MARCH 2020 BELL RINGER - TIMNATH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH Dear Friends, It seems impossible that we have been with you now for a full year. As I think back on our time in Timnath many things come to mind. We have made many new friends, we have walked with some of you through very dark valleys, and we have celebrated great events in your lives. It has been a wonderful time of ministry and service to the Lord which we will not soon forget. We look forward to the next few months as we continue serving you and this congregation in the community of Timnath. Again, we find ourselves at the beginning of Lent. The time when Christians have traditionally focused on deepening their relationship with Jesus the Lord and Savior. We often use this time for practicing various spiritual disciplines. One of which has been fasting. Some take this very seriously and fast for a meal or a day each week during Lent. Some, in the same vein, fast from a pleasure, such as not eating chocolate or other decadent desserts. These are great ways to focus on our spiritual growth, especially if we add to our fasting extra time for spiritual reading and/or Bible reading. Lent is a great time to read through a gospel, and the Gospel of Mark is a great one, although during this year I will be preaching from the Gospel of Mahew. I saw a great poster on Facebook that pointed to a different type of fasting. It is supposed to come from Pope Francis, whether that is true or not, it is still a great idea to do during Lent. Finally, I want to leave you with a prayer of St Paul. It speaks of the way I have been and will continue to pray for you all. He writes: I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:3-11 NIV In God’s Grip Pastor Charley
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MARCH 2020 BELL RINGER - TIMNATH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Dear Friends,
It seems impossible that we have been with you now for a full year. As I think back on our time in Timnath many things come to mind. We have made many new friends, we have walked with some of you through very dark valleys, and we have celebrated great events in your lives. It has been a wonderful time of ministry and service to the Lord which we will not soon forget. We look forward to the next few months as we continue serving you and this congregation in the community of Timnath.
Again, we find ourselves at the beginning of Lent. The time when Christians have traditionally focused on deepening their relationship with Jesus the Lord and Savior. We often use this time for practicing various spiritual disciplines. One of which has been fasting. Some take this very seriously and fast for a meal or a day each week during Lent. Some, in the same vein, fast from a pleasure, such as not eating chocolate or other decadent desserts. These are great ways to focus on our spiritual growth, especially if we add to our fasting extra time for spiritual reading and/or Bible reading. Lent is a great time to read through a gospel, and the Gospel of Mark is a great one, although during this year I will be preaching from the Gospel of Matthew.
I saw a great poster on Facebook that pointed to a different type of fasting. It is supposed to come from Pope Francis, whether that is true or not, it is still a great idea to do during Lent.
Finally, I want to leave you with a prayer of St Paul. It speaks of the way I have been and will continue to pray for you all. He writes:
I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:3-11 NIV
In God’s Grip
Pastor Charley
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MARCH 2020 BELL RINGER - TIMNATH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
The sun bore down on my neck as I walked
through neatly laid stones, each row like
another line in a massive book. My eyes
strained to take in all of the information—name,
age, rank, country—and perhaps also death
itself, the fragility of life, the harsh reality of
war. In that field of graves, a war memorial for
men lost as prisoners of war, slaves laboring to
construct the Burma-Siam railway, I felt as the
psalmist: “laid low in the dust.” Or like Job,
sitting among the dust
and ashes of a great
tragedy. Then one stone
stopped my wandering
and said what I could
not. On an epitaph in the
middle of the cemetery
was written: “There shall
be in that great earth, a
richer dust concealed.”(1)
It is helpful, I think, to be
reminded that we are
dust. We are
material. When we die,
we remain material. It is
a reminder to hold as we
move through life—through successes,
disappointments, questions, and answers. For
the Christian, it is also a truth to help us
approach the vast and terrible circumstances
leading up to the crucifixion of the human son
of God. Beginning with the ashes of Ash
Wednesday, the journey through Lent into the
light and darkness of Holy Week is for those
The Journey of Dust made in dust who will return to dust, those
willing to trace the breath that began all of life
to the place where Christ breathed his last. It is
a journey that expends everything within us.
There is a Latin word that was once used to
denote the provisions necessary for a person
going on a long journey—the clothes, food, and
money the traveler would need along the way.
“Viaticum” was a word often used by Roman
magistrates. It was the payment or goods given
to those who were sent
into the provinces to
exercise an office or
perform a service. The
viaticum was vital
provision for an uncertain
journey. Fittingly, the
early church employed
this image to speak of the
Eucharist when it was
administered to a dying
person. The viaticum, the
bread of Communion,
was seen as sustenance
for Christians on their
way from this world into
another. Sometime later, the word was used not
only to describe a last Communion, but as the
Sacrament of Communion for all people. It is as
if to say: our communion with Christ is
provision for the way home. The viaticum is
God’s answer to Jacob’s vow, “If God will be
with me and will watch over me on this journey
(Continued on Page 3)
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MARCH 2020 BELL RINGER - TIMNATH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Afternoon Circle meets on the second Thursday
of each month and during March we will meet
on the 12th. Come and enjoy a potluck lunch as
we meet in the home of Bunny Goshorn. Bring
a thought to share that gives incite and teaches
us how to improve our lives. Mission lesson
and the least coin stories will also be shared.
It is always good time to join us.
I am taking and will give me food to eat and
clothes to wear so that I return safely to my
father’s house, then the LORD will be my
God.”(2) It is what Christ offered when he said,
“Take and eat. This is my body.” The journey
from dust to dust and back to the Father’s house
would be far too great without it—without him.
Today, our humanity is beckoned to face its
humble beginnings on this Ash Wednesday. We
are given 40 days to journey with this thought,
to follow in the vicarious humanity of the Son
where he leads us, until we are leveled by the
bright sadness of Holy Week. From the
invitation to consume his body and blood in the
Last Supper to the desolation of that body on
the Cross, we are undone by events that began
before us and will continue to be remembered
long after we are gone. The season of Lent is a
stark reminder that we are, in the words of
Isaiah or the sentiments of the psalmist, like
grass that withers, flowers that blow away like
dust. But so we are, in this great earth, a richer
dust concealed. Walking in cemeteries we
realize this; communing with Christ we
encounter it. Walking through Lent as dust and
ashes invites us to see our need for the Father’s
unchanging provision: We are offered the Cross,
communion and forgiveness, the body of one
broken, hope in one raised, and the life
everlasting.
A slice of Infinity Jill Carattini Feb 19 2020
Jill Carattini is managing editor of A Slice of Infinity at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in
Atlanta, Georgia.
(1) This is a line from a poem of Rupert Brookes entitled “1914.”
(2) Genesis 28:20-22.
(Continued from Page 2: The Journey of Dust)
AFTERNOON CIRCLE NOOMA BIBLE STUDY
Starting March 25th, a new bible study will
begin on Wednesday evenings from 6:30 p.m. to
7:30 p.m. This will be hosted at the Gillespie
home and led by Pastor Cary. This Nooma bible
study is a series of short videos featuring former