|
4/30/2018 April 30th, 2018 Welcome to Our HomeLast night, I had the privilege of hearing a fascinating talk at the Ruritans meeting from a veterinarian who had recently traveled to Mongolia as a part of a program to educate herdsmen there on how to better care for their flocks in such a harsh environment. One of the things that the speaker touched on repeatedly was the hospitality that the families he worked with showed to him. They were warm and invited him into their homes. Although a simple one-room building that could be easily packed up and moved, they were proud of their homes and glad to have guests. When they would eat, they would serve him as their guest first, and they would eat only after he was done. They often offered him their best food as a way to honor him. Hearing about how these families - often poor and struggling - welcomed him so graciously made me think about how God welcomes each and every one of us. How far did Jesus go - what did he sacrifice - in order to welcome us into God's kingdom? Through Christ, God has invited us to enter into the kingdom of heaven and gives us the best there is to offer. May God give us the grace to receive this blessing and share that same hospitality to one another! Blessings on the journey, Jim Sunday's Sermon SnippetCharacter: The Spirit of Thankfulness (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18) The character of a disciple is rooted in the love of God knowing that we are God's beloved and the strength of joy that comes from being God's redeemed. Joy is something we should always have - not just when good things are happening to us. As the Apostle Paul wrote the church at Thessalonica, "Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." Starting with joy, this short and simple list of instructions leads us to our next two characteristics of a disciple. First, we look at the last instruction: give thanks. Simple, right? But what does thanks really mean? To thank to show appreciation for what someone has done for you. To give thanks, I think, goes a step further beyond appreciation to give credit for all that one has done and acknowledge the importance that they have had in your life. This is something fairly simple to do. Give thanks in all circumstances. This is still fairly simple and clear, but it does not mean that it is easy. These three additional words make it incredibly difficult, for there are certainly circumstances in which we do not feel like giving thanks. It doesn't help that we have a knack for focusing on the negative in our lives rather than the positive. When things are bad, it is hard for us to see the good or at least to focus on it for long. When things are good, we should have plenty to be thankful for, and yet even then gratitude may escape us. We have a way of taking good things for granted, assuming we deserve or have earned them. So we forget about giving credit to the source of the good in our life. All this points to an important lesson about gratitude: giving thanks is a choice we must make. Gratitude is something we learn and something we must practice for it to become a part of our character, our spirit. To do so, we give thanks not because we see the one good thing in the midst of a lot of bad things or because we have a lot of good in our lives. Disciples give thanks in every circumstance because they trust in God's goodness! Fishing with KidsWe are looking at the possibility of putting together a fishing trip for the children and youth of our church. If you are willing to help out, please let Pastor Jim know as we begin to make plans. This Week at Port ChurchWednesday, May 2 9:00 - 11:45 am - Office Hours Thursday, May 3 9:00 - 11:45 am - Office Hours Sunday, May 6 9:30 am - Worship: "Character: The Roots of a Disciple" 11:00 am - Sunday School Monday, May 7 6:00 - 7:30 pm - Youth Group Looking AheadVBS Training - May 20, 12 noon
Graduate Recognition - June 3 VBS tentatively scheduled for June 25-29 4/24/2018 April 24th, 2018 Home Yesterday, as I looked out of the back window of our home, I saw one of the most beautiful sights of spring: the first bluebird. Coming on a rainy, overcast day, the vibrant blue of its back as it sat upon the clothesline pole was like a promise of brighter days to come. I cannot see bluebirds without thinking of the days spent as a child with my father getting birdhouses ready for their spring arrival. It was almost a ritual going out on a late winter day to clean out the last year's nest and check the boxes to make sure they were still sturdy and didn't need any repairs before their new tenants moved in for the summer. As the spring brought the birds back to us, we would occasionally check them to see how their new family was coming along. I think that my first woodworking project was to help my father build a birdhouse. I was of an age that "Why?" was probably my favorite or at least my most used word. Why do we build it that way? So we can open it up to clean it out. Why the holes in the bottom? To let the rain drain out. Why such a small door hole? To let the bluebirds in and keep the birds that would eat their eggs out. Building that birdhouse was about making a home for these beautiful birds. Every detail was to make it just right for the bluebirds - a place where they belonged. God goes to great length to make a place where we too belong - a place that is our home. It may not always look perfect, because God's children had a hand in making in it and are still learning. Yet