Scott's Thoughts

Grace Presbyterian Church

E-mail bulletin

August 25, 2004

Dear Members and Friends of Grace,

Hello from the Pastor’s study! I trust you are finding strength in God who has blessed us beyond measure in Jesus Christ, his Son. I recently wrote a short article on the Reformation slogan “Solo Christo” (“Christ Alone”) in connection with the upcoming OKC Conference on Reformed Theology. As I did, I was reminded of the great salvation and abundance of life that we have in Christ. If we liken that life to water, how often we take just a sip of it instead of drinking deeply from the bottomless well! Pray that we will desire and thirst all the more for the eternal life that Christ came to give.

Please note the following information:

            This Saturday (8/28):

-         The Session will meet at the church at 7:00 p.m.

          This coming Lord’s Day (8/29):

-         Bill Doerfel will continue his Sunday School series on the epistle to the Hebrews. This week we will focus on chapter 3.

-         I will preach on Mark 10:32-45 during the morning worship service. The sermon is called “Saved to Serve”

-         There will be a farewell meal and send-off for Sunny following the morning service. Sunny is returning home to South Korea after studying English here in Norman for the past year or so. Her presence and involvement with the life of our church has been a great encouragement for all of us. We will miss her cheerfulness and enthusiasm very much. But, we trust the Lord has wonderful things in store for her back home.

-         Instead of our regular evening service, we will meet with other area churches for a joint hymn sing. We have done this regularly each time there is a fifth Sunday in the month. This coming Sunday, the hymn sing will be held at New Covenant Bible Church in Oklahoma City. As usual, we will have a fellowship meal after the service. PLEASE NOTE: Grace is responsible for bringing DESSERT to the hymn sing. If you can make a tasty dessert (or, know where to buy one!), please do so and bring it. DIRECTIONS to the church will follow (as well as the time of the service).

Eric Pyle’s work with Wycliffe Bible Translators:

-         You can view Eric’s latest newsletter at: http://opcnorman.org/Wycliffe/ericpyle/newsletters/heart_lang_exp_jun04.pdf. Pray for Eric’s continuing support-raising efforts. 

            College students:

-         The Reformed University Fellowship (RUF) of OU is hosting a Fall Conference for area university students September 24-26. To find out more, visit RUF’s website at http://www.ouruf.org or contact Rev. Doug Serven at dserven@ruf.org or 405-812-8758. Many of you know Rev. Serven from his having preached at Grace many times in the past. He is the RUF minister to Norman’s OU community.

OKC Reformed Conference:

-         Grace Presbyterian will be assisting in the planning and running of the next Oklahoma City Reformed Conference coming up in October (the 29^th and 30^th). The speaker at this year’s conference will be Jim Elliff, a former pastor and currently president of Christian Communications Worldwide. I volunteered our congregation to help with “Program Overseer Responsibilities”. Here are some ways that you can serve:

- Hymn leader

                             - Usher

                             - Setting up and manning the registration table

Please let me know if you would be interested in taking on any of these responsibilities.

-         Be sure to visit http://reformokc.com/. Here you’ll find more information about the conference.

In Christ,

Pastor Scott

Pastor Scott Johnson

Grace Presbyterian Church (OPC)

Norman, Oklahoma

Visit our website: www.opcNorman.org