service opportunities and a continuing story

Good morning sisters and brothers,
I'd like to tell you about a great opportunity coming up in June. Laurelton, along with our other Urban Presbyterian congregations, is participating in Boots on the Street, an intensive week of community service opportunities. There are chances to serve neighbors as varied as serving meals at Third Presbyterian's dining room ministry and building a house with Habitat for Humanities. Here's a link with the different opportunities and who to contact to get involved. I'd love to see strong participation from Laurelton. It's a great chance to serve others and get to know our Presbyterian neighbors.

Stephen has been telling the story of Israel's journey with God. Today his account begins to take a critical turn. He tells about Moses meeting with God and liberation of Israel from slavery. He also emphasizes the trouble Moses had with the people of Israel because they were reluctant to accept him and had trouble following God in the wilderness. This critique will get sharper in tomorrow's passage.

God bless,
Sam

Acts 7:31-41

30“Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush. 31When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight; and as he approached to look, there came the voice of the Lord: 32‘I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Moses began to tremble and did not dare to look. 33Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34I have surely seen the mistreatment of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to rescue them. Come now, I will send you to Egypt.’



35“It was this Moses whom they rejected when they said, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ and whom God now sent as both ruler and liberator through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36He led them out, having performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years. 37This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up a prophet for you from your own people as he raised me up.’ 38He is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors; and he received living oracles to give to us. 39Our ancestors were unwilling to obey him; instead, they pushed him aside, and in their hearts they turned back to Egypt, 40saying to Aaron, ‘Make gods for us who will lead the way for us; as for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’ 41At that time they made a calf, offered a sacrifice to the idol, and reveled in the works of their hands.