Wallula Christian Church

April 2

A few weeks ago, Zoe and Cherie took a trip for spring break, and they allowed me to tag along. We drove to Destin, Florida and it was an enjoyable, uneventful, long drive. As we neared our destination we had to make one last stop. We pulled into a convenience store and refueled, used the restroom etc. As we were loading back up into the car, I noticed a lone palm tree standing in this median in the parking lot. I was very excited and forced Cherie and Zoe to take a picture in front of the palm tree since it was the first palm tree we saw on vacation! I figured it was a sign that spring break had really begun!

I was thinking about that palm tree this week. Easter is just around the corner and I was thinking what marks the beginning of Easter for us? I suppose for the traditional church calendar that beginning of the Easter season would be Ash Wednesday. Perhaps in our setting it would be the beginning of our Easter reading plan, since it started the week of Ash Wednesday. Maybe, for some of us it will be our celebration of Palm Sunday next Sunday, April 13. We will have two worship services at 9:00 & 10:30 am and then an Easter Egg hunt for the kids at 2:00 pm that afternoon. Make sure you’re planning to bring your kiddo’s out for that fun afternoon. We will partner with area churches for a community Good Friday service on April 18. That service will begin at 6:30 pm at the Lansing Middle School theater. We’ll have three Easter worship services at Wallula beginning Saturday, April 19th at 5:00 pm and then on Sunday morning at 9:00 & 10:30 am. I was thinking about when does Easter start for us…

Then I was reading this morning about Zacchaeus trying to see Jesus over the crowd of people, what does Zacchaeus do? Well he climbs a tree and of course Jesus invites himself to the man in the tree’s house for dinner and Zacchaeus was never the same. What a moment, what a tree! These two trees got me thinking, maybe we are supposed to be the first thing that points people to Easter. How can we help people see Jesus and begin their celebration of the resurrection? For sure we can grab some invite cards from worship this Sunday and invite folks we care about to the Good Friday or Easter services. We can follow Zacchaeus’ lead and share our resources to help those in need. What other ways will you be the tree to point people to Jesus and help them start their Easter Celebration?

Because of Him,

Lance

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.

-Luke 19:10

January 8

I must have been moaning, not quite as under my breath as I thought, as I walked through the door last night because Cherie asked, “are you hurt or cold?” My reply… “Yes!” How many of you have moved an arm or leg these past couple of days and sort of sighed as the muscles ached from shoveling a little snow? We live on a corner lot and the snow plows have pushed mountains of snow all around our yard, it looks like we live in a snow fort now - kinda cool, if I’m being honest with you! You maybe didn’t think those snow plows were so cool when they dumped snow in front of your drive way, over and over again…

Nehemiah’s story is recorded for us in scripture in the book that bears his name (along with the book of Ezra) and he maybe doesn’t get the credit he deserves. This fact, by the way, is exactly how Nehemiah would have wanted it! He makes very clear in his journal that nothing he accomplished would have been possible without God. Nehemiah oversaw the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem after the exile, but more than that he oversaw the rebuilding of God’s people.

And so it is with our own relationship with Jesus. It is constantly under construction and in constant need of rebuilding. If this rebuilding is a constant need individually in Christ, it is a constant need of His church corporately as well. As a body of believers we must continue to refocus ourselves so that we may keep the main thing, the main thing.

January 12 we will kick off a new series, “The Main Thing,” as we learn from the leadership of Nehemiah. I’m excited for this series and the chance it provides for each of us to center our attention on Jesus and the ministry He has in store for us. Pleas join me this Sunday at 9:00 or 10:30 am as we begin to learn with Nehemiah how to keep the main thing, the main thing!

- Lance

So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.

- Nehemiah 6:15-16