"SHARING THE RISEN CHRIST TO ALL GENERATIONS"     

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                                    9:30am Sunday Worship          10:45am Bible Study following worship
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                        Pastoral Care: Pastor James Peter
​                        Lay Leader: Doug Taylor
                      Church Phone: 440.236.8900
                              Church Email: hosannalutheran1@windstream.net  

Building Relationships
 
Relationships need to be built; they don’t just happen.  Even in families where blood relationships exist, emotional relationships must be built.  How do we go about doing that?  What are the criteria?  Let’s look to the master of relationships: our Lord Jesus.
 
Jesus, the incarnate Christ, lived in a relationship with His earthly family.  In the Gospel of Luke, we are told that, when His parents became separated from their son on the return from Jerusalem where they had attended the Feast of the Passover, they were distraught.  When they were reunited, Mary asked, “Son, why have You treated us so?” He gave His well-known reply: “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”   Then, we’re told, “He went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them…And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:48-52).  The Son of God, the Savior of the World, lived in obedient relationship with the earthly parents His Heavenly Father gave Him.
 
It is in the early days of His ministry that Jesus starts gathering to Himself His disciples, the Twelve who would sleep at His side, share their food with Him, endure the variances in the weather (as they were often outdoors), hear and try to understand His words, and seek to emulate Him, their Rabbi and Master.  From Jesus we learn about being stewards of relationships.  The criteria include quality time together, the opening of hearts to one another, trust and forgiveness, and interdependence.
 
Just as He called His disciples into relationship with Himself, so He initiates that closeness with us.  He calls us with His Gospel words, “Come to Me…and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).  He invites us, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19).  He abides with us (John 15:4); He shares His Heavenly food with us (Matthew 26:26-28); He speaks to us by His Word, Jesus Himself, and through His called servants (Hebrews 1:1-2); He presents us to His Father as holy in His sight (Colossians 1:22). 
 
Secure, then, in our relationship with Jesus, we come to understand both our identity and purpose as His stewards.  Equipped by His Word and empowered by His transforming love, our stewardship is no longer limited to specific acts occurring here and there but encompasses our entire lives.  With a growing awareness of Christ’s redeeming love, we are motivated to express our faith by the way we live our lives.

​​Not Our Own (Romans 12:1)
We must regard our own bodies, then, as a sacred stewardship with which God has entrusted us. They are a part of the capital he has placed in our hands for investment. He expects us to make the most of them, to protect, preserve, develop, and use them, producing returns on this capital for the benefit of ourselves, our fellow men, and our divine master. Our bodies are not our own, to use as we please; to pamper, indulge, mistreat, neglect, overwork, destroy; they belong to God as a wise part of his creation, and are held by us in trust for his wise purposes.
—Luther E. Lovejoy (1864–1936)


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LINKS

HARP Mission www.facebook.com/harpmission
www.harpcaldwell.org

Lutheran Church Missouri Synod  http://www.lcms.org
Ohio District, LCMS http://oh.lcms.org/
Thrivent Financial  http://www.thrivent.com

LCMS Foundation  http://www.lcmsfoundation.org/

Our Daily Rest - Cultivating a lifestyle of restfulness and renewal    http://ourdailyrest.net/. 

Life Around the Coffee Cup - Encouragement to fuel the journey -
: http://www.leahheffner.com/ 
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Lutheran Hour Ministries  http://www.lhm.org

 DAILY BIBLE VERSE

HOSANNA BIBLE STUDIES

 SUNDAY WORSHIP BIBLE STUDY
  You're invited to join in on a weekly Bible study at 10:45 after morning worship. We are now in the book of 1 Samuel.


CHILDREN'S BIBLE CLASS
  10:45 am after worship
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 MEN’S SATURDAY MORNING
BIBLE STUDY 
Our Men's Bible Study will meet in January on the Saturday the 19th at 7:30am in
the upstairs conference room . We meet on the third Saturday of every month and will be studying God's message that he will be know by all people found in the book of Ezekiel. Bring your coffee - donuts or coffeecake usually find their way to the table! We look forward to seeing you -

WEEKLY AFTERNOON BIBLE STUDY
The Bible studies that meet during the week will not meet again until January. Watch this page for information on when they will resume.