≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1ST —
Adair U.M.W. Meeting @ 9 A.M.
CASEY AD COUNCIL - 6:30 P.M. @ CASEY U.M.C.≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
MEALS FROM THE HEARTLAND launched its first
mass meal packaging effort for impoverished
countries in September 2008.
The first-time event attracted more than 12,000volunteers to Hy-Vee Hall in Des Moines, Iowa,
to package an astounding 4,000,000 meals in
just five days. WAY TO GO! GO! GO!
A little pride for these committed individuals!
• • • 2010 PACKAGING EVENT WILL BETHURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2ND,
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3RD,
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4TH AND
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 5TH.
Several Musical Artists are scheduled to entertain
the Package Artists.
• • • Packaged, meals are shipped around the globe
to the most starving countries. Millions of meals
have been shipped to Haiti, Jamaica, South Africa,
Nigeria, Mexico, and Israel.
≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
• • GUTHRIE COUNTY FAIR IS THIS WEEKEND • •
≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 5TH - SERVICES WILL
>>>>>>>SWITCH TIMES<<<<<<<
CASEY will begin worship at 9 A.M.
ADAIR will begin worship at 10:30.
Adair will have fellowship time before worship.
Casey will have fellowship time after worship.
––———————————————————————
This Sunday bring a family member, co-worker orfriend to worship as our "Christian Labor" this
holiday weekend. In the United Methodist Church
we have open communion so everyone is welcome
at the Lord's Table. As we celebrate The Lord's
Supper this weekend wouldn't it be nice to share
this time with special people in your life?
REMINDER - There is no intended connection
between the readings in the Revised Common
Lectionary during Ordinary Time.
Scripture Readings are:
JEREMIAH 18:1-11 (The Message)
At the potter's house: "Turn now, all of you from
your evil ways, amend your ways and your doings."
This text expresses so beautifully the nature of
judgment. Judgment absolutely is part of the
prophetic calling, and indeed part of the calling of
discipleship to Jesus.
Jesus never says, "Don't judge!" Instead he teaches,
"Don't judge with the idea in mind that by doing so
you will not also be judged by the same standards!"
In other words, "Do judge, but do so with humility
and integrity. Judgment is not about being angry at
an object or person or people judged.
It's about energy dedicated to righting what is
wrong, fixing what is broken.
The problem may not be a person at all.
1 God told Jeremiah,
2 "Up on your feet! Go to the potter's house. When
you get there, I'll tell you what I have to say."
3 So I went to the potter's house, and sure enough,
the potter was there, working away at his wheel.
4 Whenever the pot the potter was working on turned
out badly, as sometimes happens when you are
working with clay, the potter would simply start over
and use the same clay to make another pot.5 Then God's Message came to me:
6 "Can't I do just as this potter does, people of Israel?"
God's Decree! "Watch this potter. In the same way that
this potter works his clay, I work on you, people of Israel.
7 At any moment I may decide to pull up a people or a
country by the roots and get rid of them.
8 But if they repent of their wicked lives, I will think twice
and start over with them.
9 At another time I might decide to plant a people or
country,
10 but if they don't cooperate and won't listen to me,
I will think again and give up on the plans I had for them.
11 "Tell the people of Judah and citizens of Jerusalemmy Message: 'Danger! I'm shaping doom against you,
laying plans against you. Turn back from your doomed
way of life. Straighten out your lives.'
––———————————————————————
PSALM 139:1-6, 13-18 (UMH 854) (The Message)
This psalm as a response to the reading from
Jeremiah is how completely God knows us, inside
and out, and so how God can both judge us and
retreat from a harsh judgment when we repent.
PSALM 139:1-18
1 God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand.
2 I'm an open book to you; even from a distance, you
know what I'm thinking.
3 You know when I leave and when I get back; I'm
never out of your sight.
4 You know everything I'm going to say before I start
the first sentence.
5 I look behind me and you're there, then up ahead
and you're there, too - your reassuring presence,
coming and going.
6 This is too much, too wonderful - I can't take it all in!
7 Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit? to be
out of your sight?
8 If I climb to the sky, you're there! If I go underground,
you're there!
9 If I flew on morning's wings to the far western horizon,
10 You'd find me in a minute-you're already there waiting!
11 Then I said to myself, "Oh, he even sees me in the
dark! At night I'm immersed in the light!"
12 It's a fact: darkness isn't dark to you; night and day,
darkness and light, they're all the same to you.
13 Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you
formed me in my mother's womb.
14 I thank you, High God - you're breathtaking! Body
and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in
adoration - what a creation!
15 You know me inside and out, you know every bone
in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by
bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
16 Like an open book, you watched me grow from
conception to birth; all the stages of my life were
spread out before you, The days of my life all
prepared before I'd even lived one day.
17 Your thoughts - how rare, how beautiful! God, I'll
never comprehend them!
18 I couldn't even begin to count them - any more
than I could count the sand of the sea. Oh, let me rise
in the morning and live always with you!
––———————————————————————
PHILEMON 1-21 (The Message)
Paul tries to persuade a slaveholder (Philemon) to
emancipate his slave, Onesimus. Paul isn't making
a legal case for the release of Onesimus from
slavery, nor even a more general case that slavery
as an institution should be utterly abolished. It is
simply for the love of mankind.
1 I, Paul, am a prisoner for the sake of Christ, here with
my brother Timothy. I write this letter to you, Philemon,
my good friend and companion in this work -
2 also to our sister Apphia, to Archippus, a real trooper,and to the church that meets in your house.
3 God's best to you! Christ's blessings on you!
4 Every time your name comes up in my prayers, I
say, "Oh, thank you, God!"
