“Christ Presbyterian Church is a worshipping body of believers, grounded in God’s Word, increasingly gripped by His grace, growing in community, and going in mission.”

In this Issue

Letter from Pastor

Marriage Conference

Coming Key Dates

· Palm Sunday, April 1st

· Good Friday, April 6th

· Easter Sunday, April 8th

March Birthdays

• Alex Schwartz, Mar. 5

• Emily Tragaser, Mar. 5

• Dutch Arnold, Mar. 7

• Katie Nelson, Mar. 15

• Coby Arnold, Mar. 17

• Alex Haase, Mar. 19

• Abby Prins, Mar. 26

• Katrina Dobay, Mar. 26

And One More Thing…

The Providence of the Irish

My new calendar page tells me March is upon us. Which means St. Patrick’s Day, March 17th is near. Now for many of us, the mentioning of St. Patrick brings the question, “Isn’t he the guy on the Lucky Charms box?” And, along with that, the mentioning of St. Patrick’s Day prompts memories of being pinched for not wearing green or befuddlement over the appeal of green beer. But, believe it or not, there’s a whole lot more to the man and his day than we realize. And it ought to prompt any discerning Christian to wonder and praise of the Lord of His-story.

The story of Patrick and his adopted land is a story of God’s providence – His most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing of all His creatures and all their actions. I say “adopted land” because Patrick was not Irish by birth. He was born around 390 A.D. in Roman Britain. As a teenager, he was taken captive by Irish raiders, brought back to Ireland, sold to an Irish king, and set to work as a shepherd. Patrick tells us in his writings he was raised in a Christian home but had not yet believed in God. The six years of hunger, cold, fear, and loneliness in the fields were hard. Yet light began to dawn in his heart. In the midst of this hardship, Patrick became convinced of the reality and presence of God and began to pray. One night, he dreamed God spoke to him, saying, “Your hungers are rewarded. You are going home. Look…your ship is ready.” And with that, Patrick walked 200 miles to the coast, found a ship, and sailed back to Britain.

Yet he became restless for Ireland. He entered a monastery, later became a priest and then a bishop. And then, thirty years later, Patrick returned to the Emerald Isle as a missionary to the Irish, barbaric as they were at the time. Thomas Cahill notes in his How the Irish Saved Civilization, “Only this former slave had the right instincts to impart to the Irish a New Story, one that made sense of all their old stories and brought them a peace they had never known before.” Because of Patrick, a warrior people “lay down the swords of battle, flung away the knives of sacrifice, and cast away the chains of slavery.” He was used in the conversion of thousands. That’s already quite a story. But it doesn’t end there.

Patrick was uniquely suited for communicating the timeless universal message of the gospel to this particular time and place. And the Irish were particularly suited for the saving of Western Civilization and, even more importantly, one could say Christianity as well. Keep in mind what else was happening at this time. The Roman Empire was crumbling. External pressures were mounting. Internal rot was worsening. The barbarian hordes were sweeping down like a plague of locusts, destroying everything in their path. By the end of the 5th century, all the great libraries established by the reigns of Augustus on down through Constantine had vanished. Now enter, stage left, the Irish and their new found love of learning, literacy, books, and copying. And copy they did – Plato, Virgil, Cicero, and especially the Bible. Countless manuscripts in Greek, Hebrew, and Latin were preserved all out on this little island the Romans had never bothered to conquer. And then, as the torch was passed from Patrick to his successors and as the Irish themselves began to move forth into Scotland, England, Iceland, Greenland, and on through Europe, they took this commitment to the Book with them. “These scribes,” Cahill says, “served as conduits through which the…Judeo-Christian cultures were transmitted to the tribes of Europe.” They “re-established literacy and breathed new life into the exhausted literary culture of Europe.” “Without this service of the scribes,” Cahill concludes, “our own world would never have come to be…Twelve centuries of lyric beauty, aching tragedy, intellectual inquiry…and love of Wisdom…would all have gone down the drain of history.” All that is to say, the rest, as they say, is history. His-story of providence.

Connecting all these dots to our own lives, let me leave you with this to consider. For His great providence continues over everything in our barbaric lives as well. Consider these words from The Heidelberg Catechism (adopted and published 1563):

27. Q. What do you understand by the providence of God?

A. God's providence is His almighty and ever present power, whereby, as with His hand, He still upholds heaven and earth and all creatures, and so governs them that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, food and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, indeed, all things, come not by chance but by His fatherly hand.

28. Q. What does it benefit us to know that God has created all things and still upholds them by His providence?

A. We can be patient in adversity, thankful in prosperity, and with a view to the future we can have a firm confidence in our faithful God and Father that no creature shall separate us from His love; for all creatures are so completely in His hand that without His will they cannot so much as move.

So wear your green, do what you will with the beer, and smile over the shamrocks. But don’t forget what’s really behind it all. Happy Saint Patrick’s Day.

Marriage Conference

Thank you to all the volunteers that made the Marriage Conference possible!

We have several of Zack’s presentations on the website from the marriage conference (Friday night and Sunday morning). Just a reminder that the Friday night presentation has adult content.

Janet and David Haase summarized their experience at the marriage conference:

Many thanks to Zack Eswine and all the organizers of the marriage conference.  Wow!  On Friday night we were inspired to deeply appreciate each other.  On Saturday we were helped to understand why that is so difficult.  What's great to know is that we are not alone.  We are part of a community that supports and celebrates marriage.  We grew closer to one another and to our church family.
Janet

Man, God is good!    Who else but God would think to put something like the Song of Solomon in the middle of the Bible?    Who but the Spirit could rouse a man to reflect with renewed wonder and awe at the unique beauty of his bride and to give him new language to express this adoration?    Who else but Jesus could describe his passion.... and I do mean passion ... for his Church?  I would love to go on and on saying how great the conference was but Janet said I couldn't mention her name and pomegranate in the same sentence, so I will have to honor that.    I can't wait for the next one!
David

Continue to pray for the marriages in our congregation and ways to minister to each other!

Medical Mission to Sudan

January 21 - February 1, 2007

Thank you for the contributions to this medical mission…shampoo, screws, sheets, etc. The following is a summary of the trip by Father Patrick Smith.

At the close of 2006, the good Lord arranged for a team of six missionaries to hit the ground running in Nyimbuli, Sudan. Our primary mission was to service the local health needs of this remote and desolate part of Sudan while also tending to a number of construction projects necessary to the clinic and compound.  It was also our desire to offer discipleship, encouragement, and prayer support for those already serving tirelessly there in the name of Jesus. Though our efforts in Nyimbuli were always challenging and sobering, it was a rewarding experience.

Our team was comprised of five individuals from The Clarksville Vineyard Church, and included both their pastor and a doctor. It also included Fr. Patrick, priest and pastor of St. John's Church in Clarksville. Upon our arrival, we joined another Vineyard missionary and two long-term missionaries already there on the ground.

Though much was accomplished, there remains much more to be done. Please pray that those in darkness there might know the light of Christ. Please pray also that those who have received the Gospel might not fall back into sin. Please pray that the Holy Spirit will breath an air of hope and revival in a place ravaged by war and too often neglected by the rest of the world.

Reprinted from St. John’s Epicopal Church website

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