Advent Daily Devotionals - Free Copies Available in the Narthex
PEACE CAME TO EARTH
Daily Devotional for Advent 2023
Pick up your free copy in the Narthex
Seeking peace by our own efforts is an endless pursuit, but God instructs us with a peace that surpasses understanding. We receive His peace in five separate ways that meet our needs, perhaps before we even know them. Using a five-point Christmas star as a metaphor, see the five ways Jesus brings peace from God as the Prince of Peace.
Y4Life in Washington D.C. - Conference and March
Y4Life in Washington D.C. • Conference and March • January 18-20, 2024
Open to all high school and college students
Just As . . . I AM - with Courage and Compassion
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Thursday January 18, 2024 • 6:00 p.m. ET
Registration and Exhibits
Opening Devotions
Introductions and Icebreakers
Y4Life Conference Session 1: Just as ... I AM with Courage and Compassion with Rev. Trevor Sutton
Music, Sign-making, Exhibits, and Social Time
Friday January 19, 2024 • 9:00 a.m. ET
As Male or Female
Y4Life Conference Session 2: Just as . . . I AM with Melissa Ohden
Pre-March Devotion: Rev. Harrison Goodman
March for Life: Rally, March, and Testimonials
Dinner on own
Exhibits, Social Time
Devotion and Post-March Discussion
Y4Life Conference Session 3: Just as . . . I AM as Male or Female (Panel Discussion on Gender)
Saturday January 20, 2023 • 9:00 a.m. ET
For Blessing and Service
Y4Life Conference Session 3: Just as . . . I AM for Blessing and Service
Y4Life Conference Session 4: Just as . . . I AM Joy Despite Brokenness
Closing Devotion: Rev. Michael Salemink
Location
Hilton Arlington National Landing (near Reagan National Airport)
2399 Richmond Hwy, Arlington, VA 22202
Cost
Conference is FREE for registered youth. Rooms cost $124 per night with group rate, up to 4 people per room. Breakfast included. Limited availability.
Registration
Register with QR Code (top of the page) or at y4life.org
Conference registration closes December 15, 2023
For more information, visit Y4life.org
or email Director of Y4Life, Michelle Barman at michell@y4life.org
Bulletin: Sunday December 3, 2023
View the bulletin for Sunday, December 3, 2023
Sour Fundraiser Pick-up
8:00 a.m. - Worship Service with Communion
9:15 a.m. - Adult/Teen Bible Study, and Sunday School
10:30 a.m. - Worship Service with Communion
(The 8:00 a.m. service streamed on our YouTube channel)
Archive of AUDIO “Readings & Sermons”
Archive of VIDEO “Complete Service”
Archive of Bulletins
THIS WEEK AT ZION
Saturday December 2
10:00 a.m. - Christmas Decorating Party (with lunch and hot chocolate bar)
Sunday December 3
1st Sunday in Advent
Sour Fundraiser Pick-up
8:00 a.m. - Worship Service with Communion
9:15 a.m.. - Adult/Teen Bible Study & Sunday School
10:30 a.m. - Worship Service with Communion
(The 8:00 a.m. service streamed on our YouTube channel)
Monday December 4
7:00 p.m. - Preschool Christmas Program
Tuesday December 5
7:00 p.m. - Preschool Christmas Program
Wednesday December 6
2:00 p.m. - Advent Worship Service with Communion (Week 1)
7:00 p.m. - Advent Worship Service with Communion (Week 1)
(Service streamed on our YouTube channel)
Thursday December 7
7:00 p.m. - Preschool Christmas Program
Friday December 8
No Events Scheduled
Saturday December 9
No Events Scheduled
Sunday December 10
2nd Sunday in Advent
Premier of Sunday School Christmas Video after each service
8:00 a.m. - Worship Service with Communion
9:15 a.m.. - Adult/Teen Bible Study & Sunday School
10:30 a.m. - Worship Service with Communion
Cookie and Punch reception following second service
6:00 p.m. - Ladies Dinner & Ornament Exchange READ MORE (Napoli Restaurant)
(The 8:00 a.m. service streamed on our YouTube channel)
Soup Orders will be read for pick-up Sunday!
Just a reminder ...
If you ordered soup from the Youth Group fundraiser, it will be ready for pick-up Sunday in the church kitchen!
If you have not yet paid for your order, please bring cash or check payment of $10 per quart and give to Megan Pasquini.
December 2023 Newsletter
Download December 2023 Newsletter
Click (here or above) to download the December 2023 Newsletter
To access older Newsletters, Calendars or Service Participants choose from the options below:
>Archive of Newsletters
Mission Moment with Pastor Philip & Deaconess Rachel Jaseph
A New Path for the Jasephs
Greetings in the name of our risen Lord and Savior! Rachel and I hope and pray that you are well, even as we appreciate your prayers and support of our family. You may have also seen that we are expecting our first child in February.
