Posts Tagged ‘Spiritual growth’
May 28, 2012
This is Memorial Day and it is a day of remembering and honoring those who have given so much for their country. While this can be a time of sorrow as we remember those who have sacrificed everything up to and including their lives, we must also remember why so many have sacrificed so much. Our freedom and our way of life depends on their sacrifice. So lets also remember those who are currently serving our country in all of the military armed services. Let’s remember them in our prayers. Pray for their safety, for peace and for sanity in this crazy world we live in.
As we are praying let’s remember that there is nothing in the teachings of Jesus Christ that supports war. His way is a way of peace that reaches out in love to all. Let’s remember that as believers in God and Jesus as the Christ we should be praying for our country to find peaceful solutions to all disagreements in this world. Too many times throughout history men have taken destructive paths in the name of Jesus and we must always remember that it is not a teaching of Jesus to cause harm to anyone.
So we must pray for our country and it’s leadership. Pray that they will seek peaceful solutions to every crisis we are facing as a country. When our leadership chooses or is forced into military action, then we must pray the action we take will be quick and decisive with little or no loss of life on either side. We must pray that all who are involved will come home safely and if they make the ultimate sacrifice then we must pray for their families to be filled with the grace of God and be able to reach out to the world with the love of Jesus Christ. Pray for all of those who serve in times of war because so many suffer from the stress of war and all of its horrors. Pray that they may be able to return home and live a life of peace with pride in their service to their country.
Well I guess the question is “Are you praying for those in the military, past and present, for your country, for those who have suffered loss of any kind?” I believe that our prayers for those who are or have been in service to our country and their families are the best way for us to remember and honor them.
Have a blessed Memorial Day by spending at least a part of it in prayer, Randy
Tags:1 John, Acts, christian, church, Common, God, grace, Jesus, john, Lectionary, love, methodist, peace, Psalm, readings, Revised, safety, Scripture readings per Revised Common Lectionary, Spiritual growth, united, war
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May 21, 2012
Tags:Acts, church, Common, Ezekiel, God, Jesus, john, Lectionary, methodist, Psalm, Romans, Scripture readings per Revised Common Lectionary, Spiritual growth, united, Wesley
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May 14, 2012
Tags:1 John, Acts, church, Common, God, Jesus, john, Lectionary, methodist, Psalm, readings, Revised, Scripture readings per Revised Common Lectionary, Spiritual growth, united
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May 9, 2012
This is the cross on Wesley UMC. I like to think it is reaching up to the heavens carrying prayers to our savior.
In our study on Heaven we had discussion on what will Heaven be like. Will it be clouds and harps? Will it be peaceful? Will it be boring? Will there be something for us to do? Will we be in physical bodies? Will we be spiritual beings? Lots of other questions were asked and some were answered based on the book “Heaven” by Randy Alcorn. Here is an excerpt from that book that gives us some answers:
In Genesis 3, the earth’s first radical transition (mankind’s fall and first judgment) can be seen as one bookend of human history. In Revelation 20, we see the second bookend in the earth’s last radical transition (Christ’s return and last judgment), creating a picture of great symmetry. In Genesis, God plants the Garden on Earth; in Revelation, he brings down the New Jerusalem, with a garden at its center, to the New Earth. In Eden, there’s no sin, death, or Curse; on the New Earth, there’s no more sin, death, or Curse. In Genesis, the Redeemer is promised; in Revelation, the Redeemer returns. Genesis tells the story of Paradise lost; Revelation tells the story of Paradise regained. In Genesis, humanity’s stewardship is squandered; in Revelation, humanity’s stewardship is triumphant, empowered by the human and divine King Jesus. These parallels are too remarkable to be anything but deliberate. These mirror images demonstrate the perfect symmetry of God’s plan. We live in the in-between time, hearing echoes of Eden and the approaching footfalls of the New Earth. Paul Marshall concludes, “This world is our home: we are made to live here. It has been devastated by sin, but God plans to put it right. Hence, we look forward with joy to newly restored bodies and to living in a newly restored heaven and earth. We can love this world because it is God’s, and it will be healed, becoming at last what God intended from the beginning.”72 The earth matters, our bodies matter, animals and trees matter, matter matters, because God created them and intends them to manifest his glory. And as we’ll see in the following chapters, the God who created them has not given up on them any more than he has given up on us.
A new earth that has perfect everything. Perfect grass, water, air, dirt, animals, humans, sky, wind, temperature, hair, skin, society and okay I snuck that perfect hair in there to see if you were paying attention but why not perfect hair. Well we may not know based on scripture exactly what everything will be like but we can say that it is going to be three gasp good. That’s oh, oooh, oooooh, my goodness (I know it is completely understated) and I am looking forward to the moment when I am able to meet my savior in our eternal home. Have a great evening, morning and week. Remember that it is all about the savior we know and the life we lead.
