Shippensburg First Church Of God Blog Site: Houses and Gardens

Sunday’s Coming, but today is the first day of school here in SASD!

This morning I had the wonderful opportunity to catch up with some neighbors as we were seeing our children off to school.

Last week, Tony and Bethany Massara did a great job helping us to prayerfully reflect on children, educators, the back-to-school season, and how we call all be good students and teachers in our faith. We also had the chance to pray for the upcoming school year.

Central to all of this is the reminder that as a church and as individual Christians, we must seek the wellbeing of our neighbors in our community, as God instructs His people in Jeremiah 29. We want to be in prayer for and to work intentionally towards making Shippensburg a better place for all people. Maybe this can be seen most clearly when we consider the next generation.

Among the many wonderful things about children is that they help us consider the passage of time and the importance of planning for the future in a variety of ways. This can guide us as we set our priorities in line with God’s plans. Jeremiah 29:4-7 reads,

4 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

These words remind us to “build houses” and “plant gardens” –two very important directives that are symbolic and practical commands for the people of God today as well. Houses and Gardens emphasize the need for long-lasting ways to make the world a better place for the “sons and daughters” who will come after us. Even more directly, God reminds His people to “seek the peace and prosperity of the city,” and to “Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

Remember, God was telling the people exiled from Jerusalem to pray for and seek the peace and prosperity of Babylon—the city of their enemy captors. I believe we can apply the same principle to the world we find ourselves in today, with all of it’s merits and flaws.

In what ways do we Seek the peace and prosperity of Shippensburg?

How often and earnestly do we pray to the Lord on behalf of our neighbors in the community?

Remember also, that Jesus directed us to “love our neighbor as ourselves” and even went to the fullest extent to model this for his followers. There is a popular paraphrase of John 1:14 in The MSG that gives us another beautiful image of how Jesus exemplified this:

“The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.”

Let’s get involved with our neighborhoods, pray for our community, and continually ask God to open our eyes to see His Plans to prosper our neighbors and the next generation!

Here are a few ways that can help us to do that:

Support the Corn Festival this Saturday! As in past years, our parking lot will be the site of the annual Car Show!

If you were not able to make it to the “Biblical View of Identity Seminar” 2 weeks ago, a recording of it will be shared in the sanctuary on Tuesday night (August 27) at 6:30

Wednesday (August 30) at 6:30-8:00 our Community Night ministries resume! Our youth group will be meeting at the Southampton Township park on airport road, and our Children’s Awana program will kick off in the lower level. There are 3 adult Bible Studies to choose from as well.

Next Sunday (September 3) is our “Get Connected” class. If you would like to learn more about our church and the small group ministries and Sunday School classes that we offer, this is a great way to do that. Get Connected meets on the 1st Sunday of every month at 9:45 in room 206 behind the balcony.

Plan ahead for our Church Picnic happening in 2 weeks! On that Sunday, September 10, we will not be in the sanctuary but we will be out in the community at Memorial Park. We will have a combined worship service at 10:00am, followed by a picnic lunch and some followship opportunities, including a Corn Hole Tournament!