I hope that you have joined us in praying for revival for the last 40 days. I hope that you continue to go deeper in your prayer journey. This week during my devotions I read 1 Samuel 2:1-10. It is Hannah’s Prayer when she brought Samuel, the child she prayed for, to the temple to leave him in God’s service as she promised.

Some people refer to it as “The Magnificat of the Old Testament” because it is similar in theme to Mary’s Prayer in Luke 2 when she is told by the angel that she will bear Jesus. It’s a beautiful prayer, giving praise to God for the way He cares for his people.

Verse 4 caught my attention, “The bows of the warriors are broken, but those who stumbled are armed with strength.” This verse is one of many where God reverses the places of people – such as humbling the proud but lifting up the humble. In this case: the strong, the warriors have their weapons broken; but those who stumble are given strength.

May I be honest Friends? I often feel like the one who stumbles. I feel like I fail God far too often. It’s not that I commit some big sin, it’s little things. Did I waste too much time? Was I too busy to see an opportunity? Could I have been kinder to someone?

If you ask my loved ones, I’ve always been hard on myself. I suppose that’s part of it. But this verse was grace to me that when I feel like I’m stumbling through life, God gives me strength.

Todd asked me this morning if I was blogging about revival, or our theme of encounters. I hadn’t thought about it before, but I realized I was writing of my own encounter with God in the present. It was a reminder that when we pray, we need to pay attention to see what God is doing. We need to slow down and have the quiet moments to allow God to work in our hearts and through our lives.

I hope and pray this is happening for you as well. I know sometimes we feel like we can’t slow down. But sometimes I think that is a self-protective mode because we are afraid the work God wants to do may be painful. And it may, but we can trust Him that it is for our good.

Sometimes healing or growing feels like stumbling. But God will give us strength.

Grace & Peace,
Pastor Cindy

Photo by NEOM on Unsplash

This coming week is Election Day. Somedays it feels like the closer the election gets, the further it pushes us apart. I see and hear people make statements that infuriate me. I see and hear people make statements that make me want to cry.

For the most part, I hold my tongue. That’s how I was raised. I was taught that it was a privilege and a responsibility to educate yourself about candidates and to vote. I was also taught that your vote was your’s alone, you did not have to share how you voted with anyone if you didn’t want to. In fact, I think my parents didn’t always know how each other voted.

I was not taught to make judgements about people’s salvation according to whether they were Democrats or Republicans. I was not taught to treat someone poorly if they believed differently that me. It makes me sad when I see people treating each other so ugly, because it goes against all that Jesus said.

Galatians 5:13-15 is good advice election season. “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.”

God will not be surprised by whatever happens this week. God will still be God no matter who is in the White House or the State House. As we exercise our freedom to vote and to speak our minds, may we still love our neighbors, may we still be humble and kind.

Grace & Peace,
Pastor Cindy

Photo by Priyanka Puvvada on Unsplash

Ever been lost or left behind? I have and it was terrifying. The first memory I have like that I was eight years old and my parents and I went to Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO. My parents thought I was following them, but I guess I stopped to do something. I turned around and couldn’t see them anywhere. I looked around and saw a big ship at the end of the street. It wasn’t on water; it was just for a fun pirate theme. My little eight-year-old brain thought… “Oh, I can climb up high on those ropes and then I’ll be able to see them!” I started climbing and shortly I felt a tug on my ankle. It was my Dad, and he and Mom were mad that I ran off to play by myself! I know now they were just as scared as I was, if not more.

As Jesus followers, we don’t want other folks to get lost in their journey. When Jesus gave the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20, he didn’t only say to “Go and make disciples.” He also said to baptize them and teach them all he had commanded the disciples.

Teaching is what a Jewish Rabbi did. His disciples would follow their Rabbi constantly for several years before they would take on their on students. It wasn’t like a weekend class and you were done. It was a lengthy process, and for good reason.

Have you ever been shown how to do something once or twice and then left on your own? You don’t feel very confident and there is a lot of winging it going on before you really get the hang of things. Sometimes it’s necessary, but it’s not the best way to learn. As Jesus followers, we should work to do better. We should come alongside people, walk through life with them and teach them. They will likely also teach us something on the way also.

You may be wondering about the title of this blog. I read a question lately that I think we all need to ask ourselves. Is our church a holy huddle or a serving community? Do others think we are a group that gets together for a pep talk every Sunday to then go out and just try to live ethically? Or do they think we are a group that gets together to worship God and then work together to be good neighbors who serve our community?

