Jym Shorts

Jym Shorts - January 7, 2016

by Jym Gregory on January 07, 2016

As we welcome in the new year, we have much to be thankful for here at LifePoint. I've been out of the pulpit for the past two weeks and was away from our own worship service this past Sunday while I visited friends and family and officiated a wedding in Bloomington, Illinois. While I was away we opened up the first stage of our expansion, a welcome addition to our children's area. As I write this, the church continues to look and sound like a beehive, with construction workers painting the office, a few tearing up the old flooring in the Café, and others drilling through the concrete foundation to add plumbing to our restrooms. The next few weeks promise to be busy here as S&B Construction finishes up phase one of our expansion. I thank God for the additional ministry space, and I also thank him that this church family does not live and die by my presence in the pulpit, or even in the office for that matter. I returned from a week's vacation to good reports not only on the transition to the new space last Sunday, but on Pastor Tony and Pastor Nate's preaching the past two Sundays and the joyful worship that was experienced in my absence. Gee whiz, seems like I'm not nearly as important as I thought. Makes me consider the possibility that things happened in this world before I was born, and may actually continue on after I die! : )

This Sunday we begin a new series through 1 & 2 Peter we've entitled "Living in Exile." I'm looking forward to getting back into a book of the Bible after spending a few months on topical studies in missions, discipleship, and Advent. We'll introduce Peter's first letter Sunday and gear up for many months of learning about faithfulness to Christ through suffering, a faith demonstrated by obedience to Christ, the pursuit of holiness, stewarding the grace of God, and living as pilgrims and exiles as his people. I hope you'll find the study to be challenging and applicable. As we begin this new year and this new study, I will introduce worship notes for children who participate in our morning worship. I've noticed more parents with younger children in our services, so we will have notes for each Sunday's text available at the Information Center in the Commons for those who would like to make them available to their children. If you utilize them, please let me know if they are helpful for your child(ren), and feel free to make suggestions on how to make them more useful.

As we begin our adult discipleship curriculum (Plan and Promise) going through the first five books of the Old Testament (known as the Pentateuch), I've committed to take a slow and intentional read through the Old Testament during my own devotions in 2016. I finished the book of Genesis this morning. Since most of my study this year for our preaching series will be in the New Testament, I decided to devote my personal quiet times to the Old. I'm looking forward to delving back into the history of Israel, the covenants, the work of God among his people, the promises and prophecies, the early development of the plan of salvation, the grace of God as he interacts with his people, etc. I hope that you too have made plans for 2016 to be in the word of God. How important it is for us to be a people who know and live out our faith – doers of the word of God, and not just hearers of it!

Praying for a productive, fruitful, and faithful year at LifePoint, and thankful to be a part of this church family!

Grace and peace,

Pastor Jym

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