Minsky's Pizza, just down the street, has a 5-cheese pizza that everyone in my family seems to enjoy. I had some with my daughter, Becca Eck, on Tuesday. She came over around 6:30 in the evening and brought her two lively border collies: Tucker and Bailey.
Linda was working that night and I was home with three dogs. Our black lab, Buddy the Dog, along with the black lab and Siberian husky of our son and daughter-in-law, Brad and Jill, who are in Seattle this week.
I ordered the pizza and picked it up about 7 o'clock.
Now I know you're expecting me to say the dogs got it. They did not.
They would have, if Rebecca and I had eaten at the dinner table. But we ate at the kitchen bar. It's higher.
So when my son's black lab, Mosby, lunges for her favorite food on earth...as she always does when pizza is in the house...it's easier to block her when she sneaks up on our blind side.
Also, we gave all the dogs a fresh rawhide strip to chew on while we ate.
Live and learn. Then eat your pizza. |
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Sunday's session:
How to spot a fraud Christian
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Sunday
"We've been studying the letters of 1, 2 Peter for the past 3 weeks, in a unit called Christians in the fying pan.
Terrry Bahadur closes out our final session in the series this Sunday.
Bible passage:
2 Peter 2:1-22 |
Upcoming:
PAUL, FOR BETTER OR WORSE
2.1, Rick Stones, "We're saved. Count on Jesus for that."
2.8, Gary Schlotzhauer, Worship etiquette
2.15, Jim Snowbird Buffington, A letter to a slave owner
2.22, Terry Bahadur, Be nice to each other, guys |
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2 Peter 2: False Prophets and Teachers
1 Sometimes false prophets spoke to the people of Israel. False teachers will also sneak in and speak harmful lies to you. But these teachers don’t really belong to the Master who paid a great price for them, and they will quickly destroy themselves. 2 Many people will follow their evil ways and cause others to tell lies about the true way. 3 They will be greedy and cheat you with smooth talk. But long ago God decided to punish them, and God doesn’t sleep.
4 God did not have pity on the angels that sinned. He had them tied up and thrown into the dark pits of hell until the time of judgment. 5 And during Noah’s time, God did not have pity on the ungodly people of the world. He destroyed them with a flood, though he did save eight people, including Noah, who preached the truth.
6 God punished the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah[a] by burning them to ashes, and this is a warning to anyone else who wants to sin.
7-8 Lot lived right and was greatly troubled by the terrible way those wicked people were living. He was a good man, and day after day he suffered because of the evil things he saw and heard. So the Lord rescued him. 9 This shows that the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their sufferings and to punish evil people while they wait for the day of judgment.
10 The Lord is especially hard on people who disobey him and don’t think of anything except their own filthy desires. They are reckless and proud and are not afraid of cursing the glorious beings in heaven. 11 Although angels are more powerful than these evil beings,[b] even the angels don’t dare to accuse them to the Lord.
12 These people are no better than senseless animals that live by their feelings and are born to be caught and killed. They speak evil of things they don’t know anything about. But their own corrupt deeds will destroy them. 13 They have done evil, and they will be rewarded with evil.
They think it is fun to have wild parties during the day. They are immoral, and the meals they eat with you are spoiled by the shameful and selfish way they carry on.[c] 14 All they think about is having sex with someone else’s husband or wife. There is no end to their wicked deeds. They trick people who are easily fooled, and their minds are filled with greedy thoughts. But they are headed for trouble!
15 They have left the true road and have gone down the wrong path by following the example of the prophet Balaam. He was the son of Beor and loved what he got from being a crook. 16 But a donkey corrected him for this evil deed. It spoke to him with a human voice and made him stop his foolishness.
17 These people are like dried up water holes and clouds blown by a windstorm. The darkest part of hell is waiting for them. 18 They brag out loud about their stupid nonsense. And by being vulgar and crude, they trap people who have barely escaped from living the wrong kind of life. 19 They promise freedom to everyone. But they are merely slaves of filthy living, because people are slaves of whatever controls them.
20 When they learned about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they escaped from the filthy things of this world. But they are again caught up and controlled by these filthy things, and now they are in worse shape than they were at first. 21 They would have been better off if they had never known about the right way. Even after they knew what was right, they turned their backs on the holy commandments that they were given. 22 What happened to them is just like the true saying,
“A dog will come back
to lick up its own vomit.
A pig that has been washed
will roll in the mud.”[Footnotes:
2.6 Sodom and Gomorrah: During the time of Abraham the Lord destroyed these cities because the people there were so evil (see Genesis 19.24).
