Eighteen Thirty g r a c e a l o n e f a i t h a l o n e i n C h r i s t a l o n e s c r i p t u r e a l o n e g l o r y o f g o d a l o n e

. s o l a g r a t i a s o l a f i d e s o l u s c h r i s t u s s o l a s c r i p t u r a s o l i d e o G l o r i a .

a m o n t h l y n e w s l e t t e r o f t h e G r a c e C o m m u n i t y C h u r c h G r a n t s v i l l e M a r y l a n d

through revealed by for the salvation is by

October 2015

...is our annual Reformation Sunday Celebration! What is Reformation Sunday? The Sunday just before Reformation Day. Check out the short article on page 3 about Reformation Day!

We are gathering at the church and will be celebrating a time of communion. Please make it a point to be in church on these special days when we remember the Lord’s life, death and resurrection.

children around the world through our support of Operation Christmas Child (OCC). OCC is a ministry of Samaritans Purse. Please check out the note from Andy & Jenny on page 8.

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Franklin Broadwater, James Moon and I were having a conversation one Sunday after church… mostly about trucks and planes (as we normally do), but one Sunday recently our conversations turned to the Moon’s experiences at Redeemer Church in Dubai. The Moon’s pastor there, Dave Furman, and the other pastors in Dubai were pretty regular in suggesting good books and resources for their church to pick up and digest. I could tell just from listening to the tone in James’ voice that the culture of reading good books was important to the discipleship efforts of the pastors at Redeemer…especially in ministering to their church in a predominately Muslim country. The whole conversation was a good reminder to me of how often we neglect the discipline of reading good books.

Although most of you won’t have the time to digest tons and tons of books like most pastors do, that should not stop us from seeking out good books from good authors on regular basis to complement our study of the Bible. Many times a good book will propel me back into reading my Bible.

Finding good resources in book stores can be a very difficult task though. Despite the quantity of books my experience is the quality can be very lacking. On one hand you can walk into most bookstores and find John MacArthur’s books right next to Joel Osteen books, and the theology, content and quality could not be more different.

So I wanted to take the opportunity this month to encourage you to check out our book wall at the church this month. It’s now back up after VBS and ready for you to use again. Because we are not blessed with a quality Christian Bookstore nearby (and even if we did, sadly the same lack of discernment for quality theology is not present in most Christian bookstores…yikes!), George Yoder and I are committed to filling our book wall with books and DVD’s and sermon CDs you can borrow and even some books you can purchase to add to your library. While no book or DVD or Sermon CD is perfect, you can browse our book wall with a greater confidence knowing your Elders are recommending what we have on hand.

And please don’t hesitate to ask us if you would like some guidance on resources that you have “heard about” from a friend at work. If you’d like one of our Elder’s take on a particular book or resource we would love to help.

Unfortunately there’s a lot of pretty lousy theology out in the world even from well meaning friends. However, with a little help and a little research you can trust your time won’t be wasted on reading bad books. I will also make it more of a habit to keep you updated on what I’ve been listening to and reading. Let’s dig in together! For His Renown,

Consider picking up a good book to help grow in godliness!

Taking God at His Word by Kevin DeYoung The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul Knowing God by J.I. Packer

Consider picking up some good music to help you sing to the Lord each day!

I’m Going Free by the Vertical Church Band Bound For Glory by The Vertical Church Band Lamb of God by The Vertical Church Band Show Me Your Glory by Matt Papa Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery by Matt Papa

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On Saturday October 31, most of America will be focused

on candy, and things that scare us, and things that go bump in the night. Protestants, however, have something far more significant to celebrate on October 31. Saturday October 31 is Reformation day, which commemorates what was perhaps the greatest move of God’s Spirit since the days of the Apostles.

What is Reformation Day, and more importantly how should we consider the events it commemorates?

