[Video] Surgeon General Shows How to Make Your Own Face Covering

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To the Ends of the House

source: https://mbird.com/2020/03/to-the-ends-of-the-house/

by JULIETTE ALVEY

“Ends of the Earth”

I think about travelingTo the ends of the earthAcross a sea,To another state,Or at least to a different city

To share your loveYour redemption storyIsn’t that what you desire from me?

Before I pack my bags to leaveIn search of excitement and gloryYou gently end the daydreamAnd direct my eyesTo my newborn baby

The ends of the earthBegin right hereAt the breakfast table this morning

I wrote this poem 9 years ago and have never shared it with anyone. It is as if it had been waiting in my file for this precise morning. Because whether you have a newborn or not, today, for most people, “the ends of the earth” truly do begin at your breakfast table and go no further. This is challenging for people like my husband and me, who sometimes suffer from wanderlust and enjoy the thrill of experiencing a new place. Jesus even says, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” (Matt. 28:19) We are supposed to go! So all of this staying feels counter to God’s mission of sharing his good news with the world. But the thing about God’s mission is that it is God’s, not ours. We don’t know what He will accomplish through all of this staying home, but He works in mysterious ways.

Since that morning 9 years ago when I was fighting the urge to run out the door and do something “exciting,” there have been seasons of going and seasons of staying, and all of it was used by God, even when it did not make sense to me. This may feel like one of those times when we are waiting and waiting and waiting until we can finally go do something useful again. But there is no such thing as wasted time with God. Even the apostle, Paul’s time in prison was not wasted (I am not comparing our homes to prison, but I’m sure for some it does not feel too far off). In the book Godspeed: Making Christ’s Mission Your Own, Britt Merrick says, “Wherever you are now, wherever you spend the majority of your time–that is your mission field. This is what it means to recapture our sense of sent-ness. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing–you were sent there.”

God be with you this day as you carry out his mission wherever you go, or stay.

Also from about 9 years ago:

Love Like Jesus

[Wednesday Service] Pilate - Life Together

• What a Friend we have in Jesus

• Psalm 70

• Matthew 27:1-26 [NKJV]

Remember the Daily Grace

www.GraceLutheranPSL.com/Daily
Check the site often for funny, serious, video, articles, biblical and what-not.
Let’s Bring Grace and Peace to a Chaotic and Lonely Time.

Important Posts from the Week.

Watch the Latest Photo Video!

What Had happened at Grace this week. 

Will God Forgive Me… Again?

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit." (Psalm 32:1–2)

There is a man I know who fought in the Vietnam War. I have tried to get him to come to church many times, but each time he refuses because he says that his crimes are so great that God could not forgive him. Though I press him with the good news of the gospel that covers over all his sins, he refuses to believe that his record of wrongdoing can be erased by merely believing in Christ.

What my friend finds difficult to accept is a notion the psalmist wants to teach us. There is a way of thinking about a person who receives forgiveness, namely, that such a person is blessed. We do well to ask what it means to be blessed. Simply, to be blessed is to be favored.

Sometimes when our guilt sticks heavily upon us, we can wonder if God's forgiveness really applies to us. We do that certain sin, again and again, we surprise ourselves with some out-of-character action, we find ourselves feeling less guilty for certain trespasses, etc. In the midst of such rhythms, we are to take the psalmist’s prayer to heart. For we are reminded here that we are favored by God. God has taken our sins away because God wants to!

It is hard to believe this because there seems an inherent injustice in it. “If I keep sinning and doing bad, won’t God punish me? Isn’t his job to keep order? I know he is patient, but I keep repeating the same mistakes. At some point God is going to drop the hammer on me, isn’t he?”

This sense of dreadful anticipation at God’s coming wrath is real because guilty people know that justice must eventually come. God can’t keep turning a blind eye. And he doesn’t. We must put away a whitewashed Christianity that says that God simply forgives because He is nice, kind, loving, gentle, etc. That is not how forgiveness works. God does not simply ignore our sins, turn a blind eye to them, and perpetuate injustice. No. God has forgiven you for Christ’s sake. It was because Jesus paid your debt, took your penalty, and ransomed you from sin and death that you are forgiven. St. Paul has a special word to describe the new, objective reality of your forgiveness: justification. Notice the word “justice” embedded within it. Justification is God’s work, at Christ’s expense, to free you from sin, death, and hell. It is justice done to sin and grace given to you. And God wanted to do this for you.

