Dear Congregation,

It was a great joy to Lois and me to worship with you last Sunday morning and evening.  At the evening service I took opportunity to thank the congregation, and I extend that thanks to you now, for sharing in the joy of our daughter's marriage, and for helping in so many practical ways to make the wedding and reception a success through your physical labor, emotional support, and gracious hospitality.

July 16th was one of the best days of my life.  To see our daughter Kathryn make vows in the covenant of marriage to a Christian man who had faithfully pursued her, to a man who loved her, was a privilege, a gift from God.

Every Sunday, every Lord's Day, has the potential to be one of the best days of our lives.   It is a day of covenant renewal, when we renew the solemn vows that we should make to the loving God who has pursued us in His grace, faithfully coming after us even when we are tempted to walk away.  Every Sunday we renew our vows publicly, to walk in His ways, to pledge fidelity to Him to our life's end.  We say with God's people of old, "We will serve the LORD our God and obey him" (Joshua 24:24).

It is a privilege to renew our covenant vow as we worship the living Lord together as His people.  We celebrate the resurrection, as every Sunday is a resurrection celebration.  We hear His Word as yesterday we heard from Mark 10:41-45, a central text of salvation . . . For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.   We respond to Him with prayer and singing and the giving of tithes and offerings as part of our act of spiritual worship.  We have fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ, encouraging, teaching one another to obey everything Christ has commanded (Matthew 28:20), loving one another and lifting up one another as we visit before and after the services.

I saw some of that "best" yesterday at our worship services. Lois shared at the evening service during our prayer time, a Bible passage from  Mark 10

 Mar 10:29  So Jesus answered and said, "Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel's,
Mar 10:30  who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life.
She shared how you are brothers and sisters and mothers and children to the Suffern family, and we are so blessed.  I am humbly confident that you also will know that "family of God" experience at RRPC if you commit yourself to being among us and sharing in the life of worship and service that God is growing here.

Let us recommit ourselves to attend to faithful covenant renewal at Lord's Day worship, and active involvement through these summer months, in preparing for the 20th Anniversary Celebration on Saturday, August 13th at 4 p.m.  

Also, this is a community of covenant faithfulness that reaches out to those not yet worshipping the true and living God.  Please let Eric and Lynn know if you can help with the soccer camp in any way...... we need to connect with the unchurched, never churched, lapsed from church.  May I suggest that you contact them and offer your help in some area of publicity, refreshments, helping with the children, coaching.  They are standing with Coach Aaron Soby of Ambassadors in Sport in the strength of our Lord Jesus to run this camp, but they cannot stand alone.  They need our help leading up to the camp on August 22-24.
Sincerely, Pastor Ned

Dear Congregation,

I had a fun day on Tuesday.  But as Deacon Don Petersen put it in an e-mail to me once,

I've almost "had enough fun for one day".      But hey, when you preach on Sunday about getting the dross and the alloy driven out of you by adversity, with the purpose that we are further sanctified, you've got to expect that something "fun" is going to happen that week.  

But at the same time, I saw God help me through the details, and guide me to an eventual solution.  And on top of that I got to hear about a fun argument in a bicycle shop between a husband AND a wife who BOTH forgot their wedding anniversary !!  That's where this is headed:  DON'T FORGET THE ANNIVERSARY OF RRPC in 2011 - - Please pray that God will sustain and STRENGTHEN her, the bride of Christ, as she seeks to honor Him in Warren County and beyond - -

It started on Tuesday this way.  With gas prices pushing four dollars a gallon, I was trying to save a little money by using my Honda Helix scooter to travel to Orthopaedic Associates of Saratoga for my third shot of  "euflexa" in my knee to help the pain when I walk.  As I was turning north for the home stretch toward the doctor's office, lo and behold my rear tire suddenly decompresses. 

