Shalom March 2017

A Covenant of Love Kenneth Copeland

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son. John 3:16

That is the message the Bible brings us from beginning to end. It sounds simple enough. Yet few of us really comprehend it. We can understand the idea of a God of power. We can understand a God who desires to be served. But an Almighty God who loves us so much that He desires, above all, to give to us? That can be hard to believe.

For thousands of years, God has been working to drop the revelation of His love into the hearts of men. He's made loving promises of blessing and protection. But He's always faced that same obstacle—human beings who just couldn't bring themselves to believe those promises were true.

The story of Abram is a perfect example. He wasn't accustomed to the idea of a God who gives. After all, he'd grown up as a worshiper of the moon, and the moon had certainly never seemed interested in doing anything for him. Then he encountered El Shaddai, the greatest Being of all. The one Almighty God. And the first thing this El Shaddai wanted to do was give to him.

God's promises so astounded Abram that he couldn't believe them. "Lord," he asked, "how can I know I'm really going to receive these things?" (See Genesis 15:8.)

Do you know how God answered him? By cutting a blood covenant with him. That covenant settled forever any question Abram could ever have about God's love and loyalty. Once blood had been shed, he knew God meant what He said.

God did the same thing for you. He cut a blood covenant with you. And He sacrificed His own Son to do it. Jesus' broken body and shed blood have become the eternal proof of God's love for you. Through Communion, He's urged you to remember them again and again so that when your faith in His promises begins to waver, you "might have a strong consolation" (Hebrews 6:18).

Get a revelation of God's love for you by meditating on the covenant He's made with you. Get out the bread and the cup. Go before the Lord with them and take Communion. Think about the body and blood of Jesus that enables you to be a blood-covenant member of the family of Almighty God. Let them settle forever the question

of God's love for you. You'll never again have to doubt His promises once you believe in His love.

MONTHY NEWSLETTER FROM SHALOM COMMUNITY LUTHERAN CHYRCH

Birthdays

03/10 Jeanne Mix

03/13 Jill Troen

03/15 Gabrielle Doscher

03/18 Dalen Gosseling

03/19 Judy Cory

03/25 Kody Pendergraft

Anniversaries

03/07 Warren & Carolyn Holte

This year’s Lenten offering will

be going to Terebinth Refuge

Terebinth Refuge is a Christ-centered

non-profit shelter and transitional

home in St. Cloud, MN, that

provides strength-based, trauma-

informed healing and holistic

services to women 18 and older who

are escaping sexual exploitation and

sex trafficking and assists their

transition into a life of health,

stability and independence.

Complaining is dangerous business. It can damage or even destroy your relationship with God, your relationships with other people, and even with your relationship with yourself.

It’s easy to complain. We likely don’t realize how much we do it. I believe it’s one of the most challenging things to overcome.

Philippians 2:14 says, Do all things without grumbling and faultfinding and complaining…. That’s a pretty clear command. And not something anyone can do in their own strength.

Speak God’s Language

Remember that every word you speak has some kind of effect. Proverbs 18:21 says that our words have the power of life or death in them – the way we speak really does matter. So it makes sense that we should avoid complaining at all cost.

I think of complaining as the enemy’s language. When we do it, we open the door for him to come into a situation and cause trouble. On the other hand, praise and thanksgiving is God’s language.

Like I said before, it’s easy to complain. There are many things that happen every day that we could murmur about. But they really aren’t worth the effort it takes to get upset and gripe about it.

For example, we travel a lot and stay in a lot of hotels. I like to take a hot bath to relax before speaking at our conferences. Once when I went to fix my bath, I discovered there was no hot water. So I called the front desk to see about getting hot water, but they weren’t able to fix the problem when I needed them to. And later, I learned that my room was the only room in the hotel that didn’t have hot water!

Now, I could have gotten all upset about this at the time. But God helped me to relax about it and resist the temptation to get upset. And the truth is, complaining wouldn’t have changed anything – it would have just made the situation harder.

The Danger of Complaining by Joyce Meyer

Find Freedom in Humility

Complaining comes from an ungrateful, prideful attitude of the heart. It causes us to feel that we shouldn’t be inconvenienced or have bad things happen to us.

It’s easy for us to think, Why are you making such a big deal out of it? when someone else is inconvenienced or struggling. But when we have to deal with the pain ourselves, it’s a different story. That’s when we say, “Why is this happening to me?!”

I’ve learned that there’s a better approach: Look for the treasure in every trial.

The truth is, I’ve done most of my spiritual growing during the hardest and most painful times of my life. The trials of life have caused me to press in to God. And as I’ve done that, He’s changed me. He’s helped me to develop an attitude of gratitude and humility, which has brought real freedom into my life.

What’s real freedom? Real freedom is being able to not have my way and still be just as happy as if I did.

