Coming This Week - 3/1/15
Monday, March 2nd
7:00am Fit and Faith
9:30am Strewardship Committee
Tuesday, March 3rd
11am Women’s Book Group
5-7pm Table of Plenty
7pm Seacoast Choir
Wednesday, March 4th
9am Women’s Bible Study
10:30am Beginner Chair Yoga
6pm Bread of Life
Thursday, March 5th
9:30am Building & Grounds Committee
3:30pm Children's/Youth Choir rehearsal
6:00pm Handbell Choir rehearsal
7:00pm Sanctuary Choir rehearsal
Friday, March 6th
7:00am Fit and Faith
5:30pm Youth Group Meeting
6:pm K-Club
Friday - Sunday, February6th - 8th
Women's Retreat @ Franciscan Monastery
Sunday, March 8th
9:30am Worship/Hymn Sing
11am Tracing Your Spiritual Roots
Pastor's Pen - February 25, 2015
The Pastor’s Pen
“Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Philippians 4:6
When I turned on the shower Friday and nothing came out, I couldn’t bring myself to pray about it. After all, there are bigger problems in the world than whether or not I have water. I called seven plumbers and nobody called back, but I didn’t pray about it because I’m good at taking care of myself. I picked up some bottled water and went to sleep. On Saturday I called for reinforcements from the church, and the plumbers started showing up and everyone was baffled. But I didn’t pray about it because there are Nigerian School girls still missing and Isis is causing terror and a few of you were in the hospital and so I prayed to all of this instead.
On Saturday night at dusk it started to snow, hard, and with out of town guests due to arrive on Sunday and still no water, I went to one of you for a shower and another of you delivered more bottles of water.
Come Sunday afternoon, a handyman friend of mine called to tell me that he had just prayed for a fire-breathing dragon to land in the street outside my house to thaw the frozen pipes. “Well,” I exclaimed sarcastically. “Let me go the window right now and see if the dragon has arrived!”
Imagine my shock to see planted firmly outside the parsonage window, a bright yellow, one and a half story high Japanese Komat’su backhoe, with a man standing by it’s massive jaws holding a blowtorch, yes, to dig up the street and thaw out the pipes. The water then gushed out so profusely that a pump was needed to empty the hole chomped out of the ground. A dragon indeed! I’m not making this up.
Never underestimate the power of God. So often we see our concerns as a series of problems to be solved, and we roll up our sleeves to fix what’s broken. While God trusts us to participate in God’s plans, the initiation towards peace and reconciliation begins with God’s promise towards us. What if we started asking different questions when faced with a life challenge? What if instead of asking, “What’s the problem and how can we fix it?” we ask with trusting curiosity, “I wonder how the power of God will be revealed or made known in this?”
Then pray, and expect a dragon, or a burning bush.
Finally, incredulous with joy, I brought myself to pray. “Thank you, God.”
Prayer: Thank you God, for walking with me through this wilderness of Lent. Grant me this day an increased measure of trust in you. With childlike expectation, remind me to run the window of my soul, expectant to see your miraculous ways at work. Amen
God’s grace, mercy and peace,
Pastor Verlee
CAUTION: Members of our church have received emails this week supposedly from other members of the church asking to open google documents. Please resist the temptation to do so. These are not legitimate and could compromise your computer security. If it sounds fishy, it probably is.
COMING THIS WEEK
Leadership Retreat this Saturday 9-12, February 28, Fellowship Hall.
A Membership Conversation, Sunday at 11 a.m., March 1 in Pastor Verlee’s office.
