Archive for the ‘Pastor’s Ponderings’ Category
April 25, 2015
Wesley United Methodist Church served 239 students at The Wesley Student Center of Lamar University in Beaumont. While I did not get pictures of the students (we were kind of busy) I did get this picture of the Churches members, plus 1, serving. From right to left is Pastor Randy Branch, Jean Koontz, Katy Beckett, Jan Neely, Rev. Anjelita Dirden (the plus 1), Wanda Barron and Harvey Wilson. We enjoyed being able to serve those students and it is always well received with many thank you’s from the students. A blessing to all of us who served and we hope a blessing to the students. Thanks to Pastor Anjelita for being such a gracious host and spiritual leader to all youth at Lamar University.
On a not so positive note we also heard that the district is shutting down the Wesley Student Center. Pastor Anjelita will be moving on to another place of ministry. I am not privy to all of the reasons why but I am sure the District Superintendent will let us know at our District meeting tomorrow. I am sure that there are some very good reasons for this closing of the student center but it does seem to me that when we take away opportunities for people to be touched by Christian love we are hurting the world. Seeds planted many times do not grow until years later. With so many different ethnic groups coming through that serving line I cannot think of a better way to touch the hearts of so many from so many different cultures.
Pastor Randy
Tags:Christ, christian, church, grace, hearts. touch, host, Jesus, Lamar. University, love, love hope, meatballs, methodist, pastor, serice, spaghetti, united, Wesley
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January 20, 2015
Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday we celebrated this week, spoke with some frequency during his years of ministry of putting on the “weapon of love.” Responding to those who resisted the emerging civil rights movement, King asserted, “We will counter your force with soul force, we will match your ability to hate with our ability to love.” And King reminded us that at the heart of Jesus’ life and message is the call to be peacemakers and reconcilers. Violence, said King again and again, “never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problems; it merely creates new and more complicated ones.”
We live in a world thirsty for this gospel of peace. With Martin Luther King, and with Jesus before him, we need to announce with integrity, “The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind. It is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than on love. It destroys community…Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.”
The world today is faced with the same kind of bigotry and hatred that Martin Luther King faced. While we are making great strides in our country to eliminate racism the fact is it is still here. It not only is here but it is seen in so many different countries and is an integral part of their culture.
I want to say I don’t have a cure for the ills of the world but perhaps it would be more accurate if I were to say I know the one who does! Jesus Christ! Jesus tells us the most important part of His teaching is to Love God and Love Neighbor. With that in mind I go back to the Old Testament and the Psalms, Psalm 19 says “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.” If we practice what Jesus teaches then there cannot be any room in our hearts for prejudice and hatred.
By the way, if I were to have written the quote from Psalm 19 I would have written “Let the meditations of my heart and the words of my mouth be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” If I am meditating on what God and Jesus Christ would have my words be, then I could be pretty sure that they would be acceptable to them. Meditate and speak. Sounds like a good way to present Christ to the world.
Pastor Randy
Tags:God, heart, Jesus, King, love, Luther, M.L.K., Martin, meditation, mouth, neighbor, speak, words
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December 2, 2014
Do you remember the story of the Three Wise Men who came to visit Jesus. They were led by a shining star that did show them the way to Jesus. They came bearing lavish gifts that would help Mary and Joseph care for and protect the Christ child.
I found myself thinking about the meaning of this story and how we could apply it to our lives today, some two thousand years later. First of all they came on faith. Not on knowledge of the one true God. Nothing says they were even Jewish. God somehow spoke to them and encouraged them and being “Wise Men” they came. Many of us are so wrapped up in our own lives that we give very little time to listening to our God. So the meaning may be that we should really listen to our God through our scriptures, through others and through that small still voice that speaks to us at times.
Another meaning may be that we are to be as generous with our gifts as these Wise Men were. Not just our monetary gifts but also our time and talents. Jesus was almost two years old when the Wise Men came. Their time spent in seeking Him out was extensive, no drive around the corner.
Just one more thought on the meaning, at least in my limited mind. They followed a light. So should we. Jesus Christ is the light that can begin to cure the world. The only problem is our shining/sharing that light. He offers to fill us with His light so that we can shine brightly out into a dark world. It is in our words and actions that we choose to either shine or climb under a basket. We should each and every one be that city on a hill that can be seen for miles.
