A lifelong pursuit of knowing God should embody the Christian’s existence. According to eminent theologian J.I. Packer, however, Christians have become enchanted by modern skepticism and have joined the “gigantic conspiracy of misdirection” by failing to put first things first. Knowing God aims to redirect our attention to the simple, deep truth that to know God is to love His Word.

What began as a number of consecutive articles angled for “honest, no-nonsense readers who were fed up with facile Christian verbiage” in 1973, Knowing God has become a contemporary classic by creating “small studies out of great subjects.” Each chapter is so specific in focus (covering topics such as the trinity, election, God’s wrath, and God’s sovereignty), that each succeeding chapter’s theology seems to rival the next, until one’s mind is so expanded that one’s entire view of God has changed.

Author Elizabeth Eliot wrote that amid the lofty content Packer “puts the hay where the sheep can reach it–plainly shows us ordinary folks what it means to know God.” Having rescued us from the individual hunches of our ultra-tolerant theological age, Packer points the reader to the true character of God with his theological competence and compassionate heart. The lazy and faint-hearted should be warned about this timeless work–God is magnified, the sinner is humbled, and the saint encouraged.

Mary, Joseph, Wise Men, Shepherds, Angels, animals, and the main attraction...baby Jesus!

HPC just reached a milestone in the history of our congregation.  For 15 years we have been privileged to host a Live Nativity on the front lawn of the Warrenton Courthouse.  We are so thankful to the Savior for the opportunity to share the priceless message of Christmas with our neighbors.  This year’s photo Christmas card included the following message from our Pastor Larry Yeager for those who stopped by to have their picture taken in the Live Nativity.  We also handed out candy canes to the children with a Christmas message about Jesus.

The Christmas card message:

Are you looking forward to Christmas?  Spending more than you should (& paying for it for months); every charity asking for money; gatherings with people you usually avoid?  I admit, some people really don’t like Christmas – because it’s “so commercial”, or it’s pushing religion down people’s throats, or it’s another reminder of loneliness.  Remove Jesus Christ (Messiah) from Christmas and there isn’t much to celebrate.  The promise of God to forgive sins, of eternal life and of peace in this life are all worthless if He doesn’t provide the means to give them.   But we look back at the 1st Christmas as we look forward to this anniversary edition.  God knew we could not make ourselves “good enough” to deserve anything but His judgment.  He gave His only Son, in a human body, to suffer all life’s sorrows and trials – without sin.  He came to give himself as a sacrifice for sins – that we might have life, real life through repentance and faith in Him. This Christmas, look forward to the eternal life Christ gives as you look back at the sacrifice he made to save us.

The candy cane message

Candy canes remind us of Christmas fun—especially giving and receiving gifts!  Its color and shape can help us remember that Christmas celebrates God’s gift of baby Jesus to us.  The shape (the letter J) reminds us of Jesus’ name.  The color white reminds us that Jesus is perfectly pure (he never sinned by doing bad things).  The color red reminds us that Jesus died on a cross to forgive sinners.  Jesus is God’s perfect gift of forgiveness and eternal life to all who turn from their sin and trust in him.  And that’s the best gift you can ever receive!

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• All Saints Church and Wartburg Castle
• Escape!
• Thuringian Forest
• Luther’s Life Timeline
• Augustinian Monastery

All the stations involved free candy for everyone!  At the end of the evening, we all met again to discuss what we learned, what Martin Luther learned, and what happened to Martin Luther at his trial (the Diet of Worms) in 1521 that launched the Reformation movement he helped launch.

See below for the large group presentation and a slideshow of the evening’s activities.

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Civil War soldiers salute!

Perhaps the September highlight in terms of congregational activities was the Civil War Encampment HPC hosted for the community on 9/10/11.  One family in the church that is involved in 19th century living history activities set up a typical Union soldier camp, providing replicas of period items, dress, food that gave us a glimpse into the life of Americans from a bygone era.  We learned about the religious beliefs of typical soldiers and how their faith informed their attention to duty, honor, and principle.  We even had a musket-firing demonstration that was a big hit with the kids!  The day was such a success that HPC is considering hosting similar events in the future to provide living history education in the community, and a convenient entry way into the lives of people in the church.

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