Make Progress in Your Praise

It’s a difficult process getting to the point of having real freedom. But it’s worth it! We just need to accept that gaining spiritual maturity is going to hurt. Growing up in God is not comfortable. There are times of sacrifice involved. And there will be times when God will ask you to do things and you’ll feel that you can’t stand it – but He’ll give you the grace to do it.

Something else that helps me is meditating on scriptures about watching the words of my mouth. I like to pray Psalm 19:14: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord…. There are many more. I encourage you to find them and pray them over yourself often. Daily is a good idea!

Make it your goal to have a constant attitude of gratitude. Resist the temptation to complain and instead praise and thank God for who He is and all He’s done for you. By God’s grace and through His strength, you can overcome complaining and live each day with a thankful heart!

.

”

March 2017

Ministry Assistants

Date

Ushers

Reader

Communion Assistants

Nursery

Coffee Servers

March 1st

Roger Anderson Lowell Hacker

Todd Worner

Mike Troen Dalen Gosseling Grace Worner

Josh Troen Katelynn Jepma

No Nursery

No Coffee Served

March 5th

Shalom Youth

Shalom Youth

Jack Tharaldson Linda Meulebroeck

Gene Hacker *Kay Hacker

Quinton Hauglie

Gene Hacker

Dave Owen Cindy Owen

Marce Forbord

March 8th

Dennis Forbord Marce Forbord

Eric Danielson

No Communion

No Nursery

No Coffee Served

March 12th

Wendell Erdman

Bill Goldenstein

Marce Forbord

*Tim Carlson Kay Hacker

Margaret Brevard Josh Troen

Grace Worner

Marla Watson

Lynda Goldenstein

Joy Erdman

March 15th

Dave Owen Cindy Owen

Monica Gosseling

No Communion

No Nursery

No Coffee Served

March 19th

Norm Lien Lynette Lien

Warren Holte

Roger Anderson Nancy Bakewell

*Marlene Kennedy Katelynn Jepma

Linda Meulebroeck

Jill Troen

Dianne Halvorson Lynette Lien

March 22nd

Wendell Erdman Joy Erdman

Mike Troen

No Communion

No Nursery

No Coffee Served

March 26th

Lowell Hacker Jayne Hacker

Roger Anderson

Bill Goldenstein

Karen Tharaldson *Joyce Bowen Carolyn Holte

Quinton Hauglie

Carrie Jepma

Richard Syverson

Vicki Syverson Warren Holte Carolyn Holte

March 29th

Dennis Forbord Marce Forbord

Dalen Gosseling

No Communion

No Nursery

No Coffee Served

Nursery Workers please choose your youth assistant prior to the service. Ushers please light the candles before the service and extinguish them following the service.

Those with a * by their name are responsible for washing and putting away the communion supplies.

March 2017

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 1

3:30pm Soul Food 7pm Ash Wed. Service w/Holy Communion

2 9:30am Intercessory Prayer 7pm FPU

3 Office Closed

4

5 9:30am Worship 10:45am Fellowship & Education

6 6:30 Monday Night Study Group

7 9:30am Text Study 7pm Board of Deacons Meeting

8 3:30pm Soul Food Too 6pm-6:45pm Soup Supper 7:15pm Lenten Service

9 9:30am Intercessory Prayer

10 Office Closed

11

12 9:30am Worship 10:45am Fellowship & Education

13 6:30 Monday Night Study Group

14 9:30am Text Study 7pm Kingdom Builders

15 3:30pm Soul Food 6pm-6:45pm Soup Supper 7:15pm Lenten Service

16 9:30am Intercessory Prayer

17 Office Closed 5pm Ladies’ Retreat at Mary Danielson’s

18 Ladies’ Retreat at Mary Danielson’s

19 9:30am Worship 10:45am Fellowship 11am SON Distribution

20 6:30 Monday Night Study Group

21 9:30am Text Study

22 3:30pm Soul Food Too 6pm-6:45pm Soup Supper 7:15pm Lenten Service

23 9:30am Intercessory Prayer

24 Office Closed

25 Walk Thru The Bible at Hope Community Church 9am-2:30pm co/sponsored by Shalom

26 9:30am Worship 10:45am Fellowship & Education

27 6:30 Monday Night Study Group

28 9:30am Text Study 7pm Men’s & Women’s Groups

29 3:30pm Soul Food Too 6pm-6:45pm Soup Supper 7:15pm Lenten Service

30 9:30am Intercessory Prayer

31 Office Closed

UPCOMING EVENTS

Ladies’ Retreat

March 17, & 18th Please contact Mary Danielson for more information.

Walk Thru the Bible

March 25th, 9am-2:30pm at Hope Community Church Co/Sponsored by Shalom

@ http://www.hopecefc.org/

Teen Challenge Youth Choir

April 2nd – 9:3oam at the Starbuck Community Center Co/Sponsor Hope Community Church

Followed by a Potluck Lunch