Category: General

The North Carolina Baroque Orchestra (NCBO) will present a concert, Fiori del barocco (Flowers of the Baroque) at Bethany Christian Church, Arapahoe, NC, Thursday, August 2, at 7 PM.

This marks the second year that NCBO has played in concert at Bethany. The concert presented August 4, 2017, was standing room only.

Composers Johann Sebastian Bach, Evaristo Felice Dall’Abaco, Antonio Vivaldi and others will be featured in the performance. The orchestra will play on period instruments.

The concert is by donation only. Suggested donation is $15 general; $10 students and seniors; kids free.

NCBO is presenting the concert while on retreat at Camp Caroline, where it conducts an in-house workshop to grow the orchestra’s musical bonds and artistry. The concert is a way for the orchestra to highlight its endeavors during the retreat to celebrate its accomplishments and to share the music with the Eastern North Carolina community.

The orchestra was formed by sisters Frances Blaker, artistic director, and Barbara Blaker Krumdieck, executive director, along with musical collaborators, to provide opportunities for musicians and vocalists interested in exploring baroque performance practice in a baroque chamber orchestra setting.

NCBO allows musicians in North Carolina and the surrounding area an opportunity to work with highly experienced experts in the field. Conductor Frances Blaker is a world-renowned expert in baroque performance practice, in addition to being a virtuoso instrumentalist.

 

Gone Fishin’ is the theme for the July Header, and for the A Light for Your Path devotional.

And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” –Matthew 4:19

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” –Matthew 28:19-20.

Have you ever been fishing, and only caught little croakers instead of the big ones that everyone knows are out in the river? It’s easier to snag the little ones, isn’t it?

That is true when we are fishing for people to lead to Christ. It’s easier to lead the little ones to Christ by taking them to Sunday School and Worship, teaching them from the Bible, and setting a good example for them. It’s much harder to get the message across to an older, perhaps jaded, person, who is grounded in the world, rather than in Christ.

In a local TV show years ago, The Southern Sportsman, the host, Frank White, used to end the program with the imperative, “Take a kid fishing!” That is good advice to follow.

But, although it is extremely important to “take a kid fishing,” it is just as important to take anyone fishing: That is what Christ told us to do! We are fishers of men!

The Columbarium Administration Committee established by the general board as part of its adoption June 3 of the Columbarium Rules and Regulations, held its first meeting June 26. As its first order of business, Mac Harris was elected Chair, and Meredith Beeman was elected Secretary. In addition to Harris and Beeman, other members of the committee are John Beeman, Jr., Sandra Hardison and Renée Midyette.

The committee began setting up the operating plan and establishing accounting procedures. It also determined that it is appropriate for Rev. Osgood to plan a dedication ceremony for the columbarium facility.

Landscaping and benches for the columbarium facility will be in place soon. Upon completion of the operating plan and as soon as the accounting procedures are set up, the committee will be ready to receive niche reservations.

The next meeting of the committee will be July 16.

My son, do not despise the Lord‘s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights. –Proverbs 3:11-12.

In worship today, we celebrated fathers, because a father’s love, discipline and support are just as necessary as a mother’s love for a child. Just as a mother is a child’s role model for how a woman of faith is to live and conduct herself, so a father is a child’s role model for how a man of faith is to live and conduct himself.

It is important that children and wives show love, honor and respect for our fathers and husbands. As children, we appreciate the time they spend with us and the feeling of security they provide, and as wives, we appreciate them for loving our children and helping them grow in the way they should, and for being our faithful partners.

We, as a congregation, thank, love and respect all the fathers for their love and hard work, not only for their children, but for the Lord and their church, which needs them and their help just as much as it needs that of the mothers!

The web devotional “A Light for Your Path,” has changed locations. You will find it in the page tabs along with Home, About, Bethany Calendar, Order of Worship and The Beacon. Now you can click on the tab, A Light for Your Path.

A Light for Your Path Writer Schedule 2018 6-2018 8

The weekly web devotional, A Light for Your Path, begins today. A number of writers have agreed to write for the devotional. Each one will be signed. Rev. Torrie Osgood kicks off A Light for Your Path today. Readers can look for the new week’s devotion on Mondays, beginning June 11.

While the theme will change monthly, the devotional and the background photograph will change weekly. Beginning in July, 2018, the communications photo contest winners’ photos will be used as background, but all are invited to submit photos for the devotional’s photo bank. We will need lots of photos! The June photos will be those taken by the devotional editor, but, starting in July, we will use photos submitted by anyone who wishes to offer them for our use. Each photo will credited, and must, as closely as possible, illustrate the monthly theme, which will be published about three weeks in advance on this site and in the church bulletin

Writers will write to the theme, and photographs will illustrate the theme to the degree possible. The themes and devotionals will be based on scripture, and each writer will submit, along with his or her devotional copy, the scripture he or she selects.

If you would like to write for us, please submit a sample devotional of 100 words or less, along with a scripture reference, to communications@bethanyarapahoe.org.

If you want to submit photographs, look for notice of each coming month’s theme on this site or in the church bulletin, take your picture(s), and submit to communications@bethanyarapahoe.org, or drop them by the church office.

Last year, Bethany’s youth grew watermelons and cantaloupes for Operation Veggie Box, helping OVB distribute fresh fruits and vegetables to food banks, with a message introducing recipients to Christ and the Holy Spirit, and urging them to go to the church of their choice to learn more about Jesus and the Holy Spirit. It was, as OVB puts it, an effort to feed the hungry, physically and spiritually. Celebrate our youth and our commitment to helping our community!

…but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. ²⁶ When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” ²⁷ Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home. –John 19:25-27.

In worship on Mother’s Day, we celebrated mothers, because mothers love us and mold us into who we are, and we love them in return. Mothers care for us, and so, like Jesus, we want to care for them.

On this day, most importantly–but not only on this day–we children and husbands show our love, honor and respect to our mothers and wives. As children, we thank and appreciate them for their love and nurturing, and husbands, we thank and appreciate them for bearing our children, loving them and us, and for being our faithful partners.

We, as a congregation, thank, love and respect all the mothers for their love and giving, not only for their children, but for the Lord and their church, which could hardly do without them, as they truly are Christ’s faithful workers!

We love you, mothers!

Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. ² And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: ³ “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. ⁴ And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it.⁵ Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. ⁶ And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away.⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. ⁸ And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” ⁹ And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. ¹¹ And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, ¹² so that

¹³ And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? ¹⁴ The sower sows the word. ¹⁵ And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. ¹⁶ And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. ¹⁷ And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.^[a] 18 And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, ¹⁹ but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. ²⁰ But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” –Mark 4:1-20

Restore our fortunes, O Lord,
    like streams in the Negeb!
⁵ Those who sow in tears
    shall reap with shouts of joy!
⁶ He who goes out weeping,
    bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
    bringing his sheaves with him. –Psalm 126:4-6

Sow the Word with the way that you live and you will reap life!