Renewing Our Covenant
What a wonderful worship service we shared on Sunday as we confirmed John Marlin Stewart and welcomed him into the church’s professing membership. When I was planning the service with him, he said that he would like to read a Scripture passage in Hebrew from the pulpit! Ray Purnell helped him identify a verse in Deuteronomy, and he practiced a phonetic reading before delivering it from the pulpit. I bet very few of us would ever volunteer to read Hebrew in the worship service, but this young man was not afraid at all!
One of the things I love about The United Methodist Church is its liturgies. For the Sacraments of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion, our hymnal is full of prayers and confessions that followers of Jesus have said for years. I was especially struck by these words from the confirmation service yesterday, spoken by the congregation:
We give thanks for all God has already given you
And we welcome you in Christian love.
As members together with you in the body of Christ
And in this congregation of The United Methodist Church,
We renew our covenant faithfully to participate
In the ministries of the church..
How are you fulfilling the promise you made to God to participate in the life of His Church? Our little brother set a great example for us yesterday. Let’s renew our covenant by getting up, getting active, and getting ready for the return of our Lord together!
all good things to each of you,
dr. darian