When God Disappoints
“His seeming absence is actually the fullness of his merciful presence.”
In the tiny Bible-belt town where I grew up, tragedy brought people together. Friends, neighbors, and even complete strangers would go the extra mile for a family in need. House fire? They'd hold a community fundraiser. Funeral? Enough casseroles would pile up in the kitchen to feed an army.
When times were at their worst, these folks were at their best.
And in that way, they seemed quite unlike the God many of them worshiped on Sunday.
When times are at their worst, many of us wonder, “Where the hell is God?” Because the evidence suggests he’s on a cruise to the Bahamas. Or sleeping off a hangover. Or too preoccupied with bigwig affairs to waste time on us peons. Wherever he is, he’s not where we desperately need him to be—here, with us...........
Our Sufficiency Is From God
"Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God..." - 2 Corinthians 3:5
When it comes to the knowledge of how one may stand before God and attain eternal life, that is truly not to be achieved by our work or power, nor to originate in our brain. In other things, those pertaining to this temporal life, you may glory in what you know, you may advance the teachings of reason, you may invent ideas of your own; for example: how to make shoes or clothes, how to govern a household, how to manage a herd. In such things exercise your mind to the best of your ability. Cloth or leather of this sort will permit itself to be stretched and cut according to the good pleasure of the tailor or shoemaker. But in spiritual matters, human reasoning certainly is not in order; other intelligence, other skill and power, are requisite here – something to be granted by God himself and revealed through his Word.
Questioning God's Wisdom - Justice and Brothers
Job a man who has done nothing wrong is now in the pit of suffering. Who should he blame?
![[Sunday] Divisions - Together 1 Corinthians 1-4](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5852f18a20099e30cd2c01dc/1757016029499-QYKYXUZGFPWS60G27RFV/Together+1a.jpg)
Today March 5, 2017
1st Worship 8:00 am
Bible Study and Sunday School 9:15 am
2nd Worship 10:30 am
Fellowship Immediately following 2nd worship
Korean Church Worship 1:00 pm
This Week
MOPS Tuesday, 9:00 am
Surviving Spouses Tuesday, 12:30 pm
Via deCristo @ Bocks home Tuesday, 6:30 pm
Mah-jongg Wednesday, Noon
Midweek Potluck Wednesday, 5:00 pm
Midweek Service Wednesday, 6:00 pm
Bible Study @Perkin’s Restaurant Thursday, 7:30 am
Worship Team Thursday, 10:00 am
Basic General Health Thursday, 2:00 p,
Confirmation Class Thursday, 6:00 pm
Casual Game Night Friday, 6:00 pm
Korean Church Prayer Meeting Saturday, 6:00 am
CareNet Walk for Life , Jensen Beach HS Saturday, 9:00 am
SUNDAY SCHOOL AND ADULT BIBLE CLASS will begin at 9:15 am until March 19th when it will begin again at 8:45. Students from grades 4 through 7 will be together in one class taught by Barbara Ruzicka. We will be using the children’s room. Friends are welcome. And of course, all adults are invited to participate in the Sunday Morning Adult Bible Class.
THE FLOWERS adorning the altar this morning are given to the glory of Jesus, our Savior by Bob and Vivian Barto.
BIRTHDAY GREETINGS Gene Liagre, 3/6; Jan C. Lendak, 3/8.
If we have missed your anniversary or birthday, please drop us a note
in the office or email us at Gracelutheranpsl@gmail.com.
ANNIVERSARIES There are no anniversaries listed this week.
FLOWER CHART
A new flower chart is posted on the bulletin board in the narthex. If you would like to order flowers to adorn the alter for a specific Sunday, please write your name on the appropriate line. The cost per Sunday is $27.00. We thank you for your help.
PRAYER LIST If you have family and/or friends you would like our members to include in our prayers, please submit their names in writing by completing one of the forms in the narthex or send an email to the church office at Grace LutheranPSL@gmail.com and title it Prayer List.
Thank you.
THURSDAYS, AT 6:00 pm, CONFIRMATION CLASSES are offered in the sanctuary. All are invited. If you would like a refresher course, please feel free to join us.
Lenten Midweek Gatherings Join us on Wednesday evenings until Holy Week at 5:00 for potluck dinner followed by 6:00 worship and study
Basic CPR non-certified and general health information class given by Vivian Barto and Jan Lendak, Thursday, March 9th in the fellowship hall from 2:00 to 4:00 pm. Must call for reservation, 772/237-2626 or 561/315-9555. Class is free.
Casual Game Night March 10 Our first family-friendly, non-competitive game night was such fun that we’re going to make it a regular event! Join in on the second Friday of each month any time after 6:00 pm. Bring a snack to share if you’d like. We have games available, but anyone is welcome to bring something new to try. This is an easy way to envelop friends, family, and neighbors in Christian community as well.
