DEVOTION: (from Pastor Klaustermeier) (NOTE: A lot of the time the devotion for the day is from Lutheran Hour Ministries, but today I wanted to start the year off with my own thoughts and some new NEWS.)
Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Colossians 3:16-17
2012 has begun. Most of us are back to work and school. One question that remains unaswered is what this year is going to be like. Is it going to be the same as 2011? Is it going to be worse or better? For most of us, our hope and prayer is that it is better. We all made mistakes in 2011 that we would like to forget about. We have learned from them and now it is time to move forward to a better day. As Paul said in his letter to the Philippians, "One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." We have made our resolutions and now it is time to get going on them and make our ideas and our plans come to fruition. It is time to get to work and do the things that need to be done. God has given us our mission and we have chosen, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to accept and fulfill it!
How do we go about doing it? What steps should we take? What should our attitude be? As it says in our reading for today everything that we do should be done with thankfulness and gratitude. Everything should be done with a sense of joy and a sense of peace in the knowledge of our salvation. Everything should be done in the name of Jesus.
Do your plans and resolutions include this very important ingredient? Are you doing things in the name of Jesus? Do you have gratitude in your heart for what he has done for you? If not, take time out today to add this special ingredient to what you want to accomplish. Go to the Lord in prayer and ask Him to be in and to guide all that you want to accomplish.
As a church, we have plans too. One of the biggest things that we have planned for the church in 2012 is the start of a New worship service starting on Sunday, January 29 at 11am. I like to call it a "Chapel" service. It will be modeled after the hundreds of chapel services I, and many of you, attended and led as students and teachers in Lutheran schools and churches across America.
It will be geared toward young people, young families, and the young at heart.
Below are some details of the service:
1. We will have more interaction with the congregation during our songs and during the message. (Think doing motions and other fun things during the songs and question/answer time during the sermon.) There will be more teaching and more explanation of things.
2. We will incorporate more multimedia (video and audio).
3. The service will be a bit shorter to accomodate younger families. We should be done by noon every Sunday, even on communion Sundays. ( Consider it "Wiggle" friendly.)
4. Music will be a variety of more "modern" songs and songs from "All God's People Sing" on piano. We will also do many of the old favorites. (We don't have a praise team right now, but I am still hopeful that some folks will volunteer to help us out with guitars and things.)
5. Communion will be on 1st and 3rd Sundays of each month.
6. Most importantly, as with all of our worship services, it will be done in the name of our Trinue God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
What we ask of you from now until January 29 is that you support this endeavor, that you invite people who would, for whatever reason, would like to attend this type of worship, and that you pray for this endeavor and for our church in general that it owuld be blessed beyond measure in 2012.
If you have any skills or talents that you feel would benefit this service please contact me at 359-1061.
Then on January 29, COME to the service and participate.
The vision is that this will be a great blessing to our church and that it will fit the needs of young families, kids, teenagers, and the young at heart so that we can bring more people into the body of Christ this year than ever before.
Prayer: Lord God, help me to move forward in faith and to do your will, praising you in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude and thankfulness in my hear to You that you will be praised and honored in ALL things and that others will see my good works and glorify YOU by coming to faith in YOU! Amen.
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YESTERDAY'S QUIZ: Who was Apollos? (fron Wikipedia) Apollos was an apostle who is also a 1st century Alexandrian Jewish Christian mentioned several times in the New Testament. After the Christian couple Priscilla and Aquila corrected his incomplete Christian doctrine, his special gifts in preaching Jesus persuasively made him an important person in the congregation at Corinth, Greece after Paul's first visit there.[1 Cor. 3:6] He was with Paul at a later date in Ephesus
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Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Colossians 3:16-17
2012 has begun. Most of us are back to work and school. One question that remains unaswered is what this year is going to be like. Is it going to be the same as 2011? Is it going to be worse or better? For most of us, our hope and prayer is that it is better. We all made mistakes in 2011 that we would like to forget about. We have learned from them and now it is time to move forward to a better day. As Paul said in his letter to the Philippians, "One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." We have made our resolutions and now it is time to get going on them and make our ideas and our plans come to fruition. It is time to get to work and do the things that need to be done. God has given us our mission and we have chosen, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to accept and fulfill it!
How do we go about doing it? What steps should we take? What should our attitude be? As it says in our reading for today everything that we do should be done with thankfulness and gratitude. Everything should be done with a sense of joy and a sense of peace in the knowledge of our salvation. Everything should be done in the name of Jesus.
Do your plans and resolutions include this very important ingredient? Are you doing things in the name of Jesus? Do you have gratitude in your heart for what he has done for you? If not, take time out today to add this special ingredient to what you want to accomplish. Go to the Lord in prayer and ask Him to be in and to guide all that you want to accomplish.
