Category: Announcements

Tomorrow in Sunday School we’ll be watching episode 6 of Dispatches from the Front: The Power of His Rising.  This episode will show us some of the mighty work that God is doing in South Asia.  Here is a preview . . . see you at 9:30.

Last week the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) held the 41st General Assembly in Greenville, South Carolina.  The PCA’s online magazine byFaith posted several articles summarizing the activity (click on the links to the overtures if you want all the details).

• Home Page for the General Assembly
• Summary of overtures
• Summary of Al Mohler and Ligon Duncan’s seminar on Total Truthfulness

This Sunday we’ll start a new Sunday School series called Why We Trust the Bible.  Each week we’ll watch a lecture by Stephen Nichols and then Pastor Tom will lead a short discussion.  Pastor Tom attended a seminar on this topic at General Assembly last week and found it to be “excellent” (more info here).  Here are the six lectures:

• Revelation: Where Would We Be Without It?
• The Authority of Scripture, Part 1: The Doctrine of Inspiration
• The Authority of Scripture, Part 2: The Doctrine of Inerrancy
• Why Sixty-Six Books? The Development of the Canon
• Why So Many Interpretations?  The Clarity of Scripture & Interpretation
• Scripture for Life: The Sufficiency of Scripture

Come join us at 9:30 am this Sunday!

Linked EP is a group focused on prayer, encouragement and networking for the unemployed, underemployed, struggling business owners, and others in our EP community experiencing or anticipating financial hardships.  Please note that this is not a “support group” where you will have to share your personal struggles but instead an opportunity to connect with folks from our EP family of churches. [Note that “EP family of churches” refers to a particular community of churches in the Annapolis area, of which Pasadena EP is one]. If you are experiencing this challenge or have the interest or ability to come alongside others in this place, we would love to have you participate.

The first meeting is Tuesday April 30 at 7:00pm in Room 121A at Annapolis EP Church. If you are on either side of this struggle please attend this meeting. This is about the church community helping the church community. Information is available on Sundays in the Fellowship Hall on April 21st and 28th. You can also reach Linked EP via email at LinkedEP@gmail.com.

Our Good Friday service included three meditations on Christ’s atonement.  Specifically, they addressed expiation, propitiation, and reconciliation.  If you look closely at the hymns we regularly sing, you’ll find that these three themes are woven into many of them.  Kevin DeYoung points this out in his post What You Can’t Sing Without Penal Substitution.  He lists some key passages that justify our view of substitutionary atonement.  Then he lists some favorite hymns that are laden with this idea, before concluding “Without penal substitution there is no salvation. And there isn’t nearly as much to sing about.”  Here is a sampling of these hymns:

Man of Sorrows! What a Name
Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
In my place condemned he stood,
Sealed my pardon with his blood:
Hallelujah! what a Savior!

O Sacred Head, Now Wounded
What thou, my Lord, hast suffered was all for sinner’s gain:
Mine, mine was the transgression, but thine the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Savior! Tis I deserve thy place;
Look on me with they favor, vouchsafe to me thy grace.

Ah, Holy Jesus, How Hast Thou Offended
Who was the guilty who brought this upon thee?
Alas, my treason, Jesus, hath undone thee.
‘Twas I, Lord Jesus, I it was denied thee:
I crucified thee.

Alas! and Did My Savior Bleed
Was it for crimes that I had done he groaned upon the tree!
Amazing pity! Grace unknown! And love beyond degree!

Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted
Tell me, ye who hear him groaning, was there every grief like his?
Friends thro’ fear his cause disowning, foes insulting his distres;
Many hands were raised to wound him, none would interpose to save;
But the deepest stroke that pierced him was the stroke that Justice gave.

Ye who think of sin but lightly nor suppose the evil great
Here may view its nature rightly, here its guilt may estimate.
Mark the sacrifice appointed, see who bears the awful load;
’tis the Word, the Lord’s Anointed, Son of Man and Son of God.

What Wondrous Love is This
What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul,
What wondrous love is this, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul,
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul!

