"Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and
unsearchable things you do not know." (Jeremiah 33:3)
“God and God alone” Nederland Zingt
Hi
Family!!!
We are
now in the deep summer season waiting for the new month of August. Time flies!
No matter what happens in our life, time moves without stopping. And as long as
we take air in and air out, we all have twenty four hours a day. There is no exception.
God who created heaven and earth must be fair!
So in
these summer months dealing with COVID 19, how do you use your time? Do you
sleep well? Do you eat well? And do you breathe well? If not, we will take a
few minutes now to stretch our arms and wiggle our shoulders, left and right
and front and back, up and down! And if yes, you can still do that with me.
Anyway,
have we found any treasure of heaven or bear some fruit of the spirit this
week? If not sure, we will continue to journey with Christ Jesus taking steps
each day again. So here they are! I will…
1. Take a little moment of meditation on Matthew 13:44 “Treasure
hidden” each day this week.
2. Memorize Romans 8:28today.
3. Sing with Psalm 105:1-11 each day this week.
4. Pray for the
peace of the world this week.
5. Be an instrument
of god’s peace from today.
6. Be still in the presence of God from today.
Now we
have this week’s prayer list. Let us continue to call upon the name of the Lord
as we take next steps together as one body!
Be
clean and keep your safe distance from EVERY unseen enemy around us!!
"Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and
unsearchable things you do not know." (Jeremiah 33:3)
“Like Perfume to Your
Feet” by Sister Erin O'Neill
Hi
Family!!!
Make
hay while the sun shines. I think today is the day! However, it began with a
little gloomy sky this morning. What a change! We learn something every day
from God’s creation. Actually, God reminds us of something new each and every
day. Even though it might not look very good in the beginning but its ending
might be totally different! So we don’t lose hope, especially in God.
Now,
how’s your week going so far? This year’s corn looks taller than last year. And
believe it or not, our hottest season is almost over? So have we found any
treasure of heaven or bear some fruit of the spirit this week? If not sure, we
will continue to journey with Christ Jesus taking steps each day. So here they
are! I will…
1. Take a little moment of meditation on Matthew 13:30each day this week.
2. Memorize Romans 8:24-25today.
3. Sing with Psalm 139:1-24 each day this week.
4. Pray for the school, teachers, staff and students preparing
Fall Semester in a month.
5. Take one step at a time with hope filled patience from today.
6. Share god’s hope with two people this week.
Now we
have this week’s prayer list. Let us continue to call upon the name of the Lord
as we take next steps together as one body!
Be clean
and keep your safe distance from EVERY unseen enemy around us!!
"Call to me and I will
answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know."
(Jeremiah 33:3)
“There
Is Power in the Blood”, Angela Primm
Hi Family!!!
Have we found any treasures of heaven this week? There are
always hidden treasures when we encounter some challenges in our life. It
has been about four months since we have reacted to the challenge from COVID
19. Actually, we reacted to God when this challenge came to our life because He
is the only one who can really help us. Have we found any treasure of heaven so
far? I believe we might have a much stronger and deeper relationship with Jesus
Christ than four month ago! This stronger and deeper relationship will help us
to be fruitful in our life.
So now we will continue to journey with Christ Jesus taking
steps each day this week. So here they are!
1. Take a little moment of meditation on Matthew 13:9. “Some Hundredfold” each day this week.
2. Memorize Romans 8:2 today.
3. Sing with Psalm 119:105-112 each day this week.
4. Pray for the joy of my heart this week.
5. Look for the joy of God each day this week.
6. Cultivate my spiritual soil from today.
Now, for the reminder, due to the temperature in the building
and the health concerns of many people who are not able to wear masks during
worship, we will limit our singing hymns and responsive readings and shorten
our service.
Still, wearing a mask is strongly recommended when you come into
the building and also keeping social distance in the building at least 6 feet
away from each other is very crucial practice for protecting each other.
Also you will be usher out after worship and I will greet you
outside of the building.
Please also remember that if you are not comfortable to come to
the in-person worship or wearing masks during worship hour, you can continue to
worship online.
This is quite a challenging time for everyone. However, this is
also a good time to test our faith in God to see where we are in our journey to
the Kingdom of God eternal. We will truly grow in faith bearing much fruit of
the Holy Spirit. And the day will come, the day when we can freely worship in
singing and praying in full fellowship with God and each other counting many
blessings from God.
Now we have this week’s prayer list. Let us continue to call
upon the name of the Lord as we take next steps together as one body!