Let your light shine this Christmas season by being faithful, generous and bold in your witness. That is how we go and make disciples of the whole world.
Have a Merry, very bright Christmas and be a blessing to someone else,
Pastor Randy
Tags:Christmas, cure, frankincense, giving, gold, Jesus, light, living, miles, myrrh, sharing, Wisdom, wise men
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October 27, 2014
We will be voting soon, so:
Matthew 22:34-46:
When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. ’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it:‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
We Are Citizens of This World
In an invocation prayer at the United States Senate, Peter Marshall said, “Lord Jesus, Thou who art the way, the truth, and the life, hear us as we pray for the truth that shall make men free. Teach us that liberty is not only to be loved but also to be lived. Liberty is too precious a thing to be buried in books. It costs too much to be hoarded. Make us to see that our liberty is not the right to do as we please, but the opportunity to please, to do what is right.”
It is unthinkable that a Christian would not vote! It is unthinkable that Christians would not run for public office! It is unthinkable that Christians would withdraw from the responsibility of taking part in public life. The Christian has a responsibility to Caesar for all the privileges which the rule of Caesar brings. We are citizens of this world and must be good ones, if we are Christ’s disciples.
While we may not all be suited to public office, we must all vote. It is not only our right to go to the polls and vote but it is our responsibility as Christians to go vote our Christian values. I will not tell you who to vote for but I will tell you that if we love God with all our heart, soul and mind then we must reflect that love in the life we lead and the things we do to make life better for all of God’s children. For us as Christians we must not vote by party lines but for individuals who best reflect God’s will in this world. It is your choice, it is your conscience, it is your relationship with your God that will lead you to vote for who best reflects your relationship with God.
Have a blessed month in Jesus Christ,
Pastor Randy
Tags:children, Christ, christian, democrat, God, Jesus, life, love, party, relationship, republican, vote
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September 24, 2014
A Jewish Blessing for a Happy New Year. It is Rosh Hashanah. New Year for our Jewish brothers and my son in law Jeremy Parzen. Check out this link for a better explanation of Judaism’s New Year celebration.
http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday2.htm
So to my son in law Jeremy and my two semi-semite granddaughters as well as my daughter Tracie I want to wish a Happy New Year. What a blessing it is to be able to wish them Happy New Year two times each year. It is also a blessing to have all of them in our lives. Thanks to Jeremy and Tracie for those beautiful granddaughters, they are a blessing to us all year every year no matter when the new year starts.
Have a blessed day and New Year,
Pastor Randy
Tags:brothers, Happy, Jew, Jewish, L'shanah Tovah, link, New, Rosh HaShanah, Year
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September 23, 2014
Philippians 2:1-5
2:1 If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy,
2:2 make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.
2:3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.
2:4 Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.
When Paul was writing this letter to the Philipians he must have really been trying to encourage them to change a lot about themselves. While Paul was writing to a church to thank them for being so faithful and generous, in so many ways he is asking them to go against so much of their own human nature. We just have to look at the two human traits that are so prevalent in so many people, selfish ambition and conceit, to know that there were some problems within the church at Philippi. It is natural for us to want more, to do better than others, to be honored in our daily lives. It is so natural that Satan will surely use those things against us and keep us from being the people that Paul is encouraging us to be. We get caught up in our own lives, thinking about our own needs and forget about just what Jesus taught us to do and who He taught us to be.
So you ask how can we be those people. How can we put aside our own feelings and desires and serve God. Well, Paul gave us the answer and it is in this next scripture below.
2:5 Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus
If we study scripture, read the teachings of Jesus, pray and meditate, allow the Holy Spirit to penetrate our thoughts and profess our faith to others we will move closer and closer to to being in the same mind that was in Jesus Christ. Our God graced us with Jesus Christ so that we would have a different model to follow than the one our flesh would follow.
