Holy Land Israel Experience 0f a Life time 2/6 -16/12
Holy Land Israel Experience Tour 2/6-16/2012
Dear Sisters and Brothers on the journey,
It was a pleasure for me to experience the Holy Land. To be in the places where our LORD Jesus was born, fulfilled his mission, was crucified and raised from the dead was a mountain-top trip for me. Thanks for allowing me time to take the time to go and see a land full of good people, good food and good historical sites.
Where did the tour group of pilgrims go? We walked in Nazareth where the angel of the Lord appeared to Mary; we listened to the people singing, “O Little Town of Bethlehem” in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem with tears in our eyes (Yes Blake there is a cave where the Holy Family celebrated Christmas); sat on the shores of the Sea of Galilee where Christ taught and fed the multitudes; rode on a fishing boat on the sea and witnessed a double rainbow; prayed in the Church of the Beatitudes where he gave us the Sermon on the Mount; went down to the Jordan river where he was baptized by John and even witnessed the baptism of some friends; floated in the Dead Sea waters; entered into the Holy City of Jerusalem by night and walked through the ancient gates; viewed with a sense of awe the Mount of Olives; visited the Upper Room where Jesus broke bread with his disciples; walked the Via Dolorosa where Jesus and Simon of Cyrene carried that cross on the fateful Friday; prayed and read our Bible in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher at Golgotha where he was crucified; and we viewed the Tomb of the Resurrection as did the followers Mary and Peter and we know HE Is Risen. He is risen indeed!
I didn’t travel alone but journeyed with the spiritual company of my family, the church and friends who are not able to make such a trip with spiritual sisters and brothers around the world. Wow! We sang songs of faith at every stop: “Mary Did you Know?”, “Shall We Gather at the River?”, “Amazing Grace”, “Break Thou the Bread of Life”, “Morning Has Broken”, “The Holy City,” “O Little Town of Bethlehem” and a favorite; “I Walked Today Where Jesus Walked.” We all came home with special memories of this wonderful journey of faith.
We all are on that journey, with Jesus in this place and at this time. Thank the Lord during times of repentance and forgiveness. As you may know I now embark on a “Sabbatical” a new thing for our church. I will be out of pocket for 90 Days studying soaking up spirit life; praying, studying and disciplining myself to be better able to serve The Lord and His Church. Truly you will be led by good hands; SMCC’s Leadership team and Interim Pastor Steve Bridwell. He and his wife Renee, who is South Central District Minister, reside in Wichita. Steve grew up in The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and is Graduate of Phillips Univ. and Phillips Graduate Seminary, he is the son of a preacher, he has preached since 1970 in the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Please work together for growth in God’s Kingdom now, love one another and thank you for the honor of being your pastor. May your future be full of hope,
Pastor Bill
PS I’ll be showing the Youth Group my dvds of sites and dances of Israel Sunday PM.
I Will Trust God
During this season of Lent, I will trust God. Let’s look to this day, for it is life. The very life of life from the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In its brief course lies all the realities and verities of existence, the bliss of growth, mutual blessings, the splendor of actions, the glory of power -
For yesterday is but a dream and tomorrow is only a vision. But today, well lived, makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well therefore to this day. I’ve returned home from the Holy Land Tour of Israel. That journey of faith inspired me in many ways; places, times, and people of faith are more real. I’ll be a better Christian, preacher and teacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ. There are some lessons and pictures that I’ll be sharing with you all. The tour was full of good people, good food and good memories. My friends Mark and Mary Kay Pumphrey made the pilgrimage so special. And this continues to be our prayer:
Lord grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference.I trust you God.
Love God & Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s (Saint) Day February 14th
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice in wrongdoing; but rejoices in the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. (I Corinthians 13)
It’s a divine gift for St. Valentine’s Day to come during the doldrums of wintertime. When the land seems to be barren, so void of life and love, it’s a happy day that we have during the middle of February. This raises us up from the listlessness to recall that we are called to live a life of love in the LORD. There is something renewing in this thing called love. Even in our broken relationships we come to learn never to make the same mistake again. Somehow through the experience we are a little wiser. But love has a way of seeping into our lives again, in spite of our suspicions, to draw us yet closer to this divine gift of mystery. As Thomas Moore writes in Care of the Soul:
‘It may be useful to consider love less as an aspect of relationship and more of an event of the soul. Love releases us into the realm of divine imagination, where the soul is expanded and reminded of its unearthly cravings and needs. We think that when a love inflates his loved on he is failing to acknowledge her flaws – that love is blind. But maybe it is the other way around. Love allows a person to see the true angelic nature or another person, the halo, the aura of divinity.’