Many of these excellent hymns have been put to new music by Indelible Grace.  If you’ve never heard of Indelible Grace, here is a quick intro:

Pastor Tom is preaching through 1 Peter 3, which includes instructions for husbands and wives.  Several years ago, Wayne Grudem and Jon Piper edited a book entitled: Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.  Ligon Duncan, D.A. Carson, Elisabeth Elliot and many others contributed articles.  Grudem and Piper have also released an excellent book (also much shorter . . . and free!) on the same topic.  It presents the material in question and answer form.  You can download the book from Desiring God.  Here are is a quote from the first question:

1. Why do you regard the issue of male and female roles as so important?

. . . God’s gift of complementary manhood and womanhood was exhilarating from the beginning (Genesis 2:23). It is precious beyond estimation. But today it is esteemed lightly and is vanishing like the rain forests we need but don’t love. We believe that what is at stake in human sexuality is the very fabric of life as God wills it to be for the holiness of His people and for their saving mission to the world.

And here are two questions relevant to this week’s sermon regarding the way in which husbands should love their wives:

4. What about marriage? What did you mean (in question 1) by “marriage patterns that do not portray the relationship between Christ and the church”?

We believe the Bible teaches that God means the relationship between husband and wife to portray the relationship between Christ and His church. The husband is to model the loving, sacrificial leadership of Christ, and the wife is to model the glad submission offered freely by the church.

12. Isn’t your stress on leadership in the church and headship in the home contrary to the emphasis of Christ in Luke 22:26, “. . . the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves”?

No. We are trying to hold precisely these two things in Biblical balance, namely, leadership and servanthood. It would be contrary to Christ if we said that servanthood cancels out leadership. Jesus is not dismantling leadership, He is defining it. The very word He uses for “leader” in Luke 22:26 is used in Hebrews 13:17, which says, “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as ones who will have to give an account.” Leaders are to be servants in sacrificially caring for the souls of the people. But this does not make them less than leaders, as we see in the words obey and submit. Jesus was no less leader of the disciples when He was on His knees washing their feet than when He was giving them the Great Commission.

Pastor Tom preached on 1 Peter 2:9-10 a couple weeks ago.  In that sermon, he underscored Peter’s point that our appropriate response to our being called out of darkness and into light is to proclaim God’s mighty work:

    Expand your praise!  Look for things to praise God for: they’re all around you.  Look for his great works in the record of redemption that we have in his Word.  As you’re reading the Old Testament, do you stop and say, “Wow! This is amazing!  Look at what God did.”  Have you ever praised God (I haven’t until i put this sermon together) for Boaz redeeming Ruth?  Shouldn’t we?  Wasn’t that a great thing that occurred?  How about causing the fire to fall from heaven when Elijah called for it before the prophets of Baal?  What a great act!  Isn’t God worthy of our praise today for doing that so many years ago?

    Since we just came through the Christmas season, here’s a challenge for you.  You might have to look up some of the people to find the point of praise, but I would challenge you to read one or the other or both of the genealogies of Christ that we find in Matthew and Luke.  And as you go through that list of names, ask yourself, “Who is this person and why should I praise God for what happened in this person’s life?”  It will take you a while . . . and when you get to Shealtiel, you may wonder, “Who in the world is this?” . . . and you might not find much.  But there’s a whole long list of things that you could praise God for in the lives of that list of people that led either from Adam or Abraham, right up to Christ.

God is indeed worthy of our praise for His mighty work.  And if you’d like actually like to use one of the genealogies to praise God, here is a helpful resource from Tim Challies’ Visual Theology series called Awaiting the Messiah:

Or listen to Andrew Peterson sing Matthew’s genealogy from his album Behold the Lamb of God:

Here is an article written by Wendy Lankford of MissionICare.  Wendy and her husband Shane will visit Pasadena EP Church on Sunday, January 20 to discuss their work connecting churches to opportunities to care for orphans, widows, and vulnerable children.