Jesus said He was the way, the truth and the life! Study, Believe and Live,
Have a blessed day in Jesus Christ,
Randy
Tags:believe, Christ, feelings, God, heal, heart, Jesus, letter, live, love, mind, Paul, Philippians, profess, Scripture, study
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September 3, 2014
Posting three things I am thankful for: Day 5
1. I am thankful for all of my life’s experiences. Some were good, some were bad but all were beneficial. All were opportunities for me to choose to grow or choose not to grow. In some of those experiences it took a while for me to see some benefit/opportunity for growth in all that was going on but through the Holy Spirit I am able to look back and see the profound affect they had on me. I know through the leadership of the Holy Spirit I will always be able to grow in my understanding of life and how we should live it here in this earthly realm.
2. I am thankful for the Holy Spirit who touched my heart and changed me.
3. I am thankful for the United Methodist Church for it’s teachings and it’s tolerance for and love of all us sinners and hypocrites. We all know the church is full and overflowing with them. Well maybe not overflowing or full but still welcome to worship and praise the one who saves us, the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
Tags:church, grace, Holy Spirit, hyprocrite, Jesus, love, sinner, united methodist church
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September 1, 2014
Day four:
1. Thankful for my brother and sister’s spouses. Dianne and Mike have been a blessing throughout the years. Our Mom’s and Dad’s must have given us each a sense to choose the right person because we all have been married over 40 years. We all plan to stay that way as long as possible.
2. Thankful for Jeannie and Ken Perkins who taught me so much about our faith. Jeannie who sponsored me on the Walk to Emmaus. It was on this walk that I verbally spoke about God leading me into a different life. A walk with Him. I have been walking in Paradise with Him every day since then. Thanks to Ken for his gentle nature and easy flowing love for God. Ken still is that very same person.
3. Thankful for all my Pastors who taught me that it is okay to be me and love God because I am me. The different personalities of people like Art Pry, Rudy Pace, Ed Barlow, Lindsey Smith and Kevin Kissel were key in helping me understand that God wants us to be individuals who think and witness to how God’s love has inspired them. It is through such diversity that God is able to reach out and touch so many different people.
Tags:brother, brother in law, differences, emmaus, faith, God, pastors, personalities, sister, sister in law, thankful, walk
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August 30, 2014
Posting three things I am thankful for, for five days. This is day two:
Yesterday I posted that I was thankful to God first and foremost, thankful for my beautiful wife and thankful for my grandchildren.
1. I am also very thankful for our two beautiful daughters, Misty and Tracie. They are the ones who made our life complete and were the driving force for us to join St. John’s UMC in West Orange almost 40 years ago. We knew raising them in church would make them better people. Thank you girls for the five beautiful grandchildren.
2. I am thankful for family. Thankful for Jane’s side of the family, the Johnsons. They accepted me into the family and are my brothers and sisters. My Mom and Dad, Mom especially, for dragging me to church. Not that we went every day but often enough to give me some basic knowledge. Dad for his strong moral direction.
3. I am thankful for our daughters husbands. Having two son in laws who are good to our daughters and who are hard workers and very good dads is such a blessing.
I know that is really more than three things to be thankful for but each blessing is surrounded by blessings flowing out from them. That is just the way God works in this world. “Give thanks to the Holy One”.
Tags:Blessings, children, Christ, daughters, grandchildren, Holy, Jesus, love, One, son in laws
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August 29, 2014
My good friend Jeannie Perkins challenged me on Facebook to list three things daily that I am thankful for. This will be my first day and I will try to post each day on Facebook and here too. Hope everyone has a blessed day and that through your faith in Jesus Christ you will be able to love more deeply.
Posting three things I am thankful for, for five days. This is day one:
1. Of course, first and foremost, I am thankful for God who sent His Holy Spirit to lead and guide me with gentleness and patience. Lots and lots of patience.
2. I give glory and honor to God because it is through Him that I met my beautiful wife, 43 years of marriage, it seems like just yesterday.
3. I am so very thankful for grandchildren, (5). Lots of joy and blessings come through those little ones as we watch them grow.
And a reminder to all, that truly all things good come from our God. Give Him glory and honor at all times. Claim Jesus Christ as your savior. Put Him first in your life and things of this world can be seen in a different “light”.
Tags:children, days, glory, God, grandchildren, Jesus, love, thankful
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Wesley United Methodist Church, Orange TX 