There is something that is powerful about coming together and being a people that can rally together to be a movement that brings about the kingdom of God to those who have lost hope and the light of the love of God is beginning to dim.

We are called ot change the world, to see that the promise of the joy of eternity with God does not just begin after we leave this life.  Rather that kind of joy we find in God and the hope we ave in Christ can begin TODAY, right here and right now!

But how are you going to be ONE that brings baout great things?  I think that one of the greatest sins of the church today is that we forget the call to do great things.  We settle for business as usual, when God is in the business of the unusual and unexpected.

How are you going to change the world today, this summer, this year and beyond?

I was looking for some dinner tonight and was marveling at
the awesome job of shopping that Katie did today with Eden. They
got great stuff, including some tricolored tortellini. As I look at
the different color of pasta I thought about the way that at our
core we are all called to the same thing, living a life in response
to the grace that God has extended to us. Put another way, loving
God with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength. But the way that
we go about this is very different. From our jobs to the way we
relate with others we are unique. And so like my pasta, that I am
saving for tomorrow night, we all have to live in to our two fold
call as God. First is the universal call that is the same for each
of us that speaks to our core or our God shaped hole. This is the
call to be God’s. The second is to be uniquely you and live out the
call to be the special creation that you are in your own way. Just
a thought from a guy debating about that to eat for
dinner.

I have a confession. I am a sucker for a high score.  I may seem like I am not much for keeping score, counting wins and losses and wanting to have good stats but I am.  I can get sucked into the dumbest things just because there is a way to track, or monitor progress and accomplishment.  This might be because I feel like it brings some order to a chaotic life and it may be that I am competitive to the core.  This is one of the reasons I have loved having a Garmin watch tell me how far I have run and biked in the past couple of years.  It keeps me motivated, on track and I can set goals.

So, with the dawn of a new year I am committing again to read through the Bible in a Year.  a site I have written about before YouVersion.com has found a way to track and “keep score’ of how well I am doing.  The site tracks your progress in your reading plans, has space to make notes and allows you to call an audible and catch up if you fall behind pace.  Though I am supposed to be on day 3 right now, I have read ahead to build a buffer and I am on day 6. 

If you would like to join me on the journey I would love it.  I am doing the reading plan called “The One Year Bible”.  Click here to check it out.  There are a ton of other reading plans too.  I did one throughout Christmas that went through the Christmas story scriptures. 

Let me know how you are getting into the word this new year.  I would love to share in the journey. 

During our last youth retreat we asked the students (and leaders) to graph their spiritual journey.  We gave them graph paper and some markers and told them that we all have spiritual mountain tops and valleys.  Playing some music we set them off to the task of self examination. 

When I was getting this exercise set up for them I thought that I would try it out and I got a lot out of the exercise.  As I went through it I found that I remembered things that I had taken for granted or forgotten.  I had many eraser marks on my paper and my journey was filled with a ton of ups and downs.  I was surprised where some of the dry times came and where I drew on God the most. 

Take some time in the next little while and try this out.  Find some paper and sketch out your spiritual journey.  Then perhaps map out where you would like to be in a little while. 

What are some ways that you could begin attaining your goal?

As I have struggled with trying to be more organized throughout the years and a better project planner, the one thing that I have come away with is that you need to know the next step.  It is easy to know what outcome you want to see.  It might even be easy to back down and break apart big goals.  But what is your next step (that you could do today) to meeting the goals you have set for yourself? 

Try it out!!!

This past weekend Bill talked about the way that we are called to be reflections of the Glory of God.

The text that he drew from was 2 Cor. 3:18–And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into  the same image from one degree of glory to another.

This is the transformation Wesley would have spoken about as being made perfect in love.

As i have been thinking about this over the weekend one question has been striking my mind.

What am I reflecting?

With all of the things that I have on my to-do list, all of the things I consume (being Music, TV and advertising from every angle) what do I reflect.  I have my devotion time in the mornings and some in the evenings if the morning gets away from me.  But i can’t help but ask if that is enough that i would then reflect God throughout my day to everyone that I encounter (both in person and though the various mediums that connect us today.

DO you feel like you are reflecting God’s Glory or something else?

How may you more faithfully reflect the thing you are called to reflect?

Are you like me and need a mid week boost to get you through till the weekend.  Well this week i have just the thing to help you out.  Check out the sermon from this past weekend from our 8:30 and 9:45 services.  It is our very own Victoria Tice.

She did such a great job talking about scriptures that mean a lot to her.

So, Take some time from your crazy day and get a boost from Victoria

MUMC Sermon July 11, 2010 from Middletown United Methodist Ch on Vimeo.

On the heals of the farmers market and yard sale sermon, we talked about watermelon at Fuel. We wrapped up our teaching series about the Fruit of the spirit with patience.  With the end of the school year and a bunch more time to spend with family, we thought it would be good to talk about patience.