God has made the church - not just the building but the family of people - to be a place where we are safe, nurtured, and cared for. It is a place that we can come home to after the long winter. It is a place where we can be family. It is a place where we can belong. Blessings on the journey, Jim Sunday's Sermon Snippet Character: The Strength of Joy (Nehemiah 8:2-10; Habakkuk 3:17-19) Last week, we talked about how God's love for us is the root of our discipleship that helps us stand tall in the midst of the storms of life. This, however, is not the only root that holds in place. Our second root of discipleship is joy. When the people of God had suffered great oppression having been taken into exile in Babylon for generations and then spending nearly a hundred years rebuilding Jerusalem - their homes, the Temple, and finally the city walls - they concluded the work by gathering to hear the reading of God's Law. As they heard God's word, they began to cry. Perhaps of the weight of all that had happened. Perhaps it was remembering how their ancestors had turned away from the Law. Perhaps it was conviction of how they were themselves turning away from God. Whatever it was, they were saddened and mourned. Then the leaders offered this word: "Do not mourn, for the joy from the Lord is your strength." Joy is what allows us to persevere in times of grief and sadness. It is different from happiness in that happiness depends on what has happened (they even share the same root word "hap"). Joy is something that comes from within - from who we are - rather than from the things that are happening on the outside. For us, our joy comes from knowing that we are God's beloved, God's redeemed. There is, of course, a fine line between living out of joy and simply pretending bad things aren't happening. Joy does not ignore the bad that is going on but chooses to press on despite it because there is something more important going on - God's love. The prophet Habakkuk echoes this message about joy at the close of his book. Habakkuk was writing at a time of trial and questioned how long God would let the people suffer before intervening. Habakkuk concludes that no matter how bad things get he will rejoice and take strength from the Lord. For, as he puts it, the Lord makes his feet like those of a deer that can climb the heights. This odd image is also an amazing one, as it makes us think of the animals that can scale cliff faces that would intimidate the best rock climbers. These deer have been gifted by God with the ability to remain steady in search of refuge and food in a world full of predators. God likewise gives us the joy we need to overcome the unscaleable and find protection in times of danger. That is the strength of joy. A disciple stands strong because they are rooted in joy from the Lord! Living in CommunityThanks to everyone on Team "Port Rinds" for representing our church at the AVA Care Move 4 Life: Kelly, Kelsey, Brad, Becca, Jason, Tina, Henry, Katie, Charlotte, Mark, Susie, Landon, Lauren, Jason, London, Benton, Gretchen, Keith, Tyler, Dinah, Chris, Chandler Thanks to the folks who came out to cheer the team on: Mary, Amie, Baylor, Laurel, Dalton, Ralph Thank you to everyone who financially supported our team and who collected Change 4 Life! Overall, we raised nearly $1,600 for AVA Care's ministry! Please be in prayer for our new district superintendent Rev. Victor Gomez, his wife Heather, and their family who will be joining the Harrisonburg District in July! Also pray for our current district superintendent, Rev. Tommy Herndon, and his wife Carolyn as they prepare for his retirement in July. This Week at Port ChurchWednesday, April 25 9:00 - 11:45 am - Office Hours Thursday, April 26 9:00 - 11:45 am - Office Hours Friday, April 27 6:00 - 9:00 pm - Paint Night Sunday, April 29 9:30 am - Worship: "Character: The Roots of a Disciple" 11:00 am - Sunday School Looking AheadVBS Training - May 20, 12 noon
VBS tentatively scheduled for June 25-29 4/17/2018 April 17th, 2018 Everything You DoThere are a lot of great things happening at Port Church! We have completed the repair of our back steps that has made our social hall entrance more accessible. We have had a great session of Wednesday of the Port filled with faith, fun, and friends. We are gearing up for a great "Shipwrecked" Vacation Bible School this summer! We are supporting the work of our church around the world to spread the good news of Jesus Christ and have a team preparing for AVA Care's Move 4 Life this week. You make all of this possible! Through your generosity, we are able to do these and many other great things together. When you give of your blessings in worship, you are changing the lives of those who are in our community and in our world. Thank you for everything you do! May God bless the work of our hands and our hearts to be a blessing to others! Blessings on the journey, Jim Sunday's Sermon Snippet Character: The Love of God (1 John 4:7-10) Have you ever seen one of those trees hanging impossibly over the river bank? The current has long along eroded away the dirt that once held the tree in place, and now only thing keeps it suspended above the flowing water: its deep roots. When the winds gust and the waters floods, the tree stands tall because it is rooted deeply into the earth. The same can be true of us. If we have deep roots, we can stand firm in the storms of life. Those roots are our character - the essential part of our nature that