2/26/08

Dear Friends and Members of St. John,

On Sunday night 5 St. John members went to lead worship at the Palmer Correction Center in Sutton. Those who helped lead worship were John Paul Jones, Al Kastar, Jane Larson, Randy Luffberry, and myself. We have been conducting these monthly worship services for 16 ½ years.

As we studied the story of the woman at the well, we were struck by the love of God that He was personally concerned about a foreign woman whose past life did not live up to God’s plan. However, God’s love and mercy caused Him to personally visit this woman in the person of the Messiah.

The Worship Board has been working on a personal gift of grace that God gives each of us in the Lord’s Supper. We have been looking at preparations for our yearly Passover meal. But, has anyone ever shown you the personal grace of God which we can see in the correlation between the way God saved the Israelites from Egypt, and they way God saves us? Look at the chart below.

Passover	Salvation through Jesus
The Israelites were slaves in Egypt	We are slaves to our sin (John 8:34)
The blood of the lamb was put on the door post on the door post.	Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world takes away the sin of the world. (John 1:29)
The people were saved from the angel of death.	Jesus saves us from death and hell.
The Israelites were brought to the promised land in Canaan.	God brings us to ‘the promised land’ of heaven

God tells us again and again that we are helpless to overcome our sin and death, but that in His mercy He saves us. The Passover pointed to the full salvation of God’s people that would happen in Jesus. God gives us this deliverance and forgiveness through faith, and also offers us His grace in a special way through the Lord’s Supper. This year we again get to celebrate God’s love and mercy and deliverance when we participate in the Passover Meal ( 6:00 p.m., March 20) at St. John, and when we receive the Lord’s Supper in Maundy Thursday worship.

My hope is that this ‘Thought from the Pastor’ can make this year’s celebration even more meaningful to you as you remember God’s personal love of God given to you, in His Son, Jesus.

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Rockey

P.S. There are two sign up sheets on the back table in the Narthex concerning Passover.

One signup is for those who plan to attend the meal. This helps us to plan for the food.
Another signup is for those who want to help in preparation for the meal. The preparation is broken down into smaller jobs. We can still use some more help.

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ABOUT ‘THOUGHTS FROM THE PASTOR’ I am sending these e-mail messages, hopefully weekly, to all St. John members and friends whose e-mails I have. However, if you don’t want to receive this e-mail, please let me know, and I’ll gladly leave your name off my list for this message. . . Or, if you know someone who would like to receive one of these e-mails, please send me their e-mail address.

MID WEEK LENTEN WORSHIP AND MEALS CONTINUE. Last week we looked at ‘The Garden of Gethsemane – Desperate Prayer,’ as we continue to consider ‘Places of the Passion’ in our worship, using pictures from the Rockey’s trip to the Holy Land last November. Remember, the meal is at 5:30 p.m., and the service is at 6:30 p.m. Remaining service themes are:

February 27-Lent 4 ‘The High Priest’s House – Voluntary Injustice’

March 5 -Lent 5 ‘The Hill of Torture and Death’

March 12 –Lent6 ‘The Tomb of Defeat and Victory’

I Hope to see many of you at the Lenten Service next Wednesday.

ALL LENTEN FELLOWSHIP MEALS are signed up for by more than one family. THANK YOU to all who have served these meals, and signed up to serve coming meals!

NEW HYMNALS HAVE ARRIVED

The worship Board is making plans to start using the New Hymnals the first Sunday in April in early worship. That will give the hymnals time to arrive, and give us time to start to learn some parts from the services, and hopefully to get name plates printed.

If you have purchased a hymnal and wish it dedicated in memory of some person or ministry, please call or e-mail the church office to let us know how to write the dedication.

At the current time members and friends have committed to pay for 235 of the 250 hymnals we ordered. If you would like to buy hymnals for congregational use you can sign up on the signup sheet in the narthex. Please place your donation in the offering plate with a note in the memo that the donation is for hymnals.

THE CONFIRMATION RETREAT was held last weekend at Victory Bible Camp for St. John Middle School Confirmation Students. Students from Lamb of God Lutheran in Wasilla and Our Redeemer Lutheran in Chugiak attended as well as St. John youth. A total of 38 people took part in this year’s camp.

CONTINUING ANNOUNCEMENTS

WOULD YOU LIKE TO RECEIVE YOUR NEWSLETTER BY E-MAIL INSTEAD OF IN THE MAIL??? There are many advantages to receiving a newsletter by e-mail. They include

Those who receive the newsletter by e-mail will it faster than if they receive it in the mail.
Receiving the newsletter by e-mail will save money on printing, paper, and postage.
Receiving the newsletter by e-mail will save volunteer time.

If you would like to receive your newsletter in this way, please e-mail Judy Stahancyk, our administrative assistant and let her know. Judy’s office e-mail is stjohn@mtaonline.net. Judy will send you an e-mail with a link to our newsletter on our web page. You can read the newsletter on line, or you can print it out.

HAVE YOU CHECKED OUT THE ST. JOHN WEB PAGE??? I am thankful and rather proud of the good work which has made the St. John web page something we can use as a ministry tool.

Go to http://www.st-john-lutheran.org/ and see what you think. If you have suggestions for information or communication that could help our web page, please let the church office, or Jacki Rose – our ‘web master’ - know. You can e-mail Jacki at jackirose@gci.net. Jacki is only a volunteer. We are thankful for her work on this. Ryan Murphy and Eric Hurst have been resources too.