Younger Children’s Bulletin

Older Children’s
Bulletin

Thank you for your care as we await the results of Pastor Rebecca’s Covid-19 test.  We hope to be back to worshiping in the Pavilion next Sunday.  Our current plan is to continue worshipping in the pavilion through July 12th. This will be reviewed at the July 12 Church Board Meeting.

The Church of the Brethren Annual Conference Program and Arrangements Committee has prepared several online events for the coming week. These include a Worship Service, Children’s Worship and Online Concert. Visit http://www.brethren.org/ac/virtual/ for more information.

Pleasant Valley is recruiting workers to go to Dayton, Ohio for a Brethren Disaster Ministries project August 16-22. Can you go? Join the crew by calling Eddie Meyerhoeffer today.

The Prayer Group for Lydia House and His Light House is now meeting on line. Email Arbo Miller at arbomiller@gmail.com to participate.

Donations of pudding cups are needed for BackPack Pals. Please place in blue bins in the narthex.

Donations for the Mini Free Pantry can be placed in the Jubilee Class or directly in the box.

Karis reopened June 4. New consignments will be accepted by appointment only beginning July 3 & you must call during regular business hours to schedule a time. New consignment hours will be Fridays & Saturdays 10am-1pm. The cafe remains closed at this time.

Brethren Woods: Helping Hands Adopt a Staff: Contributions are needed to help make the summer vision a reality. Please send contributions to 4896 Armentrout Path, Keezletown, VA 22832

Brethren Woods is opening its facility for Family Camp experiences.  Rent a cabin, retreat facility, or hogan for a minimum of two nights.  More information is available at https://brethrenwoods.org/familycamp/

I'm gonna let it shine!

by Jeremiah Padilla | Streamed with permission. CSPL121366

Call to Worship


God who made the universe, the heavens and earth,
Is still creating, now.
Jesus the Messiah, born as one of us, who died as one of us,
Lives in us, now.
The Holy Spirit, moving over the waters of creation,
Descending upon the disciples and birthing the church,
Moves in us, now.
Come, worship God, knowing God’s presence
Is with us, now.

from http://rev-o-lution.org

Inspired by Psalm 89

Let us lift up our hearts to the Lord
We will sing of your love, forever, O God.
In every age we will proclaim your praise.
Your mercy embraces the faithful
from one generation to the next,
and your grace is laid out for the salvation of every age.

You created the heavens and earth,
and chose for yourself a covenant people,
bringing them from slavery to a land of their own.
You established a throne, and in it made preparations
for salvation open to all people,
a servant sacrifice, grace poured out for us all.

You came to dwell with your children,
to bring them back to yourself,
to be our way, revealed on the earth:
a path laid out to heaven,
founded on your sacrifice of love.

Let the heavens praise your wonders, O Lord.
The mystery kept secret for long ages
has been revealed to all the earth:
your own Son, Jesus Christ,
though he was killed by the proud and powerful,
you have raised him up,
and with him, the humble of all the earth,
and of his reign there will be no end.

includes writing by Nathan Nettleton,
LaughingBird.net

New Earth, Heavens New

Chorus

Sing a new song
To the One who has said,
“Behold, I make all things new!”

Verse 1

New earth, heavens new,
Spirit of God moving.
New seed, creatures new,
Spirit of life moving.
New man, woman new,
Image of God moving.

Verse 2

New love, mercies new,
Spirit of God moving.
New strength, hopefulness new,
Spirit of life moving.
New hearts, spirits new,
Image of God moving.

CCLI License # 1699256

New Earth, Heavens New

by David Tate, Jeremiah Padilla, Paul Wilson | Streamed with permission. CSPL121366

God’s abundance is without measure and cannot be defined or contained.  As we take each day at a time, facing new and different challenges, we also have the opportunity to rely on the guidance of God, the leading of the Holy Spirit.  The creativity and newness of the Spirit abound and overflow into our world and our lives!

