July 6, 2024 COMMUNION SUNDAY with INDEPENDANCE DAY REMEMBERANCE

Dear Road Church Friends,

Barbara and I are happy to be home again after attending the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches Annual meeting in Spokane. There were business sessions in which five churches were welcomed as new members of the National Association. A variety of workshops were offered on church life and outreach. I gave the Historians’ Report and hosted a Presentation that featured a speaker from Eden Seminary in St. Louis on the subject of how local churches can become more visible and valuable members of their community. There was a Sunday morning worship service which included a large choir consisting of delegates from congregations across the nation.

Then we spent a week in Seattle visiting family and friends. These past two weeks were an inspirational time of renewal and refreshment. Now we are looking forward to this Sunday at Road Church when we will share together in Communion and I will share some more thoughts on the subject of God’s timing in our lives.

SERMON:   God’s Times and Seasons

SCRIPTURES:

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

There is a season, and time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

Galatians 5:13-16

You were called to be free. But do not let your freedom from the law become an excuse for letting your physical desires control you. Instead, let love make you slaves to one another. For the whole Law is summed up in one commandment: Love your neighbor as you love yourself. But if you act like wild animals, hurting and harming each other, then watch out, or you will completely destroy one another. Let the Spirit direct your lives, and you will not satisfy the destructive desires of your human nature.

THE BULWARK OF LIBERTY        

by Abraham Lincoln

What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence?

It is not our frowning battlements,

our bristling sea coast,

our army and our navy.

Our reliance is in the love of liberty

which God has planted in us.

Our defense is in the spirit which prizes liberty

as the heritage of all men in all lands everywhere.

Destroy this spirit, and we have planted the seeds of despotism at our own doors.

Blessings to you all

Pastor Norm

This service on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/live/sa4XypUNKpQ?si=m44slTLyP57VPb0d