QUARTERLY VOTER’S MEETING
IS
SUNDAY, MARCH 19TH
IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING THE WORSHIP SERVICE…
MARK YOUR CALENDARS.
Saturday, March 11, 2017, CAREWALK FOR LIFE 2017, Jensen Beach High School, 2875 NW Goldenrod R
www.GraceLutheranpsl.com
Remember to check out our website and follow us on Facebook. They’re both “works-in-progress”, but the calendar and information on our website is updated constantly.
oad, Jensen Beach, FL. Registration: 9:00 am.
Religious Experts vs. the Cross: On Reading the Book of Job
But now I see that these were for me questions from “below,” questions that reflected more my anxiety and uncertainty than God’s love.
Could Adam pray? Did he know who God is and what the Name of Jesus means? Did he understand the mystery of God among us? For a long time I thought about these questions. For a long time I was curious about how much of what I knew, Adam could know, and how much of what I understood, Adam could understand. But now I see that these were for me questions from “below,” questions that reflected more my anxiety and uncertainty than God’s love. God’s questions, the questions from “above” were, “Can you let Adam lead you into prayer? Can you believe that I am in deep communion with Adam and that his life is a prayer? Can you let Adam be a living prayer at your table? Can you see my face in the face of Adam?”...................
Hearing Loop System
We are a Hearing Loop enabled church!
Coming on March 10th
Our Church
Now offers a Hearing Loop
for hearing aid users and cochlear implant wearers
With the flip of the hearing aid’s telecoil switch, any sound between a speaker on a podium and the listener in the sanctuary is eliminated, allowing the hearing aid user to hear the speaker clearly and without background noise.
Hearing loop systems take sound straight from the sound system and deliver it right into the listener’s hearing and without extraneous background noise without having to pick up a separate listening device.
Do you wear hearing aids? All the user needs to do is switch his or her hearing aid or cochlear implant to the “T”, telephone, or hearing loop program. All but the very smallest modern hearing aids tend to be supplied with this internalt-coil or telecoil. However, it may not have been activated when the device was originally programmed. ? Be sure you know if your aid has a T-coil, and if it is automatically switched on in proper environments or if you need to turn it on (with a switch) when needed. (Look in your hearing aid instruction book or ask your hearing aid provider if need be).
Special thanks to Joe Dashiell ofFlorida Hearing Loops, LLC, a certified installer and provider, for information and help getting looped, and to www.loopwisconsin.com for the church information wording.
YOUR FRIENDS AT GRACE LUTHERAN PSL
Lent Worship Schedule and Changes
Discover when we are worshiping
Special Note: Voters Meeting on March 19th
Sundays
8AM Worship
9:15 Sunday School
10:30AM Worship
March 19th
Back to One Service.
Sundays
8:45 Sunday School
10AM Worship
Wednesdays
Through April 5th
5PM Dinner
6PM Lent Worship
Maundy Thursday
6PM Service
Good Friday
Noon Service
6PM Service
Easter Services
Sunrise 6:45 AM
Breakfast at 7:45 AM
Easter Worship 9 AM
Helping an Older Member
A Church is a group of poeple who are gathered under the Grace of God bringing grace to all those around them.
You Are Not White As Snow - Ash Wednesday
“Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” –Psalm 51:7
Hanging on to our sin is a terrible business. When it goes unconfessed, we usually try to double and triple down on it to keep it off the radar. Then we end up with far more than just the initial transgression we try to hide. And something happens to our conscience during our unholy charade. We stop feeling the weight of our sin. We are simply self-blinded to what we’ve done. And in the end, we tragically feel and see nothing........
Love Over Words - 1 John 5 - Overcome
Jesus has overcome the world.
“Lord, sometimes it does feel like we are gasping for air. We try to live and breathe on praise, approval, measurable, outward success, but it’s never enough. Our arms and legs begin to fail us and we begin to realize we’ll never reach the surface.
It’s because we’re trying to do it on our own. It’s because we’re fighting for ourselves and what we think we need. But you’ve already fought for us, overcome for us, and dwell within us.
Remind us that overcoming does not look like what we expect. Overcoming means being humbled, submitting, serving. Your truth is so different from the false picture that’s been painted for us.
We know that when all things pass away, You will yet remain. We know that Your unshakeable love endures forever.
God, instead of doing what the world teaches and fighting for ourselves, let us submit and sink beneath the waves, knowing Your life-giving love abides with us even in the depths. This kind of trust is scary, and we need Your power to do it.
Down in the deep, far, far from where we feel safe, that’s where You find us, and where we know that in letting go, we fall into the strength of Your arms.
As we die to ourselves, and serve a world that may mock or deny you, we know that in so doing we will be submersed in Your love, flooded with Your joy. We trust that whatever valleys we must walk through, You are with us. We will not be overcome by evil because by your death and resurrection, we have become overcomers.
