12-2023

Pastor’s December Ponderings:

^Matthew1:1 A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham: 

² Abraham was the father of Isaac, 

Isaac the father of Jacob, 

Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,

³ Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar…

⁵ Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, 

Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, 

Obed the father of Jesse, 

⁶ and Jesse the father of King David. 

David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife…

¹⁶ and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. 

¹⁷ Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ.

Tracy Sybesma writes in Reformed Worship, “Genealogies often look like a grocery list of names. But if you
take the time to listen, a genealogy reveals a story—a thread woven into the history of a family that connects one generation to the next.

The genealogy in Matthew 1 tells the story of Christ’s human
ancestors; evidence that God became flesh and dwelt with us.  Jesus was born into a family whose history, like ours, is filled with stories of heroes and stories that people might prefer to leave hidden.”

During this advent season we will be considering the mothers of the Messiah found in Matthew’s genealogy: Tamar,  Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary.  In recalling their stories, we learn much about Jesus’ earthly family and God’s incredible persistent grace.

I pray that we will all be encouraged by these stories leading up to our Savior’s birth!

May you have a Blessed Christmas!

Pastor Vern    

1 Peter 1:17  Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out
your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. 18  For you know that it was not with
perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of
life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19  but with the precious blood of Christ, a
lamb without blemish or defect. 20  He was chosen before the creation of the world, but
was revealed in these last times for your sake. 21  Through him you believe in God, who
raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.
As summer days draw to an end, I hope that you have enjoyed the warmer weather and
vacations with family and friends. It won’t belong and the church season will begin
again. What a special message we have to share with others, we have been bought with
the precious blood of Christ.
Peter reminds us that God judges each person’s work impartially. So then, God has good
work for all of us to do. I hope you are all ready praying about what you will be plugging
into this Fall. I am really looking forward to the work we will be doing together and may
God receive all the glory, through Jesus Christ his precious Son!
To God be the Glory!
Pastor Vern

Pastor’s July Pondering:

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. Genesis 2:2-3

Rest was built into God’s creation order. He rested on the seventh day, after creating for six consecutive days. It’s hard to imagine that our all-powerful God rested, but He did and he blesses rest. We need rest just as much as we need to work and it requires a balance. If all we did was rest, nothing would get done and our bodies would get weak. If all we did was work things would get done, but our bodies would eventually wear out. We need both work and rest to be whole.

Kris and I both took a rest from our normal work week to enjoy time with our family and with God in nature.  It was a beautiful rest and I want to thank Kibbie for allowing me this time!

Blessings,

Pastor Vern