We talked about how watermelon represents how we are a people who are not patient.

• we don’t like to be interrupted- watermelon is a social treat though.  I remember watching as a young adult of ours was so mad because her was trying to eat HIS watermelon that he grew and poeple kept asking for a slice.  By the time he was ready to get his slice he was really mad that he had been interrupted.
• We don’t like to be inconvenienced- it is hard to find watermelon with seeds these days because we don’t want to have to go through the trouble of spitting out the seeds.  we want everything right now and when we have to wait or work hard we get impatient.
• We don’t want to be irritated-nothing is worse than having too many watermelon and no place to put them.  Well the Japanese solved the problem by growing square stackable watermelon.  We all have pet peeves and they are the silliest thing.  We say things like “If only…then it would be ok.” But the truth is we are the ones that need the work, not the other poeple or things involved.

As we work to be a more patient poeple we need to look at ourselves and understand that we are guilty of being selfish and impatient.  We need to be around poeple who are positive and don’t drag us down.  And as we read in Psalm 40:1-5 when we wait on God with patience we find joy.  We have to depend of Christ to give us the strength to be a patient people.

I am really a nerd in so many ways (my sense of humor and selection of computer are no exception).  I am a PC guy who would love to be in the Mac world, but they just don’t play well together.  Many poeple say that they do but until you have a mixed network of Mac and PC machines you will realize that they don’t (not to mention that you would always have to purchase 2x the software).

The problem is that they two different computers don’t speak the same language.  Even files created in equivalent programs on the different platforms don’t always translate and play nice together.

The last Connected post I wrote was about the way that creeds bind us together, but there is also the pitfall in that they can separate and drive a wedge between poeple if we look at them as creating insiders and outsider, Christian and non-Christian, or in a bit more polarizing language “saved” and “unsaved”.

When the insiders create fences and build walls sometimes doors are not installed, so insiders remain insiders and outsiders remain outsiders and they don’t connect.  As the church we must always be opening the doors to everyone.  We are called to invite others into the Good News and new way of life that God has opened up to The Whole World through the life death and resurrection of Jesus.

We are all looking to live lived us purpose and that have meaning.  So as we enter into living life abundant, we must not only leave the door open for others, but welcome them in with language, service and hospitality that resonates with their hearts.

As our confirmation class wrapped up this past weekend we (the whole gathered body) joined in one voice and read The Apostle’s Creed.  We don’t often join in unison creeds, but there is some real value in being together in uniting together in this way.

Creeds allow us to understand what it is that we believe and affirm as Christians.  It allows us to draw from our common history, and tradition.  Creeds seem a great way to boil down our faith to the most core beliefs.  They are not intended to keep others out (more on that on part 3), but rather for the Catholic (universal) church to find unity.

This past weekend the scripture was John 17:20-26.  Here Jesus is praying for not only his disciples, but all of those who will come and hear the gospel through their ministry.  Unity of the church is one of the most powerful ways that we can witness to the Good New.

The bad news is that time and time again we (the church) play like we are on opposing teams.  Like church softball, but not just for fun.  In this way we turn many people off from church and likewise from them hearing and treasuring the Good News.  We need to remember that we are on the same team.  We can play and have conversation and disagree, but we must not lose sight of the fact 9perhaps one of the most important fact) that we need to stand united in the name of Christ.  We must be One Church Connected for the glory of God.

We have so many connections in our lives we don’t know what to do with them all.  On my birthday a couple of days ago I literally had hundreds of facebook wall posts, text messages, emails, cards, phone calls…. to wish me a good day.  In the same vain we neglect a great number of those connections while nurturing others.

Sometimes connections are just greater for some rather than others.  As I have been Reading Philip Yancy’s book “Prayer” (My first Yancy book ever that I can remember) something in the very beginning of the book caught my attention.  He writes that Prayer is, “a privilege and not a duty.”

I let that simmer for a bit as I thought about the way that I approach prayer.  I through about the conversations we had at Monday night small group about prayer and some of the primal questions the act of prayer brings with it.  Though there may be questions about prayer, there is also this overarching understanding that our connection with God does not in any way have to be the way that it is.

There is a connection that is made through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus that opens the door and the Holy Spirit then becomes the conduit for connection (or cell tower with full bars all of the time).  All we need to do is to plug in and get connected.

Prayer should not be looked on a a duty but as a relationship that takes discipline (like any other) so that it may grow.  Prayer offers an avenue for the veil between God and humanity to drop so that we might catch a glimpse of God in a new light.  Prayer allows us to take a break from the fast paced world where we feel we have to do everything.  It is an invitation to put down our baggage (if just for a bit) in hopes that we leave with less than what we came with.  Prayer is a way that we can be reminded of the grandness of the world is larger than just the slice of creation (or stack of mundane to-dos) that we have right in front of us at the moment.  It allow us to step back and see life from a different point of view.  It allows us to be us and lets God be God.