We celebrated Ash Wednesday on the 22nd. If you were not in your church home then you missed an opportunity to start Lent in your house of worship. There is no better place than God’s house to make a commitment to change your life and to follow Him more closely.

Lent is not about being somber and in a mourning state because you are a sinner. It is about knowing you are a forgiven sinner and with a joyful heart make decisions that excite God and build His Kingdom. You see God doesn’t want us to roll around in sackcloth and ashes and cry and weep because we are living life in sin. He wants us to open up our hearts and our minds to the new testament teaching of Jesus Christ and go out into the world joyful and alive with the excitement that the knowledge of our Salvation lies in the saving Grace of God through the gift of Jesus Christ.

Lent is a time for us to focus with laser beam accuracy on the parts of our lives that we know are holding us back from being all that God calls us to be. Here are some give ups that can really help us realize the new life that Christ has put into us:

GIVE UP grumbling! Instead, “In everything give thanks.” Constructive criticism is OK, but “moaning, groaning, and complaining” are not Christian disciplines.

GIVE UP 10 to 15 minutes in bed! Instead, use that time in prayer, Bible study and personal devotion.

GIVE UP looking at other people’s worst points. Instead concentrate on their best points. We all have faults. It is a lot easier to have people overlook our shortcomings when we overlook theirs first.

GIVE UP speaking unkindly. Instead, let your speech be generous and understanding. It costs so little to say something kind and uplifting. Why not check that sharp tongue at the door?

GIVE UP your hatred of anyone or anything! Instead, learn the discipline of love. “Love covers a multitude of sins.”

GIVE UP your worries and anxieties! Instead, trust God with them. Anxiety is spending emotional energy on something we can do nothing about: like tomorrow! Live today and let God’s grace be sufficient.

GIVE UP TV one evening a week! Instead, visit some lonely or sick person. There are those who are isolated by illness or age. Why isolate yourself in front of the “tube?” Give someone a precious gift: your time!

GIVE UP buying anything but essentials for yourself! Instead, give the money to God. The money you would spend on the luxuries could help someone meet basic needs. We are called to be stewards of God’s riches, not consumers.

GIVE UP judging by appearances and by the standard of the world! Instead, learn to give up yourself to God. There is only one who has the right to judge, Jesus Christ.

Things like Chocolate and Sodas are not mentioned one time. Perhaps we have made the tradition of Lent a little to0 easy if all we can think to give up is something that feeds our sweet tooth but doesn’t really help our SWEET SPIRIT in Jesus Christ grow.

Have a blessed Lent. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.

Pastor Randy

It is Valentine’s Day. The day for love. 1 Corinthians 13 is often called the love chapter but it was written to a church that was feeling everything but the love. There was fighting, bickering and falling away in the church. Thanks to God that Wesley UMC is not in that kind of shape. We at Wesley act out the love that Jesus Christ calls us too and we practice a welcoming attitude at each and every service.

While the secular world uses this day as a time to focus on the person who loves them as an individual, Paul was talking to a church that needed to love being in communion and worship with each other in a harmony that brings the Holy Spirit on them and in them.  It is important that we love each other and really work on strengthening our relationships with each other in our couple relationships.  This also applies to our relationships in our churches with those we worship with.  Paul knew that the bickering, fighting and falling away would block the Holy Spirit’s work and would hold back any spiritual growth as well as numerical growth in the church.  When we as couples or christians example a spirit of love we attract people to ourselves and to our churches.  While spiritual growth should always be our first emphasis we must also consider the way we interact with each other and how that draws people into our congregation because our calling is to make disciples of Jesus Christ.  Having a place of worship that is welcoming, friendly and exampling the love that God has for us is the best way for us to attract disciples for Jesus Christ.

Valentine’s Day is just another day for us to be true to the love for the world that Jesus Christ examples to us.  Yes we should be living Valentine’s Day 365 days a year.  Reaching out to people with love is how our Lord and Savior did it and how we must do it.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine’s Day.  Hope everyone has 364 more.

