hermionesviolin: ((hidden) wisdom)
Elizabeth (the delinquent, ecumenical) ([personal profile] hermionesviolin) wrote2006-05-07 07:50 pm

[Thursday] EL evening service and adult people

The woman doing the readings was very soft-spoken, which I found disconcerting and frustrating.  Both Lauren and Pastor Saling came in a few minutes after service started, but apparently they got the evening off.  (The pastor was wearing jeans, and when I talked to him afterward he said it was the International Day of Prayer and he'd been in "preacher duds" -- his phrase -- all day.)

Scripture Readings:
    John 3:1-21
Oh, John.
"13No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.[Some manuscripts Man, who is in heaven]"
"17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.[Or God's only begotten Son]"
Makes universalist belief seem mighty untenable.
    Exodus 19:1-6

Meditation:
Experiencing God Day-By-Day by Henry T. Blackaby and Richard Blackaby
"God Brings You To Himself"

I had my eyes closed through a lot of the service-- trying to focus on other than the fact that the reader annoyed me -- and totally zoned during the meditation reading.  Oops.

The "Prayers of the People" were listed as "Intercessory Prayer," which is not inaccurate but I have issues with the idea of intercessory prayer, so having it explicitly named as such makes me uncomfortable because it takes away [from] my ability to be in the prayers in other ways that I am more comfortable.

The pastor chatted with me a bit afterward, but I didn't get a hug, and I was wondering last week as well, how do people like [livejournal.com profile] sk8eeyore get these close mentor people?  Pastors are always so busy with everything, on the way from the train station I was thinking, "I'm not sweet/clever/interesting/whatever *enough* to merit the extra effort."  This of course goes back to my issues making friends more generally.

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