Foundations News, 3/11/12 -3/17/12 and Covenant Chronicles

Hello, Foundations! A few quick class announcements and Danny's Covenant Chronicles. Remember, we won't meet for Sunday School this week.  There will be one Church Service at 10:30. We hope you and your families have a wonderful and safe Spring Break!

 

PRAYER REQUESTS:

1-- JT Voltz- friend of the Hicks.  Has ALS.  Been dealing with pneumonia

2- Molly Ainsworth- Praise for doing better.  Has follow up appt with her neuro dr on Tuesday.  Will get her hearing rechecked, etc.

3- Vicki Whatley- Ole Miss friend of Laura Lancaster who has been diagnosed with colon caner

4- Rushton, Derek and Mei Sims.  In China getting MS.  Will be back Friday.  Prayers for Rushton's parents while they keep the three kids in Rushton and Derek's absence.

5- Collins Clegg- will have IVIG therapy Thursday.  Their middle child, Ann Carlton, having endoscopy on 3/19

6- Kate Comini- IVIG on Wednesday

7- Kate Comini father, Russell Stutts, has Parkinson's

8- Praise- Sherry Zorn (Alan Spooner's mom) successful surgery

9- Mary Graham Sheppard- in Philadelphia- VEPTR surgery Thursday

10- Leslie Ann Wood- surgery on 3/20

SOCIAL:

MEN: Final Four Basketball viewing party at the Murray's APRIL 2

WOMEN: Social at Kerry Leasure's home on April 26

More details will be announced about these socials after Spring Break.

HOSPITALITY: Thanks to all who contribute to Foundations Cares - the support amongst the class is very appreciated!

LOGISTICS:  Please send two interesting/fun facts for each couple to Cassie when you can; two for you and two for your spouse, thanks!cassietonsmeire@yahoo.com. 

 

 

COVENANT CHRONICLES FROM DANNY GIFFEN:

We desire to provide updates for you in our weekly emails of calendar events but we also want you to know how to pray for our people.  This week we have had an unusual number of special needs and requests.  Each of these girls need your prayers.

 

Last Friday, Megan Gagliardi, who is a freshman at Samford received a heart transplant at UAB.  The Gagliardi family moved to Birmingham last year from Memphis (Independent Pres) and have been attending Covenant regularly.  Please lift Megan up as she received her new heart on her 19th birthday.  Megan had congestive heart failure from a dilated cardiomyopathy.  The Masingills and Hayes are coordinating meals:  http://www.takethemameal.com/meals.php?t=CCXJ5570&v=8a36a214f2 

 

Tuesday, Mary Graham Sheppard, had her VEPTR surgery in Philadelphia on her back.  Jennifer and Lee would covet your prayers as this is another step in a long journey. The Cornerstone class is leading times of prayer and asking for God to continue to give wisdom to their family and doctors.  Please read their blog for updates: http://seekingdailybread.blogspot.com/

 

Friday, Rushton and Derek Waltchack return from China with their new daughter, Mei Sims.  You can follow their story at http://rushtonsrecipes.blogspot.com/  the last post on Redeemed, Refined and Headed Home provides a wonderful picture of the gospel.  Praise God for their calling to love this little girl.

 

What's Happeing:

1.  Church of the Advent – Bill Boyd is preaching today at noon downtown.   Come and support him if you can.

 

2.  Wednesday Night Interactive – Join us tonight for our last Wednesday Night before Spring Break.  Ingram's Café opens at 5:30 with service at 6:30.  Tonight's teaching is Justification, Glorification and the Captivation of the Imagination.  You won't want to miss it.  Act of Congress will be leading in Worship.

 

3.  Sunday, March 18 – There is no Sunday School this week and one morning service at 10:30 a.m. Due to Spring Break.

 

4.  Holy Week – We have a wonderful week planned for you beginning with Palm Sunday.  Our Maundy Thursday Service will be preceded by a meal on Thursday, April 5th.  On Good Friday, Cahaba Park Church and Cross Creek Church will be joining us with Rev. Chris Peters preaching.  On Easter Sunday, we will have a Sunrise Service at 6:15 am at the Vulcan Park and a pancake breakfast back at the church at 7 am.  We will also have our two morning worship services at 8:30 and 11 am.  Looking forward to being with you all as we celebrate our risen Savior!

