What’s Happening at Good Shepherd
Potluck February 4th is the first Sunday of the month, and therefore a potluck week! This potluck’s theme is Healthy Foods. With many people making resolutions and getting back into the swing of day to day life, it seems a good time to swap ideas for starting 2018 in a healthy way! Please bring a dish of your favorite healthy snack or meal and stay to have lunch even if you don’t bring anything.
Lunch with a Missionary Have you ever had lunch with a missionary? How much do you really know about their daily lives? You are invited to dine with the Carlsons on Sunday February 4th. Please see Michael, Ally, or Helen to reserve your spot at the table!
Shrove Tuesday February 13th 5-7PM: Mark your calendar and plan to attend and bring friends! There will be pancakes and sausage, fresh fruit and homemade applesauce. There will also be mask-making, face-painting, and live music too! Please let Carmen know if you can contribute your homemade applesauce / fresh fruit. We will also need servers and pancake makers. Look for a sign-up sheet in the Parish Hall.
ps: Closing the event there will be a solemn burning of last year’s palms to use for ashes on Ash Wednesday. Please bring your old palms to church to add to the fire!
Life Choices The baby bottles are here for donations for Life Choices! Last year we raised $653.61 with our loose change and donations for services such as pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, parent education (smart choices), relationship mentoring, baby store visits, emergency aid, and more. Life Choices helps teens and college students facing unplanned pregnancies before, during and after. Please take a bottle home and put your loose change in it and return it to the church (empty or full) by Feb 25. Any questions can be directed to Christine Osgood.
An Offer of Prayer The prayer team prays for the needs of the church on a weekly basis. If you have a specific request (Praise or intercession) please fill out a card and place it in the “prayer box” by the bulletin boards in the parish hall. All prayers are kept confidential.
Ongoing Ministries
Good Shepherd Youth Group Each Sunday evening, the youth of Good Shepherd meet for fellowship and worship. Any young person between the ages of 12 and 18 are welcome to attend. Led by Pastoral Assistant Tyler VanFossen. For more information, contact the Good Shepherd office at (607)723-8032.
Next month, we’ll be having our first official service project at Arrowhead Bible Camp from February 9-11. We will be trained on how to set tables, clean toilets, sweep floors, prep food, run dishes through a machine, fold laundry, and many other hands-on things as well. In between our times of serving we will play games, study the bible, pray, talk, and just hang out.
If you’d like to know how to help or be involved, please contact Tyler VanFossen.
Bread and Wine If you are interested in joining a group of ladies for a monthly supper and discussion, please contact Liz Hull. The group will be beginning a new study on a book called Money, Possessions and Eternity, by Randy Alcorn.
Health and Wellness Our bodies are “the tents” that the Lord has given us to house our souls. Begin to take care of the body which God Has given you. Check your blood pressure, blood sugar, and weight every Sunday in the Parish Hall 9-10AM. Please see Dolly Shaller or Carmen Swoffer-Penna for more details.
Good Shepherd Member Food Pantry Just like an old house that needs a coat of paint, our food pantry needs updating every week. The more food we bring in the more food can go out to help others, and that is what God wants us to do. We are doing his work, and our work helps to bless others.
Items needed: cold and hot cereals, canned meats and tuna, pasta and spaghetti, canned vegetables and fruits, canned or boxed juices, rice in 1-lb bags, kid-friendly foods, powdered milk, coffee, tea, and cocoa, and anything else you’d like to bring.
*Please do not bring in any flour or sugar, as they attract pests
Last Week
Last Week in Christian Ed Last Sunday we continued our series entitled, Christian Basic Training by beginning to discuss scripture. Paul tells us that scripture is the means by which God brings you to maturity as a believer (see 2 Timothy 3:15-17). There are many bible studies and small groups at Good Shepherd and I hope you belong to one, but incorporating scripture reading into your daily life can sometimes be more difficult. Last Sunday we discussed the what, why, and how of personal Bible reading. You can listen here.
Last Week’s Sermon was called ‘God is Treating You as Sons‘. It was based on Hebrews 12:3-11. You can download or listen to it here.
Mission Group Discussion Questions
1) What is your initial reaction to suffering or hardship in your own life? Why?
- How do you pray in light of experiencing suffering and hardship? Are your prayers focused on you and your desires or on God’s goodness?
- Why is it difficult to have a proper outlook on hardship as discipline from God?
2) Why should considering Jesus, and how he endured hostility, help believers not grow weary or fainthearted?
- What does the idea of endurance mean in the context of verse 3?
- In what ways are you lacking endurance as you face hardship? How can believers practice endurance?
3) What unmet desires, hardships, or ongoing suffering make it difficult for you to endure?
- According to verses 5-6, how should believers consider these difficulties?
- Is it a comfort to know that God disciplines his sons and daughters? Why or why not?
4) What is to be expected of a child who lacks discipline from his or her parents?
- Translating this idea to Christians as children of God, how would believers be if not disciplined by our Father?
- Why is discipline necessary? What is the outcome of good discipline? Why is the outcome of good discipline to be desired above a life of ease and continual comfort?
5) Does understanding the overall goal and goodness of discipline make it pleasant rather than painful?
- How can we maintain an awareness of God’s love and goodness toward us in moments and stretches of painful discipline?
- In what ways can believers in the Church support each other through these inevitable times of painful discipline?
Tuesday Morning Bible Study This Tuesday morning, we wrapped up Moses’ account of the tabernacle, its furnishings, and the priesthood in Exodus 30 and we read of God empowering certain among his people to erect the tabernacle, construct the furniture, and sew the vestments. We have in chapter 30 both a picture of Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit, who builds the household of God, and the way in which God empowers those in Christ to build up his church. The chapter concludes with the giving of tablets of stone upon which God inscribed the ten commandments. You can view the class here or in the window below.
Posted by Matt Kennedy on Tuesday, January 30, 2018
This Week
This Week in Christian Ed This Sunday we will continue our series, “Christian Basic Training” discussing the “means of grace”, those practices through which Christ promises to feed and sustain believers. We began with two sessions on prayer. Last Sunday we discussed the importance of bible reading (listen here). This Sunday we will discuss the church. In Hebrews 10:24-25, we read: “let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near…” Note that stirring one another up to love and good works is intimately tied to the congregation meeting together, as is “encouraging one another”. What happens when the church gathers? How does this encouragement and stirring up take place? Can the same sort of thing happen when we meet with any group of friends? We will discuss these questions and more this Sundayduring Christian ed beginning at 9:15am.
This Sunday’s Sermon will be based on Hebrews 12:12-17.
Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.
Team Corinthians is working on the altar this Sunday.
The readings for this week are Genesis 12:1-3 and Hebrews 12:12-17.
Karen B. will be serving on the altar guild this Sunday.
Shepherd’s Bowl Team 4 is serving this week with the Beauharnois team (2/8).
To download a PDF of the 10:30 service bulletin, click on this link.
Have an item for the Update or an Announcement?
Email the secretary at:
gs.binghamton@gmail.com
by Monday night.