Letter from Pastor - November 10, 2007 Good Morning, Today and tomorrow our nation celebrates Veteran’s Day which means that we celebrate and honor those who have served our nation through military service. Any nation’s military plays a significant role in that nation’s ability to be healthy and productive as a country and as a society. So many times we take our military and those who serve in the Armed Forces for granted at best and see them as an enemy to our country at worst. Both of these positions and all position between apathy and hatred for our nations’ military is not only an insult but sheer foolishness. That we live in a free society that can ask questions and demand accountability is a good thing, a very good thing that has been secured by those who have served sacrificially. To use this privilege of asking questions and accountability to break down our nation’s ability to defend and to fight is a misuse of the privilege and social insanity. One of the Ten Commandments states that we should honor our father and mother. This means that we are to pick out what is best about our parents and focus on it, lift it up and pay attention to it, and be grateful for it. Those who have served our country and have gone before us to secure the freedoms and privileges we as a people enjoy are to be honored for their service. They are not a separate entity known as “the military”. They are us: they are part of our family, those who have gone before us, our fathers and our mothers. Let us honor them today. We honor their sacrifice through remembrance. We have remembrance only after we come to know their stories. If you lack historical perspective on the wars our soldiers have fought, visit a library, a webpage or a history channel and learn. And while you learn remember that those who served, were injured and paid the ultimate price, were someone’s sons and daughters and they did it valiantly and we benefit from it everyday. In the Love of Jesus, Pastor Jonathan Letter from the Pastor - November 4, 2007 Good Morning, November is here! It is amazing to me how quickly we have come to the end of the year. This month features a most wonderful holiday. This is another Jesus holiday if you choose to see it that way. Life is a rich and fulfilling experience if it is lived with an attitude of thanksgiving and gratitude. This will be a thanksgiving month for our church family. In the middle of the month we will have visits by missionaries, we will help to host an International Thanksgiving Dinner, we will have a memorial service to give thanks to God for my father’s life, celebrate Thanksgiving as a church family the Sunday before Thanksgiving and in our own homes on Thanksgiving Day and spend the whole month thinking about, learning about and acting on the principles of gratitude and giving. Again the life and sacrifice of our Savior speaks to this season on our calendar. He gave His life for His friends, for each of us, so that we can have a way back home. He blotted out our sin and rebellion by laying down His life as a bridge that crosses us over from death to life and from darkness to light. Our Savior’s ministry was filled with thanksgiving especially whenever He prayed to the Father. He left an example of gratitude for us to follow and through this example taught us a life principle on how to live a fulfilling life. Let’s enjoy communion together today not only when we take the elements that represent His body and blood but also in the love that we will share with each other in this room here today. Let us make the most of every opportunity whenever we gather together to love and be grateful for one another especially as we see the day of the Lord approaching. In the Love of Jesus, Pastor Jonathan