Greetings and blessings to all. Winter is winding down, which means that the feeling of renewal and “fresh starts” are on Springs near horizon. First Covenant Church is active in 2 upcoming Events.

Our Spring Concert will be on March 29th at 6 PM. Members of the Cleveland Institute of Music will perform, with vocal accompaniment from Andrea Schulz and Jonathan Schulz. This program continues our tradition of providing the highest quality free entertainment for the community. It is well worth your time to visit us, and enjoy some great music, with light snacks provided afterwards.

Then, we’re also working on what will be a continuing celebration throughout 2009, with our “Anniversary Recognition” Program. Through the use of various media, presentations, prayer and special events, First Covenant Church will highlight the many milestones and blessings bestowed upon it.

God has given us many gifts, and continues to do so every single day. Together, we strive to reach out to others, as Christians on life’s walk.

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Bible Power

Robert Alter, who has translated sections of the Hebrew Bible into English ( The Five Books of Moses , Psalms ), said when asked to explain his continuing fascination with the Bible: "There is surely no greater poetry that has come down to us from anywhere in the ancient world than the Book of Job, or the finest of the Psalms, and no more brilliant and probing narratives than the stories of Jacob and Joseph and of David." Besides, biblical literature "asks us to examine our lives and reconsider what our vision of reality is." There is no one biblical worldview, but rather a whole spectrum of competing worldviews, and that diversity is rewarding. The idea that we are created in the image of God is elusive and ambiguous, and it is through the "subtle and profound representation of individual character in biblical narrative" that we get glimpses of what it means.

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The process of recycling paper can help to reduce deforestation and energy consumption on a significant scale. Here are some reasons why we should; Energy consumption will always be on the rise as population levels grow, and so any manufacturing processes which help to reduce energy consumption are welcomed. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) claim that there can be as much as a 40% energy saving when recycling paper over producing paper from the direct raw material. Although recycling paper has many benefits, it also has its drawbacks. One of these drawbacks is that we cannot recycle the same paper product for eternity, as the fibers contained within the paper degrade over time, losing their strength and length. On average, an individual paper fiber can only be recycled a maximum of six times. Although this is a significant drawback, the six time recycling process will help to save a great deal of energy when you consider how much paper there is to be recycled. If paper fibers can be recycled up to 6 times, and we recycled all paper products, this could help to reduce the intensity of deforestation for paper products up to a factor of 6. With paper production said to account for around 40% of harvested wood, and paper said to contain around 90% wood, you can see how recycling paper is an important process for the sustainability of our forests. Today, the use of recycled paper products is on the increase, as more and more people begin to recycle paper based products around the home.

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"We are the Bibles the world is reading; We are the creeds the world is needing; We are the sermons the world is heeding." ~ Rev Billy Graham

"I have held many things in my hands, and have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess." ~ Martin Luther

"It was Lord who put into my mind (I could feel His hand upon me) that fact that it would be possible to sail from here to the Indies. All who heard of my project rejected it with laughter, ridiculing me. There is no question that the inspiration was from the Holy Spirit, because He comforted me with rays of marvelous inspiration from the Holy Scriptures." .....from his journals ~ Christopher Columbus

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Extraordinary words, from ordinary people

You don’t have to be a literary genius, a published Author, or a celebrated Evangelist to put inspiring thoughts into words. Here are a couple of examples of “ordinary people” crafting words inspired by faith:

Oh good brother and dear sister

Sore, distressed by sins’ attack

Let not gloom pervade and conquer

God will always take you back

Dost lament that back-sliding

Has cruelly thrown you off the track

Then put your faith and trust in Jesus

For God will always take you back

Though life’s trials and woes beset you

You must never courage lack

Secure and safe in Jesus’ promise

God will always take you back

Bravely then go meet life’s challenge

Shunning satan’s sinful tack

Loud and joyful your Hosannas

Laud God’s mercy, He took you back

~Clare Masek

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If you were there at the dawn when He made all of this

Would you have believed what you had seen

If you were there in a garden when He made one command

Would you understand when He reached out his hand

With a love that rivals none

We all received the stars

And with a love that rivals none, we were given

The eternal gift of the Son

If you were there at the time when they all turned away

Would you have stayed by His side and prayed

If you were there on the hill when He sacrificed

That precious life, would you have cried

And this love that rivals none, a gift we all received

And this love that rivals none

The rising sun

The only one

Eternal Son

~WJ Plecha

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This Month’s Album Review
                                  Bruce Springsteen 
                         Working on a Dream (Columbia) 
 This life, this life and then the next / With you I have been blessed / What more can you expect / This life, this life and then the next … my universe at rest" —from "This Life"

Springsteen's last few records—The Rising (2002), Devils & Dust (2006), and Magic (2007)—had dabs of delight, but the projects also included darkness aplenty … and not just on the edge of town. The Rising was mostly a soul-stirring response to the events of 9/11, and while there were hints of hope and healing, that was also about the time that Springsteen, who'd long kept his political views to himself, started speaking out against the Bush administration. (He later became a vocal supporter of John Kerry and then Barack Obama in the last two elections.). Devils & Dust was in part a war protest album, rife with themes as bleak as its title. And Magic was more of the same, expressing Springsteen's disillusionment with the state of American society and policies. We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions (2006) was more hopeful, but a) the songs weren't his, and b) as is typical of folk music, optimism shone in spite of, rather than because of, the cultural climate.

So when Springsteen, halfway through Working on a Dream, sings a pop/candy number like "This Life" with all the giddy charm of the 60s-era Beach Boys—complete with la-la-la harmonies—and means it, you get the feeling he's decided to move on. Yes he can. Meet the new Boss. He really does seem to be as happy as the guy who hammed it up for the world at the Super Bowl's halftime party.

Dream opens on an epic blue note—the somber, sober "Outlaw Pete," an 8-minute (!) ballad about a lawless wanderer searching for something, anything, of substance: "Father Jesus I'm an outlaw, killer, and a thief / And I slow down only to sow my grief / I'm Outlaw Pete, Outlaw Pete / Can you hear me? Can you hear me?"

The Jesus reference is just the first of several spiritual nods on the album, and as if to answer Outlaw Pete's lingering question, the second track, "Lucky Day," points to a "room where fortune falls / On a day when chance is all / In the dark of this exile / I felt the grace of your smile / Honey, you're my lucky day." Right off the bat, the seeker finds grace—in the arms of a woman, but it's grace nonetheless.

It's clear that he understands that life itself is a gift. Last spring, Danny Federici, one of Springsteen's best friends and a founding member of The E Street band, died of Melanoma. Working on a Dream, dedicated to Federici, ends with "The Last Carnival," a song written in his memory: "We'll be riding the train without you tonight," Springsteen sings, "the train that keeps on movin' / Its black smoke scorching the evening sky / A million stars shining above us like every soul livin' and dead / Has been gathered together by a God to sing a hymn over your bones."