The priest talked about great saints who went through really terrible places in their lives, but used those situations for doing good by God and to their fellow humans. Being taken to a Japanese-American internment camp but using the opportunity to minister to those in need, a woman stepping up as a priest for a community when all the men were taken to war… Even St. Thomas, who betrayed Jesus by denying Him three times, became a servant in God’s name and a saint. Saints are important because they help inspire us and provide an example for how we can be more like Christ, and become saints ourselves!
Tonight’s service in my internet ministry will be about what forgiveness truly means! We will take a nose plunge into how God truly forgives others and what it means to act upon revenge over justice! https://pawsofloveunited.online.church/ Join Us Tonight at 6;30 pm EST!
In his letter to the Philippians, Paul reminds them how to be in a relationship with each other. He hopes that their love (agape) grows more and more in knowledge and insight. Wisdom and discernment. He calls us to do the same too!
How do we offer our own prayers of grief when the world is on fire? God wants us all to work for each other’s well-being. We should learn how to be ethical and how to discern when/what the Spirit is talking to us—even in the difficult situations that can arise during Thanksgiving dinner!
You know the song “Dem Bones”, how all the bones are connected, and the chorus ends with “Now hear the Word of the Lord”? Our message today was about how we’re all different parts of the Body of Christ—and how Jacob in the OT wrestled with an angel, physically and mentally, until he told them his name and all its connotations. Jacob | The amazing name Jacob: meaning and etymology
God then identified Themself and gave Jacob a new name: Israel. He retains God. God is upright.
God wants you to be well with your body just as much as with your soul.
This week our service was about the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus’ warning about the sheep and the goats (those who feed the hungry, visitor prisoners, help the needy, etc. and those who refuse to) is not simply about individuals. It’s not just about what we, ourselves, do, but about what the societies we take part in do. The Kingdom of God is not just a place we go when we die. The Bible never says the Kingdom is something we “enter,” but it’s also not something we “create.” In fact, at no point in the Bible is it discussed that humans have any ability to create the Kingdom of God at all. The Kingdom of God is already here, and we do not create it or enter it, we inherit it. God wants us as part of it.
Our sermon series this year is “How Does a Weary World Rejoice?”
This week’s reading was about Zechariah and Elizabeth. They felt grief from not being able to have a kid in their old age, but the angel Gabriel brought them joy! Joy tries to remind us in our own moments of grief that we are alive and human.
We can get through the weariness together, like when you’re thinking about a long-lost relative and someone brings up a story about them that makes you laugh. Share your joy as you risk your hope and as we await the Christ Child together.
I was at Midwest FurFest yesterday and there wasn’t a Christian panel sadly, so I had to miss church! D: But I’m watching it today online!
Our service today used the passage Isaiah 64:1-9, which emphasizes how all of us are sinful and impossible to clean, yet beseeches God to forgive those sins; It’s nice seeing this in the Old Testament, because even before Jesus’ coming His people were acknowledging that sin is not forever, and that we can be made clean through God! There is a difference between who we are and who we think we are. But God can reconcile the two.
Our priest emphasized that the gospel of Mark doesn’t even talk about Jesus the baby; he focuses on His adult ministry. It’s as if there’s an urgency; Jesus is in motion; He’s working; He’s been let loose, so let’s focus on what He’s doing! Not just on the Christmas Jesus Ricky Bobby is so fond of (reference mine, not my priest’s).
The priest also talked about an example of God still being on the move, working in the world. He passed by a homeless man without helping him, then went to church, felt really guilty, and went back and took him to lunch. He then said “You’re the ordained minister God told me about this morning.” Whoah. Who we are vs. who we think we are, joined.
Who we are vs. who we think we are, joined.