5 I keep hearing of the love and faith you have for the
Master Jesus, which brims over to other Christians.
6 And I keep praying that this faith we hold in common
keeps showing up in the good things we do, and that
people recognize Christ in all of it.
7 Friend, you have no idea how good your love makes
me feel, doubly so when I see your hospitality to fellow
believers.
8 In line with all this I have a favor to ask of you. As
Christ's ambassador and now a prisoner for him, I
wouldn't hesitate to command this if I thought it
necessary,
9 but I'd rather make it a personal request.
10 While here in jail, I've fathered a child, so to speak.
And here he is, hand-carrying this letter - Onesimus!
11 He was useless to you before; now he's useful toboth of us.
12 I'm sending him back to you, but it feels like I'm
cutting off my right arm in doing so.
13 I wanted in the worst way to keep him here as your
stand-in to help out while I'm in jail for the Message.
14 But I didn't want to do anything behind your back,
make you do a good deed that you hadn't willingly
agreed to.
15 Maybe it's all for the best that you lost him for a
while. You're getting him back now for good -
16 and no mere slave this time, but a true Christian
brother! That's what he was to me - he'll be even
more than that to you.
17 So if you still consider me a comrade-in-arms,
welcome him back as you would me.
18 If he damaged anything or owes you anything,
chalk it up to my account.
19 This is my personal signature - Paul - and I stand
behind it. (I don't need to remind you, do I, that you
owe your very life to me?)
20 Do me this big favor, friend. You'll be doing it for
Christ, but it will also do my heart good.
21 I know you well enough to know you will. You'll
probably go far beyond what I've written.
––———————————————————————
LUKE 14:25-33
(The Message)
Jesus lays out the non-negotiables for those who
want to be his disciples: hate family and life, carry
the crossbar of a Roman crucifix as you follow
Jesus, and give up all your possessions. On the
face of it, the teaching here seems utterly offensive.
Hate your family? Take up a crucifix and follow
Jesus? Give up all your possessions? What kind of
cult leader is this Jesus guy? He meant something
more like "love me more than anything" and "try
your best" and "don't focus on material things."
We are called in this section of Luke's Gospel, to be
on guard against acquiring more possessions for
ourselves, and to treasure what matters to God.
25 One day when large groups of people were walking
along with him, Jesus turned and told them,
26 "Anyone who comes to me but refuses to let go offather, mother, spouse, children, brothers, sisters -
yes, even one's own self! - can't be my disciple.
27 Anyone who won't shoulder his own cross and
follow behind me can't be my disciple.
28 "Is there anyone here who, planning to build a new
house, doesn't first sit down and figure the cost so
you'll know if you can complete it?
29 If you only get the foundation laid and then run out
of money, you're going to look pretty foolish. Everyone
passing by will poke fun at you:
30 'He started something he couldn't finish.'
31 "Or can you imagine a king going into battle against
another king without first deciding whether it is possible
with his ten thousand troops to face the twenty
thousand troops of the other?
32 And if he decides he can't, won't he send an
emissary and work out a truce?
33 "Simply put, if you're not willing to take what is
dearest to you, whether plans or people, and kiss it
good-bye, you can't be my disciple.
≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 6TH —
THE OFFICE IS CLOSED TODAY.
THIS IS LABOR DAY IN THE UNITED STATES.
With many people out of work, this day represents
particular challenges and poignancy. Bless all who
labor, and bless all who seek to labor.
≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7TH —
BIBLE STUDY - ADAIR U.M.C. @ 9 A.M.
≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11TH —
9TH Anniversary of destruction
of World Trade Center.
I'm certain some areas of the country will hold aRemembrance Service for that day.
≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
FOCUS ON THE FUTURE —
• Confirmation class will be starting later in the month
of September. If you would like to help or have a
student interested in participating in the program
this year, please contact the church office.
• Do we have any 3rd grade students to give Bible's
to this year? If you have a 3rd grader we would
like to give him or her a Bible from the church.
Please call the office so we can set the date.
Angel Food Ministry coordinators Donna Sheeder
and Sharon Aupperly have retired from this
ministry effective the end of August 2010. A BIG
THANK YOU to them and their families along with
the many other dedicated volunteers who have
helped make this ministry happen. To Sharon
and Donna we want to say how grateful we are
for your many hours of dedicated service. To
those who would like to continue with Angel
Food Ministry the sight in Stuart is available.
Check out the Angel Food web sight for more
information.
≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
I wanted to introduce you to Eugene Peterson who
wrote the contemporary interpretation of the bible
called "The Message".
Author, poet, pastor and professor, he spent two years translating the Bible into "The Message", an
interpretation geared for contemporary readers.
The book has such wide appeal that U2's Bono
began quoting from it at concerts.
Peterson is a master story teller, and a prolific and
highly esteemed writer!
SOME EUGENE PETERSON BOOKS:
• Run With the Horses
• Traveling Light
• Reversed Thunder
• Leap Over a Wall
• Working the Angles
• Christ Plays in 10,000 Places
• Eat This Book
• Tell It Slant (Book of Luke)
• Practice Resurrection
• Living the Message
• Holiness Today
• Pastoral Library
• My First Message (Child's Book)
• A Long Obedience In the Same Direction
• The Invitation
• Under the Unpredictable Plant (Jonah's Story)
Peterson has neither cell phone nor email address,
so one must use snail mail to contact him. I have
never heard of anyone dozing off reading Peterson.
Wikipedia says he is retired from Regent College,
Vancouver, British Columbia and living in Montana.
He has 31 books listed to his credit,
(and by tomorrow, probably 32.)
Just a tidbit to chew on.
Thank you all for your muscle and magic this week.
God Bless and Keep You,
Pastor Lynn
