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All Things Through Christ

5/27/2019

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For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength (Phil. 4:13) 




 "What we have to remember is that we can still do anything," Marina Keegan wrote to fellow Yale University graduates. "... We can't, we must not lose this sense of possibility because in the end, it's all we have."
Not too long after writing those lines for her school newspaper, Marina died in a car accident. Before her death, she was planning to move to Brooklyn, to continue her life as a writer and play-write. 
Thanks to the internet, Marina's last words have been read, as far away as Asia.  
Marina's words to her fellow students can apply to us as well: "We're in this together, 2019. Let's make something happen to this world."
We all have heavy crosses to bear, from time to time.  Some of us, the unspeakable burden of loosing a child. Or heavy responsibilities at work -- church -- deadlines that are looming and we don't know how we're going to get there.  Conflicts we don't know how to resolve. 
Scripture teaches us over and over again, that we can't do things on our own.  It is God's strength that carries us through the changes, hardships and transitions of life.  God is present to us in spirit. God is also present to us through the love and support of our friends and family.
Recently I had to attend a difficult meeting.  My stomach was in knots over it.  A friend of mine dropped everything, and insisted on going with me.  She waited in the lobby, hungry and thirsty as the meeting wore on.  It was a painful meeting, but I got through it, because of the love of God that worked through her actions. I knew I wasn't alone. It made all the difference in the world.
That's the kind of faith we are called to. That's the possibility we are called to reach for. That's what we can make happen in the world.
We have many challenges to face as a church, especially in June.  Let us be Christ for each other and carry the burdens together.  We can do this.  We are in this together! It is Christ who gives us strength.
 
Listen:  Matthew West, Strong Enough
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knuHDPbE5es&feature=fvwp&NR=1


PRAY:  "God, help me to lean on your strength in whatever I face.  Help me to give strength to others who need extra help."









For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength (Phil. 4:13) 





 "What we have to remember is that we can still do anything," Marina Keegan wrote to fellow Yale University graduates. "... We can't, we must not lose this sense of possibility because in the end, it's all we have."
Not too long after writing those lines for her school newspaper, Marina died in a car accident. Before her death, she was planning to move to Brooklyn, to continue her life as a writer and play-write. 
Thanks to the internet, Marina's last words have been read, as far away as Asia.  
Marina's words to her fellow students can apply to us as well: "We're in this together, 2012. Let's make something happen to this world."
We all have heavy crosses to bear, from time to time.  Some of us, the unspeakable burden of loosing a child. Or heavy responsibilities at work -- church -- deadlines that are looming and we don't know how we're going to get there.  Conflicts we don't know how to resolve. 
Scripture teaches us over and over again, that we can't do things on our own.  It is God's strength that carries us through the changes, hardships and transitions of life.  God is present to us in spirit. God is also present to us through the love and support of our friends and family.
Recently I had to attend a difficult meeting.  My stomach was in knots over it.  A friend of mine dropped everything, and insisted on going with me.  She waited in the lobby, hungry and thirsty as the meeting wore on.  It was a painful meeting, but I got through it, because of the love of God that worked through her actions. I knew I wasn't alone. It made all the difference in the world.
That's the kind of faith we are called to. That's the possibility we are called to reach for. That's what we can make happen in the world.
We have many heavy burdens to face as a church, especially in June.  Let us be Christ for each other and carry the burdens together.  We can do this.  We are in this together! It is Christ who gives us strength.
 
Listen:  Matthew West, Strong Enough
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knuHDPbE5es&feature=fvwp&NR=1


PRAY:  "God, help me to lean on your strength in whatever I face.  Help me to give strength to others who need extra help."








For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength (Phil. 4:13) 




 "What we have to remember is that we can still do anything," Marina Keegan wrote to fellow Yale University graduates. "... We can't, we must not lose this sense of possibility because in the end, it's all we have."
Not too long after writing those lines for her school newspaper, Marina died in a car accident. Before her death, she was planning to move to Brooklyn, to continue her life as a writer and play-write. 
Thanks to the internet, Marina's last words have been read, as far away as Asia.  
Marina's words to her fellow students can apply to us as well: "We're in this together, 2012. Let's make something happen to this world."
We all have heavy crosses to bear, from time to time.  Some of us, the unspeakable burden of loosing a child. Or heavy responsibilities at work -- church -- deadlines that are looming and we don't know how we're going to get there.  Conflicts we don't know how to resolve. 
Scripture teaches us over and over again, that we can't do things on our own.  It is God's strength that carries us through the changes, hardships and transitions of life.  God is present to us in spirit. God is also present to us through the love and support of our friends and family.
Recently I had to attend a difficult meeting.  My stomach was in knots over it.  A friend of mine dropped everything, and insisted on going with me.  She waited in the lobby, hungry and thirsty as the meeting wore on.  It was a painful meeting, but I got through it, because of the love of God that worked through her actions. I knew I wasn't alone. It made all the difference in the world.
That's the kind of faith we are called to. That's the possibility we are called to reach for. That's what we can make happen in the world.
We have many heavy burdens to face as a church, especially in June.  Let us be Christ for each other and carry the burdens together.  We can do this.  We are in this together! It is Christ who gives us strength.
 
Listen:  Matthew West, Strong Enough
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knuHDPbE5es&feature=fvwp&NR=1


PRAY:  "God, help me to lean on your strength in whatever I face.  Help me to give strength to others who need extra help."









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Change!

