My friend, Brent Fields, delivered an excellent message this past Sunday from John Chapter 4. He walked our congregation at Covenant Fellowship through the passage where Jesus encounters the Samaritan woman at the well. Here's the passage for your convenience:

7 There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

I had not remembered that Jesus chose to go through Samaria rather than going around it like many Jews would have. When Jesus meets this woman she is coming to a well that is a little further away from town than others. She chooses to go in the heat of the day alone rather than at a time when others would likely be there as well. She is very alone in her world. This woman was clinging to a religion that was distant and removed from her life. She knows the history of the well and is familiar with the differences in the worship practice of the Jew and her fellow Samaritans. Jesus quickly gets past her religiosity and shows her quite clearly that he knows her heart. I never noticed that she leaves the well empty handed. She came to draw a little water that she might quench her temporal thirst but she goes away without the bucket that she brought to the well returning instead with the water of life that she is anxious to share with others. What a blessing that she returns to tell the town about Jesus. She becomes a powerful witness despite her reputation in the town.

May we know what it is to drink living water. May our spiritual thirst be quenched. May we also go through the modern day Samaria rather than choosing to go around.

Blessings to you ~ Steadman

I woke up this morning to a quiet house.  This is an uncommon thing.  At least one of our boys usually beats me out of bed and the thumping sounds of feet jumping off couches, occasional jolts from refrigerator doors slamming, the hissing of running water, and the blare of a TV turned up a little too loud greet me.  Of course, these noises are also accompanied by the sweet words of “Good morning, Papa – The sunshine is out!  Will you get up and play with me?”

This morning was different.  My wife and the boys left yesterday for a week at the beach.  I’m staying home to recover from a cold and catch up on work at the office.  My dog is my quiet companion this week.  Waking up and standing at a newly installed window in our home, I looked out at the clear cool morning and the ‘sunshine was out’.  Something has changed in me over the years.  God has a grip on my heart.  At moments like this when the world is quiet, I hunger for His Word, I want to hear Him, I am acutely aware that Jesus is alive.

I sat down and read from Matthew this morning where Jesus tells us to be anxious about nothing.  I paid particular attention to the knowledge with which he shared about the flowers in comparison to the splendor of Solomon.   The Word says, “I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory was dressed as one of these”.  Jesus is saying that if the Lord cares for the flowers of the field, we should know that He will care so much more for each of us.  The thing that struck me was the powerful first hand knowledge that Jesus speaks from.  He was there. 

Of course he was there!  He saw the robes of Solomon and the pomp of this earthly king.  More importantly, Jesus is here today.  He sees me this morning in the stillness of my home, in the quiet of this place and calls me to His word in the same real and living way that he saw Solomon and spoke with the disciples about their fears and concerns.

As we prepare for worship on this Sunday morning, may we awake and recall that Jesus lives.  We serve a living Savior.  He is in the world today.  He lives!

Blessings to you ~ Steadman

Today we presented our youngest son for the sacrament of Baptism at our local church, Covenant Fellowship.  My wife and I are firm believers in the importance of paedobaptism (infant baptism) as a sign of the Covenant and it was a blessing to share this special time with our family in Christ.  Here is a summary of the questions that were asked to us and to the congregation as well as the pronouncement:

Baptism Questions for the Harrisons

a. Do you renew the vows which you made when you received the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and entered into the full Communion of this Church?

b. Do you acknowledge that your son is a sinner in need of the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ and of the Holy Spirit?

c. Do you claim God's Covenant promises on your son’s behalf, and do you look in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ for your son’s salvation, as you do for your own?

d. Do you now covenant and promise in humble reliance on the Grace of God to bring up your son to love God and to serve Him, to the end that he may come to commit his life to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior?

Baptism Questions to Ask of Congregation

Do you the members of this Congregation in the name of the Church of Christ, undertake with these parents the covenant responsibility for the Christian nurture of this child?

Baptism Pronouncement

I now baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and may the grace of God be with you now and evermore, in Jesus’ holy name!

