Weekly Uplook - June 17
Tomorrow is Father’s Day, and it is my plan to speak to that important issue in Morning Service. I also want to remind you that our beloved Rev. Larry and Sis. Rachel Friesen will be moving to Yakima during the time we are recessed for camp meeting so tomorrow is likely the last Sunday they will call the Seattle church home. Beyond that … Tomorrow we celebrate the newest established federal holiday, Juneteenth.
Since its founding, our Seattle congregation has always been a multi-racial, multi-cultural group of believers who sincerely attempt to live out the Gospel of Christ together in unity. We are blessed to live in a country which declares “self-evident truths” that all people are created equal and endowed by their creator with “unalienable rights”. While our country has struggled at different times during our history to live up to this declaration on various fronts and hasn't always gotten things 100% right sometimes even in the church, we celebrate the positive influence the Gospel, church, and Christian individuals have had in moving all of us toward these truths. Paul the Apostle wrote to two different New Testament churches reminding them that as Christians we are created in the image of God, renewed by Christ, and our identity is found in him rather than the variety of other measures.
Colossians 3:10–11 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: 11 Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.
Galatians 3:27–29 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
The following information comes mostly from the website Juneteenth.com.
Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. From its Galveston, Texas origin in 1865, the observance of June 19th as the African American Emancipation Day has spread across the United States and beyond.
Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19th that the Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free. Note that this was two and a half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation – which had become official January 1, 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation had little impact on the Texans due to the minimal number of Union troops to enforce the new Executive Order. However, with the surrender of General Robert E. Lee in April of 1865 ending the Civil War, and the arrival of General Granger’s regiment, the forces were finally strong enough to influence and overcome the resistance.
General Order Number 3
One of General Granger’s first orders of business was to read to the people of Texas, General Order Number 3 which began most significantly with:
"The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired laborer."
I read a short reflection concerning this holiday which I felt was worth sharing with you today.
“Let's make Juneteenth a commemorative, not of the horrific institution our country embraced, but rather as a showcase of the strength in the American spirit to recognize wrong and set about making it right. In this same spirit America moves ahead today in leveling playing fields and achieving ever greater equality. Let us celebrate all that Juneteenth teaches us about our country's greatness in our use of the heart to hear and to learn and to work together for all that is good and just.” John Albuquerque
As Christians may we remember, Christ is all and in all. May we embody, reflect, celebrate, and work for all that is good and just and right because of what Jesus did for us and for those around us. And may we endeavor to love God and love our neighbor in anticipation of the soon return of Jesus.
BB
Housekeeping Notes: Our annual camp meeting convention begins in Portland, OR on June 26 and runs through July 10. To allow our saints to attend as much as possible we will be recessing services here in Seattle beginning Wednesday June 22 and resuming again on Sunday, July 17. All camp meeting services are broadcast on our headquarters church website at apostolicfaith.org and also on their YouTube channel. This will cover Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings plus adding a number of Bible Teachings, Youth Services, and Evangelistic services during the two-week convention.
Since its founding, our Seattle congregation has always been a multi-racial, multi-cultural group of believers who sincerely attempt to live out the Gospel of Christ together in unity. We are blessed to live in a country which declares “self-evident truths” that all people are created equal and endowed by their creator with “unalienable rights”. While our country has struggled at different times during our history to live up to this declaration on various fronts and hasn't always gotten things 100% right sometimes even in the church, we celebrate the positive influence the Gospel, church, and Christian individuals have had in moving all of us toward these truths. Paul the Apostle wrote to two different New Testament churches reminding them that as Christians we are created in the image of God, renewed by Christ, and our identity is found in him rather than the variety of other measures.
Colossians 3:10–11 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: 11 Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.
Galatians 3:27–29 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
The following information comes mostly from the website Juneteenth.com.
Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. From its Galveston, Texas origin in 1865, the observance of June 19th as the African American Emancipation Day has spread across the United States and beyond.
Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19th that the Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free. Note that this was two and a half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation – which had become official January 1, 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation had little impact on the Texans due to the minimal number of Union troops to enforce the new Executive Order. However, with the surrender of General Robert E. Lee in April of 1865 ending the Civil War, and the arrival of General Granger’s regiment, the forces were finally strong enough to influence and overcome the resistance.
General Order Number 3
One of General Granger’s first orders of business was to read to the people of Texas, General Order Number 3 which began most significantly with:
"The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired laborer."
I read a short reflection concerning this holiday which I felt was worth sharing with you today.
“Let's make Juneteenth a commemorative, not of the horrific institution our country embraced, but rather as a showcase of the strength in the American spirit to recognize wrong and set about making it right. In this same spirit America moves ahead today in leveling playing fields and achieving ever greater equality. Let us celebrate all that Juneteenth teaches us about our country's greatness in our use of the heart to hear and to learn and to work together for all that is good and just.” John Albuquerque
As Christians may we remember, Christ is all and in all. May we embody, reflect, celebrate, and work for all that is good and just and right because of what Jesus did for us and for those around us. And may we endeavor to love God and love our neighbor in anticipation of the soon return of Jesus.
BB
Housekeeping Notes: Our annual camp meeting convention begins in Portland, OR on June 26 and runs through July 10. To allow our saints to attend as much as possible we will be recessing services here in Seattle beginning Wednesday June 22 and resuming again on Sunday, July 17. All camp meeting services are broadcast on our headquarters church website at apostolicfaith.org and also on their YouTube channel. This will cover Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings plus adding a number of Bible Teachings, Youth Services, and Evangelistic services during the two-week convention.
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