Lord, Hear Our Prayers! (The Week of May 25, 2020)

"Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and 

unsearchable things you do not know." (Jeremiah 33:3)

“Kyrie Eleison (Lord, Have Mercy)”, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Westminster Choir

Hi Family!!! 

I almost skipped taking the next steps this week… but God reminds me this morning, “Wake up!” Thanks be to God! Even though this week’s step for us might be a little slower than other weeks, definitely, we will never stop our steps to the higher ground. However, we will do it humbly before God. So, I would like to invite you to join me this week as a church together. If you took some steps already, wait for me! So here they are!

-Maditate on a few words, from John 17:3, “Eternal Life” each day this week.
-Memorize 1 Peter 5:8, “Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring Lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour” today.
-Sing with Psalm 68 taking just 5-10 minutes each day this week.
-Give thanks to God for those who shared the gifts of life for others this week.
-Pray for the pure heart in the leadership of our country this week.
-Plant the seed of faith in my vegetable garden this week.
-Ask God to help me to see my true identity in His Kingdom this week.

For online worship service, there is a little change and addition. We will continually put the recordings of our worship and other events through YouTube, Facebook and Tweeter; however, we will also use Zoom for those who do not have internet access. It means we will not use our current telephone access numbers that we have shared through our newsletter any longer. But we will use the new telephone number and access code through Zoom. If you’d like, you can choose to join us through ZOOM on Sunday 9:20 a.m. for worship.

Also, don’t forget to join our Dive-In Gathering this coming Sunday @ 9:30 a.m. at the Markesan UMC parking lot. The Recorded Service will be online as usual, but during our Drive-In Gathering, we will also celebrate the Holy Communion. Please plan to come a little earlier so that we can start our short program right at 9:30 a.m.  

For this week, lots of things happened around us, shocking us and saddened us. It means we need to pray more for one another to seek God and his presence as we are mad at the human sinfulness. Also we noticed, in our nation, we are divided by the political views on wearing masks in public. Whether we choose to wear it or not, and whether we keep social distance or not in public, and whether we like it or not, we do this because we care for one another.

So before we do choose any, we will remember what Jesus commanded us to do, giving his life for others.

Now we have our prayer list updated for this week. Let us continue to call upon the name of the Lord as we take next steps together… disciplining ourselves, keeping alert!

Be clean and keep your distance from those unseen enemies!!

pk

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Markesan & Princeton Emmanuel Prayer List

(The Week of May 25, 2020)

This week’s Updates – Betty K’s Cataract surgery this week; Isabel B’s moving to NC, her daughter's house in June; Rick and his family for God’s comfort; Ted and Margaret’s moving this week; Terri, recovering from pacemaker putting in.

Lord, Hear Our Prayers! (The Week of May 18, 2020)

"Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and 
unsearchable things you do not know." (Jeremiah 33:3)

“Be Still My Soul” ,Libera

Hi Family!!! 

Our next steps for this week began with some moisture since we are having a good amount of rain which will bring much green in our season! However, are we having Monday syndrome this morning? I know people call it like that; however, I call it warming up time after some good rest through Sabbath Day since we won’t do warming up all week long. It is quite a normal for most of us and a sign of good rest I presume! So, now, are we ready to shift our gear a little bit? Here they are! I would like to invite you to take those steps with me this week as a church together.

1.       Meditate on John 14:2b, “loved by my Father”, each day this week.

2.       Memorize 1 Peter 3:18 today.

3.      Sing with Psalm 31 each day this week taking just 5:10 minutes.

4.      Pray for the confirmands this week who are preparing their Credo.

5.      Love my God with all my strength from today.

6.      Keep my conscience clear from today.

Now we have our prayer list updated for this week. Let us continue to call upon the name of the Lord as we let our Holy Spirit continue to sanctify us as we taking next steps together! We truly give thanks to God since Christ makes the unrighteous righteous!

Be clean and keep your distance from those unseen enemies!!

pk

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Markesan & Princeton Emmanuel Prayer List

(The Week of May 18, 2020)

This week's New Prayer Request: Evy, recovering from pacemaker putting in last week; Ken Dahlke family for God’s comfort and strength. 

Lord, Hear Our Prayers! (The Week of May 11, 2020)

"Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and 
unsearchable things you do not know." (Jeremiah 33:3)

“Jesus Bleibet Meine Freude” J S Bach, VOVES 8

Hi Family!!! 

It is quite fresh outside even though little chilly. We may need some extra layers this morning? Are you ready to take new steps this week after a Good Sabbath Day Rest? Now, I would like to invite you to take some steps with me this week as a church together.