Many people have asked me why I believe in paedobaptism.  My reasons are very similar to those that John Calvin states in his Institutes (Book IV, Chapter 16, Paragraphs 5, 8, and 9)  Instead of trying to restate these arguments in my own words, I thought I’d simply share these paragraphs with you for convenience sake.

5. Now, if we are to investigate whether or not baptism is justly given to infants, will we not say that the man trifles, or rather is delirious, who would stop short at the element of water, and the external observance, and not allow his mind to rise to the spiritual mystery? If reason is listened to, it will undoubtedly appear that baptism is properly administered to infants as a thing due to them. The Lord did not anciently bestow circumcision upon them without making them partakers of all the things signified by circumcision. He would have deluded his people with mere imposture, had he quieted them with fallacious symbols: the very idea is shocking. He distinctly declares, that the circumcision of the infant will be instead of a seal of the promise of the covenant. But if the covenant remains firm and fixed, it is no less applicable to the children of Christians in the present day, than to the children of the Jews under the Old Testament. Now, if they are partakers of the thing signified, how can they be denied the sign? If they obtain the reality, how can they be refused the figure? The external sign is so united in the sacrament with the word, that it cannot be separated from it: but if they can be separated, to which of the two shall we attach the greater value? Surely, when we see that the sign is subservient to the word, we shall say that it is subordinate, and assign it the inferior place. Since, then, the word of baptism is destined for infants, why should we deny them the sign, which is an appendage of the word? This one reason, could no other be furnished, would be amply sufficient to refute all gainsayers. The objection, that there was a fixed day for circumcision, is a mere quibble. We admit that we are not now, like the Jews, tied down to certain days; but when the Lord declares, that though he prescribes no day, yet he is pleased that infants shall be formally admitted to his covenant, what more do we ask?

8. Every one must now see that paedobaptism, which receives such strong support from Scripture, is by no means of human invention. Nor is there anything plausible in the objection, that we nowhere read of even one infant having been baptised by the hands of the apostles. For although this is not expressly narrated by the Evangelists, yet as they are not expressly excluded when mention is made of any baptised family (Acts 16:15, 32), what man of sense will argue from this that they were not baptised? If such kinds of argument were good, it would be necessary, in like manner, to interdict women from the Lord's Supper, since we do not read that they were ever admitted to it in the days of the apostles. But here we are contented with the rule of faith. For when we reflect on the nature of the ordinance of the Lord's Supper, we easily judge who the persons are to whom the use of it is to be communicated. The same we observe in the case of baptism. For, attending to the end for which it was instituted, we clearly perceive that it is not less applicable to children than to those of more advanced years, and that, therefore, they cannot be deprived of it without manifest fraud to the will of its divine Author. The assertion which they disseminate among the common people, that a long series of years elapsed after the resurrection of Christ, during which paedobaptism was unknown, is a shameful falsehood, since there is no writer, however ancient, who does not trace its origin to the days of the apostles.

9. It remains briefly to indicate what benefit redounds from the observance, both to believers who bring their children to the church to be baptised, and to the infants themselves, to whom the sacred water is applied, that no one may despise the ordinance as useless or superfluous: though any one who would think of ridiculing baptism under this pretence, would also ridicule the divine ordinance of circumcision: for what can they adduce to impugn the one, that may not be retorted against the other? Thus the Lord punishes the arrogance of those who forthwith condemn whatever their carnal sense cannot comprehend. But God furnishes us with other weapons to repress their stupidity. His holy institution, from which we feel that our faith derives admirable consolation, deserves not to be called superfluous. For the divine symbol communicated to the child, as with the impress of a seal, confirms the promise given to the godly parent, and declares that the Lord will be a God not to him only, but to his seed; not merely visiting him with his grace and goodness, but his posterity also to the thousandth generation. When the infinite goodness of God is thus displayed, it, in the first place, furnishes most ample materials for proclaiming his glory, and fills pious breasts with no ordinary joy, urging them more strongly to love their affectionate Parent, when they see that, on their account, he extends his care to their posterity. I am not moved by the objection, that the promise ought to be sufficient to confirm the salvation of our children. It has seemed otherwise to God, who, seeing our weakness, has herein been pleased to condescend to it. Let those, then, who embrace the promise of mercy to their children, consider it as their duty to offer them to the Church, to be sealed with the symbol of mercy, and animate themselves to surer confidence, on seeing with the bodily eye the covenant of the Lord engraven on the bodies of their children. On the other hand, children derive some benefit from their baptism, when, being ingrafted into the body of the Church, they are made an object of greater interest to the other members. Then when they have grown up, they are thereby strongly urged to an earnest desire of serving God, who has received them as sons by the formal symbol of adoption, before, from nonage, they were able to recognise him as their Father. In fine, we ought to stand greatly in awe of the denunciation, that God will take vengeance on every one who despises to impress the symbol of the covenant on his child (Gen. 17:15), such contempt being a rejection, and, as it were, abjuration of the offered grace.

