A (somewhat belated) happy new year!

Now nearing the end of the first month of this new year, it’s a good time to share a few thoughts with you. We let go of Christmas reluctantly, as always, remembering all of the admonishments about how we ought to celebrate the coming of Christ into our lives every day of the year. With spring-like weather through much of January (though now it’s given way to more seasonable sub-freezing temperatures and even a little snow early this week), the transition to busyness as usual has been all too easy. Also this year a couple of unfriendly viruses seem to have been making the rounds, and a lot of us, including me, have been laid low for at least part of the time. Meanwhile, we still say that GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME!

Some recent and current matters of interest:

* The Marbury Church of God had its annual business/budget meeting on the eleventh, and passed a budget for the coming year. A new boiler has been installed in the church building, several exterior doors have been replaced, and numerous needs for other physical improvements have been identified.

* Rev. Shannon Buehler is leading a series of Sunday evening sessions on “Discovering Your Spiritual Gifts.” These are at 5:00 PM each week from January 7th through February 18th.

* On Saturday, January 20 we hosted the monthly meeting of NETS (Neighbors Eager To Serve), one of the local ministries supported in our budget.

* The focus of our Sunday morning services this Epiphany season has been on the working of the Holy Spirit in the church. We’ve dealt with the organic nature of the Body of Christ, the varieties of gifts, the anointing of the Spirit for ministry, and this Sunday, January 28, we’ll look at the “more excellent way” described in 1 Corinthians 13 [+/-]1 Corinthians 13 [13:1]If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. [2]And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. [3]If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. [4]Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant [5]or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; [6]it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. [7]Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. [8]Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. [9]For we know in part and we prophesy in part, [10]but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. [11]When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. [12]For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. [13]So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (ESV)
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The launching of this website becomes official this month, as a major vehicle for keeping members and friends informed. In addition to this informational blog and related pages, we have the capacity to maintain a public calendar, a photo gallery, and much more.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Do you know Jesus?