Some have called this, ‘a divine madness.’ It is love that is partly in eternity and partly in the now. Real love straddles both dimensions opening a way to live in both at the same time. It is the door that opens out from human reason into the divine mystery. (I John 4:7) Relates, “Beloved let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love…Those who abide in love abide in God and God abides in them. “
Even the Passion of The LORD Jesus defined His love for each and every one of us. Honoring love as it presents itself means that we honor God. So this Valentine’s Day, won’t you allow the mystery of God’s love to shape and re-direct you in ways that you might have never predicted or desired. Some new dimensions of your life might unfold, revealing God’s ever present love to abide. Blessed Valentines Day.
I like soup, the groundhog, and true Christian community. Maybe not in that order but these do warm our whole selves. Thanks for getting ready for the annual Ulysses Ministerial Soup supper February 7, 5-7 pm at the civic center. Let’s support efforts fighting hunger in our town and invite community friends as well to go. Pray with me for more Christian Unity while we do kingdom work together.
We are becoming both a spiritually and physically healthy church. Those are our two important goals for the year 2012.
O, as for the groundhog, let’s hope for more precipitation on the high plains this winter & spring.
Praise the Lord, love the Lord and serve the Lord with gladness. Cry of my heart, by Terry Butler, is a great worship song to God, on YouTube.
New beginnings New Year
I will recount the steadfast love of the LORD according to all that the LORD God has granted. New life is about growth. If we are not growing we are not living. In order to grow we will suffer; bet we also must seek healing, and we must trust God with our life. Of equal import is our ability to remember the blessings, giving thanks for God’s steadfast love “according to all that He has granted us.” Last year you may have been experiencing a deep sorrow and had at times, severe pain of heart and soul. But try looking deeply into your life and you will see the hand of the LORD ministering to you in ways you never imagined possible. I feel God’s Holy Spirit is helping us learn from our sorrow and making it possible for us to grow in grace. As the gospel tune goes, “Troubles make me stronger.”
Let’s see how God is ministering to us in our life. Do you see how? Are we learning more about loving God through our experiences of death and sorrow? I am reminded of the fact that the first resurrection took place in a cemetery.
Dedicating ourselves to a new way of acting and thinking takes much thought and retraining. May we grow in God. Let’s make the best possible use of what we have learned and by His power continue to grow.
Trust God with your life, I am, and I will recover from days of sadness. I hope to learn and to grow in faith, in hope and in love. I am dedicating myself to the LORD this day. It’s a new year filled with new beginnings.
O God of infinite creativity . . .
At the beginning of this New Year – winter for so many – the rich brown earth is even now preparing to burst forth with a spring of possibilities and new life.
Though the human eye cannot see it, you continue to bless the earth with new beginnings.
We praise you!
Bless us with new beginnings, we pray.
Where we have lost sight of your Reign breaking in – even now at hand –
Renew our vision.
Where we have faltered in reaching out to our neighbor in love, missing the moment to extend a hand of wholeness,
Renew our courage.
Where we have allowed cynicism to dry our bones and sinews,
Renew our hope.
At this beginning of a New Year, dear God, our arms are still warm from cradling the Babe of Bethlehem.
Help us to keep that memory strong.
Strengthen our arms to welcome your many children into communities of love.
Prepare our hearts to burst forth with a spring of possibilities and new life.
Stir us to be and share your love with the same vulnerability, the same humble expectation that brought you into the world in person.
Help us, your church, your disciples, to be harbingers of your reign of justice and of peace fully emerged.
O God of infinite creativity, at the beginning of this New Year, we know that you are about to do a new thing. Help us to perceive it. And to join in.
In the name of Jesus, your greatest new beginning, we pray.
AMEN
Thank You For Coming
It’s going to be Christmas Day in about three days. I pray to Jesus this: “Thank you for coming to save this broken life/world. And please bless the new year to come with great new beginnings for the people of God. Thanks.” Yes that’s our prayer on Christmas, “Thank You For Coming.”
Comedian Bob Hope used to joke about how poor his family was when he was growing up. They were so poor that didn’t get presents. But on Christmas Eve they would hang up their stockings before they went to bed and sure enough, the next morning when they woke up they’d be nice and dry. His folks couldn’t afford to buy them any toys for Christmas..every Christmas Eve after everyone went to bed, his father would tear an extra page off the calendar. When the kids came downstairs the next morning, Father would point to the calendar and say, ‘Look, it’s December 26th. Where were you kids yesterday? You missed Christmas!’
I’m not going to miss Christmas. We’re not going to miss it; we’re here, and life is good and we are thankful for the hope God gives us.
The babe in the manger is the fulfillment of the plan of God. Christ is the perfect reflection of the character of God. Let’s spend time in silence to soak up that wonderful good news. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
