Thank you to all who came and helped with landscaping last Sunday. Some of the projects tackled were:
1) Dug out the stumps from around the street sign so now flowers can be planted there. (another project for someone?)
2) Removed old shrub stumps from the corner flower bed by the parking lot entrance.
3) Uncovered the sprinkler line along the parking lot on the north side of the church (will be replacing with heavy duty line).
4) Pulled weeds from other flower beds
The Building Committee held an open meeting (anyone could come) last week to discuss Phase #2 of the building project. Our plans have been drawn up for the new entry from the parking lot into the newly remodeled foyer. The entry will look like an entry, plus it will eliminate the slight up-hill grade that our current entry has. The only thing we need right now are the funds to proceed with the next phase. We will have a church Business Meeting on May 5th at 9am to share with the church what the financial need is and what the plans for Phase #2 look like.
It’s a weekend break at Milo Academy this weekend. Fourteen students are staying at the Laurelwood campus. Dotie and Leahry Suhari will be bringing them to church with them tomorrow and they will be having special music for us. They will also be staying for our Fellowship Meal after church … so if you are able to bring a little extra food it would be very much appreciated!
The sermon this week will be back into the book of MARK - chapter 10:1-12. If you take the time to read that passage before Sabbath you will see that it deals with the topic of divorce. As is often the case for me when working on a sermon a topic that seems to be fairly straightforward ends up being very complicated. That certainly is the case when dealing with this issue! There are enough angles to the problem to spend weeks dealing with the issues … how to pick out a good mate / how to be a good spouse / what leads to divorce / how to prevent divorce / better communication skills / … and on and on.
The gift that God has given to us (marriage) was one of the institutions established by God in the Garden of Eden before the fall of man. Imagine that! Marriage is a remnant of God’s plan for men and women in a perfect world. A plan that was intended to bring joy and happiness. After the entrance of sin into our world marriage continued on. It was intended to illustrate to us God’s love and care for us. It was to illustrate the truth that God would never leave us nor forsake us. It was intended to continue to bring happiness and joy in the midst of a broken world. It’s no wonder that Satan works so hard to break up families. To destroy a loving family unit is to destroy the image of God. Satan is after our families at every turn.
Tomorrows sermon will be dealing with only one aspect of the the passage in Mark - that being, “Is adultery really the only justification for divorce?” I hope you find the answer encouraging and right in line with everything else we have seen and heard Jesus do so far in the book of MARK.