Memory Palace

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A strong memory is more about strategy than capacity.   Information technologists recognize this in regard to data storage and retrieval.  The capacity of a database is not as significant as its indexing strategy.  Unless you can accurately and rapidly retrieve information it is immaterial how much you can store.   When it comes to human memory many experts advocate building a “memory palace” where you can categorize and store memories in a visual structure created within your mind.

This week as we continue our conversations from the Book of Beginnings in Genesis 9, we look at the powerful strategy God has given us to remember.  When fear, anxiety, and trial cause us to lose sight of God’s promises we are tempted to doubt and unbelief.  But God understands this and has given us a way to remember.   Come and join us this week as we consider this together.

Join us this week in worship at Pottsville Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church as we conclude the story of Noah and the Ark. Worship begins at 10:45 am.  For directions click here. We look forward to seeing you.

Not Forgotten

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Have you ever been accidentally left behind by your family somewhere far from home?  It is just about the loneliest feeling on earth.  To be forgotten by our family or loved ones is frightening and overwhelming, but it is utterly devastating to feel forgotten by God.

 

We all struggle with this feeling from time to time.  Even David, who showed such faith and courage to take on the giant, Goliath, felt abandoned by God from time to time.   In Psalm 13, he even prayed:

 

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?

    How long will you hide your face from me?

How long must I take counsel in my soul

    and have sorrow in my heart all the day?

 

This week we continue our conversations from the Book of Beginnings by discussing  Genesis 8, which begins “And God remembered Noah…”  What about us?  Does God remember us?  How do we know?  Come and join us as we consider these questions from the ancient story of Noah and the Ark.

 

Join us this week in worship at Pottsville Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church as we continue the story of Noah and the Ark. Worship begins at 10:45 am.  For directions click here. We look forward to seeing you.

 

Saying Goodbye

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Saying Goodbye is difficult, especially if we know we will never  return to the places or people we are leaving. Can you imagine all the emotions Noah felt as he boarded the ark and prepared to leave all that was familiar for a journey alone into an unknown world?  An ancient pastor once noted regarding Noah and the ark,

“…the most severe contest of all for Noah was to bid farewell to the world, to renounce society and to bury himself in the ark.  The face of the earth was at that time very lovely.  It was no light trial for Noah to leave the life to which he had been accustomed during 600 years”

This week we continue our conversations from the Book of Beginnings by discussing  Genesis 7. We will consider God’s mercy and grace toward Noah and his family in the midst of a total and complete judgment against the sin and violence which had engulfed the ancient world.

Join us this week in worship at Pottsville Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church as we continue the story of Noah and the Ark. Worship begins at 10:45 am.  For directions click here. We look forward to seeing you.

Backstory

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Every story has a backstory — even the ones you think you know.  Few stories are more familiar, even to those who haven’t read the Bible, than the story of Noah’s Ark.  But even this story has a backstory.  Noah stands alone against evil on the brink of a cataclysmic disaster.  With only the help of his family, he enacts a plan to save the world.  Yet the plot of the story is not about Noah at all, but about one was was yet to come, who would save the world from an even worse catastrophe.

This week we continue our conversations from the Book of Beginnings by discussing the second part of Genesis 6, God’s command to Noah to build and ark as a refuge for his family and a remnant of creation from the inevitable results of a world spiraling downward in violence and evil.  The call of Noah, however, points us to the need for a refuge from the same thing — a refuge found not in an ark, but in a cross.

Join us this week in worship at Pottsville Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church as we consider the story behind the story of Noah’s Ark. Worship begins at 10:45 am.  For directions click here. We look forward to seeing you.

Hybridization

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Just as the hybridization of certain species of animals and plants produces sterility, spiritually hybridized relationships can also produce spiritual fruitlessness.  The Apostle Paul cautions us.

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? 1 Corinthians 6:14

We encounter a ready illustration of this warning in the opening chapters of the Bible.  The Bible is one of the oldest books in the world and in Genesis, its Book of Beginnings, it speaks of the world’s first superheroes — hybrid men of storied origins whose power was great, but not great enough to save them from their nemesis – themselves.   By pursuing spiritually mismatched relationships these “fallen ones” sought to transcend their relational brokenness with God and ended up becoming more profoundly fallen.