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed a list of ninety-five theses (problems he saw within the Roman Catholic Church…of which he was a part of) to the castle church door in Wittenberg, Germany. With the striking of a hammer Luther provoked a debate that culminated finally in what we now call the Protestant Reformation. The event and the debate that followed ultimately led to the greatest transformation of Western society since the apostles first preached the Gospel throughout the Roman empire.

An heir of Bishop Augustine of Hippo, Martin Luther is one of the most significant figures God has raised up since that time. This law student turned Augustinian monk became the center of a great controversy after his theses were copied and distributed throughout Europe. Initially protesting the pope’s attempt to sell salvation, Luther’s study of Scripture soon led him to oppose the church of Rome on issues including the primacy of the Bible over church tradition and the means by which we are found righteous in the sight of God.

This last issue is probably Luther’s most significant contribution to Christian theology. Though preached clearly in the New Testament and found in the writings of many of the church fathers, the medieval bishops and priests of the Roman Catholic Church had largely forgotten the truth that our own good works can by no means merit God’s favor. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone, and good works result from our faith, they are not added to it as the grounds for our right standing in the Lord’s eyes (Eph. 2:8-10). Justification that God declares that we are not guilty, forgiven of sin, and righteous in His sight comes because through our faith alone the Father imputes, or reckons to our account, the perfect righteousness of Christ (2 Cor. 5:21).

Martin Luther’s rediscovery of this truth led to a whole host of other church and societal reforms and much of what we take for granted in the West would have likely been impossible had he never graced the scene. Luther’s translation of the Bible into German put the Word of God in the hands of the people,

and today Scripture is available in the vernacular language of many countries, enabling lay people to study it with profit. He reformed the Latin mass by putting the liturgy in the common tongue so that non-scholars could hear and understand the preached word of God and worship the Lord with clarity. Luther lifted the unbiblical ban on marriage for the clergy and by his own teaching and example radically transformed the institution itself. He recaptured the biblical view of the priesthood of all believers, showing all people that their work had purpose and dignity because in it they can serve their Creator.

Today, Luther’s legacy lives on in the creeds and confessions of Protestant bodies worldwide. As we consider his importance this Reformation Day, let us equip ourselves to be knowledgeable proclaimers and defenders of biblical truth. May we be eager to preach the Gospel of God to the world and thereby spark a new reformation of church and culture.

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Please take a moment of your time this month to lift these prayer requests up to the Lord.

Pray for Bobby Shumaker and Winnie Lane who are residents at Goodwill Home.

Pray for the following church family & friends who have been experiencing health challenges recently: Gerry Beachy, Donna Burton, Bill Bender, Helen Bender, Allison Broadwater, Jean Widder.

Pray for Governor Hogan as he battles cancer.

Pray for those who are spiritually lost & going down a wrong path.

Pray for wisdom, patience and opportunities for those looking for work.

Pray for wisdom, healing and restoration of broken marriages.

Pray for our soldiers who continue to defend our country

both at home and abroad.

Pray for all those in positions of authority that they would seek the wisdom of God in all matters so that we might live in a peaceful, quiet, godly and dignified way. (1 Tim 2:1-2)

Pray for the inactive members of our church that the Lord would lead them back into a time of regular fellowship.

Let us regularly give thanks for the ways that we see God’s hand at work in our church community!

We give thanks for all the brave men and woman who gave their lives for the cause of freedom for our country.

We give thanks for all our cleaning help that cleans the church dutifully each week. Please do all you can help them by making sure you throw away your trash week. A little help by everyone makes their job a lot easier.

We give thanks for Gerry and Sue Beachy who are gathering folks to play in our bell choirs again this year.

We give thanks for those who had perfect attendance in worship this past month:

Gerry & Sue Beachy Shirley Bender Patty Rice Esther Stanton Linda Upole Emily Widder Lincoln Widder Lori Wilt Piper Wilt Elva Yoder George & Barbara Yoder Hyun Joo Moon Caleb Moon Ben Moon

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by Kevin DeYoung from the Gospel Coalition Website

“Why bother with church membership?”