makes us who we are at our core. What are the roots of a disciple that allows them to weather the storms of life? We begin with a root that is unsurprising: the love of God. After all, Jesus told us that the greatest commandment was to love God with all that we are. A disciple has an abiding love for God. But what is this kind of love? John wrote in his first letter that love is this: not that we loved God but that God first loved us enough to send his one and only son for us. This is interesting. For John, the love of God is not just about our love for God but even more so about God's love for us. In his gospel, John wrote about himself as the beloved disciple - a name meant not to convey that he was more special than the other disciples but rather his amazement at being loved by Jesus. The most important thing about him - what defined who he was - was not his name, his job, his family, or his power and status but rather one simple fact: he was loved by Jesus! God loves him! Jesus chose to love him even though Jesus knew his failings and his weaknesses. God had every reason not to love him and yet still did in an amazingly deep way - a way that would define the rest of his life. The most important thing about our lives is this: God loves us! It makes all the difference when things get difficult. I remember sitting beside a man at the hospital as he was preparing to die. A dedicated disciple, he still wondered about his salvation as he lay there waiting remembering a lifetime of failings. A little surprised, I asked, "Do you believe God loves you?" "Yes, sure, I do!" he replied. "Why do you think God would not take care you now just as God has all these years?" "Well, I guess that's that!" he said as the burden lifted from his weakened frame. That's the difference that just remembering that we are loved can make. It gives us the strength to face the future unafraid because we know the grace and strength of the One who loves us. Living in CommunityThank you, Lauren, Davida, Keith, Baylor, Brad, Becca, Mark, Susie, Dave, Perry, Randy, Bob, Will, Jason, Tina, Henry, Katie, and Charlotte for helping out at our Clean-up Day this past weekend! The church grounds look wonderful! Prayer of Christian sympathy to Bob and Dianna on the passing of his Uncle Lawrence. Prayers of Christian sympathy to Bill and Vera and Joe and Jean on the passing of their sister-in-law Pat. Susie is giving out our quarterly contribution statements. If you have any questions, please see her. Thank you, Susie, for your diligence in taking care of our offerings! This Week at Port ChurchWednesday, April 11 9:00 - 11:45 am - Office Hours Thursday, April 12 9:00 - 11:45 am - Office Hours Sunday, April 15 9:30 am - Worship: "Character: The Roots of a Disciple" 11:00 am - Sunday School Looking AheadPaint Night - April 27, 6-9 pm
VBS Training - May 20, 12 noon VBS tentatively scheduled for June 25-29 4/10/2018 April 10th, 2018 Character: The Roots of a Disciple Have you ever seen one of those trees along the river bank where the earth has been eroded away? Somehow, almost miraculously, such a tree continues to reach up to the heavens even with its great weight hanging out over the rushing waters. Have you ever seen one those people who stand firm in the face of the challenges and struggles of life? Somehow, almost miraculously, such a person continues to praise God, to hold onto joy, and to dedicate their lives to others even with so much standing in their way. What makes these trees and people different is their roots. Like the tree with roots extending deep into the ground, people who are able to face the storms of life with grace are rooted deeply in something beyond themselves. They are rooted as disciples of Jesus Christ in a way that defines their character - that is, who they are - more strongly than any circumstance in life could. So what then is the character of a Christian? What are the roots of a disciple? How can we grow our roots a little deeper so that we too can stand taller in the face of adversity? Join us in worship over the coming weeks as we delve into "Character: The Roots of a Disciple"! Blessings on the journey, Jim Register for Camp OverlookSummer is not far away, and that means summer camp opportunities for our kids! Camp Overlook offers everything from day camp for young elementary-age kids to adventure camps for youth. Our church will pay the deposit for any of our kids registering for camp by May 1st. If you are interested in camp this summer, check out Overlook's website or pick up a brochure in the church office. Please talk with Pastor Jim for more details or any questions. Living in CommunityThank you to the youth for leading us in a great worship service on Sunday! Change for Life bottles are due this Sunday - don't forget to bring yours! This Week at Port ChurchWednesday, April 11 9:00 - 11:45 am - Office Hours Thursday, April 12 9:00 - 11:45 am - Office Hours 7:00 pm - Trustees Meeting Saturday, April 14 8:00 am - Church-wide Clean-up Day Donuts and Coffee provided! Sunday, April 15 9:30 am - Worship: "Character: The Roots of a Disciple" 11:00 am - Sunday School 12:00 noon - Wednesday at the Port Planning Meeting Monday, April 16 7:00 pm - Discipleship Team Meeting Looking AheadPaint Night - April 27, 6-9 pm
VBS Training - May 20, 12 noon VBS tentatively scheduled for June 25-29 |
News and UpdatesFind out what is going on at Port Republic UMC this week and in weeks to come! Archives
January 2019
Categories |
RSS Feed