OUR WEEK —
MARCH 3RD THROUGH MARCH 9TH
REMINDERS —
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27TH —
AD COUNCIL MEETINGS - CASEY U.M.C.
ADAIR MEETING AT 6 P.M.
JOINT MEETING AT 6:30 P.M.— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
LENTEN STUDY IN CASEY U.M.C. AT 7 P.M.
entitled “Condemned by the Righteous” from
“24 HOURS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD”.
FRIDAY, MARCH 1ST —
WORLD DAY OF PRAYER.
ecumenical movement of informed prayer and
prayerful action, organized and led by Christian
women who call the faithful together on the first
Friday in March each year to observe a common
day of prayer and who, in many countries, have
a continuing relationship in prayer and service.
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SATURDAY, MARCH 2ND —
MOVIE NIGHT IN CASEY LIBRARY @ 6:30 P.M.
This movie is a new one; “Argo”by Ben Affleck.
An historical drama of the 1980 joint CIA and
Canadian secret operation to extract six fugitive
American diplomatic personnel out of then
revolutionary Iran.
on Academy Award night to reveal the Best
Movie winner . . . . . . . . “Argo.”
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SUNDAY, MARCH 3RD, —
THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT
COLOR: PURPLE
HOLY COMMUNION TODAY
ISAIAH 55:1-9
THE MESSAGE (MSG)
A prophetic song in which God promises
mercy, pardon, and abundant provision to
those who repent and trust in God.
BUY WITHOUT MONEY
1-5 "Hey there! All who are thirsty,
come to the water!
Are you penniless?
Come anyway—buy and eat!
Come, buy your drinks, buy wine and milk.
Buy without money—everything's free!
Why do you spend your money on junk food,
your hard-earned cash on cotton candy?
Listen to me, listen well: Eat only the best,
fill yourself with only the finest.
Pay attention, come close now,
listen carefully to my life-giving, life-
nourishing words.
I'm making a lasting covenant commitment
with you,
the same that I made with David: sure, solid,
enduring love.
I set him up as a witness to the nations,
made him a prince and leader of the nations,
You'll summon nations you've never heard of,
and nations who've never heard of you
will come running to you
Because of me, your God,
because The Holy of Israel has honored you."
6-7 Seek God while he's here to be found,
pray to him while he's close at hand.
Let the wicked abandon their way of life
and the evil their way of thinking.
Let them come back to God, who is merciful,
come back to our God, who is lavish with
forgiveness.
8-11 "I don't think the way you think.
The way you work isn't the way I work."
God's Decree.
"For as the sky soars high above earth,
and the way I think is beyond the way you think.
Just as rain and snow descend from the skies
and don't go back until they've watered the
earth,
blossom,
producing seed for farmers and food for the
hungry,
not come back empty-handed.
They'll do the work I sent them to do,
they'll complete the assignment I gave them.
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PSALM 63:1-8 (UMH 788)
THE MESSAGE (MSG)
A Psalm of trust. "My soul thirsts for you, my
flesh faints for you - my soul is satisfied as with
a rich feast, my mouth praises you with joyful
lips."
PSALM 63
PSALM OF DAVID, WHEN HE WAS OUT IN THE
JUDEAN WILDERNESS
1 God-you're my God! I can't get enough of you!
I've worked up such hunger and thirst for God,
traveling across dry and weary deserts.
2-4 So here I am in the place of worship, eyes
open,
drinking in your strength and glory.
In your generous love I am really living at last!
My lips brim praises like fountains.
I bless you every time I take a breath;
My arms wave like banners of praise to you.
5-8 I eat my fill of prime rib and gravy;
I smack my lips. It's time to shout praises!
If I'm sleepless at midnight,
I spend the hours in grateful reflection.
Because you've always stood up for me,
I'm free to run and play.
I hold on to you for dear life,
and you hold me steady as a post.
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1 CORINTHIANS 10:1-13
THE MESSAGE (MSG)
Paul makes clear in verse 2 the context here is
one of reminding folks that even though they
have been baptized, the need for repentance, the
turning from other ways of life to life in Jesus
Christ, is continuous.The pattern of the baptized
life is to be one of trusting that God will not test
us beyond our strength.
warned. All our ancestors were led by the
providential Cloud and taken miraculously
through the Sea. They went through the waters,
in a baptism like ours, as Moses led them from
enslaving death to salvation life. They all ate and
drank identical food and drink, meals provided
daily by God. They drank from the Rock, God's
fountain for them that stayed with them wherever
they were. And the Rock was Christ. But just
experiencing God's wonder and grace didn't
seem to mean much—most of them were
defeated by temptation during the hard times in
the desert, and God was not pleased.
6-10 The same thing could happen to us. We
must be on guard so that we never get caught
up in wanting our own way as they did. And we
must not turn our religion into a circus as they
did—"First the people partied, then they threw a
dance." We must not be sexually promiscuous—
they paid for that, remember, with 23,000 deaths
in one day! We must never try to get Christ to
serve us instead of us serving him; they tried it,
and God launched an epidemic of poisonous
snakes. We must be careful not to stir up
discontent; discontent destroyed them.
