Let Your Light Shine
Read Matthew 5:13-16
Jesus said to his disciples, “A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket.” God blesses the Church with the most precious treasure there is, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Every Christian is therefore filled with the light of Christ and called to give witness to the wonders of God’s mercy and grace.
Often, it is said to the newly baptized person, “Let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” Our light shines when we love God with all our heart and love our neighbor as ourselves. Shining our light, we share the love of Christ Jesus with all whom we meet.
Jesus of Nazareth is light and life for the world. Baptized into his death and resurrection, the light of Christ dwells within God’s people. May you always feel the presence and power of our Lord Jesus. And may your light shine through the darkness of this world, that those within your midst may finally see the glory of the Father and enter the gates of our eternal home.
Prayer: Shine the light of your love, O Lord, and fill me with the power of your love. Amen.
Archive for August, 2021
Pastoral Devotion for September
Posted August 30, 2021 By adminLabor Day – Closure of The Church Office
Posted August 30, 2021 By adminThe Church Office will be closed on Monday, September 6th, in observance of Labor Day. Praying you all have a safe and fun day.
Youth Director & Family Ministries
Posted August 30, 2021 By adminThat’s a wrap on Musical Mondays! Thank you to all who participated and helped out- whether it be dropping off each week, providing a meal for our kids, or coming to our showcase to see all that we had learned- Musical Mondays was a huge success! We learned a lot and had a lot of fun doing so. Week one, we learned about why we worship God for all that He has done and all that He continues to do in our lives. Week two, we learned the song “Earth and All Stars” while talking about the creation story. Week three, we learned the story of Moses leading the Israelites through the Red Sea and the Prophetess Miriam leading the people by tambourine and song. Week four, we talked all about the life of David and how no matter what he went through, he always gave praise to God. Week five, we learned about the Psalms and shared the favorite Psalms of people we love. Lastly, Week six, we put it all together to show our friends and family everything that we learned. From tye-dying our own hand bell gloves, to making tambourines and lyres, musical beanbags, to learning forte and piano with our favorite game “I lost my closet key” — we had a blast. Thank you again to all who participated, it truly was a great summer together!
Blessings,
Rachel
Council Briefs
Posted August 30, 2021 By adminGood Things at St. Jacob’s For
August
• Getting back to one service on Sundays is going well – attendance up.
• Musical Monday’s program has been a great success.
• Baptism of Hannah
• The visiting youth from Zion Lutheran, Pitts-burgh, PA. were well received. Thanks to the Lutheran Men and all others who made them feel welcome.
Briefs:
• Team #6 served the family of Minnie following her funeral service. Pastor noted that St. Jacob’s attendance was pleasantly higher than expected.
• Council is searching for a volunteer for the position of Treasurer of St. Jacob’s.
St. Jacob’s Chancel Choir
Posted August 30, 2021 By adminAs we continue to return to pre-pandemic activities, one of the final steps for our worship services is to restore the choir to singing each Sunday. Angela Nuottila has volunteered to serve as our interim Choir Director until the congregation finds someone who will assume this position permanently. Choir rehearsals will resume on Wednesday evenings following our mid-week worship service. We have certainly missed having an adult choir during worship. Our children’s choir has done a marvelous job of providing music for our worship services, and we are very thankful for their talent. If you have not ever considered being a part of the choir, please consider this to be your invitation. You don’t need to have the most splendid singing voice. All you need is a desire for enhancing the worship of our congregation as we make a joyful noise unto the Lord on Sunday morning. Anyone who is interested should contact Angela for more information.
90 Day Bible Fitness Challenge
Posted August 30, 2021 By adminBy the time this newsletter makes it to the congregation, those who are engaged in the 90 Day Bible Fitness Challenge will find themselves in the midst of the final third of their reading plan. The halfway point came on Tuesday, August 24th. As several have discussed in our small group sessions, reading chronologically has been a blessing. It has allowed for a greater understanding of the entire story of God’s people Israel and the promise of a Savior.
We will do this exercise again sometime in the future. But until we do, St, Jacob’s church family members can look forward to more studies that will pique the interest of those who would like to gain further understanding concerning the whole story of God’s love according to the Scriptures.
Keep reading your Bibles. For as John wrote in the book of Revelation: “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it” Rev. 1:3.
Farewell and Godspeed
Posted August 30, 2021 By adminAs we prepare to begin a new season of Sunday school and Youth activities, we do so having said goodbye to our friend and sister in Christ, Rachel Shelton. With much of her work happening behind the scenes of everyday congregational life, I would assure you the church office is going to be a much quieter place. Rachel served our congregation well and became an important part of our ministry. As we begin our search for a new Director of Youth and Family Ministries, we do so with thankful prayers and ask God’s continued blessing on Rachel in her life and witness to the Gospel.
More About the Congo Mission
Posted August 30, 2021 By adminBy the time this newsletter is published and sent out, my mission partner and good friend Pastor Stéphane Kalonji will have returned from this year’s Congo Mission trip. With his return, the countdown to next mission trip has begun. Next July, as the Lord wills it, I will travel with my friend and brother in Christ to Kinshasa and embark on a three-week mission to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and minister to the people of the Bas-Congo region.
I am most anxious to return and see my friends in the cities of Boma, Tshela, and Matadi. These are people who have taken me in and treated me as one of their own. We share meals together, fellowship and a fairly good amount of laughter as we do the work of the gospel together.
One more aspect of next year’s trip is that Pastor Kaonji and I have invited someone new to go along with us. St. Jacob’s newest friend, Pastor Mathew Magera, who visited us with his youth group in July is prayerfully discerning our invitation to accompany us to Congo and work along side us as we engage Jesus’s Great Commission to make disciples. As a part of this invitation, I hope to travel to Zion Lutheran Church in Pittsburgh to provide information for his congregation. I expect this trip will occur in early September, perhaps as early as Labor Day Weekend.