We recently completed a year of life and service in Uruguay at the end of August, and yet we have even more news to share than the anxious expectation of our daughter. I recently received a call to serve back in the US, at Martini Lutheran in Baltimore, MD. I have accepted this call. Please pray for the members of Martini and for the work of the Gospel in the congregations and outreach to Baltimore as Rachel and I are called to that new mission field.
One year of international deployment may not seem like much, but Rachel and I have been working within these calls, my first assignment out of seminary, since June of 2021. This year in June, I also remembered 10 years of a career in ministry that began when I served as the LCMS’s first regional communication specialist in Africa. Through that lay position, I met Rachel, who had done her diaconal internship in Peru and served her first call in the Dominican Republic. The Office of International Mission (OIM) has played a large role in the beginning of our careers and was responsible in no small way for our having met. Since then, I have worked in parishes, schools, and studied at seminary. Rachel and I have learned and grown so much from our time as single, and now married, missionaries.
Immediately after studies at seminary and ordination in 2021, I had the opportunity to assist some of the many congregations in vacancy in the immediate area around my parents’ home in Maryland. I was struck as a young and new pastor at the great needs, hunger, and desire for the Word of God that I found at these vacant congregations, and the needs of those many others across the United States. This was still in the midst of the Covid pandemic, during and after which many pastors died or retired. I was struck by the Good Shepherd’s promise to send under-shepherds to His hurting and scattered flock since 2020, when my own vicarage work was impacted by the shutdowns. For this reason, I began writing pastoral letters and sharing devotions. This desire to care for God’s people has been present in my heart and actions for the last 10 years, and I have been afforded a new opportunity and perspective to share Christ’s love and mercy as an ordained pastor.
I have been able to practice and share the same during our last two years of preparation and deployment in the US, the Dominican Republic, and in Uruguay. I learned Spanish quickly and began writing, teaching, preaching, and providing spiritual care in short order, thanks be to God. It is a skill I hope to keep sharp for the rest of my life. The Lord has shown a new path to Rachel and I that we did not expect, and has seen fit to usher in a new season of life for our family. During this time we have been able to lead the first cohort of deaconess students from Uruguay in the distance diaconal program through the seminary in the Dominican Republic. I have been able to lead bible studies, provide spiritual care, plan and conduct services, and encourage the flock of Christ in the life of His Church, all in Spanish. Rachel has been able to spearhead the continuing education program for deaconesses trained through the seminary in the DR. These things are never in vain, no matter how short or long a worker is called to serve. Please keep Christians throughout Central & South America in your prayers, especially in Uruguay.
We encourage you and your congregation to prayerfully consider how you may be involved locally or overseas with the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod in the mission of God, that the Good News of Jesus Christ would go out to all peoples and all corners of the world. There are many opportunities and many deployed missionaries around the world, and you can explore this by speaking with the Mission Advancement team in OIM. However, there may even be opportunities in your own backyard to give a reason for the hope that is in you. Not everyone is sent overseas as a missionary, but every Christian who dies at the baptismal font and leaves it alive and forgiven never really leaves those lifegiving waters. You are sent out newly each day, as a beloved child of God, carrying the same hope and forgiveness you received from your Lord.
Rachel and I are so grateful for your support and prayers, whether you have journeyed with us for a few months, a few years, or many more. There is no way for us to adequately thank you, but we are grateful as you have followed our paths to ministry, marriage, and being parents. We are blessed beyond measure from our time living in Kenya, Peru, the Dominican Republic, and Uruguay, and from visiting the saints in so many states in the US.
One of my favorite Bible passages has long been Proverbs 16. “The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord…the heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” (Prov. 16:1, 9) My life is proof of this passage. A hymn that comes to mind encapsulates the uncertainty we experience in our lives, and also the courage and fearlessness that is ours in Christ. We have been set free, truly free, by Jesus’ death and resurrection which He has freely given to us. What then can we not do? Where then can we not be sent, now knowing of this great family of Christ of which we are now a part? Knowing that nothing can harm us, for our life is hidden away with Christ, we are the hands, feet, mouth, and love of Christ, whom He uses to work His love and mercy in the world.
"Come, follow Me," the Savior spake, "All in My way abiding; Deny yourselves, the world forsake, Obey My call and guiding. O bear the cross, whate'er betide, Take my example for your guide…”
Then let us follow Christ, our Lord, And take the cross appointed And, firmly clinging to His Word, In suff'ring be undaunted. For those who bear the battle's strain The crown of heav'nly life obtain. (sts. 1, 5; LSB 688)
With our deepest gratitude and love,
Rev. Phil and Deac. Rachel Jaseph
VIDEO: November Life Together Digest with LCMS President Harrison
In this Life Together Digest, the Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison, president of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS), reflects on the gratitude we in the LCMS should have toward God this Thanksgiving.
Reflecting St. Paul's works of thanksgiving in Philippians 1, Harrison lists the many blessings God has given our Synod, including pastors, teachers and other church workers; schools and universities; faithful laity; and more.
"We are so blessed it's beyond belief, despite all of our challenges and difficulties. ... [We have a] great blessing in knowing the clear Gospel of Jesus Christ, who is for everybody. ... He is for you. Thanks be to God."