Choosing a Resolution
Upcoming Sermon Series:
by Pastor Kris Tostengard Michel
Will you be making a New Year’s resolution this year? A
quick Google search tells me that about 40% of Americans
will. Of those, 46% will still be with it six months down the
road. The odds that any of us will be thinking about a New
Year’s resolution by the middle of summer are not high. I don’t make resolutions
most years. It takes discipline to carry them out, and I often forget to follow
through. Some years, I think I’ve just not come up with an interesting enough
goal. They tend to be similar from year to year: Exercise more. Sleep more. Pray
more. Truth be told, I’d like to be able to check a box and say I’ve done it.
This fall, Eugene Peterson died. He was the author of “The Message” Bible, a
translation that put the words of Scripture into everyday language. He was a wise
man, so I read with interest the tributes written to him
"Maybe a
and followed a link to an article he wrote in 2003. I’m
pretty sure this article will give me food for thought for a
New Year’s
long time. He talked of living transparent lives in which
resolution
there’s congruence between what we say and who we
are, between what we do and the way we do it. For him,
...isn’t a box to
the words that kept this in focus were Jesus’ words, “I am be checked,
the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6). The Christian
but is instead
life maturely lived, he says, is a life in which Jesus is
taken seriously as the way to live and the truth to be
a renewed
lived. It’s not easy to do this. It’s a long, slow and patient
focus to
process of formation to live the Christ life in the Christ
way, to come to the place where the means by which
purposeful
we live are congruent with the ends for which we live.
living."
That got me to thinking, maybe a New Year’s resolution
doesn’t have to be new every year and isn’t a box to be
checked, but is instead a renewed focus to purposeful living.
We’re beginning a new sermon series in January called, [Extra]ordinary Life.
We’ll be reading stories of Jesus in Luke’s Gospel, and we’ll spend several weeks
in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians in which he talks about the church and the
multiple gifts that come together for the work of the whole.
I’m thankful to be part of this community, for the gifts you bring, for the ways
we’ll grow together this year as we seek to live the Christ life in the Christ way
with all the challenges and peculiarities that 2019 will bring. So I encourage you
to join me in choosing a resolution for 2019, a discipline that will be life-giving to
you and those around you, one that helps you grow in the Christ way, and that in
the process, you’ll find extraordinary blessing in ordinary days. Blessed New Year!
All that's ordinary holds space for the
extraordinary. Jesus makes it so.
Jan. 6:
Epiphany
Matthew 2:1-12
Jan. 13:
Baptism
Isaiah 43:1-7
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
Jan. 20:
Spiritual Gifts
1 Cor. 12:1-11
Jan. 27:
One Body
1 Cor. 12:12-31a
Feb. 3:
Love
1 Cor. 13:1-13
Feb.10:
Calling the Disciples
Luke 5:1-11
Feb. 17:
Jesus Teaches & Heals
Luke 6:17-26
Feb. 24:
Love for Enemies
Luke 6:27-38
Mar. 3:
Transfiguration
Luke 9:28-36
Luke 9:37-43
Next CONNECT deadline for the
March/April issue:
February 10, 2018
The format is bi-monthly. Submissions
can be sent to Whitney Stofflet, wstofflet@
bethlehem-church.org.
CONNECT newsletter online
bethlehem-church.org
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