’ve been asked the question before. Sometimes it’s said with genuine curiosity-“So explain to me what membership is all about.” Other times it’s said with a tinge of suspicion-

“So tell me again, why do you think I should become a member?”-as if joining the church automatically signed you up to tithe by direct deposit.

For many Christians membership sounds stiff, something you have at your bank or the country club, but too formal for the church. Even if it’s agreed that Christianity is not a lone ranger religion, that we need community and fellowship with other Christians, we still bristle at the thought of officially joining a church. Why all the hoops? Why box the Holy Spirit into member/non-member categories? Why bother joining a local church when I’m already a member of the universal Church?

Some Christians–because of church tradition or church baggage–may not be convinced of church membership no matter how many times “member” actually shows up in the New Testament. But many others are open to hearing the justification for something they’ve not thought much about.

Here are just a few reasons why church membership matters:

1. In joining a church you make visible your commitment to Christ and his people.

Membership is one way to raise the flag of faith. You state before God and others that you are part of this local body of believers. It’s easy to talk in glowing terms about the invisible church-the body of all believers near and far, living and dead-but it’s in the visible church that God expects you to live out your faith.

Sometimes I think that we wouldn’t all be clamoring for community if we had actually experienced it. Real fellowship is hard work, because most people are a lot like us-selfish, petty, and proud. But that’s the body God calls us to.

How many of Paul’s letters were written to individuals? Only a handful, and these were mostly to pastors. The majority of his letters were written to a local body of believers. We see the same thing in Revelation. Jesus spoke to individual congregations in places like Smyrna, Sardis, and Laodicea. The New Testament knows no Christians floating around in “just me and Jesus” land. Believers belong to churches.

2. Making a commitment makes a powerful statement in a low-commitment culture.

Many bowling leagues require more of their members than our churches. Where this is true, the church is a sad reflection of its culture. Ours is a consumer culture were everything is tailored to meet our needs and satisfy our preferences. When those needs aren’t met, we can always move on to the next product, or job, or spouse.

Joining a church in such an environment makes a counter-cultural statement. It says “I am committed to this group of people and they are committed to me. I am here to give, more than get.”

Even if you will only be in town for a few years, it’s still not a bad idea to join a church. It lets your home church (if you are a student) know that you are being cared for, and it lets your present know that you want to be cared for here.

But it’s not just about being cared for, it’s about making a decision and sticking with it-something my generation, with our oppressive number of choices, finds difficult. We prefer to date the church-have her around for special events, take her out when life feels lonely, and keep her around for a rainy day. Membership is one way to stop dating churches, and marrying one.

3. We can be overly independent. In the West, it’s one of the best and worst thing about us.

We are free spirits and critical thinkers. We get an idea and run with it. But whose running with us? And are any of us running in the same direction? Membership states in a formal way, “I am part of something bigger than myself. I am not just one of three hundred individuals. I am part of a body.”

4. Church membership keeps us accountable. When we join a church we are offering ourselves to one

another to be encouraged, rebuked, corrected, and served. We are placing ourselves under leaders and submitting to their authority (Heb. 13:7). We are saying, “I am here to stay. I want to help you grow in godliness. Will you help me to do the same?”

Mark Dever, in his book Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, writes: “Church membership is our opportunity to grasp hold of each other in responsibility and love. By identifying ourselves with a particular church, we let the pastors and other members of that local church know that we intend to be committed in attendance, giving, prayer, and service. We allow fellow believers to have great expectations of us in these areas, and we make it known that we are the responsibility of this local church. We assure the church of our commitment to Christ in serving with them, and we call for their commitment to serve and encourage as well.”