Blessings to you ~ Steadman

In the book of Genesis we are introduced to God’s covenant with Abraham.  All of the Old Testament covenants were “cut” or made in blood.  The first covenant or commitment was sealed when Abraham cuts a number of animals in half and both he and God walk in between the animal carcasses.  The next covenant or religious commitment between God and His people was the covenant of circumcision.  Again this commitment required a cutting and was sealed in blood.  God was serious about His promise to His people and it was a serious commitment on the part of God’s people to follow Him.  A statement was being made by the sign of the cutting of flesh and the shedding of blood.  Ultimately it would be the body of Jesus Christ that would be broken in response to the commitments that were cut between God and His covenant people. 

What does our commitment to God look like today?  There is no blood.  There is no cutting of animals or of flesh.  Our religious commitments in this modern era look much more like loose agreements.  “I am a Christian.  I am a Presbyterian.” – Words like these encompass the extent of our outward commitment these days.  We need to look back to the Word of God and remind ourselves of the significance of these older covenants – covenants that were sealed in blood and required a serious response if broken.  When God committed Himself to Abraham and to the people that would come from Abraham, He was already preparing for that day when His son would have to die on a cross to make the way possible for the covenant commitments to be kept.  We no longer have to consider circumcision as a means of participation in the new covenant of grace.  The water of baptism washes over us and provides a cleansing without blood and without death.  We need to recall that this baptism looks back to the shed blood and death of Jesus Christ.  I would challenge you to consider your religious commitments, your following of Jesus Christ to be something of great significance.  Our relationship to God was, indeed, cut in blood – the blood of Jesus.  Take this commitment seriously remembering that someone had to die to make it possible.  Jesus truly was our Pascal Lamb, our living sacrifice.  Remember that the Word calls us to present ourselves also as living sacrifices in response to the great call of Jesus to come to Him.

Blessings to you ~ Steadman

You hear people talk about their church service all the time.  “We had a great church service this morning.”  By this most folks mean that the music was great or the pastor did an excellent job bringing the message.  Most of the time they are talking about how they felt that they were fed.  They are talking about how they were personally served by the various events of the morning.  Have you ever thought about the origins of the terms “church service”?  I’m pretty sure that our modern use of these two words comes from the older version of “worship service”.  Initially this phrase was more properly rendered the service of worship.  We have come to think of a service as a singular event.  People think of it in respect to having attended a funeral service or a worship service.  I think it is important that we return to the initial meaning of the phrase.  Our motive on a Sunday morning should be to go to church to be of service rather than to attend a service.  Just like the people of God would come together to be of use in the service of worship, we need to reorient ourselves.  It is so easy to get caught up in our modern consumer mentality and think of everything as regards what we can get out of it.  Instead, we need to be thinking more about what we can put into it.  I challenge you to prepare yourself this week as we move into the weekend to begin thinking of how you can be of service this coming Sunday.  How will you go about “considering others interests more important than your own”?  Begin now by reading the Word so that the Lord can place Scriptures on your heart and give you a testimony to share about what He is teaching you.  Go to church ‘prayed up’ having already placed your own needs at the foot of the cross so that you will more readily be able to listen to the needs of others, so that you can be ready to bring their needs before the throne of God.  Remember that we are the priesthood of believers and our ministry to each other is extremely important in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.  Don’t just attend a church service.  Be ready to be of service at your church.