We have seen and experienced so much change and uncertainty, yet so much good has been sparked in this time of need.  Thank you for stepping forward and helping those in need, and for finding creative solutions to problems that seem hard to overcome.  May we all continue to contribute to the peace and wholeness of creation, and the spreading of God’s love among us, the community, and the world.

Only Hope

There’s a song that’s inside of my soul
It’s the one that I’ve tried to write over and over again
I’m awake in the infinite cold
But You sing to me over and over and over again

Chorus:
So I lay my head back down
And I lift my hands and pray to be only Yours
I pray to be only Yours
I know now You’re my only hope

Sing to me of the song of the stars
Of Your galaxy dancing and laughing and laughing again
When You feel like my dreams are so far
Sing to me of the plans that You have for me over again

Chorus

I give You my apathy
I’m giving You all of me
I want Your symphony
Singing in all that I am
At the top of my lungs I’m giving it back 

Chorus

CCLI License # 1699256

Only Hope

by Josh Burtner | Streamed with permission. CSPL121366

Romans 6:12-23

Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.

When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

God Of Grace And God of Glory

God of grace and God of glory,
On Thy people pour Thy power.
Crown Thine ancient church’s story.
Bring her bud to glorious flower.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
For the facing of this hour,
For the facing of this hour.

Cure Thy children’s warring madness.
Bend our pride to Your control.
Shame our wanton selfish gladness,
Rich in things and poor in soul.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
Lest we miss Thy kingdom’s goal,
Lest we miss Thy kingdom’s goal.

Save us from weak resignation
To the evils we deplore.
Let the search for Your salvation
Be our glory evermore.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
Serving Thee whom we adore,
Serving Thee whom we adore.

CCLI License # 1699256

God of Grace and God of Glory

by David Tate, Jeremiah Padilla | Streamed with permission. CSPL121366

A Prayer for Grace

Holy God,
We seek you and need you.
We need you in our weakness;
and we need you in our hope.
We know that you formed us with a vision of goodness and peace,
and that you came in Jesus to pursue us in love:
to run up to your prodigal children,
and to reclaim us as your own,
to put the signet ring on our finger once more.
We are swift to wander off to foreign lands,
full of ambition to accomplish things better on our own,
blind until we are reduced to scavenging the dregs,
realizing that the world that we have shaped does little to nourish our souls.
Help us to return to your table, O God.
Remind us of the sacrifice with which you set it.
Awaken our senses to savor its sweetness,
and recognize the way it satisfies our thirsts.
Let us hunger and thirst only for the completeness of your justice and righteousness.
Equip us to work in fields of your sowing,
overcoming evil with good,
responding to injury with compassion,
bearing your reconciliation,
knowing that it has cost,
and is a treasure without measure.
Teach us to live out the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray:

Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we forgive our debtors
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever
Amen.

In 2002 Rebecca and I attended the Church of the Brethren Annual Conference in Louisville, Ky. This was our first year serving as pastors, and I was somewhat in awe of everything associated with the conference. That is, except for the location of our hotel. It was in what seemed to me to be a rather run-down part of the city, a section that I would not like to walk through alone at night. But right in the middle of it, I ran across the plaque above. Afterwards, I looked into the quote mentioned on the plaque, and read these words shared by Thomas Merton about his realization at that particular corner.

God never sees us as run-down.  God sees us shining brightly in the love of Christ!

“In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all these people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world. . . .

‘This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud. . . . I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now that I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.

‘Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God’s eyes. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time.”

― Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander

You are shining like the sun!

Be Thou My Vision

Be thou my vision,
O Lord of my heart;
naught be all else to me,
save that thou art–
thou my best thought
by day or by night,
waking or sleeping,
thy presence my light.

Be thou my wisdom.
Be thou my true word.
I ever with thee
and thou with me, Lord.
Thou my great Father,
thy child may I be.
Thou in me dwelling,
and I one with thee.

Riches I heed not,
nor vain empty praise.
Thou mine inheritance,
now and always.
Thou and thou only,
first in my heart,
High King of heaven,
my treasure thou art.

High King of heaven,
my treasure thou art.

Be Thou My Vision

by PCVOB Praise Team | Streamed with permission. CSPL121366