11-12 These are all warning markers—danger!—
in our history books, written down so that we
don't repeat their mistakes. Our positions in the
story are parallel—they at the beginning, we at
the end—and we are just as capable of messing
it up as they were. Don't be so naive and self -
confident. You're not exempt. You could fall flat
on your face as easily as anyone else. Forget
about self-confidence; it's useless. Cultivate
God-confidence.
13 No test or temptation that comes your way is
beyond the course of what others have had to
face. All you need to remember is that God will
never let you down; he'll never let you be
pushed past your limit; he'll always be there to
help you come through it.
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LUKE 13:1-9
THE MESSAGE (MSG)
All of us, whether we think ourselves just or
unjust, Jesus had warned (13:2) are just as apt
to be fruitless and so doomed for destruction.
But there is an advocate, a gardener, Jesus
himself, who understands that we may be more
apt to produce fruit with good tilling, proper
nutrients and irrigation than merely by the
threat of the axe's edge.
UNLESS YOU TURN TO GOD
1-5 About that time some people came up and
told him about the Galileans Pilate had killed
while they were at worship, mixing their blood
with the blood of the sacrifices on the altar.
Jesus responded,
"Do you think those murdered Galileans were
worse sinners than all other Galileans? Not at
all. Unless you turn to God, you, too, will die.
And those eighteen in Jerusalem the other day,
the ones crushed and killed when the Tower of
Siloam collapsed and fell on them, do you think
they were worse citizens than all other
Jerusalemites? Not at all. Unless you turn to God,
you, too, will die."
6-7 Then he told them a story: "A man had an
apple tree planted in his front yard. He came to it
expecting to find apples, but there weren't any.
He said to his gardener, 'What's going on here?
For three years now I've come to this tree
expecting apples and not one apple have I found.
Chop it down! Why waste good ground with it any
longer?'
8-9 "The gardener said, 'Let's give it another year.
I'll dig around it and fertilize, and maybe it will
produce next year; if it doesn't, then chop it
down.'"
MONDAY, MARCH 4TH —
Office is closed today.
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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6TH —
• ADAIR U. M. W. WILL MEET AT 1:30 P.M.
TO STUDY “JESUS, BARABBAS, AND PILATE”
AT 7 P.M.
FRIDAY, MARCH 8TH —
Office closed today.
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FUTURE FOCUS —
SUNDAY, MARCH 10TH —
• ONE GREAT HOUR OF SHARING OFFERING
• DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME BEGINS.
SET YOUR CLOCK AHEAD ONE HOUR.
CHICKEN DINNER AT ADAIR COMMUNITY
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PUTTING LIFE IN PERSPECTIVE —
From Harvard Commencement address by
Dr. Fareed Zakaria - May 24, 2012
• This world we live in is, first of all, at peace —
profoundly at peace. The richest countries of the
world are not in geopolitical competition with one
another, fighting wars, proxy wars, or engaging
in arms races or “cold wars.” This is a historical
rarity. You would have to go back hundreds of years
to find a similar period of great power peace. I know
you are able to watch a bomb go off in Afghanistan
or hear of a terror plot in this country and think we
really live in dangerous times. But here is the data.
The number of people who have died as a result of
war, civil war, and, yes, terrorism, is down 50
percent this decade from the 1990s. It is down 75
percent from the preceding five decades, the
decades of the Cold War, and it is down 99 percent
from the decade before that, which was World War II.
• The political stability we have experienced has let
us create a single global economic system, in which
countries of the world are participating and even
flourishing.
•The United Nations estimates that poverty has been
reduced more in the past 50 years than in the
previous 500 years. And much of that reduction has
taken place in the last 20 years. Life expectancy
across the world has risen dramatically. We gain five
hours of life expectancy every day. A third of all the
babies born in the developed world this year can live
to be 100.
• To understand the astonishing age of progress we
are living in, just look at the cellphone in your pocket.
Many of you have them out and are looking at them
right now. (Don’t think I can’t see you.) The cellphone
has more computing power than the Apollo space
capsule. Our computing power doubles every 18
months, at our current rate.
• The number of college graduates globally has risen
fourfold in the last four decades for men, but it has
risen sevenfold for women.
• May I remind you that this country still has the
largest and most dynamic economy in the world, and
dominates the age of technology. It hosts hundreds
of the globe’s great companies, and has almost all
of the world’s greatest universities.
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• I'm not dismissing daunting challenges of the last
100 years: a depression, two world wars, a
Cold War, 9/11, and a global economic crisis.
We have overcome most of these challenges and
will continue to do so with human concern, human
action, and human achievement.
• When we look at the real problems we face —
economic crises, terrorism, climate change,
resource scarcity, new viruses - the human reaction
and response to them will be very real. I am
convinced that our focus and response will solve
these problems.
Humans will answer these needs as we have
for thousands of years: With intelligence, hard work,
discipline, courage, faith, loyalty and, above all, love
and a generosity of spirit.
This is a small portion of the address. You can
find it complete on line.
Be optimistic as you meet the challenges of the
week. Many of them require faith, love and a
generosity of spirit. In the end we will say
“Well done.”
God Bless and Keep You,
Pastor Melodee
