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Originally uploaded by Rick Palma
Here is another photo album I created on Flickr and wanted to share at “New City”: “Columbia Pike Revisited” (http://tinyurl.com/ygds8j3). I wanted to take photos of Columbia Pike, the central street of doing business in Arlington, as this street was going through a transition of smart growth, and many of the older home areas are being reconstructed and many of the old businesses are departing. In many ways, this transition speaks of Arlington at large; we are going through a transition of being a small life muncipality transforming into a major metropolitan city.
Originally uploaded by Rick Palma
I didn’t get to do much drafting of blog articles this past weekend for posting at “New City” this week. So I thought I’d experiment with my new hobby of photography for this blog, showcasing photo albums from my profile on Flickr at “New City.”
After some down time of not blogging with any real consistency over the past several weeks, I’ve decided to recommit myself to the free time hobby. I plan to continue writing out Bible quiet time lessons and using classical Christian academic resources like Bible commentaries and the Westminster Confession of Faith. I also plan on blogging my home church Emmanuel’s sermons again, using my notes taken on the sermon to show what I’ve learned in the community life of the local church for blog readers.
A recent quiet time lesson from the book of Leviticus got me to thinking about the concept of doing the work of my hands, the good work of the good things of creation, as worship to God the Father, especially based on His priestly grace revealed in Christ Jesus His Son. We are to give praise out of the foundation of Christ onto God our Father by faith and our expression of worship, the good works and good words of justifying faith. We are also to give praise through the good things of our lives, the good things of common grace, the good things of creation, onto God the Father, delighting in our Father as the Creator of good things and natural beginnings, and the Father of new beginnings, new birth, for His people through the atonement of His Son Jesus and the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit. We are to delight in common grace and saving grace of the Gospel in giving praise onto God the Father.
And I particularly got to thinking about using the good things of creation, the good works of my hands in these good things, in secular culture, even my home culture, as worship onto God my Father, even in knowing the better saving grace of the Gospel foundation. We are to distinguish between old life of unbelief and new life of justifying faith for bringing the works of our hands into praise out of the foundation of Christ Jesus, our true justifying priest, onto God our Heavenly Father. And we are to do these good things of working in our cities and our cultures in praise to God our Father as our expression and witness of grace to our neighbors, to lost sinners, in secular culture.
Here is another blog article on a lesson learned from Scripture for lay people’s serving in the visible church. In this case, it is a lesson learned from a quiet time reading of the first book of Peter: It is good to take notes from a pastor’s sermons and blog the sermons as a means of articulating the pastor’s wisdom in the Gospel as your own wisdom, and you use your writing skills to give glory and praise by the Gospel foundation onto God your Father. There may be quite a few literary minds in the visible church who would come across this blog and also have questions about how they can use their minds and writing skills and edify their local churches in the Gospel.
I won’t be blogging sermons from Emmanuel this week or next week, as I had to help out in the nursery this past Sunday, and will have to be out of town and away from a computer next weekend. But this blog article and the article for next Monday will focus on the theme of serving in the church to the glory of God the Father, in remembrance of Christ crucified and risen from the dead for our sins in our grasp of grace relationship with God the Father, and our delight in Jesus as the head of the church for encouraging people in the church to serve each other in worship to God the Father.
As I settle into serving as a lay volunteer in the men’s fellowship ministry and community formation ministry of my young church Emmanuel, I thought to share a lesson learned in recent times from the book of Luke on learning to avoid conflicts and edify peers in the church by righteousness and grace, enjoying the Lord’s Supper in the name of Christ to the glory of God the Father, and speaking peaceable language of common grace and saving grace of the Gospel among people outside the church. I figure this lesson from Luke might be good for blog readers in general. There may be readers curious about how the church is supposed to look to people on the outside. And I figure this lesson from Luke might also be good for people in the church who are looking to serve and volunteer as lay people. What kind of mindset are we to use to approach serving others in the body life of the visible church, the church seen by the world?
