[amc] a note from the pastor
- From: "garland robertson" <pastor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Austin Mennonite Church" <amc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2007 10:24:44 -0600
Members and Friends of Austin Mennonite Church
How good it is to be back with you! I trust you have been encouraged in
your experiences by the love of God and your fellow companions in faith. I
was always praying for your peace and comfort and continually had a sense
that we were together in seeking to demonstrate how we see in the way of
Jesus a pattern to guide our relationships with every person we encounter,
whether on the streets of Austin or in the south Hebron hills of Palestine.
I continue to search for ways to share my impressions with you as I
anticipate learning from you what has been discovered in your journey of
faith.
Whenever we read in the ancient scriptures of God's disappointment in the
pattern of living the Hebrew people adopted after arriving in the promised
land, we beg for additional clarification. The judgments seem to include
the entire community, suggesting there were no members who persistently
struggled to live faithfully according to the original directions given by
God to Moses for ordering their lives. Perhaps it is accurate to conclude
that everyone had become resentful of or impatient with God's commands for
them. And yet, perhaps God's instructions were meant to fashion the people
into a corporate unity that preserved reverence for both the divine presence
and the dignity of each distinct person. Whenever this indispensable,
foundational component of God's desire became absent, the deviation was so
perplexing for God that the resulting human construction was described as
totally deficient. If this is God's longing for the human family, how can
we use the example of Jesus to restore it in our time? These thoughts will
compose the sermon for this next Sunday, 'When anticipation becomes
arrogance.'
May it go well with you. Sincerely,
Garland Robertson
...always hold firmly to the thought that each one of us can do something to
bring some portion of misery to an end
Other related posts:
