Who’s Your Jonathan?            You need a True Friend.
Who’s Your Barnabas?            You need an Encourager.
Who’s Your Peter/Paul?          You need a Yoda.
Who’s Your Nathan?               You need an Editor.
Where’s Your Jerusalem?       You need a Place.
The invisible 12^th You need the Paraclete.

I’m excited to begin this series and my prayer is that not only do we have each of these people in our lives, but that we are these people for someone else.  Invite someone to come with you to worship as we explore these relationships.

We had a wonderful time with Steve Smith of Haitian Island Ministries.  The combination of both Bell City UMC and Sadlers Chapel UMC special offerings totaled just over $5,000.00.  I give God thanks for allowing me to be a part of such extravagantly generous churches.

We will begin a new Bible study in the near future, I’m just not sure when.  I have ordered the DVD and participants guides for “The Power of a Whisper: Hearing God, Having the Guts to Respnd.’  This is written by Bill Hybels and promises to be a insightful study as Hybels challenges us to be more in tune to God’s voice.  But not only hearing God’s voice, also responding to His voice.  I will let you know when this study will begin and let’s fill up the Wesleyan classroom for this study.  It will only be a four week study.

It is Charge Conference time and ours is on November 15 at 7pm at Trinity UMC in Bloomfield.  We will be finalizing a few committee meetings between now and then and all are encouraged to attend the Charge Conference.

Again I want to thank the congregation of not only Bell City UMC but also Sadlers Chapel UMC for allowing me to be a part of what we are doing for the cause of Christ in our communities.

Serving Christ with you,

Pastor Andy

Over the next several weeks, we will visit the chapel, the study, the kitchen, and the family room as well as several other rooms in the Great House of God.  Now this house is not a house built with wood and bricks and mortar.  This is a house built of thoughts and truths and convictions and hope.  This is our spiritual house and every one of us has one.  Just as a physical house exists to care for the body, so the spiritual house exists to care of our soul.

I would be willing to bet you’ve never seen a house more solid.  The roof never leaks.  The walls never crack.  The foundation never trembles.  I would be willing to bet you’ve never seen a castle more splendid.  I’m sure the observatory stretched you.  The chapel will humble you.  The study will direct you.  The kitchen will nourish you.

I have very excited about what God is telling us these first three weeks and I am sure over the next several weeks God will move among us; God will stretch us; God will speak to us; God will use us to spread His word.

I know that with this being the middle of summer and many people go to the lake on Sunday or camping over a Sunday, but I want to encourage you not to miss a Sunday as God takes us on a tour through His great house.

And don’t forget about the covenant we all made together that first week of this series.  We all covenanted together to not just say the Lord’s Prayer but pray the Lord’s Prayer every morning and think about the rooms we have already visited.  Not only that but think about the others rooms we will visit as we continue following Jesus through the Great House of God.

With the Easter Season upon us and also the visits from the Easter Bunny, I found the following top ten list on the Internet.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I am a fan of the Easter Bunny especially since the Easter Bunny brings those wonderful Cadberry cream-filled chocolate eggs.  But we need to realize that we celebrate Easter and our hope for eternal life comes from our resurrected Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  So here is the Top Ten Reasons Why Jesus is WAY BETTER Than the Easter Bunny:

1. The Easter Bunny has big feet and a furry tail. Jesus did a big feat with wood and nails!

1. The Easter Bunny proves you can have too much of a good thing (chocolate). Jesus proves you can’t have too much of a God thing!

1. No one ever got sick of an over consumption of grace, mercy and forgiveness.

1. What would you rather have–dirty hands, or a clean heart?

1. The phrase, “He who has floppy ears, let him hear…” just doesn’t cut it!

1. Rabbits eat their fill from our gardens. Jesus said, “Not my will…” in the garden

1. What would you rather do?–Gain weight, or gain salvation?

1. Kinder eggs have a toy inside. The empty tomb means joy inside!

1. The Easter Bunny hides stuff, but Jesus brings all things to light! “He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts.”(2 Corinthians 4:5)

And the number one reason that Jesus is WAY BETTER than the Easter Bunny is:

1. Rabbits twitch their nose; but Jesus arose!

Share the Risen Lord with those around you and if they ask you if you really believe in all the Resurrection stuff, tell them, “I not only believe it, I AM COUNTING ON IT.”

