Month: May 2019

A Special Thank You

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This is my small way of saying thank you for those who work all through the year helping to care for some of the most vulnerable in our community. God Bless you!!

pastorpete51's avatarWalking With Lambs

This is national Nursing Home Week and I wanted to take this day to remember the many staff members who have sacrificially helped out and have given so much to make our outreach possible. If you are one of these people I want to say a big heart felt THANK YOU and God Bless!!!

Thank you for bringing residents to our meetings every week, year after year.

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Thank you for taking time to bring us to the rooms of people needing an extra prayer

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Thank you for encouraging the residents to sing and by singing along

Thank you for special cards and gifts that made us feel appreciated and loved

Thank you for your gentle and sometimes funny way of dealing with unlovely situations

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Thank you for (almost) never complaining

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Thank you for the flexibility of allowing us to meet out in the garden when the dining room was being…

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Family Reunion

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It’s one thing to prepare for a family reunion and quite another to have them move in permanently. For a week or maybe even a month we can tolerate a certain amount of disorder to our daily schedule. Though we do love sharing a part of our lives we also look forward to realigning our things and our routine to what we were used to doing.

Jesus is inviting us to more than just a visit. He wants us as members of His own family. He opens wide the door to His Father’s house but He makes very clear from the beginning that this is not a temporary stay. His offer is not just for more life the way we are accustomed to. We are freely invited to join with the understanding that this family reunion is not a one and done experience. We don’t just get to come for a while and return home unchanged.

If we are to follow Jesus as a family member He wants us to know that we will only reach our destination by taking our cross every day.

But do not be afraid because the wonderful secret is that in the moment we accept His invitation we will discover His shoulder is already under the beam carrying the weight.

…My yoke is easy and My burden is light. Matthew 11:30 ESV

Where Jesus is Waiting

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 Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”       John 9:35 ESV

In thinking think about becoming almost all of us would say that we need to begin with taking time to meet with Jesus. While an early morning prayer or an hour on our knees is part of that, it is not the only thing that makes us a disciple.

In fact our greatest hope is not in our choosing to meet with Jesus but in His choosing to meet with us. If that seems strange maybe it will help you to think about it like being in the waiting room at the doctor’s office. We come in, sign our name and then we sit and watch wait for our name to be called. We cannot just decide to barge in and demand to be next. We only get to go in when the doctor is ready.

The good news for us is that our Doctor Jesus is always ready. In fact before we showed up at the clinic he was looking out the window waiting for us to come. Doctor Jesus has our diagnosis, our treatment and our plan for recovery completely prepared before we ever come. So picture your prayer time as if you were the blind man when he got thrown out of the leader’s meeting: Jesus was already standing outside waiting for him! Jesus is outside your noisy, confusing and often hurtful world waiting to meet with you. Being His disciple just means joyfully expecting to spend time with Him. He is already waiting for you in the garden. Will you join Him today there for prayer?