Randy

As I read this scripture from the Gospel of Mark I was struck with the desire this outcast had to be healed from this disfiguring, crippling, slow death disease.  Jesus shows us His compassion in His willingness to heal this man.  We see the Leper’s desire in his daring to even think about approaching a group of Jewish men walking down the road.  This leper came to Jesus even though he knew that if he got within 50 paces the Law said that the men were within their right to throw stones at him to keep him at a safe distance.  He also was required by Law to shout unclean whenever he was coming upon people.  Can you just imagine the compassion that led Jesus to walk up to this man and touch him even though under the Law Jesus would be considered unclean himself.  I don’t know but it seems to me that Jesus was there alone with the Leper.  The disciples probably kind of hung back to keep the proper distance.

This thought pattern led me to think of how many of us truly seek healing from the touch of Jesus Christ.  Many of us are plagued by diseases of the heart, mind and soul.  Our spirits are held back and our spiritual growth is stunted because we hang on to the disease we have.  It could be drugs or alcohol or sex or pornography or greed or selfishness or jealousy or many other diseases that cripple our souls.  Jesus wants us to seek Him out like this leper did.  He wants us to call out to Him because we want to be healed by Him.  He can and will set us free from the disease that is plaguing us.  Is the life you lead making you feel unclean?  Do people shun you because of your actions?  Seek out Jesus and call on Him.  Seek His healing touch.  Then go out and tell everyone who healed you.

Have a blessed week,

Randy

I have another Matthew moment from our Bible Study tonight. In Matthew 20:20-28 we get to hear the mother of Zebedee’s sons ask Jesus if her sons James and John could sit one on the right hand and one on the left hand in His kingdom.

Perhaps we see a mother who wants her sons to have positions of power in the earthly kingdom that they still believe Jesus will create.  But is it her ambition or theirs?  Jesus tries to warn them that they will have to “drink from His cup” because they are His disciples but makes no promise to give a position that only God can grant.  Now needless to say this band of disciple brothers were jealous or perhaps outraged that James and John would seek this high ranking position. Jesus addresses this disciple rilvary by letting the disciples know that they are to have on their minds how they might serve rather than looking for a position they could be served in.

I wonder just how many disciples of Jesus Christ today are looking for positions of importance in which they can garner the praise and sit in the seat that will get them served?  It is always a struggle to be the servants servant but that is exactly what Jesus calls us to do.  We must set aside our own will that leads us to the desire to be recognized and work on doing the will of Jesus Christ because it is what He calls us to do.  It is a hard thing for us in our humanity to not seek praise for what we do but it is our role as Christians to do just that.  Do what God through Jesus Christ calls us to do in a way that is humble and self sacrificing.  God will see us and He will reward us with rewards that will be so much better than any plaque or certificate that man can create.

As Christians we do work for Christ because we love Him, want to give Him glory and honor and see His kingdom grow.

Have a blessed day, Randy

In our Bible Study for this Wednesday we will be reviewing Matthew Chapter 20.  Jesus tells the parable about workers getting the same pay (1 denarius) for the work they have done.  Some of these workers went to work early in the morning, some in the middle of the day and some late in the day.  In the parable they all receive the same pay. Jesus is telling His disciples that no matter what time in our life we come to a saving knowledge of Him we will all receive the same reward.  That reward of course is our salvation and life eternal in Heaven with Him.  The reward however does go further than that.  Those of us who come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ early in our lives are blessed with a new outlook that can make our lives much better and can give us the opportunity to witness and share with many more people.

Jesus also was addressing the Jewish belief system which was saying that their favored nation status was being taken and given to all who believed in Him.  We who come to this saving knowledge of Jesus Christ become children of God without following the letter of the law.  Jesus teaches us that we are to love God and to love our neighbors as the most important guidelines we can follow.  He even calls them two new commandments.  Very important for us and for the new disciples.  Jesus gives us all favored nation status as His children.

A learning for many in churches today would be that no matter how long we have been followers of Jesus Christ we are to be accepting of and care for those who are new believers.  We need to remember that our status in God is just the same as the new believer.  Our blessings in this life are that we have the opportunity to be known as people who love, care for and support each other no matter how long we have known our Savior.  We are to be known as people who reach out to the world and exclude no one.

God’s Peace and Blessings to each and everyone,

Randy Branch