1.      Take a little moment of meditation on a couple of words, “marvelous light”, from 1 Peter 2:9b, each day this week.

2.      Memorize John 14:1, “Do not let your hearts be troubled, Believe in God, believe also in me” today!

3.      Sing with Psalm 31 each day this week taking just 5-10 minutes.

4.      Pray for the single mothers whom I know around me for twenty seconds each day this week.

5.      Talk to the Holy Spirit to help me to grow in faith taking one minute each day this week.

6.      Keep the grateful heart all throughout this week!!!

7.      Keep God’s call in my heart from today – “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. (Peter 2:9, NRSV)”

Now we have our prayer list updated for this week. Let us continue to call upon the name of the Lord as we to take our steps following His way, His truth and His Life. We truly give thanks to God since Christ laid down his own life for us as the stepping stone for our salvation.

Be clean and keep your distance from those unseen enemies!!

pk

The Joy of the Lord Is My Strength!

“...Don’t be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!” 

(Nehemiah 8:10b, NLT)

Greetings to you all in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ,

It has been quite a journey confined by COVID 19 for the last whole month of April. However, it was not too bad at all as we look at it differently with the Christian eyes because we were able to find more time with God and our family. And it made us think about what the most important thing in our life is. We took a whole month to rearrange our life bringing God in the center of our life again even though we have to adapt to the new normal. 

One of those new normal most of us have experienced last month was using social media and its network. It has been around for a long time since early 1990’s; however, we did not know our life would depend on social media this much. It means we are doing our church together differently using social media, worshiping the Lord in spirit and truth continually even though we may not like it.

I heard someone say, “If Jesus comes to us in the 21st century, he must use the social media.” It made me stop and ponder as I prepared each week’s online gatherings with a question mark, “Really?” Some part of me doubted, “if Jesus comes to us right now, he does not need anything because he has the power to show people who he is. Jesus does neither need a Facebook account, nor Instagram, nor Twitter, nor Zoom meetings to get people’s attention.” I actually don’t know how Jesus would handle this if he comes to us right now though because I am not Jesus. 

Anyway, one thing that I have learned from April was that lots of people are living in social media, virtual world as real. “Wow! People share their life virtually, and people find inspiration there - relief, freedom, healing, and even their own self there, virtual self! And of course, people find happiness there when others like what they posted! In other words, when they get other’s attention more, they become much happier. If not, sad and depressed.” Sounds like people are controlled by this.

However, no one is free from this. We are longing for something, something that we don’t find in our real world - from our traditional face to face world, because we don’t like its smells, its colors and its voices and because we are too busy to handle them in real life. Something was totally missing!

Actually, it reminds me the story of a Hebrew slaves in Babylon about twenty five hundred years ago. Because of the enemy’s attack - Babylonians, their land was totally destroyed and they were captured by their enemies and lived as their slaves in a foreign land. Their homeland where they freely worshiped in the presence of the Lord was ruined and their temple was totally destroyed through the war. So they were not able to worship in the temple in Jerusalem any longer. They were not able to gather in their holy city any more. Something very important was truly missing!

“Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves”, Nabucco by G. Verdi, Metropolitan Opera

So what did they do in exile? They prayed. Then, what happened? God heard their prayers. So, many years after, they were able to get back to their homeland and rebuilt the ruined walls in Jerusalem despite of many challenges in the holy city.

We know they had missed community gatherings in the holy city in the presence of God. But now, they gathered. Can we imagine that moment when all gathered together from long years of exile and rebuilt their ruined holy city, their home land? My heart is even pounding stronger and faster now and even my eyes are getting wet as I revisit that story in the Bible. 

So what did they do first after they rebuilt their home land, the city walls? According to the Nehemiah chapter 8, they worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. And the Levites (maybe, pastors in 21st century) read from the books of the Law of God and clearly explained the meaning of what was being read, helping the people understand each passage, which had been missing in their life for many years. Quite an emotion filled moment, isn’t it?

Now can anyone guess what was happening there as they heard the word of God in the holy city with their walls rebuilt? They all wept as they listened to the words of the Law of God. It was the happiest day; however, they all wept. Why? Maybe their memories of hardship and struggles, and of all those whom they lost in exile hit everyone’s hearts? Nehemiah reminded them where they are now, “Don’t mourn or weep on such a day as this! For today is a sacred day before the Lord your God (Nehemiah 8:9b)”     

Brothers and sisters in Christ, are we looking forward to that day of fully rebuilding something missing due to COVID 19? The day will come. And until then, we will continually worship the Lord in spirit and truth - our real normal!

Join me! 

Pastor Kyochul