Shippensburg First Church Of God Blog Site: Are you Zealous? SFCOG updates for 5/19

Sunday is Coming!

Do you have any pet peeves?

What things really get on your nerves or cause you to get angry or fired up or upset?

Perhaps the sound of nails scraping on a chalkboard?

According to an internet article on parade.com, nails on a chalkboard is #11 on their list. Here’s their top 10:

10. Scraping silverware

9. Being on the phone in public

8. Pen-clicking

7. Tapping

6. Chewing noises

5. Cutting in line

4. Spitting

3. Hogging the sidewalk

2. Slurping loudly

1. Gum Chewing (the article specifies-- “the zealous kind”)

There are a lot of things in life that can bother us or cause us to be “fired up” or passionate or zealous…

Paul says in Galatians 4:18 “It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good.”

On Sunday we will consider this key word from Galatians 4- Zeal. Zeal refers to the things we are passionate about--the things that tug at our emotions & desires. In the Bible, zeal can mean an earnest desire to diligently seek after something (such as the cause of Christ), but it can also lead to sins like coveting, envy, or selfishness.

Zeal and Passion can be good or bad, but it depends on what your zeal is fixated upon. Another way to think of Zeal is to equate it with the emotions that drive us. Our zeal & emotions can transform us positively or negatively.

As we reflect on zeal and passion and emotions, it seems that there is one emotion in our society that is rising to the top—Anger. Have you noticed that a lot of people seem really angry lately? Where is this anger taking us? We might even ask, “what have we become?” why are we so angry? AND are we angry about the right things?

I have heard many people talking about the dangers of what has been called ‘Outrage Culture.’ It seems that people get angry about everything--not just “pet peeves.” Think of protest movements, riots, cancel culture, bullying, or spamming negative reviews for products online--anger shows up in a lot of ways in our world today, sometimes this is constructive, but often it is destructive.

We might say that anger gets more attention than any other emotion. If you want people to notice you, the quickest way to bring attention to yourself is to get angry (if you know Kids, you know that this starts young).

Maybe one of the reasons that the book of Galatians stands out to me is because in various ways, Paul seems pretty fired up, passionate, or even angry about what is happening in the church of Galatia.

What we need to consider for ourselves personally, is how emotions can drive us towards good or evil; towards truth or lies.

In Galatians 4, we see that Paul himself was “zealous” in response to the Zeal, Passion, and Emotions that other false teachers were displaying toward the Galatians to lead them estray. This further demonstrates that Emotions can lead towards positive outcomes, or negative.

We must also remember that God gave us emotions for a reason—to experience life, to praise and worship Him, to connect to others, etc. (cf Psalms).

We don’t want to devalue them, but the goal is to submit our emotions to the leading of God’s Spirit, and not to be mastered by them or allow them to drive our lives or take us out of step with Jesus, our Savior and Lord.

We must ask-- Do we get fired up about the right things? Or have we been “re-enslaved” to worldly ways of thinking?

This weekend as we consider Paul’s emotional appeal in Galatians 4:8-20, we will confront the issue of stewarding our own emotions, and also testing and challenging the emotional appeals that others are making to us.

Paul says, “It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good” (Galatians 4:18)

As Christians, we must be discerning, by the leading of the Holy Spirit. In another letter that Paul wrote to a different church, he said,

“Do not quench the Spirit. Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil.”

(Thessalonians 5:19-22),

May we submit our emotions to the leading of the Holy Spirit, and allow Him to guide us towards all that is true and good!

This Sunday

We will celebrate all women on this Mother’s Day! Some of the kids from our children’s ministry will be handing out special gifts to every woman as they exit the sanctuary.

8:30 –

518 Satisfied

510 Heaven Came Down

501 Now I Belong to Jesus

568 May the Mind of Christ My Savior

11:00 –

We will be led into worship by a Guest Worship Leader, Gina Baldoni, from Doubling Gap Church of God.

Our God

Promises

Honey in the Rock

Great Things

Contemporary Spotify Playlist

This Weekend

Friday, May 17th, The children’s ministry is having a night of Pizza and Games at the Robert’s House. More info is available through our Children’s Ministry department.

