From:
Date: November 7, 2020
Subject: It's November 7; Good Morning Union Special Sabbath Edition
“This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24
Here’s what we have to help your rejoicing:
And that, my friends, is God’s Sabbath that I offer to you. And…
The Well- our Young Adult Sabbath School at College View Church will happen at 10:40am IN THE YOUNG ADULT ROOM. Join us for fellowship and praise Through God’s word each Sabbath morning.
CVC- 9:15 and noon, Come here, "The Faith Journey" part 2, “Pinky Promise,” with Pastor Harold Alomia
V2- sundown vespers @ 5:00pm- V2 happens the 30 minutes that contain sundown so it keeps getting earlier as the daylight gets shorter. We’re still in Woods Auditorium so please join us as we close another Sabbath together. Lauren Richert will be sharing her story this week.
Have a great Sabbath,
Pastor Rich
Quote for the day: “Who is more genuine, the child afraid of the dark or the man afraid of the light?”
Blog of the week:
"[Mary] came quietly into the room with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume. (And by the way, she wasn't at home. She was at Simon the Leper's house. Mary brought the oil with her. She planned this ahead of time!) Many commentators believe this perfume was her life savings. Mary broke the neck of the jar open and slowly poured some of the perfume on Jesus's head and then poured the rest on his feet. Then she did something extremely intimate and scandalous. She unbound her hair and wiped his feet with it, even though a respectable woman did not let down her hair in public.
Mary was not concerned with what anyone else thought. She had an undivided heart. She poured out all she had onto Jesus in an extravagant offering of worship. She spent herself on him. She ministered to him in a culturally significant way.
There were several immediate results.
First, the fragrance of her offering filled the room. There was a change in the atmosphere. When we pour out all we have in worship to Jesus, the beauty of that offering can be sensed by those around us. It is an alluring fragrance that lingers.
The second thing that happened...was that the disciples rebuked her. Over and over again, Jesus told his disciples that he would be killed in Jerusalem and then rise. But they didn't understand. The opposition to Jesus was growing stronger every day. There was a contract out on his life. He was being hunted. It was attentive Mary who sat at the Lord's feet who knew there was not much time left. There was nothing Mary owned that she would not spend on him.
The Gospels tell us that those present were indignant and rebuked her harshly. What a waste of money! A whole year's wages poured out for nothing! Think of how many poor families could eat for a week on that. They saw only money. Mary saw only Jesus.
Have you ever had your motives misunderstood? Have you ever had someone criticize the way you worship or spend your time or money, the way you minister or believe or come through or don't come through? It has happened to me countless times, and I hate it. Jesus isn't so fond of it either. When people judge you, that is. Especially for loving him. Jesus knows well that it hurts to be misunderstood and judged. He knows that it is part of the sorrow of living in a fallen world.
We hurt others when we interpret their actions through lenses of misunderstanding wrought in our brokenness and sin. We are hurt by others when they do it to us. And when it happens to us, how are we supposed to defend ourselves? What did Mary do? Well, Mary didn't say a word in her own defense--but Jesus did. Jesus always defends a worshipper. Sometimes God will ask us to speak--in love--but always he is our Defender...
By the way, Mary's love offering would have lingered. [At the crucifixion] the fragrance of the oil Mary had poured out on Jesus days before was still on his hair, his feet, and wherever else it dripped."
An excerpt from
Becoming Myself by Stasi Eldredge