Has anyone ever said to you, “I can read your face like a book?” If so, you probably should refrain from playing cards.  They generally mean that whatever is in your heart or on your mind is apparent on your face.

The Apostle Paul wrote something similar to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 3:  You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone, revealingthat you are a letter of Christ, delivered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on stone tabletsbut on tablets of human hearts.  We have the opportunity to show others Jesus and the impact that Jesus makes in our hearts and lives.

After Easter, we spent our Sunday morning time together talking about how what Jesus did on Good Friday and Easter Sunday changes everything for us and, changes us.  Easter changes how we count our days—Sunday begins the week for believers rather than the Sabbath.  Easter changes how we see each other, and it changes our stories.  We let the Book of Acts lead us through these sermons.  Our adult Bible class read Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life Together to understand how the community of believers and how we live and worship and work together is changed by what Jesus has done and continues to do for us.

Now, as we enter the summer months our Sunday messages will listen to the stories of some of the lives that were changed by meeting Jesus.  We will start with the disciple Andrew and then meet other disciples, people like Mary and Martha and Mary Magdalene whose names we know and those whose names are not known, like the Woman at the Well.  We will listen to how their lives were changed by meeting Jesus and what we can learn from them.  The Sunday morning Adult Bible class will also focus on “heroes” of the faith as we meet them in the Bible—not necessarily the same ones we will meet in the sermons.  This class will be both Zoom (led by Pastor Jeff Shearier) and in-person (led by Jeff Weiblen).  The class will start June 13.

The series will end on Rally Day Sunday, September 12.   We will invite members to share their faith stories during the worship service, wrapping up our focus on how Jesus changes us.  So, if you think you would like to share your story, let me or Kerry Bauer or Eric Oswald know.  There will be more information to come.

Joy in the journey,

Pastor Jeff Shearier