When God forgives you for the sins you commit over and over, he does so because Christ has paid for their trespass and received the justice of the crime. God does not turn a blind eye to sin but instead issues justice upon his Son, for your sake.

This means you are blessed or favored because God loves you enough, because Jesus loves you enough, to hold no record of your wrongs. Now, if we are so favored by God that he would not spare his only Son, how much more so will he then help us in the midst of our troubles? You see, the cross teaches us the dedication to which God will go to show his favor for you. He wants to forgive you! So now, as you struggle through various trials, do not be downtrodden. The God who never abandoned you to your own sin will not abandon you now. And though you sin ten times ten thousand times, you can never out-sin the work of the cross. Let us live in this promise.

Holy Week and Easter 2020

Holy Week 2020

Because of the Covid 19 Social Distancing we will need to have video services for Holy week.

Find all the video right here at www.GraceLutheranPSL.com

Palm Sunday 9am
Maundy Thursday 5pm
Good Friday 5pm
Easter Sunday 9am

This little Piggy

Christianity Offers No Answers About the Coronavirus | Time

BY N.T. WRIGHT

 UPDATED: MARCH 29, 2020 3:47 PM EDT | ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: MARCH 29, 2020 8:00 AM EDT

N. T. Wright is the Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of St Andrews, a Senior Research Fellow at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University and the author of over 80 books, including The New Testament in Its World.

For many Christians, the coronavirus-induced limitations on life have arrived at the same time as Lent, the traditional season of doing without. But the sharp new regulations—no theater, schools shutting, virtual house arrest for us over-70s—make a mockery of our little Lenten disciplines. Doing without whiskey, or chocolate, is child’s play compared with not seeing friends or grandchildren, or going to the pub, the library or church.

The Right Rev. Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde holds Sunday Mass as it is live-webcast to its parishioners due to the Coronavirus at an empty Washington National Cathedral on March 22, 2020 in Washington, DC. Patrick Smith—Getty Images

There is a reason we normally try to meet in the flesh. There is a reason solitary confinement is such a severe punishment. And this Lent has no fixed Easter to look forward to. We can’t tick off the days. This is a stillness, not of rest, but of poised, anxious sorrow.

No doubt the usual silly suspects will tell us why God is doing this to us. A punishment? A warning? A sign? These are knee-jerk would-be Christian reactions in a culture which, generations back, embraced rationalism: everything must have an explanation. But supposing it doesn’t? Supposing real human wisdom doesn’t mean being able to string together some dodgy speculations and say, “So that’s all right then?” What if, after all, there are moments such as T. S. Eliot recognized in the early 1940s, when the only advice is to wait without hope, because we’d be hoping for the wrong thing?

Rationalists (including Christian rationalists) want explanations; Romantics (including Christian romantics) want to be given a sigh of relief. But perhaps what we need more than either is to recover the biblical tradition of lament. Lament is what happens when people ask, “Why?” and don’t get an answer. It’s where we get to when we move beyond our self-centered worry about our sins and failings and look more broadly at the suffering of the world. It’s bad enough facing a pandemic in New York City or London. What about a crowded refugee camp on a Greek island? What about Gaza? Or South Sudan?

At this point the Psalms, the Bible’s own hymnbook, come back into their own, just when some churches seem to have given them up. “Be gracious to me, Lord,” prays the sixth Psalm, “for I am languishing; O Lord, heal me, for my bones are shaking with terror.” “Why do you stand far off, O Lord?” asks the 10th Psalm plaintively. “Why do you hide yourself in time of trouble?” And so it goes on: “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me for ever?” (Psalm 13). And, all the more terrifying because Jesus himself quoted it in his agony on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22).

Yes, these poems often come out into the light by the end, with a fresh sense of God’s presence and hope, not to explain the trouble but to provide reassurance within it. But sometimes they go the other way. Psalm 89 starts off by celebrating God’s goodness and promises, and then suddenly switches and declares that it’s all gone horribly wrong. And Psalm 88 starts in misery and ends in darkness: “You have caused friend and neighbor to shun me; my companions are in darkness.” A word for our self-isolated times.

It is no part of the Christian vocation, then, to be able to explain what’s happening and why. In fact, it is part of the Christian vocation not to be able to explain—and to lament instead. As the Spirit laments within us, so we become, even in our self-isolation, small shrines where the presence and healing love of God can dwell. And out of that there can emerge new possibilities, new acts of kindness, new scientific understanding, new hope. New wisdom for our leaders? Now there’s a thought.

