This Saturday and Sunday at the Tucson Festival of Books |
|
|
Find out MORE at booth two-fifty-FOUR Above is a picture from last year. This year's booth will be a CORNER booth - shared between Frank Rose and The
Arizona Spiritual Growth Foundation. Look for our banner that will read: ChooseJoyNow.org & Frank Rose
Our booth is
located toward the western end of the U of A Mall. Booths and tents are each numbered, and we are in the 200 section, on the far south side, in front of the entrance to the Bear Down Gymnasium. If you find two large Pima County Public Library tents, our booth is just a bit west of them.
Our goals
are (1) to introduce as many people as possible to the new deck of 52 Spiritual Growth Task Cards and (2) to invite each person to consider joining a small group to work on the tasks in a supportive and educational setting. See more below.
In connection with our activities in the booth at the Festival of Books, I will start a new series on joy and happiness! The Lord wants everyone to be as happy as possible. With all the limitations and hardships of this worldly life, how are we supposed to achieve that
goal?
New Groups Forming for Spiritual Growth Tasks The small groups that have been meeting for "Practicing Forgiveness" have gone so well, why not continue or get involved in this next series on "Spiritual Growth Tasks"? At the
Tucson Festival of Books (see below) we will be inviting people who come to our booth to sign up for a small group to focus on the Spiritual Growth Tasks in the new "card deck."
* Monday evenings starting March 19 at 5:30-7:00 pm at the Ada Peirce McCormick Building on the U of A campus. Please contact me (Nathan) if you are interested in meeting there. * Wednesday nights starting March 14 at 6:30-8:00 pm in the Chapel, led by Frank Rose. * Thursday afternoons starting March 15 at 3:00-4:30 pm in the Chapel, led by me (Nathan). You can sign up by using
the contact us form on choosejoynow.org
Thinking of you all with love and respect,
Nathan
|
|
|
UPCOMING ACTIVITIES AT SUNRISE CHAPEL
SATURDAY
3/10/2018 9:30 am - 5:30 pm Tucson Festival of Books BOOTH 254
SUNDAY
3/11/2018 9:30 am - 5:30 pm Tucson Festival of Books BOOTH
254 10 am Music
rehearsal 11 am Worship Service - Choose Joy Now No Meetings after church today
MONDAY 3/12/2018 11 am Tai Chi Basics Friendship
Hall 6:30 pm Bereavement Support
Group WEDNESDAY 3/14/2018 9:30 am Worship Team meeting 6:30 pm Spiritual Growth Group led by Frank Rose (Chapel)
11 am Tai Chi Yang 24 3 pm
Spiritual Growth Group led by Nathan Gladish (Chapel) 7 pm Women's Group - Spiritual Growth
Topics: Contact Elise Gladish for location 11 am Worship Service
12 noon Luncheon
Conclusion of this year's "Journey of Spiritual Growth" |
WAY TO GROW, PEOPLE! This has been a really great series, and people have said it has been very useful. Thank you to the group leaders and to everyone who participated!
We started PRACTICING FORGIVENESS on Sunday, January 28! We had our final "celebration" last Sunday.
Thank you to our good friends at New Church Outreach for putting it together. Some sister congregations did this course in the Fall. Others are
doing it at the same time as we are. We timed our program to end just before the Tucson Festival of Books.
And thank you to our leaders for running such great group
experiences!
GROUPS * Sunday morning small group Thank you to Michael B and Steve G for taking turns leading
on Sundays at 9:30 am in the church library.
* Tuesday evening small group Thank you to Mike V for leading the group at 7 pm at the church Library.
* Thursday afternoon small group
I certainly enjoyed leading the meeting at 3 pm in the main Chapel (small group room). We conclude on Thurs., Mar. 8.
* Thursday night Women's group Thank you to Kelly W for leading this group at 7 pm at various women's homes. This group concludes on Thurs., Mar. 8.
Questions about groups? Contact Elise or me - Nathan.
|
|
|
|
This Weekend! The Amazing Tucson Festival of
Books |
"Find out MORE at booth two-fifty-FOUR"
This Year's Booth #254
COME VISIT US AT THE TUCSON FESTIVAL OF BOOKS -
Saturday, March 10 and Sunday, March 11. We will continue promoting Choose Joy Now and the Joy of Spiritual Growth! NEW! FACE PAINTING! For the first time Christine Morey will be FACE PAINTING in our booth!
We will also share the
booth with author Frank Rose! And we welcome Michelle Chapin from Bryn Athyn, PA to support our efforts. Michelle works in our headquarter's Office of Outreach and is totally on board with spiritual growth groups. Last year one of her colleagues, Sasha Silverman, came out for the Festival and it was great. It's fun to share the love
with others who love this work. Questions? Contact me, Elise Gladish, Kelly Woofenden, or Frank Rose.
|
|
|
|
Readings for Reflection on this Sunday's
topic |
Life is about Choices
Deuteronomy 30:11-20
Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will
cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it. See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and
increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and
possess. This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to
your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
The Choice to Love
John 15:10-17
Jesus said, "If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each
other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the
Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other." The Quality of our Happiness
Heaven and Hell 396
All pleasures flow from love, because what we love we feel as pleasant. There is no other source
of any pleasure. It follows, then, that the quality of the love determines the quality of the pleasure. Pleasures of the body or of the flesh flow from love for ourselves and from love of the world, and these are also the source of our urges and their gratifications. The pleasures of the soul or spirit, though, all flow from love for the Lord and love for our neighbor, which are also the source of affections for what is good and true and of our deeper bliss. These loves and their pleasures flow
in from the Lord and from heaven by an inner path, from above, and move our deeper natures.
As loves flow in and are accepted, so their pleasures flow in, pleasures of heaven into our deeper natures and pleasures of the world into our outer natures, because as already noted all pleasure comes from love. "Blessed is everyone who hears the Word of God and keeps it." |
|
|
|
Helping people experience heavenly joy through spiritual growth www.sunrisechapel.org
nathan@sunrisechapel.org Office 520-298-1245
|
|
|
|
