Archive for the ‘Wesley United Methodist Church’ Category
Upperroom Daily Devotional
July 12, 2012Upperroom Devotional
July 11, 2012Try this link to the devotional – http://devotional.upperroom.org/ – have a blessed day.
Pastor’s Ponderings, Wonderings, Wanderings
July 11, 2012
Friday, July 6th, I celebrated my 62nd birthday. I was asked what I wanted to do on my birthday so I told Jane that I wanted the grandkids and her to take me to see Spiderman and go out to eat. We enjoyed the show and the meal was good too, but the best part was spending the evening with family. The only way it could have been better is if the Parzens, Tracie and Jeremy, could have been here with our newest granddaughter Georgia.
I hope it is obvious to the world that family is very important to me. Having loving relationships with children and grandchildren are important and must be one of our most important life priorities. Just as we show our love for our children and grandchildren, as Mother’s and Father’s, we must allow our Savior to work within our lives to provide that witness of love for them through Him. They will see in us His love and look for that “Spirit of Love” for themselves.
We must be strong and faithful in our love for our God. Remember the words of Joshua, “but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
Have a blessed day! Tell those in your family that you love them and show them your love is from God through you.
1 Corinthians 13 tells us what love “is.”
Pastor Randy
Lectionary Scriptures for 7-15-12
July 9, 2012Lectionary Scriptures for 7-8-12
July 2, 2012News – Mr. and Mrs. Ryan and Jessica Crowell
June 30, 2012
Jessica Frazier and Ryan Crowell were married last night at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Orange. It was a beautiful wedding for a beautiful bride and a handsome groom. When Ryan was walking down the aisle with his new bride I could not help but notice the biiiiig smile he had on his face. The man was happy. Jessica had a big smile too and I have to agree that they both were glad to be where they were and all hitched up.
There were a lot of people in attendance, the church was at least 90% full if not more (it is a big sanctuary), and the reception was beautifully decorated at the Lamar Student Center. A great way to start a new life together with the one you love.
I believe I can speak for everyone at Wesley United Methodist Church when I pray for all of God’s blessings to be with Jessica and Ryan, that is Mr. and Mrs. Ryan and Jessica Crowell. Have the blessed life you deserve.
Pastor Randy
Lectionary Scriptures for 7-1-12
June 25, 2012Pastor’s Ponderings! Wonderings, Wanderings
June 21, 2012I was pondering whether or not to get into Twitter so I guess the question Is “To tweet or not to tweet?”. Yes I know it is corny but I could not resist. So with help from my “tweet” daughter Tracie I dove off into the “tweetness!”. My Twitter name is “revbranch1.”
It just seems to me that as the old ways of communicating go we must adapt or just not reach as many folks as we can in our role of following Jesus’ command of “And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation.”
I truly do believe that Jesus wants us to reach out to the world with the Gospel however we can. Twitter is just one of those ways.
Have a blessed day walking all day with the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ,
@revbranch1
Pastor’s Ponderings, Wonderings, Wanderings
June 18, 2012I was just thinking about the Twelve Commandments or is it maybe thirteen. You do remember Jesus telling us to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and love our neighbor as ourselves? Of course those would be eleven and twelve but where is thirteen? Well let’s look in John 15:12 where Jesus tells us “This is my commandment: that you love one another as I have loved you!” You may be thinking that they all say we should love each other and that loving God and loving our neighbor are actually a part of the original Ten. I would say that Jesus made sure that we knew the original Ten were essential and if we were not following His love commandments we would not be using the glue that holds them all together. Remember from Mark:
Mar 12:29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, Mar 12:30 and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ Mar 12:31 The second is this: ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”
So love would be essential to all that we do and who we are as Christians and is punctuated in John 15:12 with “love one another as I have loved you.” He is telling His disciples that love is what will hold His Church together. Can you see now how important love is to our Christian beliefs? Can you also see how divided the Christian church is? Do you think that love is left out of the equation in the differences we have in our denominations and the teachings that divide us? Yes, I think there is much hatred and bigotry “exclusiveness” in some “Christian” churches today because they pick and choose scripture that suits their own priorities. They then make those scripture primary over the “thirteen commandments.”
Jesus tells us that if love is not in the equation then it is not of Him. Jesus was very wise in His teachings and I sometimes wonder why Christian churches don’t listen to Him. Love your neighbor as yourself! That means you cannot pick and choose by color of skin, ethnicity, language spoken, denomination, immersion or sprinkling or affluency. Just love your neighbor!
Pastor Randy
Wesley United Methodist Church, Orange TX 