2.11 evil beings: Or “evil teachers.”
2.13 and the meals they eat with you are spoiled by the shameful and selfish way they carry on: Some manuscripts have “and the meals they eat with you are spoiled by the shameful way they carry on during your feasts of Christian love.”]
REZCHAT CALENDAR
- Second Sunday Social: February 8
- Chewables and cafe: [open date; the new list starts 2.25.15]
- Class elections before February 28
- Feed the hungry, Central United Methodist Church, March 14, Sept. 12
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It's a dad thing
A few weeks ago my daughter, Becca Eck, sang in church a Christmas ballad I had never heard before: Winter Snow.
I love to hear her sing, but sometimes she wows me like nobody's business. That was one of those times.
I asked Shawn Simpson if I could get a copy of the recording. He was kind enough to email me one. Normally, I just add the song to my digital music file, and then listen to her sing from time to time. But this song felt different.
So I made a little extra effort, and put some visuals to it. Then I posted it on YouTube. With Rebecca's permission, I released it for public viewing on Wednesday.
If you haven't seen it yet and would like to, here's the link: Winter Snow. |
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Class elections
Class leader Bill Fitzherbert has asked that if any of you are willing to lead any of the class teams for the next class year, which begins on March 1, please let us know.
You can hit the Reply button on this email and send me a note. I'll pass it on to Bill. Or you can corner him at church.
Gary Tranbarger made a pass at abbreviating the team leader job descriptions. I've tried to pull together what Gary suggested along with a couple of notes from others and a few thoughts of my own.
Team leaders serve for 12 months, beginning on March 1.
Here's what we have as of this draft:
RezChat Bible Study mission statement:
Build a Christian community where non-religious and nominally religious people are becoming deeply committed Christians by studying the Bible, discussing their questions about the Christian faith, and putting their faith into action.
Class leader, Bill Fitzherbert
[Gary T. suggests dropping one line item about making sure team leaders are doing their job. Steve would like to suggest it would be helpful to keep some version of this so someone maintains general oversight of the class. See the following suggestion:
1. Monitor team leaders and arrange to help any who are having trouble fulfilling their ministry responsibilities.]
2. Either lead or arrange for someone else to lead the classes opening each Sunday: welcome, introductions, prayer requests, praises, prayer. Then turn session over to discussion leader.
3. Arrange to send class e-mail updates about general class news and upcoming events
Class treasurer: Linda Miller
[Gary T. suggested making this a separate team. Actually, it has been, I think. We’ve just gotten in the habit of keeping Linda Miller and Tim Edwards as the co-treasurers because they both have their names on the bank account, I think dating back to when Tim was class leader for a year.]
Curriculum team, Steve Miller and Cris Bahadur
1. Create a curriculum track of lesson topics for 12 months
2. Arrange for discussion leaders to direct each class session
3. Survey the class at least once a year for evaluation and for ideas about how to make the sessions more meaningful
4. Create an atmosphere that encourages everyone to participate in class
5. Find ways to engage the interest of people
6. Try to make sure everyone sees how the study topic applies to our lives today
Publicity team, Tim Edwards
1. Update slides for presentation to run before and after church.
2. Each year discuss the following:
• Explore ways to make everyone in the church aware of the RezChat Bible study class
• Keep the RezChat promotional info on the church web site up to date
• Invite promotional ideas from others in the class
Hospitality team, Karen Fitzherbert
1. Fill out the attendance book
2. Have first-time guests provide contact information
3. Send first-time visitors a card or e-mail
4. Contact class members who have been missing a week or two when no one knows why they have been absent
5. Contact class members who have been missing for an extended time
6. Direct the signups for Sunday morning chewables and café
[Gary T. suggested combining Social and Mission teams. But the current Social and Mission team leaders prefer the separation and are willing to continue for another year. Linda Miller likes working with the social side of things. Lisa Rock prefers the mission. With that in mind, I adjusted the team descriptions, following Gary’s advice for the content, but separating the responsibilities into 2 teams.]
Social team, Linda Miller
1. Plan each Second Sunday Social
[Steve would also suggest:
2. Plan other social events throughout the year, as the class shows interest]
Mission team, Lisa and Dave Rock
1. Schedule class to participate in one Mega Mission Project together
[Steve would suggest adding 2 more:
2. Arrange for the class to prepare and serve a meal at Central United Methodist Church as the schedules allow
3. Plan other mission events, as the class shows interest] |
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