Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” John 1:46 ESV
Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” John 1:46 ESV
Real estate agents always tell prospective buyers that the three most important attributes of any property are: 1) its location, 2) where the property is situated and 3) how the property fits in with its neighborhood. Location, location, location. It seems all other property valuation criteria bow in submission to that rule.
This weekend at Trinity Downtown, we are embarking on the second in our series titled “It Happened at…” where we are following the physical journey that Jesus took leading to his death and resurrection in Jerusalem. We’ll be focusing on Bethsaida, a relatively small town in Galilee, situated in the far northwestern part of Israel.
Modern real estate agents would have fallen in love with Bethsaida. It was founded approximately 3,000 years ago on the shores of the Sea of Galilee where the Jordan river flows into the northern part of that body of water. It was a small fishing village, but its location as a crossroads magnified its economic and political power. Around the time of Jesus’ birth, Romans named Bethsaida as a self-governing municipality, a political designation which was usually only granted to much larger cities. Click here for more details.
As we continue our journey with Jesus to Jerusalem, we’ll see that Bethsaida was the site of many of His miracles and teachings, and where He got acquainted with (and Called) three of His disciples. Philip, Andrew and Peter were surely not expecting to meet the Son of God in their little village. But God came to meet them.
“Come and see” what God has to say to us this weekend at Trinity Downtown. Let’s give Him the opportunity to re-position our hearts, redeem our circumstances and deepen our recognition that we are totally dependent upon Him. Join us in-person at our contemporary worship service on Saturday at 5:00 pm or our traditional worship service on Sunday at 9:00 am. Reservations are required to attend either in-person worship service; you can see the details at www.trinitydt.org. You may also make a reservation by calling Stefanie at 713.224.0684 from 8:30-2:30 each weekday. If you are not comfortable attending an in-person service, you can watch the “live stream” of our Satellite Service at 5:00 pm on Saturday, or our traditional service on Sunday at 9:00 am by clicking here. And, of course, you may also participate by watching either of these services “on demand” by clicking here.
You have the opportunity to follow Jesus’ direction to “love your neighbor” this Sunday by giving blood at Trinity. The Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center will be in our gym from 8:00 am until 12:30 pm and walk-in blood donors are welcome. Donors will automatically receive a free COVID-19 antibody test, and you may donate blood even if you’ve recently received a COVID vaccination. You can make an appointment by clicking here and then selecting Trinity Downtown on the map that appears.
One of the other ways we can love each other is by praying for those in our church and community. I regularly attach Trinity’s prayer list to this email for that purpose, and I deeply appreciate your prayers. To make our prayer list more focused and manageable, we are tweaking our process for adding new requests on the list, and our Stephen Ministry is initiating a formal process where they will be assigning Stephen Ministers to pray for specific needs. We will also start removing prayer requests after they have been on the list for 4 weeks unless the individual who reported the need renews it. Please watch this space for more details.
Set aside time this weekend to learn how to follow Jesus’ footsteps, and in doing so find out how you can live a life of significance, filled with meaning. Come make new friends and renew old ones.
His love and wisdom will make a tremendous difference in your life.