May 14, 2022

Dear Road Church Friends,

This week’s scripture reading is Revelation 21:1-6. It describes the Bible’s most famous “Happy Ending,” when a new Heaven and earth descends to replace this old one, with its sorrows and disappointments. The Bible is steadfast in its belief in Happy Endings. Happy Endings have always played a prominent role in biblical faith. The biblical prophets looked to the future with hope, saying things like, “the days are coming when…the nations will come streaming to the Lord’s house. They will learn his ways and walk in his paths. They will never again go to war.” Biblical hope is the engine of prophecy. Hope is what keeps faith alive and our outlook optimistic. Where there is no hope, there can be no faith, and where there is no faith there can be no happy endings. Faith, by its very nature believes that good will triumph over evil, and that the long arc of history is moving toward a better world, and toward a state of greater human happiness. Our Christian faith promises the world a happy ending in the future. It also summons us to work to bring about happy endings in our own time. If happy endings are what you want, you must begin laying the foundations for them today. 

SCRIPTURE:  Revelation 21:1-6

I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, along with the sea. I also saw a new Jerusalem, descending gracefully from the sky, like a beautiful bride presenting herself to her husband. Then there was a loud announcement: “Ladies and Gentlemen, God is making his home with you. God is making all things new. Gone is everything that used to bring tears to your eyes,—no more dying,—no more crying,—no more sickness, no more pain. Be assured that this new world is as good as done, because God is already laying its foundation, and he will certainly bring it to completion. God himself will make sure we have the life we have always wanted.

TODAY IS A NEW DAY

Today is a new day, and here I am waiting to step into it.

And yet there is a feeling of uncertainty, even fear,

Of what it holds, fear of what it will demand of me.

Have I the resources to meet this day?

Can I enter it with joy and certainty and contentment?

I should accept it gladly, dance into it, and carry it with me.

I should delight in this day as a child delights in all that is new.

Revel in it, absorb it, for it is today, new,

The day that the Lord has made.

by Myrtle Hall

GOD OF GRACE AND GOD OF GLORY #569

O God,

Thank you for new opportunities and new beginnings.

 Pastor Norm

Our worship service from today: https://youtu.be/xN0SKhkY9_8