Blessings to you ~ Steadman

Starting on Friday, I could tell that I had a virus of some sort.  My throat started feeling scratchy and my eyes were itching.  By Saturday evening, though I was still feeling pretty good, I knew that a cold was coming on and that I was getting sick.  During the night I woke up multiple times with chills and a fever and by this morning my body was clearing feeling the effects of a flu bug. 

Sunday mornings are the worst times for me to be sick.  First, I really love going to church.  My Dad used to call me when I was in college on Sunday mornings.  He never was demanding and he never placed a guilt trip on me about going to church.  Instead, he would regularly say, I hope you get a chance to go to church today – I don’t want you to miss a blessing.  He was right.  Going to church is always a blessing to me.  If I decide to stay home because I’m sick, that means I’m going to miss a blessing.  The second reason that Sundays are the worst time for me to be sick is that I regularly have some responsibility at church.  This morning I was supposed to lead worship, assist with Communion, and teach Sunday school.  My first thought was to simply push through despite feeling really ill so that I wouldn’t have to make all the phone calls to cover these various responsibilities.  Of course, the body of Christ is blessed with many folks who can help with these same needs and my friends and family were quite gracious this morning to take on these various needs on short notice.

It is now 10:00am and the worship service will be starting shortly.  I am at home drinking my ‘throat coat’ herbal tea waiting in hopes that the Tylenol and Benadryl will have some effect.  I am home sick while my immediate family and my family in Christ are all together singing praise songs, reading the Word, communing together, serving one another, and receiving all sorts of blessings.  Woe is me. 

Thinking through this matter it dawned on me this morning that I am not only home sick but I am also homesick.  I think it is C.S. Lewis who says that we were made for heaven and that the experiences of this world – dealing with the passage of time, growing old, suffering pain, being sick – are good proofs that we know we were made for something else, something better, and something different.  We all long for our true home.  We have a hope of heaven.  I am homesick this morning for heaven.  I long for the day when Christ will return when the things of this world will pass away.  I am homesick for the day when that great reunion of the saints comes to pass and the praises of God will be forever more.  What a glorious day it will be when there will be no more sickness, no more death, no more tears and we will never again miss another blessing.

Blessings to you ~ Steadman

We visited my parents this weekend and attended worship with them this morning.  Their church, like many Southern Baptist churches has recently dropped the traditional Baptist church name along with some of their other more formal, more traditional identifying characteristics.  Instead of an older crowd of men in Sunday suits and women in long dresses turning in their hymnals to number 234 as the organist begins to play, we encountered a young crowd that looked as if they had walked straight out of a college classroom and into the sanctuary singing the lyrics displayed by a PowerPoint LCD projector while a band played tunes that reminded me of several Dave Matthews songs.  There was certainly a lot of energy in the room this morning.

The pastor’s message was from Acts, chapter 4 and he did an excellent job of reminding the congregation of one tradition that will not change.  Jesus Christ provides the only way to salvation.  I’ve had many of my modern peers tell me that the claims of Christianity are arrogant, cruel, and divisive and the pastor this morning gave us the reason for why this has so often been said.  Unlike so many of our spiritual and religious counterparts today, Christians still hold on to the notion that there is only one way to heaven.  Christians believe that they are right and that any perspective on God, man, heaven, hell, sin, and salvation other than the truth presented by Jesus Christ is wrong.  You may know the Scripture passage where Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No man comes to the Father but by me.”  Peter defends himself before the Sadducees with some rather similar language about Jesus:

“Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. He is the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone.  Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:8-13)

No other name?  You mean all those folks who believe that Mohammed, Buddha, Darwin, Jung, and a hundred other diverse perspectives will bring them peace are dead in their sins and are going to Hell?  Well, yes… The truth is that we all have 2 problems.  We are guilty of sin and we are all going to die.  Only Jesus Christ lived a perfect life to die a sacrificial death in our place freeing us from the guilt of our sins.  Only Jesus Christ overcame death when He was resurrected from the dead giving us hope of renewed eternal life with Him.  Contrary to the perception that it is arrogant, cruel, or divisive, Christianity presents the most inclusive exclusivity of any religion that there has ever been.  Christianity makes clear that salvation is not dependent on what any of us can do but on what Jesus has done for all of us.  Jesus died for all.  The foot of the cross is level ground because we are all equally in need of the salvation that only Jesus can provide and we are all equally welcomed to come to Jesus, to repent, to turn from our sins and to cling to the truth that He proclaims.