I would rather wear the smudge on my forehead than to admit its residence upon my soul. I prefer a crude cross above my eyes to questions about the circles under my eyes and the look on my face. In a place where self-confidence is rewarded and any sign of weakness or emotional predisposition is held suspect, it is difficult to consider actually following the advice of the prophet to return to the Lord with fasting, with weeping and with mourning. It is, however, acceptable maybe even fashionable to appear in public with a dirty forehead as a sign that I have religion. It is amazing how the symbols of piety, sackcloth and ashes, have been transformed into mask that hides me from myself and circumvents the intent of Ash Wednesday.

Blow the trumpet in Zion, the prophet said. Not the trumpet that signals advance to war, or the trumpet that celebrates victory, but the one that warns trembling penitents that the day of the Lord is coming. Blow the trumpet that warns a penitent like me to wear the smudge of ashes long after my face has been washed and to admit the smudge on the one place that matters to God, my heart.

Blow the trumpet in Zion, the prophet said, and sanctify a fast (Joel 2:15). Hear the sounds of grumbling need in a world where few are filled and where we are overfilled. Today I am called to push away from the voracious consumption of everything in my path, for at least a little while, in hopes that I might realize something about the equitable distribution of the world’s resources before the fast is over.

Rend your hearts and not your garments, the prophet said (Joel 2:13). The gift of the day is personal reflection, a season of confession, and change. Start the arduous journey from shadow to substance, from ritual to reality, from facade to faith. Today, choose the harder course. It is easier to buy new clothing than to mend a soul.

Prayer: Lord, as I begin this year’s Lenten Journey, turn my attention to the things that matter most to you. Amen.

• Time with the family – this was an especially cherished time for me this year since Jeanne underwent successful surgery to fuse a couple of vertebrae and she had to take some time off from work to heal and Allen and Lisa stayed home during the day and helped to take care of their mom.
• The gifts that we exchanged on Christmas morning and the look on the kids faces when they opened theirs.  Allen and Lisa were very excited about the gifts they gave to me and Jeanne and that made the gift exchange time even better.
• Our family and friends – the support and prayers we received leading up to, during, and after Jeanne’s surgery.  All the Christmas cards we received from our friends at both Bell City and Sadlers Chapel.
• The wonderful Christmas Eve services both churches had.

And other thoughts came to mind as well.  These are just some of the most important ones to me.  But then I began thinking about the most important aspect of Advent and Christmas – the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  God loved us (you and I) so much that he sent His Son to be born a baby in a manger and that little baby grew up to be the most important person the world has ever known.

We know Him by many names – Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace, the Alpha and the Omega, the Bright Morning Star, the Root of Jesse – and these are just a few of the names of Jesus.  To me the most significant name is Emmanuel.  This name, which Matthew refers to in his Gospel (Matthew 1:23), was first given to Jesus by the prophet Isaiah 700 years before His birth (Isaiah 7:14). And this very special Christmas name, as Matthew tells us, means “God with us.” Jesus Christ is Immanuel, “God with us.”

In the baby Jesus, God is “with us” not merely to bless us in some sort of cameo appearance at one difficult moment in history.  Nor is God with us in that He is going to use Jesus to help us, protect us, and guide us.  No- the little Lord Jesus asleep in the manger of Bethlehem is “God with us” because He is God.  The true message of Christmas takes our breath away and continues to stagger the imagination: the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the only begotten Son of the Father, the eternal Word, our Creator wills to clothe Himself in our nature, and to become man, our brother, one of us.  God Himself lies in the manger, completely human, completely Divine.  The shepherds went back to the fields rejoicing in Luke’s marvelous Christmas story and the wise men bow down in wonder, awe and worship in Matthew’s account because they realized what was unfolding before their very eyes: they were in the presence of their Creator made man, of the Word made flesh, of God becoming one of us.

The name Emmanuel is also alluded to at the end of Matthew’s gospel where the risen Jesus assures his disciples of his continued presence,”… I am with you always, until the end of the age” [28:20].  God did indeed keep his promise in Jesus. Jesus truly fulfills the plan of God in word and deed, in desire and presence, in flesh and blood.

