Psalm 27: 1 Last weeks Sermon Theme verse

Daily Prayer for January 11 Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm 27:1, RSV Our dear Father, we ask you to come to us from heaven and surround us with your goodness and mercy, with your light and life. We are weak, poor, and lost just when we need to stand firm and hold on. But you are faithful. You stay by us and help us. Continue to help and sustain us, we pray. Do not let our lives be lived in vain. May something of eternity be with us in all we have to face in life, so that over and over again we may find courage to start anew. Amen.

Zion Lutheran's E-Update

Angel Whispers

New Year Prayer

Ignite Worship: January 8th @ Zion Lutheran

Sola Worship: January 8th @ Zion Lutheran

Scripture Reminder for Today

Which Cross do you bear today?

Daily Dig for January 7

Sadhu Sundar Singh

Whether we like it or not, we will encounter suffering and danger in our lives. If we do not bear the cross of the Master, we will have to bear the cross of the world – with all its earthly goods. Those who bear the Master’s cross know from experience that this cross bears them and takes them safely to their destiny. But the cross of this world actually drags us down and leads to destruction. Which cross have you taken up? Pause and consider.

What it means to be the church

I came across this paragraph today and thought it was a good reminder of what we will do again tomorrow morning as we gather for worship at Zion Lutheran.

"Every Sunday morning I wake up knowing I get to gather with a great bunch of people.

We are not perfect, in fact, we fuss some.

We are not all the same, that's for sure!

And we don't all see eye-to-eye on everything.

But we do all seem to have one thing we like to do.

We like to help people who have fallen down (just like us),

who are struggling with issues (just like us)

and looking for something solid in life (just like us).

We gather around the Bible,

we encourage one another

and we serve each other.

Its a great place.

We call it the local church."

Have a great Sunday and never forget the power of the local church!
Mike Holmes of REACHKEEP.

ELCA Ecumenical Overview at-a-Glance

Epiphany - January 6, 2017

Epiphany sends us into the world

to witness to the light of Christ in the darkness.

What Would Luther Do Today?

Join Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton in a FREE “Big Class” offered by ChurchNext

Have you ever wondered what Martin Luther would do if he were here today? Join Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton and thousands of learners around the world in a free course where you will learn how to apply Luther’s thoughts and writings to contemporary issues.

Offered by ChurchNext in partnership with Augsburg Fortress and United Lutheran Seminary, this course or “Big Class” provides a rich learning environment for those seeking to gain a better understanding of how Lutheranism might address current affairs.

The course opens January 16 and is free through January 30. Because you can watch the course anytime, it's perfect for individuals, as well as small and large groups. (Group resources are available here.)

Secure your spot and learn in community with those around the world and with Presiding Bishop Eaton how Martin Luther might deal with the pressing issues of today.

Remember today, this week and everyday this month.

I am God's child, deserving of love and respect, and God will use me to change the world.

Say it to yourself again and again.

This week in my reading of blogs I cam across this one entitled; 6 Disruptive Church Trends That Will Rule 2017 by Carey Nieuwhof. Here Carey outlines what he sees as six trends that will be affecting the church in 2017. The six are:

1. Consumer Christianity will die faster than ever

2. Cool Church will Morph

3. Preachers Who Can’t Speak to the Unchurched Will Preach to a Shrinking Crowd

4. Preaching will fuse both the head and the heart

5. Anonymity will continue to give way to community

6. Engagement will become the new attendance

I found the article a good springboard for thoughts about the ministry here at Zion. Maybe we can start come conversation around these ideas and begin to think about where God is leading Zion in 2017. Here is the link to the full article.

http://careynieuwhof.com/6-disruptive-church-trends-that-will-rule-2017/

Zion's Midweek E-Update Video

January 5, 2017 Video Blog for Zion's Midweek E-Update.

New Years Day, 2017 @ Zion Lutheran Church

Growing in Christ at Zion

Growing in Christ at Zion

Speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.—Ephesians 4:15

Happy New Year everyone. It’s hard to believe that January of 2017 begins my 23rd month as senior pastor of Zion. Together we have faced the trials and the joys of ministry. Together we have followed Jesus, trying new things, and being faithful in old things. We succeeded sometimes and failed at other times. Thankfully, God has been faithful each and every day. I don’t know what 2017 will hold for any of us, but I do know that God will continue to be faithful.  I know that there will be new opportunities: to risk, to be persistent, to be faithful, and to be bold in our choices for God. 

I read a blog post just before Christmas that told about a young girl who was having pain in her big toe. She told her mom and the mom responded not by rolling her eyes, but by having her take off her shoe. There didn’t seem to be any redness in the toe, so it didn’t look infected—no emergency room or clinic needed. But then as the mom was getting ready to face the busyness of the day, she glanced down at her daughters other foot, still wearing her shoe. The mom knelt and touched her foot. She found that her daughter’s toes were at the edge of her shoe. She had outgrown them. They went to the shoe store and found that she needed a size 7½ shoe. She had been wearing a shoe that was 4½. The girl’s shoes were many sizes smaller than what was needed. A few days later, with new shoes her toe was no longer hurting. A little space can make a big difference in our pain and in our growing. 