5. Joining the church will help your pastor and elders be more faithful shepherds.

Hebrews 13:7 says “Obey your leaders and submit to their authority.” That’s your part as “laypeople”. Here’s our part as leaders: “They keep watch over you as men who must give an account.” As a pastor I take very seriously my responsibility before God to watch care for souls. At almost every elders’ meeting the RCA Book of Church Order instructed us “seek to determine whether any members of the congregation are in need of special care regarding their spiritual condition and/or not making faithful use of the means of grace.” This is hard enough to do in a church like ours where there is constant turnover, but it’s even harder when we don’t know who is really a part of this flock.

To give just one example, we try to be diligent in following up with people who haven’t been at our church for a while. This is a challenge. But if you never become a member, we can’t tell if you are really gone, because we might not be sure if you were ever here! It’s nearly impossible for the elders to shepherd the flock when they don’t know who really considers them their shepherds. (continued on p.6)

I

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6. Joining the church gives you an opportunity to make promises.

When someone become a member at University Reformed Church, he makes promises to pray, give, serve, attend worship, accept the spiritual guidance of the church, obey its teachings, and seek the things that make for unity, purity, and peace. We ought not to make these promises lightly. They are solemn vows. And we must hold each other to them. If you don’t join the church, you miss an opportunity to publicly make these promises, inviting the elders and the rest of the body to hold you to these promises-which would be missing out on great spiritual benefit, for you, your leaders, and the whole church.

Membership matters more than most people think. If you really want to be a counter-cultural revolutionary, sign up for the membership class, meet with your elders, and join your local church.

For more information please contact Shari Ross: 240-321-4103 lukedemi@verizon.net

For more information please contact John Carey:

301-876-0342 jcarey6821@gmail.com

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6/7 42 7/5 45 8/2 39 9/6 44

6/14 51 7/12 50 8/9 Did not

get recorded

9/13 54

6/21 54 7/19 94 8/16 Did not

get recorded

9/20 36

6/28 GVD 7/26 41 8/23 36 9/27 63

8/30 62

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missions

team

update

Thank you for all your support throughout this year’s Operation Christmas Child (OCC) mission. As we draw closer to our packing party date (TBA) and the National Collection Week (November 16-23) we wanted to give you a quick update on some details this month.

Some people who signed up to buy top spinners for the OCC boxes still owe for the top spinners. I (Jenny) will be placing reminders in the respective church mail boxes if you that’s the case for you.

The remaining tags on the OCC Christmas tree church are all the items we still need if we are able to fill our goal of 120 boxes for the year.

We also put dollar amounts on the tree so we can also support OCC with the shipping costs. As the tree gets emptier we will all know that we are closer to our goal.

If there is anyone in the church that would like to fill an entire box on their own instead of contributing individual items for the packing party please see Andy or Jenny for a box and packing instructions brochures are available where the red returned items container is located.

Thanks again for all your help and support for OCC this year! Let’s finish off the year strong!

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OCTOBER 4

Scripture Reading Amos 2

Reader Helen Bender

Hymn # 228 I Love You Lord

Hymn # 239 Beneath The Cross of Jesus

Sermon Text Luke 20:9-19 “Rejected”

OCTOBER 11

Scripture Reading Amos 3

Reader Jason Wilt

Hymn # 48 Father I Adore You

Hymn # 462 My Faith Looks Up To Thee

Sermon Text Luke 20:20-26 “Silent”

OCTOBER 18

Scripture Reading Amos 4

Reader Betty Jo Swauger

Hymn # 54 We Love You and Praise You

Hymn # 67 O God Our Help In Ages Past

Sermon Text Luke 20:27-40 “Living”

OCTOBER 25

Scripture Reading Amos 5

Reader George Yoder

Hymn # 299 Amazing Grace

Hymn # 1 A Mighty Fortress Is Our God

Sermon Text Luke 20:41-44 “Son”

NOVEMBER 1

Scripture Reading Amos 6

Reader Helen Bender

Hymn # 315 The Solid Rock

Hymn # 412 Draw Me Nearer

Sermon Text Luke 20:45-47 “Beware”

