From the Pastor

Dr. William Dement is an American sleep researcher and founder of the Sleep Research Center at Stanford University. He is a leading authority on sleep, sleep deprivation, and the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders such as sleep apnea and narcolepsy. For this pioneering work in a previously uncharted field in the United States, he is sometimes referred to as the American father of sleep medicine. His classes at Stanford are usually packed. He is a crusader for sleep. He hates it when his students pull all-nighters. He is always fond of saying, “To get A’s you need lots of Z’s.” 

He is quick to point out how many of our modern tragedies were due to a lack of sleep. The Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, the Chernobyl nuclear reactor fiasco, and the terrible Challenger tragedy that took the lives of our astronauts in the space program. These all happened because the decision makers did not get enough sleep. 

 You and I have a primal need for rest. Don’t forget, God gave us a model to follow in the very act of creation by resting on the seventh day. And, the holy grail for some people is simply a good night’s sleep. If you look at the magazines in the supermarket, the underlying theme that we are being sold is relaxation: a sleep number bed, the reclining seats in business class, spas, massages, yoga, or escaping to the Bahamas to get a good sleep on a soft pillow in a quiet, peaceful place. In other words, rest is something we go to and are refreshed by it. However, at the end, we dejectedly throw everything back in our suitcases, hop a plane, and fly to BWI, and it’s back to the same old grind. 

 This Sunday is the third in our sermon series in which we are discovering the best life of all is the one we live when we abide in Christ and his life grows in us as the Fruit of his Spirit. This Sunday, we will be looking at the Fruit of Peace. This may be the only sermon I will ever preach in which if you fall asleep, it means you were paying attention. And as always, I hope you will join us. 

 Pastor John

Quote of the Week

 “A great many people are trying to make peace, but that has already been done. God has not left it for us to do; all we have to do is enter into it.” Dwight L. Moody

Dwight Lyman Moody, also known as D. L. Moody, was an American evangelist and publisher connected with the Holiness Movement, who founded the Moody Church, Northfield School and Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts, Moody Bible Institute and Moody Publishers.