Blessings to you ~ Steadman

This morning at church I was among the elders that helped our pastor distribute the bread and juice we served for communion.  I love how our pastor speaks of the body of Christ broken for us as he holds up a large loaf of fresh bread and tears it roughly in half and then into quarters.  The image has always been a very powerful reminder for me that Jesus’ body really was broken on the way to the cross and ultimately as He died for our sins.  His real body was broken at a real time in history for us.  The taste and the smell of the fresh bread is something so tangible, so present and communion really does bring to life the truth that Jesus wanted us to remember as He established this sacrament.

When I returned the plate to the front of our meeting space and took a piece of bread I noticed that the piece I chose was particularly crumbly.  As I put the bread to my mouth with the rest of the congregation there were a few larger crumbs that fell to the ground.  I was wearing a black sweater and found myself brushing the remaining little pieces of bread off my sweater.  As this all took place I was thinking of some of my friends who, believing in the transubstantiation of Christ’s body during the communion, would have been potentially disturbed by this unintended disrespect if they had been there this morning to see this.  This thought was there in the back of my mind for a brief moment and then we were on to passing out the little cups of grape juice that we drink at our church instead of wine out of a central cup.

There was a closing prayer that brought our communion time to an end and I returned to my seat next to my oldest son.  As I sat down I noticed his head was down and he was crying.  The red juice of communion was all over his white button-up dress shirt and he was clearly upset.  What would a strict transubstantiationist have to say about this!?  I’m sure there are more than a few folks wondering why my 5 year old was taking communion in the first place.  Our son is a believer.  He has a simple faith in Jesus and grasps the meaning of communion.  Seeing the mess on his shirt and the tears in his eyes, I whispered that accidents happen and that he didn’t need to worry about it - but he was not going to be easily consoled.  We stepped out to the lobby to continue our conversation.  “I spilled the special juice and I want my white shirt to be clean again”, he cried still holding the little cup with the remaining portion of his communion drink.

Two thoughts were on my mind.  First, it’s just juice.  Second, here’s a good teaching moment with the stained shirt that he wants to be made white again.  I began explaining that the juice was special because of what it helped us remember and not because of the juice itself.  I was proud that my son was reverently approaching the drink and I told him that it was great that he remembered Jesus.  He drank the remaining portion out of his cup and I praised God for my son’s sensitive heart.  He was still really upset about the juice-stained shirt.  Thankfully, we had brought a bag with us to church that had a change of clothes (what a blessing from the Lord – this was not something we would normally have with us).  I took the white shirt off my son and helped him put the clean striped turtleneck on in its place. 

Before taking the white shirt to the bathroom sink we had a little talk.  I explained that the white shirt was a lot like our hearts and the juice stain was a lot like our sins.  When God looks inside us He sees the dark red stains of our sin and only the cleansing that Jesus provides for us can wash us white again.  God used a spilled drink to teach us more about Himself this morning.  I think he understood the simple lesson and it was a blessing to me that through talking about the details of communion and the cleansing work of Christ, my son was comforted.  After talking through these matters his tears were wiped away. 

Blessings to you ~ Steadman

Our theme this Sunday at Covenant Fellowship came from Lamentations 3:21-24. “This I call to mind and therefore I have hope:  Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.’”  Our music and readings from God’s Word all followed this theme.  We enjoyed an extended Open Time this morning and had a chance to hear from about 70 members of our congregation as they looked back on what God had done in their lives during the course of 2004 and as they answered the question, “What hopes do we have in Christ for the New Year ahead?”  I think we were all able to see more clearly just how true the promise is that the Lord’s mercies are new every morning; that his compassions never fail. 

