All Things Belong to God

On this the first Friday in the first week of Lent, we hear from the Paul’s first letter to the Church in Corinth:

 

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

 

Do not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, ‘He catches the wise in their craftiness’, and again, ‘The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.’ So let no one boast about human leaders. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all belong to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God. (1 Cor. 3:16-22).

 

God’s wisdom is not our wisdom.  God sees things from a different perspective.  Yet in the end, all things belong to Jesus, including you and me.

 

Let us pray:  Almighty and merciful God, in your goodness keep us, we pray, from all things that may hurt us, that we, being ready both in mind and body, may accomplish with free hearts those things which belong to your purpose; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

 

CALENDAR REMINDERS

 

Thursday, 20 March at 11 AM, the Seaside Seniors meet in Sutton Hall at St. Augustine’s for lunch and fellowship.  The theme is St. Patrick’s Day.

 

Wednesday, 19 March at 6 PM, the Lenten Series, Nick @ Night, continues at Grace.  The speaker will be the Rev. Wendy Wilkinson.  She came to the priesthood after decades as a professional orchestral trumpeter from Shaker Heights, Ohio. She received a graduate degree in Religious Studies at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio before attending Virginia Theological Seminary. Both she and her husband graduated from VTS in 2004. After graduation, the Rev. Wendy was the Director of the Spirituality Center at Holy Spirit Episcopal Church in Orleans, Cape Cod. When her husband, Mark, was called to be Rector at St Aidan’s in Virginia Beach, she found her ministry as the Episcopal Chaplain to Christopher Newport University in Newport News, VA. In January of 2013, she began her ministry as the Priest-in-Charge at Good Samaritan Episcopal Church in Virginia Beach. She continues to use her musical gifts and visit the Virginia Beach General Hospital with her therapy dog, Kuma. The Rev. Wendy and her husband, Mark, have two grown sons, Jeffrey who resides in Columbus, Ohio and James, who lives in Nagoya, Japan.

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List, especially, Pat, Karen, Patricia, Evelyn and Lee.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550