God of our yesterdays, our todays, and our tomorrows.
We praise you for your unequaled greatness.
Thank you for the year behind us and for the year ahead.
Help us in this new year, Father, to fret less and laugh more.
To teach our children to laugh by laughing with them.
To teach others to love by loving them.
Help us, Father, to hear your love song in every sunrise,
in the chirping of birds in our backyards,
in the stories of our old folks,
and the fantasies of our children.
Help us to stop and listen to your love songs,
so that we may know you better and better.
We rejoice in the world you called into being.
Thank you for another new year and for new chances every day.
We pray for peace, for light, and for hope,
that we might spread them to others.
Forgive us for falling short this past year.
We leave the irreparable past in your hands, and step out into the
future of an unknown new year knowing you will go with us.
We accept your gift of a new year and we rejoice in what’s ahead,
depending on you to help us to love others as you have loved us.
In Jesus’s name we pray,
Amen.
LCY Archive
Prayer for the New Year
Posted December 28, 2024 By adminYouth Retreat
Posted December 28, 2024 By adminYouth Bible Study
Posted December 27, 2024 By adminThe Youth Bible Study learned about the Church Year that begins with Advent. We spent some time in the sanctuary and learned about the significance of the Chrismons and other Christian symbols found throughout the church. During Advent, the youth are reading an Advent devotion together that Cora Wallace is sharing with them daily via their text group. Please encourage these youth as they continue to grow in their faith and enjoy time spent together!
Youth Christmas Party
Posted December 27, 2024 By adminOn December 8th the youth had a Christmas party. In addition to lots of pizza, snacks and Christmas movies, they baked cookies and made treat bags for Christmas caroling.
Music Notes
Posted December 27, 2024 By adminChristmas Caroling
Christmas caroling was lots of fun this year. We had 26 carolers! We filled J.L. and Janet’s house. What fun. The youth baked cookies and made treat bags to take to each person we visited. We gathered for a soup lunch after church on Sunday and set out to sing to 9 people. We were all a little hoarse by the time we arrived at Todd and Joanie’s house to sing to Papa Joe and enjoy a delicious spread of Christmas treats and fellowship. Maybe next year we can have 36 carolers!
From Your Pastor’s Heart
Posted December 1, 2024 By adminThe people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. Isaiah 9:2
Amazingly, there are a number of little things that go unnoticed until you can see them with new eyes. Small things, insignificant things. They surround us and cast off a beauty all their own. Until very recently, I have missed so many of these, but thanks be to God, I have been afforded “new eyes” with which to see. Not that I couldn’t see before, but that I simply didn’t notice the wonder of such insignificance.
As we begin the season of Advent, we do so with the opportunity to notice the insignificance of some of God’s smallest blessings, things we most often don’t think about, things we take for granted. The reminders of God’s sovereignty and majesty are all around us. They declare the glory of the One True God who chooses to save his people from sin, death, and the power of the devil. All it takes to see these simplistic icons of grace is to look with new vision, theological vision, having an awareness of God’s presence.
During my first night home following surgery, I was lying back in my recliner trying to fall asleep, but there was a brilliant light shining that just would not let my attention go. It was a small light, insignificant, as I said earlier. It was the little green LED power indicator on my laptop charger lighting up the room. In this instance, I saw this little light in a completely new way. The fact that it was shining meant there was power available. Even as I was weakened after a lengthy surgical procedure, the power of God’s love was lighting up the room.
Lying in that recliner, I could feel something that I had taken for granted for a long, long time. I could feel each beat of my surgically repaired heart. It is much stronger than I remember it ever being. The continued rhythmic thump, thump, thump, played a new song over and over again in thankful praise to our heavenly Father who has the power to save his people.
In Advent, we once again have the opportunity to look with “theological eyes” and see the wonder of God’s mercy and grace made manifest for all believers. It comes to us in a most insignificant way, through most humble means; a baby born into the poverty of a fallen and broken world. A Savior
born into a world in need of saving.
Like that little LED that lit up my room, this Babe of Bethlehem casts a light into the world that commands attention. People who walk in the darkness of this world, seemingly blind to the insignificance of this one child, would one day be gathered into his brilliance simply by seeing him with new eyes. Witnessing his compassion, his teaching, and his love for all that God created, for it was all created through him.
As we complete one more liturgical year exploring the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus, and prepare to embark on the journey once more, I would invite you to take notice of the humble means through which God gets your attention reminding you of his ever-present love. These “icons of grace” as I have called them are all around us. I invite you to enter into a deeper, closer, more intimate relationship with our Lord and God. His is a beauty and wonder that draws us into the brilliance of the light that shines through even the darkest moments of our lives.
This Advent, take time to slow down, pray, and notice the presence of Christ walking alongside as he fills your life with the blessing of his power and love. See the icons of God’s grace with new eyes and enter into the wonder and mystery of the God who takes upon himself human flesh and dwells with his people. He came to save us. He continues to come to love us. His power and glory are made manifest even in the most insignificant ways. He is there for us to notice with every heartbeat and breath we take. To God be the glory forever and ever.
Youth Ministry Spotlight
Posted November 5, 2024 By adminMembers of St. Jacob’s Youth engaged God’s mission in a couple of significant ways during October. Several of our youth worked to assemble flood buckets in the fellowship hall to assist people in hurricane recovery. On another occasion, youth members went along with Lynn and Susan Shealy, shopping for Mercy Bag items. They learned about the Mercy Bag ministry and how it impacts people in need within our surrounding area. Thank you also to David Kibler and Susan Shealy for leading a Youth Bible study on Wednesday evenings in the church office conference room. Yes, our St. Jacob’s Youth really is “mission driven.”
Mission Youth Reformation Party
Posted October 29, 2024 By adminThe Carolinas Mission Region will hold its annual Youth Reformation Party on Sunday, November 3rd beginning at 3:00 PM. The location for the gathering will be Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Gastonia, NC. All St. Jacob’s youth and their friends in grades 6-12 are invited. Please let Pastor David or Angela Nuottila know if you are planning on participating. Parents, we will need volunteers to provide transportation. Holy Trinity is located along HWY 321 about two hours away. We should return to St. Jacob’s around 8:00 PM.
Confirmands Working Hard
Posted October 15, 2024 By adminOur current confirmation class is currently studying the Old Testament Scriptures with Pastor David on Sunday afternoons. This is the largest class we have had in quite a while, and the kids are learning how to read the Bible and use the many tools it provides for discerning the Good News of God’s Word. Please continue to pray for our confirmands as they grow in faith together.
St. Jacob’s Youth
Posted September 26, 2024 By adminFollowing our Confirmation classes on October 6th, the youth of St. Jacob’s are invited to a time of food, fellowship, fun and games. Since there will be no Youth Handbell rehearsals that day, our Youth meeting will begin upon the conclusion of confirmation class about 4:00PM. All St. Jacobs Youth and their friends in grades 6 and above are welcome. We will meet in the Church office.