”
What Happened this Week?
![[Sunday] Body- Together 1 Corinthians 5-7](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5852f18a20099e30cd2c01dc/1757614641277-E3RL138857X8O6C1GA6P/Together+2a.jpg)
Today February 26, 2017
1st Worship 8:00 am
Bible Study and Sunday School 9:15 am
2nd Worship 10:30 am
Fellowship Immediately following 2nd worship
Korean Church Worship 1:00 pm
This Week
Via deCristo @ Bocks home Tuesday, 6:30 pm
Ash Wednesday Service Wednesday, Noon
Ash Wednesday Service Wednesday, 6:00 pm
Bible Study @Perkin’s Restaurant Thursday, 7:30 am
Worship Team Thursday, 10:00 am
Confirmation Class Thursday, 6:00 pm
Brownie Troop Thursday, 6:30 pm
Korean Church Prayer Meeting Saturday, 6:00 am
SUNDAY SCHOOL AND ADULT BIBLE CLASS will begin at 9:15 am. Students from grades 4 through 7 will be together in one class taught by Barbara Ruzicka. We will be using the children’s room. Friends are welcome. And of course, all adults are invited to participate in the Sunday Morning Adult Bible Class.
THE FLOWERS adorning the altar this morning are given to the glory of Jesus, our Savior by the Kerstner family in memory of Bridget Raymond.
BIRTHDAY GREETINGS Ed Bock, 2/29.
ANNIVERSARIES There are no anniversaries listed this week.
If we have missed your anniversary or birthday, please drop us a note
in the office or email us at Gracelutheranpsl@gmail.com.
FLOWER CHART
A new flower chart is posted on the bulletin board in the narthex. If you would like to order flowers to adorn the alter for a specific Sunday, please write your name on the appropriate line. The cost per Sunday is $27.00. We thank you for your help.
LENTEN MIDWEEK GATHERINGS Join us on Wednesday evenings until Holy Week at 6:00 for potluck dinner followed by 7:00 worship and study. Lent begins Wednesday, March 1 with Ash Wednesday. Two services on Ash Wednesday..Noon and 6:00 pm. No meal on Ash Wednesday.
PRAYER LIST If you have family and/or friends you would like our members to include in our prayers, please submit their names in writing by completing one of the forms in the narthex or send an email to the church office at Grace LutheranPSL@gmail.com and title it Prayer List.
Thank you.
THE BACKPACK PROGRAM is up and running for this school year. Check the bulletin board for items needed, or speak with Carol Coffman or Leigh Liagre.
THURSDAYS, AT 6:00 pm, CONFIRMATION CLASSES are offered in the sanctuary. All are invited. If you would like a refresher course, please feel free to join us.
Saturday, March 11, 2017, CAREWALK FOR LIFE 2017, Jensen Beach High School, 2875 NW Goldenrod Road, Jensen Beach, FL. Registration: 9:00 am. Sign up with one of the runners in the narthex.
Casual Game Night March 10 Our first family-friendly, non-competitive game night was such fun that we’re going to make it a regular event! Join in on the second Friday of each month any time after 6:00 pm. Bring a snack to share if you’d like. We have games available, but anyone is welcome to bring something new to try. This is an easy way to envelop friends, family, and neighbors in Christian community as well.
www.GraceLutheranpsl.com
Remember to check out our website and follow us on Facebook. They’re both “works-in-progress”, but the calendar and information on our website is updated constantly.
Motherhood Is Physical—and So Is the Gospel
Central to Christianity is the conviction that our spirits and bodies are connected—that what happens to our bodies matters.
Central to Christianity is the conviction that our spirits and bodies are connected—that what happens to our bodies matters. We believe, proclaim, and practice that the God who made bodies took on a body and meets us still today in our bodies. We declare that the God who made the physical earth visited it in the flesh and is still entirely committed to nurturing his creation. Our good news is that, in the end, this Creator-God will not separate our souls from our bodies or his presence from the earth. For after his body was broken in death, he did not meet us in spirit but in resurrection. As the firstfruits of the new creation, Jesus is both our Savior and our future promise. God will not abandon but redeem our earth and bodies. He will make his permanent dwelling with us in the restored and recreated heavenly city on earth......
Matter of Balance Classe at Lawnwood
Phil and Judy Fredrich are facilitators of the Matter of Balance Class at Lawnwood.
Offer Hope. Don't Peddle Fear
four other things the Church needs to do more.
From hatred to apathy to fondness, a variety of emotional responses are evoked when the word “church” is mentioned to both believers and non-believers alike. It has served as both a scapegoat and symbol in a society that is both ever-changing and dependably tumultuous.