NOVEMBER 8

Scripture Reading Amos 7

Reader Andy Knauff

Hymn # 322 I Love To Tell The Story

Hymn # 414 Have Thine Own Way, Lord

Sermon Text Luke 21:1-4 “Contributed”

NOVEMBER 15

Scripture Reading Amos 8

Reader Sherry Carey

Hymn # 514 God of Grace and God of Glory

Hymn # 82 Come Thou Fount

Sermon Text Luke 21:5-38 “Watch”

NOVEMBER 22

Scripture Reading Amos 9

Reader Gracie Broadwater

Hymn # 597 We Gather Together

Hymn # 592 Now Thank We All Our God

Sermon Text Thanksgiving Sunday

NOVEMBER 29

Scripture Reading Various for our Advent Reading

Reader Patty Rice

Hymn # 187 Come Thou Long Expected Jesus

Hymn # 186 O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

Sermon Text John 1:14 “A Home For God”

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ne of the most important but often most overlooked parts of our order of service at Saint Andrew's Chapel is the prayer of illumination. In our liturgy, the prayer of illumination is

situated between the reading of Scripture and the sermon. In our prayer, we humbly ask God to illumine His Word to us by the Holy Spirit so that we would rightly hear, understand, and apply what the Lord is saying to us in His Word. The reason it is one of the most important elements of our service is because we desperately need the Holy Spirit to help us understand His Word. The reason it is perhaps the most overlooked part of our service is because we too easily forget how dependent we are on the Holy Spirit to help us grasp the glorious truths of God's sacred Word.

The Holy Spirit indwells us and enables us to interpret and apply His Word, and it is the Holy Spirit who leads us into all truth. We are utterly dependent upon the Holy Spirit. Without Him, we cannot rightly understand anything in His Word. We don't need to be great scholars to understand God's Word, we simply need to be born-again, humble children indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Yet, even as believers, we know that not everything in Scripture is easy to understand.

In theology, we speak of the perspicuity of Scripture. The word perspicuity, simply put, means "clarity." Oddly enough, the word perspicuity is one of the more unclear words we could use to speak of clarity. What's more, when we say we believe in the perspicuity of Scripture, people sometimes get the wrong impression that we are implying that everything in Scripture is entirely clear and easy to understand. But that's not the case. We know this both from experience and because the Word of God itself tells us that not everything in it is easy to understand. The Westminster Confession of Faith (1.7) explains what we believe when we speak of the perspicuity of Scripture: "All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all. Yet, those things that are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation are so dearly propounded, and opened in some place of Scripture or another, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them." In other words, not everything in Scripture is easy to understand, but what we must understand in order to be saved is clear. The hard sayings of Jesus aren't found only in the Gospels, but throughout Scripture, since Jesus is the ultimate author of Scripture as the eternal Word of God.

Fundamentally, what is so hard about the hard sayings of Jesus is not our inability to understand them fully but to believe them fully and obey them fully. That is why we need the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit to help us not only understand God's Word but to obey it, tore it, apply it, and proclaim it as we live coram Deo,

before the face of God for His glory.

Burk Parsons is editor of Tabletalk magazine and serves as copastor of Saint Andrew's Chapel in Sanford, Fla. He is editor of the book Assured by God: Living in the Fullness of God's Grace. You can follow him on Twitter @BurkParsons.

…if you would like a copy of this month’s Tabletalk magazine or to begin a monthly subscription please let Matt know. A yearly subscription is $12 and individual copies are $3 per issue.

140 Main Street Sunday Bible Study | 9:00am

P.O. Box 147 Coffee Break | 10:00am Grantsville, MD 21536 Sunday Worship | 10:30am 301-895-5256 www.grantsvillechurch.com

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O

[Rachel Stanton]

[The Evangelical Association]

[St. Paul’s Wilhelm Church]

[The Conversion of Muslim Friends]

[Pleasant View Baptist Church in Oakland]

[The Conversion of Hindu Friends]

[Christ Lutheran Church in Grantsville]

[The Conversion of Catholic Friends]