June marks the beginning of summer for most of us. For a United Methodist preacher, June marks the end of one ministry year and the anticipation of renewing an appointment to ministry for the future. Pray and participate fully as we move forward together. Keep up with things with our Newsletter and Calendar.
Tag: newsletter
May Newsletter and Calendar
Here is your May newsletter and Calendar. Keep yourself ready to serve the Lord!
April’s Newsletter and Calendar
Here is April’s newsletter and Calendar. May the Lord shower you with His blessing and salvation, make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.
March Newsletter and Calendar
As we move through these last days of Lent I am struck with how the Word of God has been working in me these last few weeks, causing me to think of things in a different light. The first thing is how individualized and personalized God’s correction is. What looms large is the “beam” in my own eye, not the “speck” in someone else’s.
Is God making large the things in your life you need to correct? If there is nothing “big”, we may have to ask, am I really seeking the Lord for His correction and guidance? I put big in quotation marks because the work God wants to do in me may seem small and insignificant in someone else’s eyes, but little becomes much when God is in us to conform us into Christ’s likeness.
The second thing that has struck me this Lenten season is how intentional God’s commands are to be followed by us. Several studies show that people consider faithful attendance in church worship to be showing up a little less than half the time. Yes, our intentions may match our vows to “uphold the church with our prayers, presence, gifts, and service” but our intentional acts of obedience may not.
So, I ask you to help me conduct an experiment of Lenten commitments. Get your calendar out (whether it is on your phone or hanging on your refrigerator). Schedule the weeks when you and your family will be active in public worship with all the other members of Laurel Hill. I would ask that you commit to being here at least 80% of the time. This will allow you to schedule 10 – 12 weeks when you may be somewhere else. Being intentional in this, I believe, will put you into a place of being blessed by the Lord
For those of you who see being in worship as a weekly given for your scheduled appointments, I give thanks to the Lord for you and I will look forward to seeing you each Sunday. Look for these weekly opportunities for worship and mission in our newsletter and our March Calendar.
February’s Newsletter and Calendar
As I meditate on Sunday’s message, the prophet Jeremiah wakes us to the fact that there are usually three reasons why people take action. One is power. Two is pride. Three is principle. Power and pride are pursued to satisfy self. Principle is followed to satisfy a standard greater than self. Jeremiah lifts up the one standard for which we take action as Christians, one self-evident truth that moves us and propels us forward: The Lord is our Hope, our Savior in times of distress. (Jeremiah 14: 8)
We dare not stray from seeking God’s kingdom and righteousness first! We dare not look to any other person or thing to determine our future but in this leap year cast ourselves completely over to Jesus, our Lord and Christ.
Look for ways God’s Word can be settled and work powerfully in you each day of the month ahead. Read the Newsletter and keep up with things using the Calendar.
Mark your calendar especially for our Ash Wednesday Service at Willis United Methodist Church, February 10th at 7:00 PM and don’t forget that all of February is Heart Havens’ Month!
