Updates (Page 2)

Dear SCC & Friends, Not to us… ~Psalm 115:1 Reflection #205                  I have often quoted the opening line from The Purpose Driven Life… “It’s not about you.” A simple statement that captures focus and purpose for our lives. It’s far too easy to lead a “me-centered life” and use our God-given gifts for self-centered reasons. The problem with “self” is that it is an endless abyss that can never be fully satisfied. The more we feed it, the more…

Dear SCC & Friends, Compassionate and gracious… ~Psalm 103:8 Reflection #204                  You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you. ~John Bunyon~ Compassion is synonymous with love and mercy and demonstrates our capacity to care and focus beyond ourselves. Bear one another’s burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ. ~Gal. 6:2 Compassion begins with God and is not something we earn but something we receive from Him. We love because He first loved us and are the…

Dear SCC & Friends, He first loved us… ~1 John 4:19 Reflection #203                  When our children were young, I made the rounds each night tucking them in. Sometimes I would read to them or tell a “war story,” and loved to see their eyes light up when I told them how I got into trouble as a kid. One of our meaningful interactions became routine… “Why do I love you so much?” They’d roll their eyes because they already knew the…

January 17, 2024 Dear SCC & Friends, The secret of the Lord… ~Psalm 25:14 Reflection #202                  The year was 1972. We were “blissful” newlyweds living in Virginia. It was a small apartment, and our upstairs neighbor heard us arguing about how to put up the Christmas tree. What he heard I do not know, but he came down to help and brought a few Christmas lights for our use. Mr. Kosine was 95 years old, still driving and crystal…

Dear SCC & Friends, Honor all men… ~1 Peter 2:17 Reflection #201                  On the whole, it is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them. ~Mark Twain~ If we’re honest, we might admit that there are some that make it very hard to honor. Simply put, how do we honor those that rub us the wrong way? They talk too much or don’t talk at all… and nearly every conversation is…

  Dear SCC & Friends, …I will do something new. ~Isaiah 43:19 Reflection #200                  The only way to get rid of your past is to make a future of it. God will waste nothing. ~Phillip Brooks~ It’s a new year, and the old cliché echoes, “Out with the old and in with the new.” Yet, it is the old which God has used to give us substance and bring us to this very day. Nothing is to be wasted…

Dear SCC & Friends, …An appointed time… ~Ecclesiastes 3:1 Reflection #199                  God never made a promise that was too good to be true. ~D.L. Moody~ His timing is one of the great mysteries of life. All too often, it is only in retrospect that we see the wisdom of God’s timing. The Lord is never too early or too late. What seems like a delay is only a delay to us but not to Him. There are no circumstances…

Dear SCC & Friends, Now it came about… ~Luke 2:1 Reflection #198 Two thousand years ago the Roman Empire was rife with political intrigue, ethnic tension, and immorality. Palestine was occupied under the crush of Rome. All eyes were on Augustus, the Caesar who demanded a census so as to determine a measurement to enlarge taxes. At that time, who noticed a couple making an eighty-mile trip south from Nazareth? What could possibly be more important than Caesar’s decisions in…

Dear SCC & Friends, Immanuel ~Isaiah 7:14 Reflection #197                  The name Immanuel is of Hebrew origin and means God with us. His name emphasizes that which is the center of the center which is our relationship to God… …I am with you always, even to the end of the age. ~Matt. 28:20 He came to seek and save the lost… He bore our sins and was wounded for our transgressions. He put His righteousness on us and took our…

Dear SCC & Friends, … Knocking… ~Matthew 7:7 Reflection #196                  Recent reflections have been about asking and seeking, and we’d be remiss to overlook the third part of the trifecta… knock and it shall be opened. All three, ask, seek and knock have a present tense dimension… Ask is continually asking, seek is continually seeking, and knock is continually knocking. Knocking is a physical action and spiritual metaphor that takes intentionality and persistence. Even when we ask and receive,…

Dear SCC & Friends, … Seek… ~Matthew 7:7 Reflection #195                  Ready or not here I come! Every child knows the excitement of playing hide and seek… the glee of finding the person who thought they had the perfect hiding place. It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter. ~Prov. 25:2 Seek and you shall find is more accurately translated continually seek, which calls for an ongoing…

Dear SCC & Friends, … give thanks… ~1 Thessalonians 5:18 Reflection #194                  Are we going to have a prayer, it’s Thanksgiving you know? Before we’re served, shouldn’t we say grace? Lucy asks Linus to pray, and he begins with a brief history lesson… In the year 1621, the Pilgrims held their first Thanksgiving feast. They invited the great Indian chief Massasoit, who brought ninety of his brave Indians and a great abundance of food. Governor William Bradford and Captain…