 

 

Fear No More Chris Castaldo

"Hail to Dorothy, the Wicked Witch is dead!" With a simple bucket of water Dorothy slew the dreaded witch, and it didn't come a moment too soon. My 6-year-old heart was about to beat out of my chest. But thanks to the strategically located bucket, disaster was evaded; that is, until the next scene. After obtaining the witch's broomstick, Dorothy strolled into the Wizard's court hoping to find a way home. The enormous head of the Wizard responded by hollering orders amidst flames, smoke, and peals of thunder. My sister and I scurried for couch pillows in which to bury our faces. Despite the terror, the glory of Oz commanded our attention.

Not since my birth had I experienced such trauma. There would be no bucket large enough for Dorothy to extinguish this foe. But then, when it seemed that all hope was gone, Dorothy's little dog, Toto, tugged upon a curtain with his teeth. It opened to reveal a white-haired man standing before a control panel. Realizing that he was exposed, the Wizard exclaimed, "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain, the Great Oz has spoken." But lo and behold, it wasn't the Great Oz; it was merely the old man with a microphone. The charade was up and soon Dorothy's ruby-red slippers would send her home.

Fear captivates the human mind. And for many of us, this detention is more than a momentary event. It is more like Michel de Montaigne's portrait when he said, "My life has been full of terrible misfortune, most of which has never happened." Thus, fear dominates our mental and emotional framework to the extent that it occupies the horizon of our vision.

Despite biblical admonitions to resist---such as Jesus' words, "Take heart [and] be not afraid" (Matt 14:27) or the insight that "there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear" (1 John 4:18)---it is, nevertheless, quite easy for the tentacles of fear to strangle us. Biblical injunctions such as these often hit our ears like Shakespeare's famous poem, "Fear No More":

Fear no more the lightening-flash

Nor the all-dreaded thunder-storm;

Fear not slander, censure rash;

Thou hast finished joy and moan:

All lovers young, all lovers must

Consign to thee, and come to dust.

The poem is remarkable because the title suggests a way out of fear; but if Shakespeare envisions any hope, it's not in this life. He takes you to the "grave," which is literally the last word of the poem.

Death, the Entrance to Life

Interestingly though, the New Testament presents a similar picture. Jesus said, for instance, "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit" (John 12:24). Death, it turns out, is not the end; it is the entrance to life, the passageway in which the tentacles of fear lose their suffocating grip. Terror, in whatever form it might come, does not greet us as the final word.

Here is an example. One day in July of 1505, while walking to law school near the outskirts of a Saxon village, Martin Luther encountered a fierce thunderstorm. Fast-moving clouds sprinkled the parched road on which he traveled, gently at first, and then more intensely. The sky flashed and rumbled before a lightning bolt struck the ground near Luther in a deafening clap. It touched the earth in such dangerously close proximity that it sent him falling to the ground in terror. Exposed to nature's fury, Luther cried out, "Help me Saint Anne! I will become a monk."

Showdown with Terror

With 500 years of hindsight, we recognize that Luther's experience of fear set in motion his journey of faith. To this example we might add myriad men and women who have been dislodged from the City of Destruction by the unsettling effects of fear. Yet, as significant as our existential turning points may be, they are only a pale reflection of a much greater showdown with terror: Jesus at Gethsemane. Here is how the poet Rosanna Eleanor Leprohon puts it:

Alone in deepest agony, while tired apostles slept;
No one to share His vigil---weep with Him as He wept;
Before Him, clearly rising, the Cross, the dying pain,
And sins of hosts unnumbered whose souls He dies to gain.

O Garden of Gethsemane! the God-like lesson, then
Left as a precious token to suff'ring, sorrowing men,
Has breaking hearts oft strengthened, that else, so sharply tried,
Had sunk beneath sin's burden and in despair had died.

With the specter of death squarely before him, Jesus endured the cross. He died, and, in doing so, he experienced the most profound terror imaginable. The one who had been in perfect fellowship with the Father from eternity past was forsaken. Divine wrath was unleashed with such unmitigated fury that Jesus' relationship with God was eclipsed by the horror of holiness. Underneath the weight of this condemnation, Jesus cried out, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

We rightfully deserve divine judgment. We deserve to be cut off from the loving presence of God. But on account of God's redemptive grace, that curse has been borne for us. Christ was cast out into the darkness so that we do not have to be. And he was raised from death to the right hand of God's throne, so that now, having our lives embedded in Christ, we need not fear being forsaken by the Father. And since we need not fear this, we need not fear anything.

Chris Castaldo serves as director of the Ministry of Gospel Renewal for the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College