Jenny’s preaching on Matthew 7.21-29 tomorrow morning, and the picture above seemed to lend itself to the topic at hand for a background slide. It was taken by Trey Ratcliff and is titled “Three Muses of Malaysia.” It’s licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic License. You can see a larger version (with options for even larger versions) at www.flickr.com/photos/stuckincustoms/244574932/.
Updated T-Shirts
Because of a hefty “early adapter tax,” we’ve made some changes to the t-shirts. We’ve moved the logo from “the pocket” to the center on the front of the t-shirt. The back has been left the same. Both front and back t-shirts and front only t-shirts may be purchased. You can find the cafepress store through our website or go straight to www.cafepress.com/firstumc.
Yoga at 11:00 am Tomorrow
Yoga has been moved from 10:00 am to 11:00 am tomorrow.
Voice of the Day
Via Sojourners:
We cannot help conforming ourselves to what we love.
–Francis de Sales
All the more reason to let the love of God reign in our hearts.
Luther
The Aldersgate Experience class and the youth group have both watched the movie 2003 movie Luther, staring Joseph Fiennes as Martin Luther. I highly recommend it and the church library has a copy available to borrow.
Help Wanted
We need someone with a green thumb and a love of landscaping to put the beds in front of the main entrance to the church back in order. If you’re interested/willing please let us know at johnandjenny@revcollins.com.
Biked to Work
Biked into work this afternoon. It’s a first, but something I hope to do all summer. At 2.4 miles (according to Google Maps), I should be able to get my legs into shape in no time.
Voice of the Day: Oscar Romero
Via Sojourners:
“Nothing is so important as human life, as the human person. Above all, the person of the poor and the oppressed… Jesus says that whatever is done to them he takes as done to him. That bloodshed, those deaths are beyond all politics: They touch the very heart of God.”
–Oscar Romero, March 16, 1980
Archbishop Romero was a great advocate for the poor in El Salvador according to Wikipedia:
“Romero was killed by a shot to the heart on March 24, 1980 while celebrating Mass at a small chapel near his cathedral following a sermon where he called on Salvadoran soldiers, as Christians, to obey God’s higher order and to stop carrying out the government’s repression and violations of basic human rights. According to an audio-recording of the Mass, he was shot moments after the homily, which he had concluded with an improvised pre-Eucharistic prayer thanking God (the homily in the Roman Catholic Rite more or less signifies the end of the Liturgy of the Word and the beginning of the Liturgy of the Eucharist or Mass of the Faithful). When he was shot, his blood spilled over the altar.”
“It is believed that the assassins were members of Salvadoran death squads. This view was supported in 1993 by an official U.N. report …”
N. T. Wright on Life After Death
Time magazine has an interview with New Testament Scholar, and Anglican Bishop N. T. Wright on the subject of life after death. N. T. Wright is the author of the book Evil and the Justice of God which I spoke of in Sunday’s Sermon.
Link: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1710844,00.html
Galileo, Darwin, and God
According to Barbara Brown Taylor in The Luminious Web: Essays on Science and Religion, pages 29-30:
“In 1996 Pope John Paul II endorsed evolution as part of God’s master plan, just four years after he lifted the Roman Catholic Church’s three-hundred-fifty-year-old condemnation of Galileo. When he first ordered a reexamination of Galileo’s case in 1980, he made a statement that might have applied to Darwin as well. ‘Research performed in a truly scientific manner can never be in contrast with faith,’ he said, ‘because both profane and religious realities have their origin in the same God.'”
Website Updates
I’ve updated a couple of things on the church website at www.coffeyvillefirstumc.org. A revised version of the Lay Leadership Committee (formerly the Nominating Committee) Report is available on the “Downloads” page and more recommended books have been added to the “Books” page.
About that Second Slide
You may have noticed that the second slide (seen above) in this mornings presentation contained title and photographer information for the photo used in the background of the rest of the presentation . I thought I would explain a little about that here. Most of the time we use actual photographs for the background of our slides. Early on, I purchased photos from istockphoto.com. The problem is that prices at istockphoto.com keep going up. I found a partial solution in that there are many excellent pictures on the popular photo sharing site, flickr.com. These pictures are free and many are licensed for use under a Creative Commons license of the same kind that we use for the church website and this blog. One of the conditions of use is that credit is given to the photographer. This second slide (after the slide with our logo, mission statement, and BHAG) is an attempt to do just that.
The slide above was taken by Trey Ratcliff and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic License.