Blessings or curses?

Blessings or curses? – This Sunday (9/16/2012) Pastor Teresa will explore James 3 and the power of the tongue.  Let`s look together at God`s encouragement from Scripture to choose godly wisdom and peace.  Communion will be celebrated.  Coffee Fellowship follows after service.

**CHRISTIAN EDUCATION CORNER**

CLASSES offered on the Sunday September 16th:

Confirmation Classes start September 16th in the 2nd Fl. classroom at 9:30, Pastor Susan will explore the topics of What is faith?/What is religion?  Parents please gather for a short meeting at the beginning of the class.  For more information contact the Pastors at wtucrev@gmail.com

Little Kids Sunday School (ages 1-5) offered every worship service

Topic: Adam and Eve

Teacher: Sammie Hoskins

Helper: Sarah Hoskins

*******NEXT classes Sunday Sept. 23 at 9:30*******

Grades 1-4 Sunday School:

Topic: Love (1 John 4:16b)

Teacher: Carrie Bennett

 

Confirmation class with Pastor Teresa doing an overview of the Bible.

 

Adult Sunday School

9:30 in the Sacks home; Fruit of the Spirit series:  “Love” facilitated by Pastor Susan. 

~~~~~~~We have an opportunity to respond to an urgent request from the shelter for Women of Domestic Violence where victims and their children reside. There is a need for rice and canned Japanese fish, Japanese Umeboshi pickles, Korean Kimuchi pickles, Furikake, seaweed etc for the making of rice balls/onigiri.  The children need A4 notebooks, automatic pencils, paper shopping bags and A4 envelopes.

If you can, PLEASE BRING A NEW BAG OF RICE AND ANY OF THE OTHER THINGS ON THE LIST to church this Sunday (9/16/2012), it would be VERY APPRECIATED. This is one of the ways that we as a congregation can help families in need. If you have any questions please contact wtucrev@gmail.com ~~~~~~~

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passage for this Sunday`s sermon  JAMES 3

Sisters and brothers, don’t all go rushing off to set yourselves up as teachers. In the final evaluation, the required performance indicators will be much tougher for those of us who are teachers. None of us measure up perfectly. We all make mistakes, both in what we say and what we do. If you never got anything you said wrong, you’d be perfect, you’d have your whole life completely under control.

 

It only takes a leash to keep a dog under control. A captain can control a huge ocean liner by turning one little rudder. In the same way, the tongue has an impact out of all proportion to its size. One little word can make a world of difference — for good or for bad!  One careless spark can start a bushfire that will rage out of control from here to the border. One careless word can be just as explosive. The tip of your tongue carries a destructive payload. One word dropped in the wrong place and all hell breaks loose — inflaming hostilities, blackening reputations, incinerating trust. Before you know it, your whole life is a smouldering ruin. People manage to tame all kinds of animals — wild horses, eagles, even crocodiles — but the tongue can never be broken in. It is like a coiled snake, unpredictable and deadly.

 

Blessings and curses can come out of the same mouth. One minute we are pouring out praise to the God who conceived us, and the next minute we are spitting out venom at someone made in God’s own image. Brothers and sisters, it’s not right. If we couldn’t turn on a tap without knowing whether we were going to get fresh water or sewerage, we’d never put up with it. You don’t go to an apple tree and find lemons, do you? And you don’t go to lemon tree looking for strawberries. If you’re an infested swamp, it’s no use anyone coming to you looking for fresh clean water.

 

Do any of you rate yourselves highly for wisdom and understanding? Well, let’s see you live it then. It is the quality of your life that will prove that your actions are the offspring of a wise and gentle spirit. If the things you do reveal that inside you’re always comparing yourself to others and scheming to get one up on them, then the more you boast about your wisdom, the more apparent it will be that you are deluded. Any wisdom you might have would clearly not be from God. It would be nothing more than rat-cunning, deviousness. The devil himself specialises in that sort of wisdom. Whenever people are set on being number one without regard for anyone else, mayhem and inhuman behaviour follow, as sure as night follows day.

 

The wisdom that God gives is a very different matter. For starters it is not contaminated by any ulterior motives. It cultivates peace among people, being gentle and willing to let others get their way. It is so full of the fruits of generosity, forgiveness and love that it could never find room for even a shred of prejudice or hypocrisy. Those who invest in peace — not just hoping for it but really working for it — will reap rich dividends in a life of wholehearted integrity.

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