I remember when my kids were growing out of their shoes, pants and shirts almost faster than we could get to the store to replace them. It made me think about what we may be outgrowing in our faith and what kind of new space we need for growth in our lives.

How are we growing in Christ? Have you outgrown your Sunday School education? Have you continued to grow in your profession and in your daily life, but in Christ have simple relied on what you learned when you were a youth in Sunday school?  What kind of new space do you need in your faith journey so that you can grow? What do you need to do to create new space?

2017 begins the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s protest against the papacy that led to the protestant Reformation. Zion will have weekly offerings during the faith formation hour that will focus on Martin Luther and his teachings. There will be inspiring Bible study opportunities as well. Challenge yourself to learn more and grow in your faith.

What needs to be re-formed in your life, in your faith? Is 2017 the time you step out into a larger sized journey of discovery? A new year is a time to begin new holy habits. Join us here at Zion as we continue to Know Christ, Grow in Christ and Make Christ known.

That you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God.—Colossians 1:10 

The annual Beloit College Mindset List has been released.
Most students entering college for the first time this fall were born in 1991.

The list for the Class of 2013 has just been released. Here are a few of the items:

~ For these students, Martha Graham, Pan American Airways, Michael Landon, Dr. Seuss, Miles Davis, The Dallas Times Herald, Gene Roddenberry and Freddie Mercury have always been dead.
~ The Green Giant has always been Shrek -- not the big guy picking vegetables.
~ They have never used a card catalog to find a book.
~ Margaret Thatcher has always been a former prime minister.
~ Salsa has always outsold ketchup.
~ Tattoos have always been very chic and highly visible.
~ Rap music has always been mainstream.
~ Chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream has always been a flavor choice.
~ Babies have always had a Social Security Number.
~ They have never had to "shake down" an oral thermometer.
~ Bungee jumping has always been socially acceptable.
~ They have never understood the meaning of R.S.V.P.

~ McDonald's has always been serving Happy Meals in China.
~ Condoms have always been advertised on television.
~ Cable television systems have always offered telephone service and vice versa.
~ Bobby Cox has always managed the Atlanta Braves.
~ Desperate smokers have always been able to turn to Nicoderm skin patches.
~ Their folks could always reach for a Zoloft.
~ They have always been able to read books on an electronic screen.
~ Women have always outnumbered men in college.
~ We have always watched wars, coups and police arrests unfold on television in real time.
~ Amateur radio operators have never needed to know Morse code.
~ Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Latvia, Georgia, Lithuania and Estonia have always been independent nations.
~There have always been flat-screen televisions.
~ Everyone has always known what the evening news was before the Evening News came on.
~ Britney Spears has always been heard on classic rock stations.
~ They have never been Saved by the Bell
~ Most communities have always had a mega-church.
~ The status of gays in the military has always been a topic of political debate.
~ There has always been a computer in the Oval Office.
~ Migration of once independent media like radio, TV, videos and compact discs to the computer has never amazed them.
~ Nobody has ever responded to "Help, I've fallen and I can't get up."
~ There has always been blue Jell-O.

(Copyright © 2009 Beloit College; click here to visit their site and read the entire list.)

Take this opportunity to pray for all those young men and women entering college this year -- that they will remain strong in their faith while in school and that those who don't know Christ will encounter a faithful Christian witness while in college.

Phony Living

I was reading an on-line devotion and came across this paragraph.
Like the set of a television show, behind the scenes, where the camera doesn’t go, life can be a messy network of plastic, metal, and wood—a flimsy facade—held together with cheap material and duct tape. Phony living could happen in your house or my house or any house . . . even the White House. Phoniness can find a way in. From the Pastors, Role, Soul and Home by Chuck Swindoll.

We put on a good face for the world, we clean the house, but usually we have a junk room, where we can close the door and pretend that everything has it’s place. Movie and TV sets look so real, but just a few feet beyond the facade the phony building is exposed.

This summer as you take time to vacation, relax, get caught up. Don’t fool yourself that you can live without the power of God’s love in your life. When that idea takes root, its’ like getting out the duck tape. The one we call Christ, Lord, Savior, Jesus, sees right through the masks we wear to our broken, hurting hearts.

If I were to set up the cameras behind the scenes of your private life, what would everyone see? Scary thought? Jesus sees it right now and still loves you. This is Good News. Something we need even in the middle of the summer.

FATHER'S DAY QUOTES

"By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he's wrong." (Charles Wadsworth)

"I've had a hard life, but my hardships are nothing against the hardships that my father went through in order to get me to where I started." (Bartrand Hubbard)

"The older I get, the smarter my father seems to get." (Tim Russert)

"A father's words are like a thermostat that sets the temperature in the house." (Paul Lewis)

"If the new American father feels bewildered and even defeated, let him take comfort from the fact that whatever he does in any fathering situation has a 50 percent chance of being right." (Bill Cosby)