Let us give thanks to the God and Father of Jesus who writes straight with the crooked lines of our own lives and of human history.  May Emmanuel find welcome in our hearts and take flesh in our lives at Christmas this year.  And may we come to understand that Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, “God with us”, is with us not just at Christmas but every day of the year.

It’s time to start cooking that favorite dish of your children and grandchildren and even the pastor.  It’s time to start driving at break neck speed to visit the relatives.  And we drive back home at break neck speed so we won’t be late for the Christmas party.  I think you get my drift here.  We all are just so BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!

Have you ever wondered if that is what God really wants us to be doing with our time during the Advent season leading up to Christmas Day and on into the New Year and Epiphany?  I’m not exactly sure that’s what God really wants us to be doing anytime but especially during this most wonderful time of the year.

When God became human in the form of Jesus Christ, He did so so that we could have a relationship with Him.  In the busyness of our lives, that relationship sometimes takes a back seat.

The word Advent means “coming” or “arrival.” The focus of the entire season is the celebration of the birth of Jesus the Christ in his First Advent, and the anticipation of the return of Christ the King in his Second Advent. Thus, Advent is far more than simply marking a 2,000 year old event in history. It is celebrating a truth about God, the revelation of God in Christ whereby all of creation might be reconciled to God. That is a process in which we now participate, and the consummation of which we anticipate.

In preparing for the arrival of Jesus, we need to pause from all the busyness that we “think” we have to be involved in and reflect on the First Advent, the birth of Christ, and ready ourselves for the Second Advent when Christ returns.

I found the following while searching the Internet for Advent material:

10 Christmas Commandments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anonymous

“The following item appeared in a church newsletter and contains some good advice that will help us keep selfishness in check this Christmas:

1. You shall not leave ‘Christ’ out of Christmas, making it ‘Xmas.’ To some, ‘X’ is unknown.
2. You shall prepare your soul for Christmas. Spend not so much on gifts that your soul is forgotten.
3. You shall not let Santa Claus replace Christ, thus robbing the day of its spiritual reality.
4. You shall not burden the shop girl, the mailman, and the merchant with complaints and demands.
5. You shall give yourself with your gift. This will increase its value a hundred fold, and the one who receives it shall treasure it forever.
6. You shall not value gifts received by their cost. Even the least expensive may signify love, and that is more priceless than silver and gold.
7. You shall not neglect the needy. Share your blessings with many who will go hungry and cold if you are generous.
8. You shall not neglect your church. Its services highlight the true meaning of the season.
9. You shall be as a little child. Not until you become in spirit as a little one are you ready to enter into the kingdom of Heaven.
10. You shall give your heart to Christ. Let Him be at the top of your Christmas list.

Anyone keeping these commandments is sure to have a blessed Christmas.”

May we all pause from our busyness to recognize and receive the greatest gift ever given: the gift of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.

Pastor Andy

We live in a world in which bigger and better define our expectations for much of life. We have become so enamored by super size, super stars, and high definition that we tend to view life through a lens that so magnifies what we expect out of the world that we tend not to see potential in small things. But as the prophet Zechariah reminds us (Zech 4:10), we should not “despise the day of small things,” because God does some of his best work with small beginnings and impossible situations.

It is truly a humbling experience to read back through the Old Testament and see how frail and imperfect all the “heroes” actually are. Abraham, the coward who cannot believe the promise. Jacob, the cheat who struggles with everybody. Joseph, the immature and arrogant teen. Moses, the impatient murderer who cannot wait for God. Gideon, the cowardly Baal-worshipper. Samson, the womanizing drunk. David, the power abusing adulterer. Solomon, the unwise wise man. Hezekiah, the reforming king who could not quite go far enough. And finally, a very young Jewish girl from a small village in a remote corner of a great empire.

It never ceases to amaze me that God often begins with small things and inadequate people.  It certainly seems that God could have chosen “bigger” things and “better” people to do His work in the world. Yet if God can use them, and reveal Himself through them in such marvelous ways, it means that He might be able to use me, inadequate, and unwise, and too often lacking in faith that I am. And it means that I need to be careful that I do not in my own self-righteousness put limits on what God can do with the smallest things, the most unlikely of people, in the most hopeless of circumstances. I think that is part of the wonder of the Advent Season.

