Library Display

 The link for this week`s live streamed service is here

There is a library display in the hall to complement our study on The Celebration of Discipline. The topic of last week`s discussion was `study` so having more books to study seems appropriate. This Wednesday we`ll be thinking about `simplicity.` Anyone can join the discussion at any time, so if you skipped meditation and fasting, but would like to cogitate on simplicity, please come along either at 10:00 am on Wednesday or at 7:00 pm on Wednesday.

Speaking of simplicity, many of the congregation have been paring down their cupboards and closets in response to the request from the Compassionate Warehouse for items for Ukraine. Monetary donations -- always welcome -- can be dropped off at the church or given directly to CRW at   https://www.crwarehouse.ca/donate. 

As we are inundated with images of refugees, bombed out buildings and sobbing children, we want to `do`something. Donations of items is helpful to both those who give and those who receive.  

There were bags and bags and boxes and boxes of donated items` dropped off at the church over the last weeks, as well as a donation from the Jesus is Lord congregation who worship in our building.

In the end Brian and Vivien had their car packed to the roof with tokens of support for the beleaguered citizens of Ukraine. 

Those items will be added to the forty foot container being filled by the Compassionate Warehouse and sent overseas.

We have ended our collection for the Warehouse for now but we expect there will be another call for donations. So, if you missed this one, please keep your offerings for the next time. See here for the list of requested goods. 

    It was good to have the choir back in its place this Sunday. Rev. Irwin often says he feels lonely when the choir is on break over the summer. Imagine how he has felt for the past two years! We have a new member among the singers. Welcome Pam. More voices are always welcome. Practice is on Thursdays at 7:00 pm. With Good Friday and Easter coming up, it`s a good time to raise your voice in song and praise.

All the gardening work Linda did last fall is paying dividends this spring. Daffodils and heather are blooming in the front flower bed. Gardening and Christian living are almost synonymous. Both plant seeds in hope and faith; the fruits, some visible, some invisible,  are borne in another season. 

Amazing Grace - Book Report

Book review by Linda Cliff

What’s so Amazing About Grace was written in 1997 by Philip Yancey.  The book examines grace in Christianity, a central theme in the bible but often absent in the Christian church, which seems to focus on immorality rather than forgiveness.   Yancey tells a convincing story of how the world has a difficult time identifying Christians with grace.

The book is easy to read as Yancey uses personal stories, Bible stories and accounts from history to reveal what the Bible teaches us about grace.  The book is divided into four parts.  Each part begins with an illustrative story of grace and how it is revealed by Christians and the church.  

    The author argues that many of the activities carried out by the church (social justice, community service) have secular counterparts but only the Church can offer grace- as it comes from God.   Yancey gives examples of  ungrace in the Evangelical churches of America, he talks of the rule bound legalistic lives of Christians that can effectively shut out sinners.  

     He talked about racism and how he was taught within his own congregation that people of colour were not welcome in the church building or programs He then explored this belief that he himself held and by looking at the life led by Jesus he came to understand that  many of the practices of Christians were about ungrace.  

    At times I found that many of the historical references in the book seemed out of date as the world was very different in 1997.  

    The last part of the book was titled “Grace Notes for a Deaf World” and looked at the evangelical church in America and how there has been an increasing involvement in government.  When I read this section I found that if  looked at what he was saying through the lens of the current political climate in the United States, I was able to understand  the support given to the current president by some evangelical Christians. 

This book was well received by both the secular and Christian readers.  It is a book that will have you look at your prejudices through the eyes of grace.   A few years back there was a movement that asked you to think “what would Jesus have done” before you did or said something.  I found that reading this book has done the same for me.    I recommend What’s so Amazing About Grace as another avenue to explore the message of the gospels. It is available in our church library.

 Side Note: As a Birthday present for Alice, the editor of this Blog, I promised 12 book reviews. This is the first and I am looking for other books to read.  If you have suggestions please let us know and I will add them to my reading list. 

 Editor's Note:  A great birthday present.  Thank you, Linda.

SPPC Library News

       

  Librarian:  Linda Cliff

Over the past year the library has undergone some changes and there are more to come.  The first change was a large influx of books.  These books were donated by Lloyd Warkentin and have been placed on the shelves.   To make room for these new titles many out of date books, videos and CD’s were removed from circulation and sold in our annual Garage Sale.   
When you visit the library you will find that the books have been divided into the following categories:
 Bible Study and Commentary
 Reference
 Christian Living with sub sections on Women, Grief and Recovery, Prayer, Devotionals
 Christian Education
 Biography 
 Fiction 
 Children and youth
 Audio/ video
If you are interested in borrowing a book, please sign it out in the book provided, remembering to include your phone number. The usual borrowing period is one month.    Once you have read the book, consider writing a short report on what you have read and why you would recommend the book to other members of the congregation.  The hope is to make the library an integral part of our church life and these reports may be used to showcase books in either the library or the Blog.  
Look for new signs created for the library by Felicity Smith and for featured titles that will pique your interest in checking out our library.  As with all endeavours within the congregation your help would be appreciated:  read a book, write a report, and volunteer to help out.  

BOOK REVIEW

Love in a Broken Vessel
 by Mesu Andrews



As a lover of Historical Fiction I found this to be an excellent read! The book is described by the publisher to be an epic journey of intimacy, rejection , betrayal …and hope. Hosea is commanded by God to marry a prostitute in order to show God’s people the nature and depth of His love for Israel. This would be a difficult command to follow.
This is a fictional account of Old Testament times but the story of Hosea and Gomer is true. What I found so interesting was that as the reader I was learning about the world these characters inhabit. As we read the Bible, many of us do not understand the customs, living conditions and traditions of the peoples of Israel and Judah. Andrews tells the reader the politics of the time in a way that helps the story to come alive. At the time of Hosea’s marriage to Gomer the kingdom of Israel was split into two nations. Israel comprised the northern nation of the ten rebelling tribes, while the tribe of Judah formed a new nation with its capital in Jerusalem. The people of Israel had been drawn into worshiping pagan gods, stoking Yahweh’s wrath and breaking His heart.