Her tired, chapped  face appeared contented as she rolled through baggage claim in her new umbrella stroller with her exhausted, relieved, and overjoyed parents.  Little Lina had endured a 2 hour car trip from her orphanage to the nearest major city, a 12 ½ hour train ride to Moscow, and a 10 ½ hour plane ride to Baltimore.  Lina has Down Syndrome and her adoptive family found her through Reece’s Rainbow, a non-profit organization that advocates for special needs children around the world.   Amy and Mike Livingston, her adoptive parents, were among the American families to take placement of one of the close to 1,000 Russian children welcomed into American homes last year.

How should we react to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent signature of a bill effectively eliminating American adoptions of Russian orphans like Lina?  How should we respond to the disruption of the 46 nearly finalized U.S. adoptions of Russian children?  How can  we take action when it appears that American hands are tied?

While the immediate implications are significant and disheartening for Russia’s more than 650,000 orphans waiting for families, the possibly hundreds of American families seeking visas for immigration of Russian orphans, as well as thousands more who might consider Russian adoption in the future, there are three things we, believers called to care for the orphan, must remember:

First, the media focus on the Russian orphan crisis may bring needed attention to the plight of orphans in Russia, as well as orphans worldwide.  Observers have credited the impetus for Russia’s new legislation as politically-motivated retaliation against the The Magnitsky Act, an act signed into law by President Obama in December to impose restrictions on Russian human rights violators.  However, in its efforts to react to American foreign policy, and in its willingness to use its own children in an act of political retribution, Russia has effectively turned the spotlight on its own domestic policies and priorities .  In a Christmas address, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill appealed to congregants.  “And as we celebrate Christmas I would like to appeal to everyone with a request: If you can take this important step in life aimed at adopting children, supporting orphans, take this step,” Kirill said. “There should be no orphans in our country.”  The media exposure of Russia’s overburdened orphanage system, which is acknowledged by American and Russian adoption agencies alike, as well as by Russian legislators, could result in a greater legislative emphasis on non-institutional and family-based solutions domestically for Russia.

Secondly, the shift away from American “solutions” allows us to focus on and support the growing efforts by Christian Russian nationals to stem the tide of the orphan crisis.  In April of 2012, The CoMission for Children at Risk and the Russian National Network for Children at Risk partnered with other Russian organizations to host The Alliance for Russia Without Orphans in an effort to cultivate a culture of orphan care.  This Christian summit provided information and helpful resources to prepare Russian Christians to care for the most vulnerable in their country.   Organizations like the Risk Network, provide resources to the Church to meet the needs in the community.  The Russian Orphan Opportunity Fund is an organization that helps orphans in orphanages and prepares them to transition by giving them life skills.   We can use this opportunity to begin to pray for, partner with, and financially support Russian domestic ministries that are caring for orphans in Christ’s name.

Finally, as Christians, the uncertainty and powerlessness we are tempted to feel in response to perceived setbacks can be potent reminders that our Sovereign Creator God is the same God in Russia that He is in America.  While we cannot dictate the foreign policy direction taken by Russian leaders, we know that “the king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord.”  And while we cannot control the fate of the many vulnerable Russian children waiting for homes, we know that our God “hear[s] the cry” of the orphan.  God has not forgotten about the Russian orphans, and His church is alive and working on behalf of the fatherless.  We need to create partnerships with Russian churches to serve them as they live out the biblical mandate to care for the fatherless.  We must pray and look for practical ways to help our brothers and sisters in Russia.  Russia’s new orphan care legislation is a great limitation, humanly speaking, but it does not limit the power and passion of our God, “the Father to the fatherless,” for the orphan.

On Sunday October 7, Pasadena Evangelical Presbyterian Church celebrated its eleventh anniversary as a church.  During worship we praised God for his faithfulness by singing Psalm 127, Great is Thy Faithfulness, The Church’s One Foundation, and I Love Thy Kingdom Lord.  God has been good and we pray his blessing on the days ahead.

The newspaper article pictured here appeared in the Maryland Gazette in September 2001.

Several months ago we put together a video to recognize ten years of expository preaching from Pastor Tom Wenger Sr.  The video shows the passage, date, and title for over 400 sermons that he has preached.  Soli Deo Gloria!

Ten Years of Expository Preaching at Pasadena EP Church from Pasadena EP Church on Vimeo.