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Time Around the Table
“They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.”
Ben and I both grew up in homes where family dinners were of high importance. Even though Ben’s father was often away on missionary trips and my parents often tended to responsibilities at our restaurant, family gathering was still a regular occurrence. At our restaurant, family meals tended to be at the side picnic table in our pizza establishment (to answer your question, yes pizza is still one of my faves). Having dinner together allowed our family time to visit, catch up, connect and laugh!
As Ben and I began raising our own family, we both felt strongly that this tradition would continue…at least try to continue. We both greatly value this time with our kids. Ben and I love to catch up with one another as well as our children’s lives, what they learned, how they helped someone, or what made them laugh! Gathering as a family with good food is truly one of my favorite things in life.
As our children grow older and life and activities crept in, our family dinners got few and far between. I found myself needing to be very intentional to schedule this time for the family, but still it didn’t seem regular enough. I couldn’t help feeling like so much connection was being lost, especially with my teens.
As current events progress and effect almost every area of our lives, I pray that we see the blessing in having “forced” family time. As the verse from Acts (above) states, the early church regularly ate together, and out of that came praise and enjoyment. As I sat at the dinner table last night and as the conversation began to cause mass laughter, I felt overwhelmed with joy. Even amid uncertainty, the Lord provided praise, enjoyment, and connection with the ones I hold most dear.
My prayer and encouragement for you during this time is to invest, encourage, connect and enjoy with the loved ones around your dinner table.
-Pastor Darcy Webster
Associate Pastor of Operations and Pastoral Care
The Voice of God
We have many voices speaking at us. It is important, however, to listen carefully for the one voice that is speaking to us.
Below is a list of verses that mention the voice of God. Read each one. As you do so, write down what you learn about his voice. The attributes of it. Where it’s heard. When it’s heard. The tone of it. Who it speaks to. Its characteristics. What it’s saying. Then read through the verses again and write some more observations on the voice of God. After all that, sit and listen.
Verses on the Voice of God (Click here to open online Bible):
Exodus 24:16; Numbers 7:89; Ezekiel 1:28; 1 Kings 19:11-12; Psalm 29:3-9; Psalm 46:6; Revelation 1:10; Matthew 3:17; Mark 1:11; John 12:28-30; Hebrews 2:1; Zephaniah 3:17; Acts 7:31; Hebrews 12:25-26; John 10:27; John 8:47; Romans 10:17; John 6:63; Isaiah 30:21; Revelation 3:20; Jeremiah 33:3; Revelation 14:2; John 10:3-5; John 10:16
What did you find interesting about God’s voice from reading these verses? Leave a comment and let us know.
-Pastor Tyler Lemen
Associate Pastor of Family Ministries
Stained Glass
The Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, France is a feat of Medieval church architecture. Upon entering the chapel, worshippers and tourists find themselves surrounded on all sides by an overwhelming flood of blue, green, red, and white light from stained-glass windows depicting stories from the Bible and from heroes of the Christian faith.
In the Middle Ages, it was not uncommon for a church, chapel, or cathedral to be filled with ornate stained glass depictions of Bible stories. During this time, churches conducted their homilies and sermons in Latin, a language not regularly spoken by normal church-goers. As the people were told things they could not understand, and as their minds began to be consumed by the common hardships of the 13th Century, their wandering eyes could not help but fall upon the church’s beautiful depictions of Moses leading God’s people from slavery, John the Baptist telling the world about Christ, and Jesus’ resurrection on the third day. This allowed them to leave church encouraged and awestruck by God’s beauty even with the distractions of their everyday lives.
Many Medieval churches utilized stained glass to tell stories of the Christian faith. What makes the Sainte-Chapelle so special is the fact that, no matter where visitors turn, they are completely surrounded by stained glass depictions of the entire Bible. The. Entire. Bible. Every story of God’s faithfulness to his people encircles the visitors inside the Sainte-Chapelle. Worshippers and tourists cannot escape the multi-chromatic light of God’s love, mercy, and beauty throughout the ages.
The Saint-Chapelle’s stained glass windows. Image from Wikipedia.
We, the modern worshippers of God, do not typically go out of our way to tell God’s stories through stained glass anymore, but we still have the chance to surround worshippers and “visitors” with God’s light. We can reach all of our friends and loved ones with a single tweet, social media status update, or blog post. Right now, so many people are easily and justifiably distracted by discouraging news of hardship, much as they were in the 13th Century. Let’s do our part against that!
One of our jobs as the Church is to help flood the world with God's light, and now more than ever, the world is starving for light. Let’s let God’s beauty and faithfulness be known and shown through all of our actions over the next few weeks. Whether we are in grocery stores, at the doctor’s office, at home, or here on the internet, let’s make God’s light inescapable!
-Travis Morrill
Communications and Facilities Administrator at Friends Community Church
Welcome to FCC Chronicle!
When we spend more time at home, we come to the realization that true, beautiful, and positive messages are not always readily available on the internet and social media. Friends Community Church would like to help alleviate that.
Follow along with this page in the coming weeks for daily posts, blog entries, videos, prayers, and devotionals with messages full of hope, truth, and love! You can get notifications of new posts on this page by following us on social media:
During this time, we hope that we at FCC can be an encouragement to you even from afar. So grab a nice warm beverage and join us in our endeavor of Loving God and Loving People as we all strive to be the Church remotely for those who need God’s love.
If you need prayer, you can click here to fill out a digital prayer request, or you can email us at info@fccbrea.org.