This week we continue our examination of Genesis by discussing the first part of Genesis 6, the account of the sons of God and the daughters of man.  Join us this week in worship at Pottsville Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church as we consider the centrality of the gospel in all of our relationships. Worship begins at 10:45 am.  For directions click here. We look forward to seeing you.

Family Tradition

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What legacy will you leave for your family? And what mark will your family make upon the world as it unfolds into history?   Genealogy, the study of our generations, is often more about where our family is going than where it started.  Where is your family going? What will be its legacy?

This week we continue our conversations from the Book of Beginnings by discussing Genesis 5, the generations of Adam.  Join us this week in worship at Pottsville Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church as we consider the issue of family legacy from the world’s first family. Worship begins at 10:45 am.  For directions click here. We look forward to seeing you.

The Hard Way

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The most expensive education available today is a degree from the School of Hard Knocks.  How many times have you had to learn things the Hard Way — ignoring wise counsel, ignoring a life-giving rebuke, ignoring self-reflection, rejecting authority, just because it is authority — discovering for yourself what a wise ancient King once noted, that “the way of transgressors is hard.”

Join us this week in worship at Pottsville Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church on the square in Pottsville as we examine the Book of Beginnings in Genesis 4 to consider the troubling story of Cain and Abel.   As we reflect on what this story says to us today,  we will consider what it shows us about the impact of our own choices.   Worship begins at 10:45 am.  For directions click here. We look forward to seeing you.

 

What’s Wrong with Everybody

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Have you ever thought, “What is wrong with everybody?”  Some, if not most days, we see the news or check our news feed and shake our heads, asking this question.  The  world seems turned upside down and out of control.  But the more we consider history and observe our own times, the more we realize that our problem is not a new problem. A wise ancient teacher and king once said.

What has been is what will be,
    and what has been done is what will be done,
    and there is nothing new under the sun.

This week we continue our look at the Book of Beginnings from Genesis 3.   There we find both the answer to the question, “what is wrong with everybody” and the solution to the problem posed by the answer.

Join us this week in worship at Pottsville Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church on the square in Pottsville as we examine the Book of Beginnings, Genesis 3, to consider what is wrong with everybody and what God is doing about it.   Worship begins at 10:45 am.  For directions click here. We look forward to seeing you.

Identity Crisis

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We are a society with an identity crisis, because we are made up of individuals undergoing identity crises.  In this age of fluid gender identity, racial self-identity and multi-cultural confusion, Plato’s maxim, “Know Thyself” has become a virtual uncertainty.   Who are you?  Do you know?  Is it even possible to know?  Or will we answer this question with the cynicism of Pontius Pilate who replied to Jesus statement about truth with despondency, saying “What is truth?”

Contrary to the cultural assumption of identity agnosticism, the Bible declares that in order to know ourselves, we must know God and in knowing Him we will discover ourselves.  An ancient pastor, John Calvin once quipped.

“Our wisdom, in so far as it ought to be discerned true and solid wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.  But as these two are connected together by many ties, it is not easy to determine which of the two precedes and gives birth to the other.”

Often you will hear people speak of “finding themselves.”  And how do they do that?  They seek wisdom and experience.  But can that be trusted?  The Bible, from its very beginning, answers this most basic of existential questions.   We are made in the image of God.  That is who we are.  But just what does that mean?

Join us this week in worship at Pottsville Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church on the square in Pottsville as we examine the Book of Beginnings, Genesis 1, to consider what it means to be made in the image of God.   Worship begins at 10:45 am.  For directions click here. We look forward to seeing you.

The Lynchpin

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The BBC recently reported that 25% of Christians surveyed did not believe in the Resurrection.   This is not a new problem in the Church – but it is a problem.  The Apostle Paul addressed this same problem in the ancient Corinthian Church.  To that church he wrote.

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead.     1 Corinthians 15:12-20

Note what Paul says, “in fact Christ has been raised.”  But is the Resurrection a verifiable historical fact?   Or is it is just a wishful Christian myth or fairy tale, as skeptics claim?   The women who were the first witnesses of the empty tomb and the angel’s proclamation of the resurrection were astonished!  Likewise when confronted by the truth and significance of the resurrection we ought rightly be astonished.  The resurrection is hard to believe and conceive, yet it is the lynch-pin of our faith.

Join us this week in worship at Pottsville Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church on the square in Pottsville as we examine these two astonishing facts: the truth of the resurrection and the significance of it for our faith.   Worship begins at 10:45 am.  For directions click here. We look forward to seeing you.