On Saturday Morning, May 18th, we will be providing two training opportunities for our Children & Youth workers in room 209. The first training at 10:00am will share about ways to connect with children & youth, and at 11:00, we will offer Mandated Reporter Training, which is required to be taken periodically by all who serve with Children and Youth. If you are interested in serving at Vacation Bible School or in other ways in the future and have not taken this training, please plan to attend.

We are hosting a Wild Game Dinner on Saturday, May 18 at 5:00 in Crossroads Station. This event is designed as a night of fellowship and outreach for sportsmen (and sportswomen) and will feature door prizes, food from the forests and fields, and a special presentation the by PA Trappers Association. Turkey will be provided, but you are asked to bring a side dish—especially wild game dishes from your own hunting and fishing experiences if you have something to share!
This Sunday, May 19^th, we will be having a special elective class during the Sunday School time in the fellowship hall in Crossroads station. This class will explore the rise of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) and how Christians can think about this and other technological changes in our world.

Council Highlights

Our church council convened this week for our May meeting. Here are some highlights to share with you:

In update was shared about the ERC Annual Conference. It was a time of worship, reflection, training, business, and fellowship. There are some new leaders in place in the local region of our denomination who shared about biblical topics such Discipleship, Joy, and Sabbath Rest. Our conference is confronting many difficult questions presented by our world, and answering them with biblical and prayerful truth that finds its source in Jesus.
It was reported that the judge approved a disbursement from the Albert Busch Trust Fund to the Shippensburg First Church of God in the amount of $50,000, designated as reimbursement for Crossroads Station improvements, because a portion of those improvements specifically benefited seniors. This will significantly reduce the amount of our loan.
The updated “Church Facilities Use Policy” and “Church Facility Reservation Request and Agreement form” were approved by the church council. Revisions include details related to using the new spaces in Crossroads Station, and priority considerations to ensure that all of our buildings can be stewarded well and made available for ministry and community outreach opportunities, while also allowing for individual members and attenders to utilize the facilities as appropriate. New forms will be available in the church office and in the gathering place for review and for use.

Summer Events!

“Ship Serve” Youth Missions Week

June 17-20

A team of young people from our youth group will be serving our community in a variety of ways for a week this summer, including hosting a community meal. You’ll be hearing more about this event on Sunday, but you can begin prayerfully considering how you could be involved through some of the following ways:

Prayer Support
Financial Donations
Service Project Ideas
Donating Cookies & Cupcakes
Providing to-go snacks for work crews

Vacation Bible School

VBS is coming on June 23-27! This year we will be taking kids on an imaginary trip to the beach to learn about how God’s ‘Rock-Solid Truth’ stands firm in a world of ‘shifting sands!’

Registration will soon be available for children, and we are assembling a team of adults and teenagers to serve together as part of our VBS team. Begin prayerfully considering how you could minister in one or more of the following ways—

Teachers*
Helpers*
Games*
Crafts*
Worship & Opening*
Decorators
Meal service
Snack service
Etc.

*be sure to attend the Mandated Reporter Training this weekend if you are interested in working directly with children.

Ladies in Step Activities

All ladies are invited to participate and learn about some special activities together, like painting, succulent gardening, card making, and jewelry making. The first activity (gardening) is June 5, and they will meet every other Wednesday at 6:30 in the Annex through June and July.

Men’s Prayer Breakfast

All men are invited to meet at the Greyhound Restaurant from 7:30-8:45 on Wednesday Mornings from July 18-August 6.

Communications Updates

The May edition of our “FYI” Newsletter is now available. Look for it at the Welcome Desk or in the center section of the Sanctuary.

If you have information you would like to communicate, communication request forms are available from the church office or in the Gathering Place.

Let us zealously live for Christ, as we allow him to direct our emotions and passions in line with his Truth and Love!

Pastor Rodney Bistline

Shippensburg First Church of God

seniorpastorbistline@shipfcog.org