As a church, we have plans too. One of the biggest things that we have planned for the church in 2012 is the start of a New worship service starting on Sunday, January 29 at 11am. I like to call it a "Chapel" service. It will be modeled after the hundreds of chapel services I, and many of you, attended and led as students and teachers in Lutheran schools and churches across America.
It will be geared toward young people, young families, and the young at heart.
Below are some details of the service:
1. We will have more interaction with the congregation during our songs and during the message. (Think doing motions and other fun things during the songs and question/answer time during the sermon.) There will be more teaching and more explanation of things.
2. We will incorporate more multimedia (video and audio).
3. The service will be a bit shorter to accomodate younger families. We should be done by noon every Sunday, even on communion Sundays. ( Consider it "Wiggle" friendly.)
4. Music will be a variety of more "modern" songs and songs from "All God's People Sing" on piano. We will also do many of the old favorites. (We don't have a praise team right now, but I am still hopeful that some folks will volunteer to help us out with guitars and things.)
5. Communion will be on 1st and 3rd Sundays of each month.
6. Most importantly, as with all of our worship services, it will be done in the name of our Trinue God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
What we ask of you from now until January 29 is that you support this endeavor, that you invite people who would, for whatever reason, would like to attend this type of worship, and that you pray for this endeavor and for our church in general that it owuld be blessed beyond measure in 2012.
If you have any skills or talents that you feel would benefit this service please contact me at 359-1061.
Then on January 29, COME to the service and participate.
The vision is that this will be a great blessing to our church and that it will fit the needs of young families, kids, teenagers, and the young at heart so that we can bring more people into the body of Christ this year than ever before.
Prayer: Lord God, help me to move forward in faith and to do your will, praising you in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude and thankfulness in my hear to You that you will be praised and honored in ALL things and that others will see my good works and glorify YOU by coming to faith in YOU! Amen.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
YESTERDAY'S QUIZ: Who was Apollos? (fron Wikipedia) Apollos was an apostle who is also a 1st century Alexandrian Jewish Christian mentioned several times in the New Testament. After the Christian couple Priscilla and Aquila corrected his incomplete Christian doctrine, his special gifts in preaching Jesus persuasively made him an important person in the congregation at Corinth, Greece after Paul's first visit there.[1 Cor. 3:6] He was with Paul at a later date in Ephesus
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TODAY'S QUIZ: When God looked down at man and saw his wickedness he said "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be ______ years." Please fill in the blank with the right number of years God gave man to live on the earth.
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CATECHISM:
6th commandment: You shall not steal.
Question: What does God require of us in the seventh commandment?
Answer:
a. We should help our neighbor to improve and protect that person's possessions and income.
b. We should help our neighbor in every need.
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CHURCH CALENDAR
Tues- Quilters 9-2; Bible study 11:30-12:15
Wed- Bell choir 6:30; Choir 7:30
Thurs- Jonesburg Nursing Home worship 10:30; Alzheimer's Support group 1-2pm
Fri- (On your January calendars it is says the youth are going to the Rock, but that has been rescheduled for February.)
Sat- worship 5pm
Sun- Bible Study 8; worship 9; Bible Study and Sunday school 10:15
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NEWS:
NEWS:
PASTOR NOW HAS TEXTING ON HIS PHONE
I know it is about five years too late, but I have finally joined the 21st century's most used form of communication. If texting is the best way to communicate with you, I urge you to give me your cell phone number so I can communicate better with you in 2012. I am even thinking of sending out a "Bible Verse Text of the Day" to all who would want it.
I especially want to urge our young people to send me their cell numbers so I can better communicate with them.
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OFFICERS AND BOARD MEMBERS WILL BE INSTALLED THIS WEEKEND AT OUR WORSHIP SERVICE
Whether you are newly elected or are continuing to serve your term, please be there to be installed for 2012. It is important that the congregation see who their leaders are so that they can pray for and support them.
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ANYONE WANT TO GO DOWN TO JOPLIN WITH ME FOR A COUPLE DAYS IN JANUARY DURING THE WEEK?
WORKERS NEEDED IN JOPLIN
Immanuel Lutheran Church in in Joplin is taking workers to help with construction.
YOU CAN GO ON YOUR OWN IF YOU WANT or, I'd love to take a group for a couple days in January and/or February to work on some houses.
Trent Davis, Immanuel's director of disaster response sent the following:
"The Lord has blessed us with the ability to get five decent sized projects under roof before the weather has gotten too ugly here, however we have only a few teams committed from Dec-Feb. We need additional teams.
