Hurricane Sandy Disaster Relief

From the EPC website:

"Hurricane Sandy has produced death and destruction from the Caribbean up the USA eastern seaboard. It might be days before power is restored and hurting people can be helped.

Donations to the EPC Emergency Relief Fund will go to the relief efforts coordinated by EPC churches and presbyteries ministering in these hard hit areas."

If you are interested in donating, follow this link: EPC Emergency Relief Fund

New Parish Psalms

   Check out this beautiful CD of psalms and hymns here.

God's Grace and Glory Dust

This morning as I was reading an article by Toby J. Sumpter titled "Glory Dust", I thought of a sermon on grace that our pastor shared with us Sunday morning.

Each Sunday we've been focusing on one of the Five Solas. This past Sunday, "Sola Gratia", which means "by grace alone."

God's grace is an idea I struggled with as a child. Even after praying and asking for his forgiveness and telling him I wanted to be his child (not realizing I already was), I wondered if he really wanted me. Why would He want me? I became more aware of my sinful nature. I noticed that not a day went by without sin. Bad thoughts, fights with my sister, ungratefulness to my parents. I became preoccupied with the thought that Christ didn't really want me. He didn't need me, after all, so why would he want someone who couldn't even give up sin? On further examination of myself I couldn't find anything "lovable" about me. I was selfish, unattractive, insignificant. If only I could be good all the time like Mother Teresa. I became so stricken with the realization of my sin nature that I didn't even want to get out of bed in the morning. Hopelessness would wash over me as soon as I opened my eyes. I had tried and failed, so what was the use in trying anymore? It was as though I had a voice in my head saying, "Face it. God doesn't love you. Get over yourself." 

I couldn't understand God's love for me, I couldn't understand His grace. As a mere human being, I didn't have the power within me to love completely, as God does. I didn't have the capacity to forgive completely. There MUST be something I could do to ensure my salvation, I thought. But  hence the reason for my despair: I realized all I could do was NOTHING. I was a great big nothing. 

Finally, I found comfort in the scriptures. Particularly these verses: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them to me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one." (John 10:27-30)

What happiness! To find out I could NEVER be plucked out of God's hand.

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)

What peace! To know that the fact I could do nothing to ensure my salvation was not my despair, but my joy! God did love me, even though I didn't know why, and HE would save me. Through His grace alone. 

As an adult of course I still have moments when I wonder how God could keep loving me, keep forgiving me. Sometimes my faith feels as thin as a thread. But I am not cast down into despair as I was in my tender, sometimes dramatic youth. And I am reminded through the scriptures that though I am small and my existence seems insignificant, God loves me! God has a purpose and a plan for my life. At times I am so overwhelmed by His love, it floods me with a happiness that reaches down into my very soul and brings tears into my eyes. And even when I am not suddenly overcome with this flood of happiness, even in the sad times, I feel His love deep down. The peace He provides has settled into the crevices of my soul and reminds me of who I am. I am God's child. 

T.J. Sumpter says it well: "When we have put on our best clothes, played our best music, and walked with our greatest dignity, we are still only human. We are still just people, just men and women and children, with arms and legs and belly buttons. God loves our worship; God loves our praise - provided we have not made an idol of it. But even at our best we are ants at the foot of Mt. Everest pantomiming how big our God is. We are tiny specks on a roller coaster swinging through the galaxies, surrounded by millions of stars. We are children with tongues stuck in our cheeks scrawling with crayons. We are so small.

 And that is really what we are doing in our ceremonies, our liturgies. We are confessing that we are just people, just small, broken human beings. And yet we remember that the glorious, omnipotent God became one of us, stooped down for us, embraced us in His love. We are not merely microscopic organisms pounding the door of some ogre's castle in hopes of mercy. We are the beloved children of God, made in his image, saved by his grace, washed in our Savior's blood, redeemed forever and ever. We are small, and yet he has set his love on us. And so we take our smallness, our weakness, we take dust and ashes and, like the little children that we are, we draw on each other.

... Therefore, remember the God who became dust for us and remember how small you are. Remember that we are little kids in the sandbox of God's universe. And then remember that you have a Father, a loving, faithful Father who has loved you with an everlasting love, and who has sent his only Son to die for you and by his death and resurrection frees you from all your sins. Remember the high calling of low humility. Remember and stand up big and tall, and remember that you are dust:  glory dust."

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You can read the enlightening and extremely interesting article by T.J. Sumpter here. 

1st Blog Post: An Introduction

Welcome Folks! This is a brand new blog featuring our church, Covenant Presbyterian, in Columbus Mississippi. Our congregation is a part of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC).  We are a small church family and welcome visitors!

Our Pastor is Bob Wilbur, he leads us in worship every Sunday morning from 10:30 to 11:30 am.We are a fellowship of people committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We seek to worship Him, know Him better, and make Him known to others.

Please join us as we worship our Lord and fellowship with one another!

"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God not of works, lest anyone should boast." ~ Ephesians 2:8-9

Sunday School: 9:30 am
Divine Worship: 10:30 am
Pastor: Bob Wilbur
Phone: 662-328-3882
E-mail: wilbs40@cableone.net
Address: 515 Lehmberg Rd, Columbus, MS 39702