Our family shared how God’s mercy had been clearly present in the midst of times when we were tempted to be anxious.  At one point during the past year I lost my job as a result of a corporate downsizing.  At the same time that I was losing my job, my wife was told that she would need to be on bed rest for six months due to complications with preterm labor.  The Lord’s timing was, of course, perfect.  As it turned out I was able to be at home for nearly two months to help on the home front with our two oldest boys.  This time was all covered under my severance package and before the severance came to an end I was offered another job with the same company.  Our God is sovereign… His mercies and faithfulness were there in the midst of what seemed at the time to be the most difficult challenges we had ever faced as a family.  I write this blog entry six months after these events.  Alyssa delivered a healthy near-full-term baby boy and I am working in a new role that is giving me more opportunities to grow and develop than I experienced in my previous job.  This is only a summary of one aspect of our testimony from the past year but I hope that you can see how difficult situations like being severed from a job or being placed on strict bed rest for months and months can be shaped and molded into great blessing in God’s larger plan. 

Our church was full of testimonies of this nature this morning, and full of praise and thanks to God for His steadfast love and mercy in our lives.  Although I am uncertain of what will take place in the year ahead (our family may face difficulties, suffer losses, or enjoy blessings), I am certain that our God is an awesome God, full of love, and He desires good things for His children.  As one of the members of our church said this morning during our sharing time, we will not worry for whatever happens we know that God has in mind good things for His children.  John Calvin who, after suffering the loss of his 12 year old daughter to the plague, said something very similar, “What a great wound He has inflicted on our hearts, and yet we trust that God knows what is best for His children.”  Lord, give us faith like this to endure with joy the wounds we experience in this life.  I pray the Lord will shelter us from the storms of this fallen and broken world.  Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and bless us.

Blessings to you ~ Steadman

We enjoyed a wonderful Sunday worship this morning at Covenant Fellowship. Our church meets at the Bur Mil Clubhouse just north of Greensboro off Highway 220. The clubhouse at Bur Mil Park is located on a bit of hill and I always notice that it seems to be just a couple degrees cooler there than it is at our house during the winter. It was a beautiful morning. Although, I did have to pull over on the way to church to get my 2 year old to stop beating on his older brother way back there in the third seat of our wagon. I love my station wagon and hope to avoid the family van if at all possible. However, our family is already feeling big when the 5 of us pile into the car. The morning was filled with warm conversations, a variety of Christmas hymns that included multiple guitars, drums, piano, and trumpet (I had the privilege of playing guitar this morning along with some friends and we played the BNL/Sarah Mclachlan version of the God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman medley - it was a lot of fun), and solid teaching from Genesis. Our pastor is preaching through the book of Genesis and taught today on the faithful response of Abraham to God’s call to move to Canaan. Joel made a great point this morning that Abraham pitched his tent and built his altars. Abraham’s home was not something permanent. He knew that his place in this world was temporary and that God could call him to move. He placed his energy and efforts into moving stones and setting them in place to build altars to Yahweh and in doing so claimed the foreign land of Canaan as belonging to God. So, how do we live? Are we placing our efforts into building our personal place, making our name in our community or are we finding ways to make a statement about the God we serve? Does our Sunday church visit look like pitching a tent or building an altar? I would challenge my Christian friends to invest your lives in proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ – a work that will yield an eternal reward. Blessings to you on this Lord's Day ~ Steadman

We took our new baby boy, Ethan, to church today for the first time. He was, of course, only born this last week. It was a great privilage to show off my son and to think of this Advent season with the perspecive of having just seen this little fellow come into the world. It was a communion Sunday and I was asked to pray and bless the bread that the congregation would eat together. I was reflecting on the fact that God sent His only son into this world, not instantly as a grown man ready to face the enormous challenge of being the sacrifice for our sins, but as a baby. We were breaking bread in rememberance of Jesus - His body that was broken for us and that body came to us here on earth initially as a baby from Mary's womb. How hard it must have been for God the Father to send His only son into this world knowing that the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in the manger would very soon be scourged, beaten, and crucified outside the city of Jerusalem.

Having only recently been a part of the miricle of a baby coming into this world and knowing the love that this human father has for his sons, I am in awe of the love - the undeserved and greatly underappreciated love - that our Heavenly father has for all of us that call out in the name of Jesus for salvation.

Blessings to you on this Sunday - a day of worship and of rest.

~ Steadman