Source: https://time.com/5808495/coronavirus-christianity/

Cleaned the Carpets.

The one nice thing about not using our church all the time. easy to do maintenance.

Clean Carpets!

Quarantine Bag Pipes

My quarantine project. Made it from a few recorders, a trash bag, and tape from r/funny

[Video] The Tiny Compound That Makes Soap A Coronavirus Killer #WashYourHands

Hand sanitizer has become a scarce commodity as Coronavirus has spread around the world. But you might be surprised to learn that plentiful, cheap soap is actually one of the most effective weapons we have against COVID-19. It all comes down to the unique chemical makeup of soap that has made it a central part of life since ancient times.
Visit the Centers for Disease Control website for the latest information on protecting yourself against the Coronavirus

[Sunday Service] Natural Light - Life Together

↓↓↓↓ Just the Sermon ↓↓↓↓-↑↑↑↑ The Whole Service ↑↑↑↑

Questions for the Week

1. What are you thirsty for?  What’s your beverage of choice?

2. Read John 19:17-29.  What causes Jesus to thirst?  What is he thirsting for?

3. Read 1 Peter 4:1-6.  In times of suffering, what are some things that you’ve thristed for that have let you down?

4. According to Peter, because of Jesus and his love for us, in times of suffering, what should you love and desire?

Remember the Daily Grace

www.GraceLutheranPSL.com/Daily
Check the site often for funny, serious, video, articles, biblical and what-not.
Let’s Bring Grace and Peace to a Chaotic and Lonely Time.

Important Posts from the Week.

Watch the Latest Photo Video!

What Had happened at Grace this week. 

Concrete Slab at Grace!

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5 out of 5 Stars

Temptation’s Green Pastures: The Sixth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer

by Ken Sundet Jones, Professor of Theology and Philosophy at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa,

Temptation’s Green Pastures: The Sixth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer

areful now! If you read the Sixth Petition hastily, you’ll come away thinking that God is the source of temptations. One modern translation of the Lord’s Prayers phrases it this way: “Save us from the time of trial.” It’s not a better option. Either way, we face temptations because God sets up trials and tribulations as divine AP exams to see if we have what it takes to get heavenly course credit. Or God is some cruel and arbitrary taskmaster on the front porch swing watching us attempt forward motion in the face of gale-force winds – all for the sake of his own eternal pleasure. But the Lord’s Prayer is a primer on the Christian life. There ought to be more to “lead us not…” than such a paltry picture of God.

Petition by petition, the Lord’s Prayer teaches how we live faithfully – both through its implicit faith in God as the bearer of all good things, and through the one who taught us these words in the first place. With the Sixth Petition, God’s goodness, that’s assumed throughout the prayer, puts the lie to any notion of God inflicting temptation on his human children. Christ’s gift undergirds this petition with his own victory over Old Nick’s temptations in the wilderness.

A biblical scholar could tell you about the history of temptation in the Scriptures and how its focus shifted from the Old to the New Testament. A systematic theologian could present a learned disquisition on theodicy – what responsibility God has for evil. But for my money, the best interpretation of the Sixth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer came when I first heard Emmylou Harris, Ricky Skaggs, and Dolly Parton sing the old-timey gospel song “Green Pastures” on Harris’ Roses in the Snow album.

Troubles and trials often betray those
On in the weary body to stray
But we shall walk beside the still waters
With the Good Shepherd leading the way

Those who have strayed were sought by the Master
He who once gave His life for the sheep
Out on the mountain still He is searching
Bringing them in forever to keep

Going up home to live in green pastures
Where we shall live and die nevermore
Even the Lord will be in that number
When we shall reach that heavenly shore

We will not heed the voice of the stranger
For he would lead us on to despair
Following on with Jesus our Savior
We shall all reach that country so fair

“Green Pastures” is an honest appraisal both of our lifelong adversaries — the devil, the world, and our sinful self — and of the Lord’s incessant quest to pull us back from all snares. “Troubles and trials often betray” us. They are ever-present. “The voice of the stranger” keeps speaking, luring us into the traps of self-sufficiency, status, and even piety to keep us from looking to God who provides everything needed for this life. At the same time, the song literally repents us, in the sense of the biblical word metanoia. It turns our eyes back to Christ and slathers us with the promise of the one who calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies lost sheep.

This same view is present in Luther’s explanation of the Sixth Petition in his Small Catechism: “God tempts no one. We pray in this petition that God would guard and keep us so that the devil, the world, and our sinful nature may not deceive us or mislead us into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice. Although we are attacked by these things, we pray that we may finally overcome them and win the victory.”

Temptation doesn’t just appear out of nowhere. It’s in the structure of this broken and sinful world. In the Large Catechism, Luther saw its source as the flesh, the world, and the devil. The flesh tempts us with our internal urges (think of deadly sins like envy, lust, sloth, and gluttony). The world comes after us with the siren songs of glory or vengeance. And the devil instills doubt about matters that Christ has already mastered on the cross. In his Reflections on the Psalms, C.S. Lewis pointed to “those gratifying invitations, those highly interesting contacts, that participation in the brilliant movements of our age, which I so often, at such risk, desire.” He says that to pray this petition is to ask that God might even deny us these things.

Luther argued in the Large Catechism that the goal of temptation, “is to make us scorn and despise both the Word and the works of God, to tear us away from faith, hope, and love, to draw us into unbelief, false security, and stubbornness, or, on the contrary, to drive us into despair, denial of God, blasphemy, and countless other abominable sins.” Oddly, the Sixth Petition doesn’t ask that such temptations be eliminated. Instead, it asks God to be active in the face of temptation. Luther went on to say we’re spared from temptation, “when God gives us power and strength to resist, even though the attack is not removed or ended. For no one can escape temptations and allurements as long as we live in the flesh and have the devil prowling around us.”

Such strength to resist comes only with faith, and, as Paul says in Romans 10, faith comes by hearing the gospel. The faith that endures temptation is created when the Word connects you to the one who endured the attacks of the flesh, the world, and the devil. In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis said that “Christ, because he was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means.” The gospel promise is that God in Christ knows exactly what your temptations are and still bids you find protection from them in him.

“Green Pastures” is a reminder that still waters are to be found walking with your Good Shepherd. Even if you’ve succumbed to temptation Jesus is prowling around, calling and calling, until you hear his voice. When you do, the best possible thing is to prick up your ears and head in his direction. You’ll find only verdant meadows in the fair country of his acreage and a Lord who can provide what no temptation ever can.

https://www.1517.org/articles/temptations-green-pastures-the-sixth-petition-of-the-lords-prayer

Covid 19 - RESOURCES FOR RETIREES

From Brian Mast Email.

RESOURCES FOR RETIREES

I am working closely with federal, state and local officials to monitor the coronavirus and mitigate its spread in our community. I am also working especially to help protect the health and financial security of retirees in our community who are at a higher risk of contracting COVID-19:

Medicare Updates

• Medicare covers the lab tests for COVID-19. You pay no out-of-pocket costs.

• Medicare covers all medically necessary hospitalizations related to COVID-19.

• These benefits also apply to those with a Medicare Advantage Plan.

• Telehealth services have been expanded to give you access to healthcare providers from the safety of your own home.

• Click here for a full list of Medicare resources.

Social Security Updates

• Social Security payments will continue to be delivered as scheduled.

• Local offices are closed to in-person visits, but help is still available by phone at 1-800-772-1213.

• Click here for a full list of resources from the Social Security Administration.

It is also important to remember that scammers may use the coronavirus national emergency to take advantage of people while they’re distracted. You should remain vigilant and take steps to protect yourself, including:

• Protecting your Medicare card and personal information.

• Check any documents and forms for errors.

• If someone calls asking for personal information, hang up and contact the agency directly.

For more information on the coronavirus and recommendations on how to keep yourself and your family safe, please visit CDC.gov/coronavirus. Please do not hesitate to call my office at 202-225-3026 with any questions. I also encourage you to sign up to receive updates on the coronavirus here: https://mast.house.gov/coronavirus

Filming the Service.

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Lutheran Hour Course on Stress and Worry.

https://www.lhm.org/learn/course-stressworry2020/index.html

This course explores stress and worry: the causes, effects, and strategies to manage them. It will equip you through God’s Word to look to Him as the source of strength.

Your Call to Action: Carry out intentional actions to manage your own stress or worry and also reach out with Christian support to someone who is dealing with stress or worry.

By the end of Stress & Worry in the Life of a Christian, you will develop action plans support yourself and support others dealing with stress and worry. To equip you, this course will help you:

• discover the consequences of stress: physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

• acknowledge your own stress level.

• discover the importance of self-care.

• develop a specific action plan to support yourself: physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

• develop an action plan to offer acts of Christian support to someone dealing with stress and worry.

Take the Course Now.