Read more at http://www.relevantmagazine.com/god/offer-hope-dont-peddle-fear#EwcAvqhebqZUpL03.99
Trinity Lutheran LWML 3rd annual Tea Party and Fashion Show
Trinity Lutehran LWML 3rd Annual tea Party
Fredrich Bible Study
Bible Study at the Fredrich's
This Study meets at the Fredrich home 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of the Month.
Love Over Words - The Problem of Fear - 1 John 4
Fear Motivates Now, But God Move Us In Love
“MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”
“Dear Jesus,
We take a step back from our lives and see that, all too often, our actions are motivated not by love, but by fear.
We waste time focused on our anxieties about the future,
we waste thoughts on insecurities, imagining that everything depends on us,
we spend our money out of fear of aging, or fear of not keeping up with our neighbors, fear of not getting what we think we “deserve”.
We listen to the accuser and fear the loss of love from those around us, forgetting that You are all-sufficient. We even fear losing Your love, forgetting Your promise that You will never leave or forsake us.
The enemy wants us to live in a fog of fear – but You cut through that fog with the brilliance of Your love.
Lord, lift us up out of our fears and forgetfulness, and remind us of Your perfect love. Out of that love, motivate us to act.
Replace our anxiety with confidence in the good You have planned for us,
Replace our insecurity with awareness that You are our refuge,
Take the confusion, the doubt, the desire for control that barricades us from You.
Let us take hold of Your abundant mercy with the openness, the trust, of little children before You. We know that children delight in gifts. In simple humility, let us delight in Your love.
May that love give us a spirit of courage as we go through our lives, knowing that we can rely wholly upon You. You are worthy of all trust, and Your love never fails.”
Today February 19, 2017
1st Worship 8:00 am
Bible Study and Sunday School 9:15 am
2nd Worship 10:30 am
Fellowship Immediately following 2nd worship
Korean Church Worship 1:00 pm
This Week
MOPS Tuesday, 9:00 am
Grace BOD Meeting Tuesday, 5:15 pm
Mahjongg Wednesday, Noon
Bible Study @Perkin’s Restaurant Thursday, 7:30 am
Worship Team Thursday, 10:00 am
Confirmation Class Thursday, 6:00 pm
Korean Church Prayer Meeting Saturday, 6:00 am
SUNDAY SCHOOL AND ADULT BIBLE CLASS will begin at 9:15 am. Students from grades 4 through 7 will be together in one class taught by Barbara Ruzicka. We will be using the children’s room. Friends are welcome. And of course, all adults are invited to participate in the Sunday Morning Adult Bible Class.
THE FLOWERS adorning the altar this morning are given to the glory of Jesus, our Savior by Ed & JoAnn Furniss and Barbara Morgan (In memory of Bob Morgan).
BIRTHDAY GREETINGS Claren Kerstner, 2/25.
ANNIVERSARIES Ervin & Phyllis Schimkat 2/23 (71).
If we have missed your anniversary or birthday, please drop us a note
in the office or email us at Gracelutheranpsl@gmail.com.
FLOWER CHART
A new flower chart is posted on the bulletin board in the narthex. If you would like to order flowers to adorn the alter for a specific Sunday, please write your name on the appropriate line. The cost per Sunday is $27.00. We thank you for your help.
PRAYER LIST If you have family and/or friends you would like our members to include in our prayers, please submit their names in writing by completing one of the forms in the narthex or send an email to the church office at Grace LutheranPSL@gmail.com and title it Prayer List.
Thank you.
www.GraceLutheranpsl.com
Remember to check out our website and follow us on Facebook. They’re both “works-in-progress”, but the calendar and information on our website is updated constantly.
YOUR COURTS: UP CLOSE: An informative up close look at YOUR COURTS will be presented at the St. Lucie Court House, 218 S 2nd Street, Ft. Pierce FL 34950.
THE BACKPACK PROGRAM is up and running for this school year. Check the bulletin board for items needed, or speak with Carol Coffman or Leigh Liagre.
There’s a Difference Between Taking a Stand and ‘Causing Division'
How to find unity no matter what side of politics you stand on.
In the post-election chaos and divisiveness, one thing has been clear to me: We put a lot of stock in our head of state. Perhaps too much.
Whether you’re celebrating, mourning or remaining ambivalent about our new president, you probably see it, too. On the far side of the continuum, thousands have been protesting Trump in unbridled outrage. On the other side, some have been responding radically with violence and racism................................
“This article does not necessarily reflect the options and beliefs of Grace Lutheran PSL but is listed to help us grow in our faith in Jesus the King. ”
Adopt a Mile
Cleaning up our streets, to make PSL beautiful
Every Month we gather to Clean up or adopted mile.
Instead of treating the body as a means for selfish gain, Paul's message points to a greater purpose where our bodies are made into a holy dwelling for God himself.