you model your faith at home? Do your children see Jesus living through you? These are difficult questions, but they have eternal significance.

Chip

Tonight!

Tonight at Southwood - Bishop deFreese of the Nebraska Synod will be helping us to think about the question: What does Lutheran Theology have to do with Life Today?

Join us for this teaching time and discussion at 7:00 p.m. Light refreshments will be served.

Any questions - contact Pastor Sara.

Act 17 - A Blog in 28 Acts

Presenting a Truth People Can Understand Read all of Acts 17 Here.

The second half of Acts 17 tells the story of how Paul preached to a very educated and pagan (non-Jewish) group of people called the Aeropagus in Athens. This crowd was very different from the Jewish and God Fearing audience he usually taught in the local synagogues. They were very secularized and worshiped any god they chose. You could say that theologically, they were very far from God. Yet Paul didn’t shy away from presenting the Gospel story to them because he realized that they had equal value in God’s eyes as everyone else and were worthy of being saved.

So Paul stood in front of this council called Aeropagus (literally means hill or place of the God Ares) where the philosophers typically stood to teach, and he began to share the Gospel. He did so by using one of their own statues in Athens that they had dedicated to “an unknown god”. Paul used this statue and inscription as a starting point to describe how the God that was unknown to them was Jesus and then progressed through the basics of the Gospel. Acts 17:34 tells us that “a few men became followers of Paul and believed”. There was no great group of people coming to Christ, but the mere fact that some believed the message and came to Christ is a miracle.

This story from Acts 17 reveals three main truths about sharing the Gospel with people in our culture today, who are often “far from God”. First, we must be bold and courageous when sharing our faith. It had to take a lot of courage for Paul to preach a new message to very educated and high society people. But Paul didn’t shy away from the challenge. He properly understood the value of the Athenians and their need to hear the Gospel.

Second, when we share Christ we need to use language and images that people understand. Paul radically altered his message when he preached in Athens compared to when he spoke to a Jewish audience. Did the Gospel change? Of course not, but the way Paul presented it certainly did. Paul used words the people of Athens would understand and he began his message with a cultural reference point that everyone could understand. We need to follow his example and share Christ with words that make sense. We shouldn’t use church words like regeneration, sanctification, salvation etc. We need to use terms like love, forgiveness, breaking God’s commands and belief. We need to use our personal testimony and share what God has done in our lives.

Thirdly, we learn from Paul that even if only a few people believe when we share Christ, our efforts are worth it. Sometimes we expect everyone to respond to Christ’s love the first time they hear it and fell like we are failures if someone rejects us. In reality they aren’t rejecting us, but God Himself. Our job is to share the Gospel and leave the results up to God. The bible tells us that the Holy Spirit draws people to himself. We are only the messengers.

Who are the Aeropagus people in your life? Who are the people who seem to know everything, but are far from God? How can you present the Gospel to them in a way that will make sense to them? What cultural reference points can we use to reach people today? Preaching Christ today is as important as it’s ever been. We need to find relevant and contemporary ways to share the timeless message of the Gospel. We need to make it a Truth that people can understand.

Chip

This 28 part blog will post each Tuesday through Friday from April 1 through May 16. We'll post on one chapter of Acts each day. Be sure to join us in reading this entire book. We'll learn about Jesus, about his disciples, and about how we can become more fully devoted followers of Christ.

VIDEO of the Week: Non-Negotiables in Parenting

When a married couple is on different spectrums in their parenting ideas, how do you compromise or establish values that are agreed upon? Watch this video and think about your values when it comes to parenting.

We're real people - a simple solution doesn't often work for our deepest struggles and questions.  Tune in each week on Tuesday to watch a series of videos by Drs. Henry Cloud and John Townsend.  Here you will find advice from seasoned leaders about everything from parenting and marriage, to spirituality, goals, and leadership.

For over 1800 other free videos check out the Solutions for Life website.

HEAR it on Sunday. USE it on Monday.

On Sunday Pastor Greg talked about our work. We all work - but what does God have to say for people who hate their jobs? If you didn't get to hear Pastor Greg's sermon "When You Hate Your Job" - listen here.

C. S. Lewis said this about our work:

Do All to the Glory of God

The work of a Beethoven, and the work of a charwoman, become spiritual on precisely the same condition, that of being offered to God, of being done humbly 'as to the Lord." This does not, of course, mean that it is for anyone a mere toss-up whether he should sweep rooms or compose symphonies. A mole must dig to the glory of God and a cock must crow.

What Does The Bible Say . . .

There are seasons of life.
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven. Eccles. 3:1 (NIV)

Sometimes we need a new start.
When the men brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed Jesus. Luke 5:11 (NCV)

Sometimes we stay where we are because God needs us there.
Every Moses needs an Aaron

Sometimes we stay but adopt a new attitude about work.
Finding purpose through serving and volunteering

Whatever You Sense God Calling You to do, Practice. . .

Kindness
Undeserved love toward others
Mercy
Integrity
Prayer and other spiritual disciplines

Spend some time today with these Questions for Reflection and Prayer

Does my job provide a life for me and my family, or just a lifestyle?

Do I work for the company or for my customers and coworkers?

Can I work my job and find fulfillment in other ways?

How does God want to use me during this season of my life?

**This is a new weekly feature. You will find it each Monday Morning on our blog. Each week you can come here to find tools and resources to help you incorporate the things you hear in worship on Sunday to your daily walk of faith during the rest of the week. You will find a variety of scripture readings, questions, illustrations, prayers, and stories; they all connect to the themes from Sunday's worship. Hear it, Use it, GROW!

Welcome!

Welcome Our Newest Partners in Ministry

This Sunday, 64 people will join Southwood as new partners in our mission to Grow in Love for God and Others.

Click here to get a head start on learning names and faces, and be sure to give them a warm Southwood welcome on Sunday!

Link of the Week: The Dragonfly Project

The Dragonfly Project

A small act of kindness to help a grieving family, following the death of their son, led to the creation of The Dragonfly Project in 2002.

When an 11-year old friend died from a brain tumor, Anne Marquardt Brooker sent his family a story about dragonflies and their significance in the cycle of life and death. The story so moved the grieving family with its "message of hope" that it inspired Anne to create a nonprofit corporation that would reach out to others who were grieving the loss of a family member or friend.

The Dragonfly Project consists of volunteers who help put together and mail condolence cards, a copy of the dragonfly story and a dragonfly keychain.

Anne, who is now 17 years old, continues to lead the organization in its mission to offer a message of hope and encouragement to those in need.

Here's the Dragonfly Story by Walter Dudley Cavert:

"In the bottom of an old pond lived some grubs who could not understand why none of their group ever came back after crawling up the lily stems to the top of the water. They promised each other that the next one who was called to make the upward climb would return and tell what had happened to him. Soon one of them felt an urgent impulse to seek the surface; he rested himself on the top of a lily pad and went through a glorious transformation which made him a dragonfly with beautiful wings. In vain he tried to keep his promise. Flying back and forth over the pond, he peered down at his friends below. Then he realized that even if they could see him they would not recognize such a radiant creature as one of their number.

The fact that we cannot see our friends or communicate with them after the transformation which we call death is no proof that they cease to exist."

Click here to learn more about the project or here to send a card to someone who is grieving.

Pastor Sara