All help will be greatly appreciated. Types of skills we are looking for include: electricians, plumbers, HVAC, drywall, painters and interior trim.
Not everyone on a team needs to be skilled but we need enough skilled folks to give direction to the willing. Thanks and Blessings!"
Contact information for Trent is:
Director of Disaster Response Trent Davis
Immanuel Lutheran Church – LCMS; 2616 Connecticut Ave; Joplin, MO 64804;
417.624.0333 | fax: 417.624.2774;
If anyone wants to go with me for a few days let me know asap and I will set it up. I'm pretty sure that all we'd really have to pay for is food.
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YOU CAN GO ON YOUR OWN IF YOU WANT or, I'd love to take a group for a couple days in January and/or February to work on some houses.
Trent Davis, Immanuel's director of disaster response sent the following:
"The Lord has blessed us with the ability to get five decent sized projects under roof before the weather has gotten too ugly here, however we have only a few teams committed from Dec-Feb. We need additional teams.
All help will be greatly appreciated. Types of skills we are looking for include: electricians, plumbers, HVAC, drywall, painters and interior trim.
Not everyone on a team needs to be skilled but we need enough skilled folks to give direction to the willing. Thanks and Blessings!"
Contact information for Trent is:
Director of Disaster Response Trent Davis
Immanuel Lutheran Church – LCMS; 2616 Connecticut Ave; Joplin, MO 64804;
417.624.0333 | fax: 417.624.2774;
If anyone wants to go with me for a few days let me know asap and I will set it up. I'm pretty sure that all we'd really have to pay for is food.
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YOUTH GROUP STEAK DINNER AND AUCTION
***SAVE THE DATE*** The date of the Youth Group Steak Dinner and Auction has been set for Saturday, February 11, 2012. Doors will open at 6:00 p.m. and dinner will be served at 6:30 p.m. Please join us for a night of fun and fundraising. We will be having the old favorites: silent auction and 50/50 drawing as well as the new favorites: live auction, dessert dash, wine raffle, and the WILD HEARTS JACKPOT DRAWING where there is a chance to win $500.00.
Tickets for the WILD HEARTS $500 DRAWING are on sale now. Please ask a youth group member to get yours. The tickets are 1 for $10 but for an additional $10 you can get 10 more tickets and have 11 chances at winning!
The youth will begin selling dinner/auction tickets at the beginning of January in the narthex after services. Tickets are $15 per person. Bid only tickets are $5.00. You may also contact Marilyn to reserve tickets.
In order to guarantee that you get to sit with a special group of family or friends, you may want to consider purchasing a table of 8 for $120.
BUY A POINSETTIA FOR THE ALTAR FOR CHRISTMAS IN MEMORY OF OR IN HONOR OF SOMEONE!!
Please sign the sheet in the narthex by Wednesday, Deember 14. They are $12.50 each.
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A MOMENT OF GRACE FLORIST IS DONATING 10% oF EACH ST. JOHN'S MEMBER'S SALE BACK TO THE CHURCH
Each time you purchase flowers and other gifts from A MOMENT OF GRACE and tell them you are a member at St. John's, the church receives a tithe from them. A Moment of Grace is located at 511 N Hwy 47 and the phone number is 456-9334.
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PRAYERS: (If I have missed anyone please let me know.)
NEW
For ANNA HOELSCHER who is recovering at Jonesburg Nursing Home after falling and breaking her hip.
CONTINUED
For DAVE KOHRS who is recovering well after surgery to remove a tumor from his abdomen.
For PATRICK BIONDO, a son of a friend of Toni Mauch. Patrick was in a serious car accident on Saturday evening and will be undergoing several surgeries to try to repair a large portion of his scalp and a broken hand.
For Mrs. Sisson (first grade teacher at Daniel Boone) and her newborn baby girl who was born very early and weighs in at a little over a pound and a half. Her name is Chloe Michelle.
For KEN SUTOR, Lisa Rausch's dad, who is was brought home and is on hospice care, but is in good spirits.
For KEN WAGNER who is home and is doing well, although he still has a LONG way to go.
For JANICE MCKENZIE who will has a huge ulcer and is getting treatment for it.
For ED KOHRS who is at Delmar Gardens in Chesterfield
For Robyn McNew's cousin MARY KUTRIP who is dealing with terminal cancer and has quit doing treatments for it.
For JONAS BORCHERT, grandson of Don Nolte, who continues to be up and down because of chemotherapy treatments.
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While He (Jesus) was still speaking, there came a crowd, and the man called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them. He drew near to Jesus to kiss Him, but Jesus said to him, "Judas, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?" Luke 22:47-48