What’s Happening at Good Shepherd
Mark your calendars Trunk ‘N Treat October 31, 4-7pm! Please prepare your trunks with decoration and candy! Inside there will be hot chocolate, cider, and donuts. There will also be games, BJ a Christian clown, and music. Please help by providing small donuts if you can. Invite friends and neighbors and come! Come! Come!
Clothing Needed Kathy Urda will be collecting your unwanted clothing from October 15th – November 19th for the Windsor Food Pantry and Clothing Shop. Please bring your unwanted bagged clothing to Good Shepherd and leave downstairs under the coat hooks near the nursery. Both adult and children’s clothes are needed. This is a good way to clean out drawers and closets and give your items a second life.
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 Good Shepherd member Tyler VanFossen. For more information, contact the Good Shepherd office at (607)723-8032.
A Message from the Shrivers
Dear Good Shepherd,
Thank you so much for the love you poured out on us and our baby girl at our baby shower! We are truly blessed by your fellowship and love. Thank you for your prayers for us and for her in this time of great anticipation and change. We are so excited to return to Good Shepherd with little Shriver for you to meet her! Keep praying for us!
Love,
Jerry and Janell
Water Please take time to offer a bottle of cool water to a passerby or a basketball player! If you spend any time at COGS, you will notice folks just outside our doors. Make that small effort to touch them as you offer a bottle of water in Christ’s name. The water bottles with Christ’s message are in the fridge.
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.
Are you de-cluttering? Please contribute the items that no longer ‘bring you joy’ to the annual CHE Rummage Sale fundraiser, part of Christmas in Montrose, the first weekend in December. Talk to Anne or Bill Freund about passing on items. We are collecting and storing contributions now. Thanks so much!
Mission’s Prayer Request The CHE Association is starting a new group in support of their efforts to generate funds within Nicaragua. This includes the families involved contributing to the ministry through their skills and micro-businesses. Please pray for CHE Association Marketplace. The economic situation in Nicaragua is very difficult. It’s a great step that people are saying, We love this ministry, we want it, and we are willing to do what we can to help it continue. It’s a lovely thing that people are using their new, and/or improved skills, learned through CHE, in the service of the ministry which has helped them know Jesus.
They are selling coffee, fish, pottery, and beans – from 4 different areas, and beginning a motorcycle taxi business! Pray hard!
Ongoing Ministries
Bread and Wine If you are interested in joining a group of moms for a monthly supper and discussion of women in the bible, please contact Liz Hull.
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.
Last Week
Tuesday Morning’s Bible Study was canceled since Matt was out of town. We’ll be back to our regular schedule this Tuesday. You can catch up on the older studies here.
Last Week in Christian Ed we continued our series “Race, Life, and Sexuality” by looking at the New Testament texts dealing with slavery that were misused by American enslavers to justify their actions. Then we summed up our discussion of race by discussing the scars that remain, healed and unhealed, in our nation and how scripture, rightly applied, destroys human prejudice and pride.
Last Week’s Sermon was based on Hebrews 11:4, and was called ‘The Faith of Abel’. It can be listened to or downloaded here.
Mission Group Discussion Questions
Hebrews 11:4
Read Genesis 3:7 and 3:15
1) What does it mean in verse 7 that “the eyes of both were opened”?
2) How did Adam and Eve deal with their own shame and nakedness?
- In what ways do people attempt to cover their shame?
3) How did God deal with the sin of Adam and Eve?
- What promise did God make in verse 15?
- How do we see the gospel clearly told in this verse?
Read Genesis 4:1-10
4) Why did God have regard for Abel and his offering? [Because of his faith]
- Where did Abel’s faith come from? Why did he need to have faith?
5) Why is Cain angry in verse 5? What is the source of this anger?
- Why does God not regard Cain? How do verses 6 and 7 indicate that Cain is at fault?
- How were Cain’s actions like those of Adam and Eve back in Genesis 3:7? [They tried to make up for their own sin and shame in their own way, apart from God]
- What does God mean in verse 7 when he asks Cain, “If you do well, will you not be accepted?”
Read Hebrews 11:4
6) Why did the offering that Abel presented to God need to be given by faith?
7) By what sign do we know that Abel’s faith was true?
- What is the sign that our own faith is true? [James 2:14-17]
8) What was gained by Abel through faith?
This Week
This Week in Christian Ed We’ll continue our ongoing series “Race, Sex, and Life”. This week we’ll begin our discussion on Life.
This Week’s Sermon is based on Mark 12:1-12.
The Parable of the Tenants
And he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country. When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this Scripture:
“‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”And they were seeking to arrest him but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away.
Preventing Grace Podcast Did you know that Matt and Anne have a podcast? They talk about everything from church polity to rustic breads. In this week’s episode, ‘Playboy, Pornography, and Jesus’, Matt and Anne talk about Hugh Hefner’s life, his death, his influence on men, and how Jesus can plumb the depths of and redeem even the heart given over to pornography…
You can catch up on all of the older podcast episodes here.
Team Philippians is working on the altar this Sunday.
The readings for this week are Isaiah 5:1-7 and Hebrews 11:1-7.
Christine O. and Mary S. will be serving on the altar guild this Sunday.
Shepherd’s Bowl team 1 will be cooking this Thursday (10/12) with Carmen Swoffer-Penna.
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.