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Men of the Church Meeting April 14th, 2012 |
The
Men of the Church had their meeting in April on the irregular day of Saturday,
April 14th which was the second Saturday in April rather than the
third Saturday. The change in date was as the result of one of the regular
attendees desiring to go to Chesapeake, Virginia the weekend of April 23rd
to watch his grandson perform (admirably, of course) in the All City Orchestra
and to watch the same grandson perform (exceptionally) in a league soccer game.
Our
meeting kicked off promptly at 8 AM with a trip to the local refurbished McDonald’s
restaurant. Upon our return we blessed the food and our meeting and discussed
worldly topics such returning troops from
Our
devotional this month finally got into the meat of Paul’s letter to the Philippian Church. We focused on the greeting used by Paul
at the beginning and ending of the letter. Paul identifies himself and his
helper, Timothy, as ‘slaves of Jesus Christ’. To be a slave in Paul’s day was
not an uncommon position, but the term does imply ownership by another.
Paul
and Timothy are not ashamed to be ‘owned’ by Jesus Christ.
Paul
addresses his letter to the ‘saints, bishops and deacons’ of the church. We
learned that to be a ‘saint’ was not a position bestowed upon an individual by
a higher church authority, but that it was a way to describe ordinary people
whose relationship to the world is
based upon
the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ; ordinary people whose faith in the saving death of Jesus Christ sets
them apart from the world,
and ordinary people whose relationship to the world and their faith in the saving resurrection of Jesus
Christ are sent out into the world as servants/slaves for Jesus Christ.
Our
‘manly projects portion of the meeting was quite productive. Even though we were few, we did accomplish
the following tasks:
The May
meeting of the Men of the Church is currently scheduled for its regular date
which is May 19th, the third Saturday of the month.
Our
plan is to continue to study the New Testament book of Philippians plus address
any ‘manly’ projects that need addressing. Please contact Tim Waggett at e-mail
address jwagstj@aol.com or by telephone at
540-439-8247, with any suggestions for the Men’s Breakfast devotionals and Men
of the Church projects.