5/15/2019

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Jesus said, "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 18:3)


​

This guy gets a parrot but it's got a bad attitude and foul vocabulary. He tries everything to change the bird's attitude and clean up its talk but nothing works. Finally, in a moment of desperation, he puts the parrot in the freezer. For a few moments he hears the bird squawking, kicking and screaming and then, suddenly, all is quiet. He opens the freezer door. The parrot steps out and says, "I'm sorry that I offended you with my language and actions. I ask for your forgiveness. The guy's astounded at the bird's change in attitude and was about to ask what changed him when the parrot continued, "By the way, may I ask - what did the chicken do?"

We've been talking about change, how life is a process of change and growth. One of my favorite characters in the Bible who is asked to change is Jonah.  God asks Jonah to go to Nineveh (Assyria), and call them to repentance, or face the consequences.  But Jonah doesn't want to do this --- he hates Nineveh, and would love nothing more than see God overthrow the Ninevites. Jonah runs away -- as far as he can go.  He causes the ship he's traveling on to almost break apart. He's thrown overboard. He's swallowed by a big fish. He finally begrudging does what God asks, and the Ninevites repent.  This angers Jonah even more! And he throws another hissy fit.  The story ends, and Jonah's attitude hasn't changed.  But God' s did.  God changed his mind about destroying Nineveh when they repented. God cares for all people -- even the people we don't care too much about.  People who have hurt us.   So change is messy!  

We often fight change, like Jonah. Even when we resist God's call to change, God is persistent. God loves us too much to let us be less than we can be. God will even work through our resistance, our rebellion, to help us see the bigger picture. We may struggle like Jonah.  But thank God -- God uses us, and doesn't give up on us even when we have a bad attitude!  God knows, change is a choice.  Will we accept it?

Listen to:  Change,  by Tracy Chapman, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drXwsVYrd20&feature=related

PRAY:  "Help me to with my resistance to change "

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Time to Change!!

5/7/2019

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"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, s/he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come" (2 Corinth. 5:17) 
​
What did the Dalai Lama say to the hot dog vendor?

Make me one with everything.

The hot dog vendor said "that will be $2.50" and the Dalai Lama handed him a five. 

And waited.  The Dalia Lama said "Hey where's my change?" 

The hot dog vendor said "ah, change must come from within....!ust come from within"


The Christian life is a life of transformation and change.  Change is written on each page of the bible.  It is written in the fabric of our bodies:  While we are sitting here we are changing. During this message about ½ million cells in our body are going to die and be replaced with a half a million new cells.  Our skin replaces itself every month. Change is natural. Our families change. our societies change. Our churches change.  Everyone changes. We are not alone  as we change.

Ideally as we change, our emotional and spiritual responses begin to change too. We learn to know God is in charge. We learn to trust. We respond to change in more healthy ways. We learn to handle the sadness and fear, and through it, with God's help, learn to hope and embrace a new future.

Our Churches are entering a time of accelerated change. So we're going to spend some time talking about change; understanding and recognizing it, responding in healthy ways to it, supporting each other and growing in faith together.  So think about your changes around you, in you, and in the church. Begin to name them, make a list.  Think and pray about how change is affecting you. What's troubling you? What gives you hope?

For now it is good for us to remember the prayer of change from the great Reformer, Martin Luther: 

"This life therefore is not righteousness, but growth in righteousness, not health, but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it, the process is not yet finished, but it is going on, this is not the end, but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory, but all is being purified.” 


Listen to: The Change" by Steven Curtis Chapman, 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiPYalVTPGM

PRAY:  "Show us to embrace and manage the changes of life with grace, courage and trust in you. Help us be sensitive and caring to others in the midst of their changes."

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"Be Beloved"

5/2/2019

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"How great is the love that God has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" (1 John 3:1)
 
Remember the parable where Jesus speaks of the Realm  of God being like a person who, having found a treasure in a field, sold everything he or she had in order to buy the field and gain the treasure.(Matthew 13:45-46). We are usually taught that we are the person in the story who needed to give up everything in order to gain the Realm of God. However, in the other parables surrounding this one, the “person” in the story is always God. 


What if God is cast as the person in this parable, too? 


Is God the one who gave everything in Jesus in order to recover us? 


Could it be that we are God’s treasure? 


Could we be God's Beloved?
 
Beloved is one of the most  beautiful words in the Bible. It's a key principle God teaches us about Godly love.The word "beloved" derives from the Hebrew meaning "to breathe" to "long for."  It is used of human love as well as divine love. It is a word indicating an action on the part of the one doing the loving. The God of the universe, the same God who paints a sunset, shapes a mountain and plans the waves at the beach -- longs for us. Our role in this is to BE-LOVED.  As automatic as it is for us to breathe, so God loves us. Can we stop ourselves from breathing, under normal circumstances?  No. So God doesn't stop loving, caring longing, for us.

  
So our spiritual task is to daily open to divine presence so we can live in such a way that God's love "breathes" through our actions and words. This is, in part, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s vision of his social justice work: the creation of a "beloved community" where we would all live by the dictates of this God-breathed love--which translates into justice, fairness and integration, mutual care, in our community life. 


Everyday, remember you are God's Beloved. So take action -- make your corner of the world a Beloved place!



 Listen to Jason Gray, "Remind Me Who I Am" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSIVjjY8Ou8












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    Author

    Moirajo is a minister, social worker, wife, mother, writer and animal lover. That's just for starters. Join the story, there's so much we can share together! 

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