Session hereby gives notice that the Congregation of Linden Presbyterian Church will hold its Annual Meeting in the Church Sanctuary at 52 Fifth Ave, Linden on Tuesday, 23 March 2010 at 7:00pm.

The meeting will receive the Portfolio Reports, the Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December 2009, elect new members of the Stewardship Board, appoint Auditors for the coming year and transact such other business as may be proposed.

N R Caldwell (Session Clerk)

Presbytery of eGoli Partnership Visit to North Alabama Presbytery USA

A team from the Presbytery of eGoli will be visiting the North Alabama Presbytery from 2nd to 17th September 2010. The team will consist of members from congregations within the Presbytery who have twinned with congregations in the North Alabama Presbytery. Our twin is the First Presbyterian Church in Sheffield, North Alabama.

We need to choose a candidate who will represent this congregation. Session has chosen the following Criteria and the method of choosing a Candidate :-

• A young person between 25 and 40 years old;
• Someone who is enthusiastic and is a good communicator;
• Will develop a partnership with groups from North Alabama;
• Must be involved or been involved in Ministry/s of LPC Parish; and
• Must have a valid passport and be eligible for a US visa.

Choosing a Candidate

A person can nominate themselves, or be nominated by at least two members of the congregation. Those being nominated by other members of the congregation needs to have accepted the nomination.

The person being nominated needs to attach a motivation of why they are a suitable candidate.

Session will deliberate over the nominations and choose the most suitable candidate.

The Closing Date for submission of Motivations is Sunday, 21 March 2010.

Submissions to be handed into the Church Office or e-mailed to charlaine@lindenpc.org

If we take the name “Christian”, we’re called to give ourselves to God as a “living sacrifice.” This is what the scripture says in Romans:

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:1-2)

Dying to “Self”

The world speaks of the rights of people and it does this continuously. In our natural selves our feeling of self worth is tied up in pride, and it is our pride which is most easily offended. It was written that men seek first the respect of other men and then to be desirable to women (or should that be the gender of their choice?). The same source says that women want to be envied by other women. There are legions of books on the subject, but the fact is that it is our pride that is the thing most easily hurt. It is also the sin of Satan that cost him his place with God, and thus the beginning of all sin.

So, how do we truly present ourselves to God as a living sacrifice? We must identify with Christ in his death, accept that we no longer have any “right” to ourselves, we have to regard the self as crucified. This is how “The Message” Bible, a new work which was aimed at catching and expressing in modern English the idiom of the original Greek expresses Galatians 2:20:

“Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

“Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.”

So how do we do this in practice? The ideal is reflected in this anonymous poem …

”When you are forgotten, neglected, or purposely set at naught, and you don’t sting or hurt with the oversight, but your heart is happy being counted worthy to suffer for Christ;

That is dying to self.

When your good is evil spoken of, when your wishes are crossed, your advice disregarded, your opinion ridiculed, and you refuse to let anger rise in your heart or even defend yourself, but take it all in patient, loving silence;

That is dying to self.

When you lovingly and patiently bear any disorder, any irregularity, any annoyance; when you can stand face to face with waste, folly, extravagance, spiritual insensibility, and endure it as Jesus did;

That is dying to self.

When you are content with any food, and offering, any raiment, any climate, any society, any solitude, any interruption by the will of God;

That is dying to self.

When you never care to refer to yourself in conversation or record your own good works or itch after commendation, when you can truly love to be unknown;

That is dying to self.

When you can see your brother prosper and have his needs met, and can honestly rejoice with him in spirit and feel no envy, nor question God, while your own needs are far greater and you are in desperate circumstances;

That is dying to self.

When you can receive correction and reproof from one of less stature than yourself and can humbly submit, inwardly as well as outwardly, finding no rebellion or resentment rising up within your heart;

That is dying to self.”

If we were all dead to self, then there would be very little strife and infighting in the church of Christ. The truth is that, somehow, most of us have not put self to death and remain locked in the flesh – even as the Corinthians were:

“You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarrelling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men?” 1 Corinthians 3:3