It is in this setting that the story of Hosea and Gomer unfolds. The history of Hosea’s marriage to Gomer mirrors the marriage between God and mankind. Gomer is unfaithful, can not stop her worship of idols, yet Hosea continues to forgive her, love her and take her back. We are unfaithful but God is faithful and He keeps taking us back time after ttime. Gomer rejects Hosea’s love and runs from him whenever she has the opportunity. This leads to a life of misery and rejection, but the love of Hosea and his God are a constant in Gomer’s journey. Finally, Gomer can no longer ignore the love of God and is able to recognize we are all broken vessels, Redemption comes when we submit to Yahweh’s hands and are mended by His mercy.

There is much detail in this account of Hosea’s life that is fiction; however the Biblical account is historically accurate. What a treat, read a great love story and increase your knowledge about Old Testament times.

Other books by Ms Andrews in this series “Love Amid the Ashes”- Job’s story and “Love’s Sacred Song”-a book about Solomon.


Review by Linda Cliff

YOUR LIBRARY

by Linda Cliff




Let me introduce myself. My name is Linda Cliff and I am excited to say that I have volunteered to be the Library person for Saanich Peninsula Presbyterian Church. Everyone says they are excited when they get a new job and then comes the hard work and some of that excitement can fade. Hopefully, that will not be my story as I always wanted to be a librarian, and now that I have retired from nursing I will get a chance to fulfill this wish.

I recently attended a Conference presented by the Church Library Association of BC (CLABC). At this conference I learned:

 The church library needs a mission statement

 The church library is a Ministry

 The church library should be set up to support members of the congregation in their walk of faith

 Volunteers are an integral part of any church library

 There needs to be policies and structure so that operation of the library is not a mystery to the congregation

 The CLABC was developed to help congregations like ours make the most of their libraries
Quite the list! And these are only the high points.

We are a small library however there are many interesting books that you may find useful. Over the next weeks, I will

 organize the books we have into categories that will make it easier for you to find a topic that you may wish to explore.

There are many Bible Study guides available and this may be something you wish to continue after our weekly Bible Study takes its summer recess. Also, there are many works of fiction that would be perfect for your summer reading!


The Library is located in the main hall and you will be seeing some more books added over the next month. These books were donated and will add some more current titles to our collection. As the Mission Statement and some policies are developed I will be sharing them with Session and then with you.

How can you help? I will be looking for volunteers in the future and if you read a book that you feel may help someone in their walk of faith, do a book review so that we can all grow in the knowledge of the Lord and His love.

BOOK REVIEW

Book Review


by Linda Cliff







WHY I AM A CHRISTIAN
by John Stott

For those of you who have been enjoying the Wednesday morning Bible studies John Stott is a familiar name.   Stott helped us with our journey through Romans, the Beatitudes, and Acts.   So it was with a great deal of excitement that I checked “Why I Am a Christian”  out of the library.

This is a personal book.  Stott offers a clear and analytical account of why he is a Christian.  He begins by explaining how God pursued him but he also adds accounts from other famous Christians, so the reader gets an expanded view of what it means to wrestle with the question of their salvation.  He then goes on to discuss the claims of Jesus.  He states that he believes that Christianity is true and we can look to the claims of Jesus to confirm this.   Then Stott takes us to the cross.  He discusses the atonement for our sins, the character of God revealed by the cross, the conquering of the powers of evil and how the resurrection proclaims the victory of the cross.  The last section discusses the needs of human beings and how these needs are fully met through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.   The book ends with an invitation for the reader to respond to the claims of Christ and a sample prayer is offered.

This book helps us to look at the question “Why Jesus”.  Stott gives the reader 7 chapters to explore this question in a clear and logical way.  Stott is saying that if you take an honest look at Jesus you will discover that following him gives you the purpose, identity and freedom you have been searching for.

Church Library

    SPPC is a small church, with a small church library, but within that library are some amazing resources.  Do you know that we have 30 adult dvd's, videos and cassettes, including one for country and western music lovers titled, 50 Country Gospel Songs? 

    If you want a different translation of the Bible, our library offers the Good News, King James, The Message and a children's edition of the New Revised Version.  The library offers 30 study guides to help you delve into those Bibles.

      There are 34 Titles listed under Christian Education, but I'm a bit nervous of the one labelled A Handbook of Skits and Stunts. 
       Under Christian Life, there are 109 titles listed, including several from the Women of Faith series.  C.S. Lewis is well represented with ten books, including The Screwtape Letters and The Problem of Pain.  I hope Who Put the Skunk in the Trunk, by Phil Callaway is not one of the stunts included in the handbook listed above.  For all you golfers, there's a biography of Payne Stewart.
       There are 46 Commentaries listed, including You Too May be a Presbyterian.  How's that for a conversation opener?
        The Adult Fiction section lists 50 titles including the whole of Jan Karon's delightful Mitford Series, as well as old stand-by's like Lloyd C. Douglas and Janette Oke.  Under Junior fiction we have 44 titles as well as 44 videos.  The ever popular Veggie Tales among them.

      The library is at the back of the Molloy Hall.  Books are shelved by section, then alphabetically by author.  Checkout and return is self-serve, just look for the blue folder. 
     So, next time you're hanging out at the church, check out the library.  You'll be amazed, enlightened, amused and informed.