Living light and in the Light

Remember the 1979 song, "We Are Family" performed by Sister Sledge?
We are family, I got all my sisters with me We are family, Get up ev'rybody and sing
The Biblical model of the church is the picture of a family.  We are brothers and sisters in Christ.  We are to rejoice with those who are rejoicing and we are to weep with those who are weeping.  There is a love between us because of the love that has been put in us by God for each other.  It is most evident when someone of the family is physically hurting.

At the moment, a dear sister of the church is facing a physical battle.  She is a wife and a mother with children still in the home.  She is a professional woman with a career in the area of helping others to find greater independence.  Her life in the church not only includes service with the gifts that God has given her but also the many friendships that have grown over the years, mutually giving and receiving.  

I watched the church embrace its "family-ness" …

A week ago Friday, I wrote a blog post titled "She Was Coughing" and I knew I would probably make a radio broadcast of this event.  So you will be able to hear a shorter version to fit the time slot that I have.  Here is the link to the blog post if you didn't get to read the fuller version: https://pastorwolfgang.blogspot.com/2019/03/friday-focusshe-was-coughing.html

On another note, we are empty nesters again.  We were for a little while a couple of years ago and then they came back.  First Ben returned from college and then Jason and Samantha and we so loved their presence in our home.  Jason and Sam moved on last year to a youth ministry assignment and Ben moved yesterday to an apartment to be closer to work.  It was a necessary move as we continue to prepare for a move into a new ministry that is more mobile throughout the United States.  Some quietness and some sadness last night as we returned to an empty house.

Adam

My Friday found me in downtown Chicago at a nationally known medical facility.  After a 3 hour drive through rush hour, I found the parking deck and had to wind up 10 floors to find an open spot.  I was re-thinking my plan and wished I would have caught the train in Aurora and walked from the Union Station to my destination.

I had two parishioners there on this day.  Transversing from one side of this humongous hospital to the other offered me some daily exercise.  Speaking to the front desk receptionists; riding various elevators and escalators; reading wall signs for directions; and probably looking lost at times to the medical staff on duty are common activities for me on these excursions to hospitals amongst the skyscrapers of this city.

All this is secondary for being there.  It is a time to have some extended time to communicate and provide company with the family after a bedside prayer with the beloved patient before they are wheeled down the hall out of site.  It is a big surgic…

Our Wednesday in the Word today deals with John chapter 7 and verses 1 through 9, which read,
v.1, 2 After these things Jesus was walking in Galilee,  for He was unwilling to walk in Judea  because the Jews were seeking to kill Him.   Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was near.
Those more learned that I say there is about a 6 month gap between the end of chapter 6 and the start of chapter 7.  In chapter 6 Jesus is celebrating the Passover in the Jerusalem area, roughly the month of April, and now it is the time of the Feast of Booths which is roughly October.  Those in Judea, the south, want Jesus dead but it is not the time for that to happen so we find Jesus in the north, in Galilee, continuing God's perfect plan.  This festival was the most popular celebrating the harvest of grapes and olives and remembering the trek in the wilderness from Egypt to the Promise Land.  Those who were able would be traveling south to celebrate this festival in the holy city of Jerusalem.
v.…