Providentially, there was a bicycle shop parking lot where I could park the scooter, and moments later a dump truck passed by whose driver stopped when I hailed him down to hitch a ride.  That was "fun" - - climbing up into a dump truck cab with a bad knee, and it really was fun to watch him shift through ten gears to get to 40 MPH !  After my treatment, I walked to a tire repair shop that told me they did not repair motorcyle tires. When I walked back to the bicyle shop (no dump truck this time), the owner was laughing about how he had called his wife and she was trying to call him in the middle of the morning because they both had forgotten to mention their  wedding anniversary at breakfast.  In my opinion, if you remember that you have forgotten your anniversary by the middle of the morning, that doesn't count as forgetting.

Please don't forget RRPC's anniversary.  This is a landmark that some thought might never be reached.  This is an opportunity to reflect on God's faithfulness, and to prepare for the next chapter of God's providential undertakings on our behalf.  Lord willing, you will hear Elder Jack and Elder Eldrid share some of those undertakings and reflections this Sunday at our morning service, or if you cannot be there, in recorded form. 

If this anniversary has passed you by thus far, it's still morning.  You can get in on the celebration by worshipping with us this Sunday, or by coming to the dinner on Saturday, August 13th (let us know you'll be there) at 4 p.m. when Pastor Mark Bell will speak, and when we will show a video of the history of the church being edited by the Burls.

Back to the scooter.  The $160 towing fee from Saratoga to Queensbury convinced me not to flatbed the scooter up the Northway, so dear Johanna drove down to rescue me.  As we were driving into town, I asked her to swing by the Calvary Assembly of God church where some in our congregation have been blessed by their vegetable and fruit and bread giveaway in the name of Jesus.   And who did I find there, but part of the Anderson and Dykshoorn families.  God had me meet just the man, Walter, who gladly volunteered to drive me back down to Saratoga to pick up my scooter in his little trailer, and then deliver it to the motorcyle repair shop in Queensbury.

Fun !  And provision from God.  We should learn to expect both from life, and from our Lord.  God has given us great opportunities here in Warren County, and we should expect adversaries and adversity.  Whenever God is at work, there will be opposition:

1 Corinthians 16:9 - For a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.

More excitement before Sunday:  Pioneer Girls and Stockade will both celebrate their last regularly scheduled Friday evening meeting for this ministry year.  Thank you to Sharon Dykshoorn for directing Pioneer Girls, and thank you to the Guides and Helpers who worked with her, Lois Suffern, Chris De Young, Liz Kelsey, Jo Burl, Sarah Dolan, Melissa Beilstein, Linda Williams and Johanna Suffern!  Thank you to the Rangers who have led Stockade with me, Mark Beilstein, Clint West, Walter Anderson, Junior Ranger, John Suffern,  and brothers like Eric Piesnikowski, Lee Smith and Chuck De Young who come alongside to assist, Eric helping with athletics, Lee bringing the Story Circle tomorrow and Chuck leading in fly tying.  Both of these ministries averaged ten or more children per meeting since Christmas.  Pray for connections with families !

Coming up soon, the launch of our youth group ministry !

Hope to see many of you Sunday !

Pastor Ned

P.S.
For your information the following two ministries will have an open house in Glens Falls tomorrow, and I'll be visiting them at the following times.  If anyone would like to join me and others from RRPC who will be there, you can attend at the times indicated.

Open Arms Pregnancy Center 471 Glen Street Glens Falls, 4:30 p.m. (unexpected pregnancy counselling center, helping women & children)

Centrepoint Ministry Center, 10 Warren Street, Glens Falls, 5:00 p.m. (Christian retreat, conference and gathering place on the circle)

Then when Monday, March 28th rolled around, what did I do?

Entirely forgot about it. It had been a full day, Lois and I had friends coming over after supper, and the teens were running out the door to the home of some of their friends. We sat down and prayed at our meal, I read a quick verse from Psalm 90, appropriate on Johanna's 18th birthday (Psa 90:12 So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom). But this much anticipated, thoughtful devotional reading together, focussing on the passion and death of Christ in preparation for Easter. . . Whoosh! It went out of my head.

And there are times when we entirely bypass devotions at supper when John's baseball or Johanna's violin lessons creep up on our mealtime, and we just have to finish the meal, NOW already !

Can I make an observation, and I hope it would be a grace-filled, godly encouragement to you.