Coaches don’t have their teams huddle and then do nothing. They huddle to plan, and then they take action. We should too. So, how will you serve someone in your community this week?.

Grace & Peace,
Pastor Cindy

It’s always interesting and sometimes amusing to me to see God at work. As we have recently
begun the Autumn season, I think of the lessons nature can teach us. There are rhythms to the
annual seasons: spring, summer, fall and winter. There are also rhythms to the seasons of our life:
infancy, childhood, youth and adulthood. We can fight the rhythms, or we can flow with them.
There have been many seasons of my life where God uses a variety of mediums to teach me
something. I read an idea or concept and then suddenly it’s as if I see or hear something related
to it all over from completely different sources: social media, authors I follow or the radio. It’s as
if I take notice of something, and God says, “She needs to hear that umpteen times to really get
the idea.” I think of it as him weaving different colors of threads from different places to make a
solid picture.

Currently, the idea God is weaving threads of is to examine what the world considers heroic vs.
ordinary. I studied this idea first in the book Holiness in a Restless World by Joshua R. Sweeden
and Nell M. Becker Sweeden. The Sweedens speak of how the idea of heroism has negatively
affected how we think about living a holy life. “In contrast to the heroic impulse, it is time for
Christians to recover what it means to be placed in the commonwealth of God – to locate
ourselves faithfully in the daily interactions and transactions of life with God’s creation.” (p. 12)
Secular heroes often have no real home or family connections to help guide them. In contrast,
Christians are to find their home among God and his people. Christians are not to isolate
themselves but rather be part of their communities.

So, imagine my surprise, when just a few weeks after reading about heroism in that way, I see
Pastor Todd’s title for September 29 – “Blessing Our Community: The Greatest Hero of All.”
Jesus is a hero. But not in the sense the people of his day wanted him to be. He never called
himself great. He often tried to avoid public attention.
Jesus said whoever wants to be great must become a servant. Jesus said that he came to serve.
Consider that a moment. Jesus, God’s Son, King of Kings, one who could command us to bow at
his feet…came to serve?!

Yes, Jesus was a hero. Just not in the way we were expecting. He was a hero because he engaged
and blessed those who needed him. Jesus spoke with and touched the lowest members of society,
the “untouchables”, and spoke harshly to those with wealth or standing who ignored the needs of
others.

If we are to be heroes in a positive way, we must follow Jesus’ example to bless and care for
those around us. Often that means caring for someone’s physical needs before we address their
spiritual needs. It’s difficult to ponder God’s love for you with an empty stomach.
If our hearts are really broken for lost people who need Jesus, we will befriend them. We’ll listen
to them with curiosity instead of condemnation. You never know where a conversation that starts
with kindness might lead! Author L.M. Montgomery said, “All things great are wound up with
all things little.”

I think that relates to another quote from the Sweedens. “Holiness is an encounter that occurs in
the improvisation of daily life. Scripture testifies to a God made known most commonly and
consistently in simple and ordinary ways. God comes to us in our humanity.” (Holiness p. 13)

I pray we will heroically bless our community in simple, ordinary ways!

Grace & Peace,
Pastor Cindy

Isaiah 9:6 – For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

The Origins of Advent

Advent is not a new tradition. Scholars believe that the Advent period was a season of preparation for new Christians as they move towards the Feast of Epiphany in January. Advent is rooted in the latin word for “arrival.” It seems that over time the Advent season became tied to Christmas sometime in the middle ages. Today, most Christians hold Advent dear as a time to focus on the coming of Christ and his birth story.

We are entering week 2 of Advent. The theme this week is Peace! This peace isn’t necessarily a respite from war. This word in the Hebrew is shalom. It more closely means complete or perfect. Jesus IS God’s peace. His perfection.

Peace on Earth! That’s right! Jesus is born. So, God’s peace, His shalom is now come to earth in human form! The angels proclaim it to all who can hear. Peace on Earth! This isn’t just an absence of conflict. This is the coming of tranquility and harmony. Jesus is the harmonizer.

“Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” Luke 2:14

Finding Peace in Today’s Christmas Season

The challenge is how do we find this peace in today’s hectic, over-marketed and under-spiritualized season of Christmas. It starts with an intimate seeking of God and his son. Read the Christmas story. Soak in the fact that God sent His peace to each of us. Set aside the fuss and reflect on what it really means to be in His Peace! If you can hone in on that peace this will be a Christmas to remember.

How do you find peace during this season? Share your own experiences or strategies for finding peace during the holidays.