Please pray for Pastor Mathew as he considers becoming one of our Congo Mission International Missionaries. I can truly attest to the fact that once one has met the people of the Bas-Congo region and shared life together with them, they will be a part of that person’s life forever.
In the coming months, I will ask our church family, our auxiliaries, and friends to once again support our missional effort by hosting fund raising events and sharing information concerning the Congo Mission within the greater Chapin community. The amount of funding it takes to complete our mission efforts each year can seem somewhat daunting, but God has and always will provide the means for his missionaries to extend the Gospel of Jesus Christ into the world. Until then, thank you for your continued thoughts, prayers, and support on behalf of our brothers and sisters in Christ who live in a land so far away. I assure you; they pray for us continually that God would bless us in our ministry and proclamation of the Gospel. To God be the glory, Pastor David
From the Pastor’s Heart by Pastor David Nuottila
Posted August 5, 2021 By adminJesus said, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:13-14
Before you settle in to read this article, I would invite you to do something first. Go to your shelf or table and pick up your Bible. Then go to the kitchen and pour yourself a glass of water. Now set the glass filled with water beside your Bible on the table nearest you and begin reading.
There is a book on my shelf that I enjoy reading from time to time which is written by Max Lucado. It bears the title Come Thirsty. It is a very good resource for those who may feel distant from God and also for those who would enjoy a “spiritual pick me up” if you will. I do love reading this book and hearing the invitation of our Loving God to come to Him as a child comes to his/her father.
It is always appropriate that we ponder how it is we approach our Father in heaven. How is it that we take time to earnestly study God’s Word and to pray for heightened awareness of God’s presence in our daily lives? Truly, it is good that we look deep inside our lives in order that we may see ourselves for who we are as sinners, yet also to see ourselves for whose we are, God’s beloved children redeemed by the blood of Christ. As we continue in our life together, we should all provide ourselves with opportunities to reflect upon God’s call to follow the example of Christ Jesus, loving God with all our heart, loving our neighbor, and ministering to the needs of those whom God places within our midst. The more we ponder these things, the more we will realize our thirst for God’s amazing grace, His forgiveness, love and kindness.
A central part of this pondering is coming to the wellspring of God’s Word through the Holy Scriptures. Our Lord invites us all to “come thirsty” for his grace. Come thirsty for the power of God’s redeeming love. Such a thirst can only be quenched by the living water that is Christ our Lord.
Here at St. Jacob’s, we have provided several opportunities for such thirst quenching study of God’s Word. The response to the 90 Day Bible Fitness Challenge was much more than I initially thought. We have 19 church family members engaged in reading through the Bible in 90 days and I am sure most, if not all, will see it through to completion. We are also beginning an in-depth reading of the book of Revelation on Wednesday mornings. I invite everyone to “Come Thirsty” and learn more about this most misunderstood book of the Bible and to hear God’s message of salvation within its pages.
I am also very encouraged by Rachel’s offering to lead a women’s Bible study on Tuesday mornings and her small group study for the high school and college aged young ladies of St. Jacob’s. Rachel is someone who is well equipped to tell others about the love of God in Christ Jesus. I would invite the women of St. Jacob’s to “Come Thirsty” for the fellowship and learning that such Bible studies provide.
In order that you may fully realize God’s awesome power and love in your life, I invite you to “Come Thirsty.” “Come Thirsty” to worship where all may join hearts and voices in praise and thanksgiving for all that God has done and continues to do. I invite you to “Come Thirsty” for God’s love; to hear His gospel proclaimed, His Word preached and to realize the abundance of His mercy and grace.
As you come to worship, I also invite you to come to Sunday School where you will learn even more of the goodness of our Lord and Savior. “Come Thirsty” for the fellowship we share as God’s gathered empowered and equipped for ministry and sent into the world for the sake of those who are neediest among us.
Finally, I invite you to ponder the Bible and the glass of water before you. God’s written Word proclaiming His grace made available through His Word made flesh. As you open the pages of Holy Scripture, you will be reminded that God made water to be a sign of His unfailing love and His promise to deliver His people. Through water and the Word, God washes us in the flood of our baptism, pouring out the gifts of faith and the Holy Spirit, forgiveness of sins and the promise of everlasting life.
Grace to you and peace,
Pastor David Nuottila
Pastoral Devotion for August
Posted August 1, 2021 By adminFriendship
Read 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
We all have friends with whom we have lost contact. Friendship is not just a relationship between people; it is also something that takes time and great effort to maintain. Quality friendships endure because those in such relationships have a genuine interest in the life of the other.
The apostle Paul formed many friendships throughout his journeys. These relationships were important to Paul, so he was sure to strengthen them through daily prayer. Rooting his caring and close relationships between God’s people.
Christians are not unlike others in the world in that we often become nostalgic thinking of distant friends. Many of our friends are those we have lost touch with through the years. Sometimes we feel reluctant to reconnect, seemingly embarrassed by our lack of communication. Maybe they’ve forgotten us? Perhaps they too have moved on? Sadly, rationalizing distant friendships in this way leads to even further separation. So, do we simply forget those friends from our past? Certainly not!
The memories of our friends are their memories as well. Not only do we reminisce about past friendships, but the friends from our past most likely remember us fondly too. Praying and thanking God for the gift of friendship helps keep those relationships alive. Through prayer, we can offer thanks to God and once again feel the joy of being a friend to someone whom we love.
Prayer: Thank you Lord, for the friendships we share with others, for they truly are a blessing from you. Amen.