Be clean and keep your safe distance from EVERY unseen enemy
around us!!
"Call to me and I will
answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know."
(Jeremiah 33:3)
“All
Things Bright and Beautiful”
Hi Family!!!
I feel like it is now true summer, a season of growing, because
we are having rain storms and scorching and humid heat but everything grows all
around us, corns and beans in the field and tomatoes in the garden. Now, wheat are coloring the filed in gold. They are amazing because they are using every resources
around them as their growing and maturing tools - winds, rains, heat and
sunshine.
What is our wind now? What is our rain now? What is our heat
now? And what is our sunshine now in our life? I mean, our challenges in our
life? Definitely, we are using all those as our tools to grow spiritually in
God with sanctifying grace!
So now we will continue to journey with Christ Jesus taking
steps each day this week. So here they are!
1. Take a little moment of meditation on Matthew 11:28a, “Come to me” each day this week.
2. Memorize Matthew 11:28-30 today.
3. Sing with Psalm 45 each day this week.
4. Pray for Christ’s heart this week.
5. Talk with two people about God’s love this week.
6. Seek the way to break down my prejudice this week.
Now, for a little update on our in-person worship at Markesan Sanctuary,
due to the temperature in the building and the health concerns of many people
who are not able to wear mask during worship, we will limit our singing hymns
and responsive readings and shorten our service little more.
Still, wearing mask is strongly recommended when you come into
the building and also keeping social distancing in the building at least 6 feet
away from each other is very crucial practice for protect others.
Please also remember that if you are not comfortable to come to
the in-person worship or wearing masks during worship hour, you can continue to
worship online.
This is quite challenging time for everyone. However, this is
also a good time to test our faith in God to see where we are in our journey to
the Kingdom of God eternal. We will truly grow in faith bearing much fruit of
the Holy Spirit. And the day will come, the day when we can freely worship in singing
and praying in full fellowship with God and each other counting many blessings
from God.
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 as
one body!
Be clean and keep your safe distance from every unseen enemy
around us!!
“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22, NLT)
Look at the World, John Rutter
Greetings to you all in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ,
It is getting hotter and hotter each week because it is summer now! However, not just the weather outside but the weather inside. I mean, in a little box of social, political, economic and religious arena through mass media dealing with unseen enemy, COVID 19.
As time goes, another unseen enemy surfaced, so called racism. We feel like or act like it is the only United States’ problem though, believe it or not, it has always been a part of human life all throughout the human history around the world. We call it the human reality of sin and death. However, dealing with those unseen enemies, numerous obstacles are growing right in front of us due to the differences that we have in us: differences in value, differences in purpose, differences in culture, differences in belief and differences in temperament. Maybe there are more differences.
However, the worst part is when it contradicts each other and creates tension among us as we deal with those unseen enemies. It means, we might be creating lots of noise together - offending noise, defending noise, scratching noise, destroying noise, hurting noise, ignoring noise and heated noise. It is like a flood of information whether those are reliable or not.
However, an interesting fact in this heated season is, despite of all those, birds are still singing for one another early in the morning; deer are passing by our front and back yard quietly every night. Squirrels are collecting their food all day long. Those are not all. Turkeys, bears, chipmunks, rabbits and humming birds. They don’t care what we are going through. Is that their ignorance or indifference?
Anyway, an amazing fact in this season is that the corns and beans are growing; the wheats are maturing even though it is around them - rainy, shiny, humid, gloomy or bright. Their yearly business is growing, maturing and fruit bearing with the resources that God has provided them through this season. And a question comes: “What is our busyness?” I mean, “We, Christians?”
“Be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28, NLT)
We are not much different from those beans, corns and wheats in the field in this season of hot summer in the surrounding environments - heavy rains, thunderstorms, scorching heart and strong winds. In our spiritual field, in this heated season with the Holy Spirit, we are making fruits, fighting with ignorance, indifference, prejudice and conflict in the flood of information of our spiritual environments.
So now, brothers and sisters in Christ, are we in the same business in this season of the Holy Spirit, our spiritual hot summer season? For the next two months, we will continually grow to bear much fruits of the Holy Spirit together: a love that breaks the wall; the joy of the Lord, my strength; a hope filled patience; a peace like a river; a miracle making kindness; a goodness of the Good News; a cross bearing faithfulness; a power holding meekness and a soul saving self control.
Let us come together and dream dreams of the harvest in growing,