We are not saved by the regularity of our Bible reading, nor by the steadiness and perfection of our swing at the game of life. We are saved by his love for us which I know personally, I don't deserve. As we are touched by the Holy Spirit, God wakes us up in some area of our life ! He plants a desire, or sometimes he even imports a dis-ease into our life. Some kind of disatisfaction with the way things are right now in our life. Some disgust concerning a sin with which we're too familiar.

And if it's God working rather than the devil tempting, then with the dissatisfaction He gives us hope, instead of despair that there can be no change. Our Loving Savior gives us a hunger to see change in our life. That's the hunger we get which is reflected in Jesus' words, "Whoever desires to come after me...." We have an inchoate, unformed, desire and hunger to see a change that we know in our hearts has something to do with "coming after Jesus". We hunger to come after Him, to know Him who created us, and saved us and has the fulness we long for in life, because in Him all the "fullness of God was pleased to dwell."

But do they really? Sometimes it is in the midst of those very trials that we are "denying ourself, and taking up our cross, and following Jesus". We are changing our schedule, making ourselves available to serve those around us, we are keeping our eye on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, when everything around us is going kaflueeeeey. That's self denial; that's taking up our cross.

And then finally, a moment of peace. A moment of quiet. It's then that we need Jesus, and instead of unwinding by flipping on the television, how about we grab that as an opportunity to pray. To consciously, unmistakeably call out to God. Not just the "throw it up there" prayer in crisis mode, but the quieter, more reflective, prayer on our knees in tears, "I need you now, Jesus" - - the desperate prayer of the disciple who needs to be nourished and so he "denies himself" (DOESN'T TURN ON THE TV ), "takes up his cross" (DOESN'T COMPLAIN HOW TIRED THEY ARE, BUT RESTS IN HIM WHILE READING GOD'S WORD, THE BIBLE), and "follows me"(OBEDIENTLY DOES THE NEXT THING THAT MODELS THE SACRIFICIAL LIFE OF SERVICE WHICH JESUS SHOWED US, "FOR EVEN THE SON OF MAN DID NOT COME TO BE SERVED, BUT TO SERVE....")

We are not saved by the regularity of our Bible reading, but we will be sanctified by it ! When the Bible is read in faith, asking the Spirit's enlightenemnt, we will be set apart and changed by !! It cleanses us (John 17:17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth).

Now the rest of the story. For me, after a busy day today also, when at 4:30 p.m. I realized I had hit the wiffer again, and again hadn't even started to do something I wanted to do with my family to be sanctified, it was at that moment of frustration that I simply had to GRAB the moment together with them in God's Word. I finally found that moment with part of my family at least, when Johanna was driving down the Northway with Johnny and me riding shot gun and in the back seat going to their orchestral rehearsals in Albany.

And wow, was I blessed as Johnny and I read. "We learn the lesson of trust in the school of trial" - Matthew 26:36-46. As Vernon Grounds put it, "we believe that any cup we drink is held to our lips by the Father of fathomless love and wisdom. Our prayer is that of trustful submission because we believe that even life's most bitter cup is held in the Father's hand." And in today's devotional, based on John 19:16-22, we can "have only one appropriate response - - to serve Him, He is the King of our lives." And the three of us shared in the car what "our cup was", and where all of us needed to serve Him as King more faithfully.

Dear brothers and sisters, don't be discouraged when your desire to come after Jesus seems to be derailed. It isn't just "not having your devotions". It's a score of frustrating roadblocks we run into. Simply trust Him in the trial, and GRAB the next moment to go to God, alone, or with those you love, and read His Word prayerfully, to get re-oriented, back on track, that you may take up your cross and follow Him from that moment on, for the rest of your life. You've got to GRAB those moments, so that your desire for change is channelled into real change through the reality of the hearty, hope-filled revelation of Jesus Christ shown to use in the scriptures.

Try walking "The Path of His Passion" with the Redeemer Reformed Presbyterian Church family leading up to Easter. If you need a copy of the devotional book, let me know. And if you are touched by something that you read, let me know, and let me know if I can share it with the church family. That goes for those of you reading this in Florida, the Carolinas, New Jersey, wherever. . . . I'd like us to encourage one another in this process !