Randy
Tags:church, Heaven, Jesus, Lectionary, methodist, Spiritual growth, united
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May 7, 2012
Tags:1 John, Acts, church, Jesus, john, Lectionary, love, methodist, Psalm, Scripture readings per Revised Common Lectionary, Spiritual growth, united
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April 9, 2012
Tags:church, Jesus, john, Lectionary, love, methodist, Scripture readings per Revised Common Lectionary, Spiritual growth, united
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April 6, 2012
Last night at Wesley United Methodist Church we held a Holy/Maundy Thursday Service. We read from John 13:1-17, 31-35 and from 1 Corinthians 11:23-26. Read the Passion of Christ from John 18:1-19:42 and received Holy Communion.
We received Holy Communion last because we wanted the Passion of Christ to be fresh on our minds and in our hearts when we received the gift He has given us.
We are fast closing out the season of Lent. A time when we should be focusing more on Christ and less on ourselves. Remembering Jesus’ teachings about being servants to all. In Jesus’ day the lowliest of lowly jobs was to have to wash someone’s feet. The footwear of choice was a sandal of some sort and feet were usually pretty dirty. Walking around in the streets of Jerusalem was a dusty endeavor with all kinds of animal droppings and such to be dodged so it is pretty easy to understand why Jesus used such a lowly example of servant hood to example to His disciples what it meant to be a servant to others. He showed them in His washing of their feet that the love He had for them was able to go to extremes for them. Even the extreme of willingly, voluntarily giving His very own life for them. In giving His life He exampled the very depths of suffering that He would go to because He loved them (us) all so much. Such depths as being beaten, spit upon, whipped in the most cruel and punishing way to cause the most damage without causing death. Then He was paraded through the streets carrying His own Cross to be nailed to it and left to die.
Who among those you know would be willing to do that for the one’s you love! Many over the centuries have given their lives for what they believe in. They have become Martyr’s for the cause and love of Jesus Christ. That is the extreme example so what do you do in your every day life to example Jesus’ love for everyone you meet every day. That is really why He gave himself up for us. To help us think about thinking about others. How do you serve every day? What are your thought’s about people and who they are? Why do you ignore those in need? Questions we all need to dig deep down into to search our own hearts and maybe we can allow the Holy Spirit to work within us.
Have a blessed day by being the servant to the world and the one’s you love that Christ calls you to be,
Pastor Randy
Tags:1 corinthians, church, Gospel, grace, growth, hope, Jesus, john, Lectionary, light, love, methodist, Scripture readings per Revised Common Lectionary, Spiritual growth, united, world
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April 2, 2012
Tags:1 corinthians, Acts, church, Common, Easter, Isaiah, john, Lectionary, lent, Mark, meditation, methodist, Psalm, Revised, Scripture, Scripture readings per Revised Common Lectionary, spirit, Spiritual growth, study, united
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March 26, 2012
Tags:Bless, Common, God, Jesus, john, Lectionary, lent, Mark, meditation, methodist, Psalm, Scripture, Scripture readings per Revised Common Lectionary, spiritual, Spiritual growth, united
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March 20, 2012
A scene from my life in Church at St. John’s UMC in West Orange, Texas came to mind the other day and it got me to thinking. Many years ago we were having an evening worship service and during several of the songs a lady who had been visiting our church began to jump up during the song, dancing around and holding up her fingers at the mention of different names. Certain names would be represented by certain numbers. When I asked our Pastor at the time what was going on with the lady he told me that she believed in Numerology. Check out Wikipedia for a definition of Numerology.
I am not a Numerologist nor do I believe in Numerology. But I do place a lot of faith in Numbers. Numbers such as 3:16 found in the Gospel of John or 22:37-39 found in the Gospel of Matthew. There is 13:1-13 found in Paul’s 1st letter to the Corinthians or 3:1-17 found in his letter to the Colossians. There is 4:11-13 in 1 John and so many more that remind us of God’s love for each and every one of us.
So I guess you could say I believe in numbers. Those numbers that lead us into a divine relationship with our God and His Son. An individual and personal relationship that we each can find in the scriptures found in the Holy Bible and experience if we give our heart to Him.
Don’t let belief in some other way deceive you or distract you away from God’s way of love and peace in this world. There is but one way to eternal life and that is through belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. His Holy Spirit is here touching you right now. All you have to do is acknowledge Him and give your life to Him.
Have a blessed day,
Randy
Tags:church, God, Jesus, Jesus Matthew Peter Spiritual growth, john, kindness, love, methodist, Scripture, Scripture readings per Revised Common Lectionary, Spiritual growth, united
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Wesley United Methodist Church, Orange TX 