I am convinced that one of the main purposes of the incarnation of Jesus was to provide hope. While most people today want to talk about the death of Jesus and the Atonement of sins, the early Church celebrated the Resurrection and the hope it embodied. It was a proclamation of a truth that rang throughout the Old Testament, that endings are not always endings but are opportunities for God to bring new beginnings. The Resurrection proclaimed that truth even about humanity’s greatest fear, death itself.

Both the season of Advent and the season of Lent are about hope. It is not just hope for a better day or hope for the lessening of pain and suffering, although that is certainly a significant part of it. It is more about hope that human existence has meaning and possibility beyond our present experiences, a hope that the limits of our lives are not nearly as narrow as we experience them to be. It is not that we have possibility in ourselves, but that God is a God of new things and so all things are possible (Isa 42:9, Mt 19:26, Mk 14:36)

God’s people in the first century wanted Him to come and change their oppressive circumstances, and were angry when those immediate circumstances did not change. But that is a short sighted view of the nature of hope. Our hope cannot be in circumstances, no matter how badly we want them or how important they are to us. The reality of human existence is that God’s people experience that physical existence in the same way that others do. Christians get sick and die, Christians are victims of violent crimes, and Christians are hurt and killed in traffic accidents, bombings, war, and in some parts of the world, famine.

If our hope is only in our circumstances, as we define them to be good or as we want them to be to make us happy, we will always be disappointed. That is why we hope, not in circumstances, but in God. He has continually, over the span of four thousand years, revealed himself to be a God of newness, of possibility, of redemption, the recovery or transformation of possibility from endings that goes beyond what we can think or even imagine (Eph 3:2). The best example of that is the crucifixion itself, followed by the resurrection. That shadow of the cross falls even over the manger.

Yet, it all begins in the hope that God will come and come again into our world to reveal himself as a God of newness, of possibility, a God of new things.  This time of year we contemplate that hope embodied, enfleshed, incarnated, in a newborn baby, the perfect example of newness, potential, and possibility. During Advent, we groan and long for that newness with the hope, the expectation, indeed the faith, that God will once again be faithful to see our circumstances, to hear our cries, to know our longings for a better world and a whole life (Ex 3:7).  And we hope that as he first came as an infant, so he will come again as King!

My experience tells me that those who have suffered and still hope understand far more about God and about life than those who have not. Maybe that is what hope is about: a way to live, not just to survive, but to live authentically amidst all the problems of life with a faith that continues to see possibility when there is no present evidence of it, just because God is God. That is also the wonder of Advent.

First, we had the Mission Blitz on Saturday morning.  At 7am, on a Saturday morning no less, 15 church members arrived at the church.  After a wonderful breakfast and prayer, the group headed out to make an impact on the community of Bell City, and, man, did they ever.  The group went to Main Street and washed the windows of the all the businesses.  They swept the sidewalks and in between all that they handed out vouchers to people that can be used at local businesses on behalf of Bell City UMC.  The group then went to the Bell City Apartments and swept sidewalks and cleaned cobwebs off building and just generally cleaned up around that area.  One in the group was met by a resident who said that they could not have come at a better time.  They also met a pastor from Sikeston who was curious about what was going on.  He was told about the Mission Blitz and said he would be interested in participating next year.  Vouchers were also handed out at the apartments.  Several in the group went out and visited with several of our members who are unable to get out.  They said their visits were more than welcome and that those they visited were grateful for the church.  In the end, I was told that those who went out as the hands and feet of Christ were the truly blessed ones.  As a church, we made an impact on Bell City, but I truly believe that this ministry, led by our lay leader, George Rendleman, made a huge impact on Bell City UMC.

While being the hands and feet of Jesus Christ was still fresh on our minds on Sunday morning, we invited Steve and Terry Smith and Melissa Sample of Haitian Island Ministries to come and share with us what is going on in Haiti.  We heard a wonderful message from Steve where he read from the first chapter of Paul’s letter to the Philippians.  He emphasized the word “partnership” found in verse 4 and stated that because of the church’s partnership with Haitian Island Ministries many thousands of children will not go hungry.  He them turned the presentation over to Melissa who showed several pictures of the children in Haiti and the schools being built in Haiti and how through your financial help more schools are being built and more children are being fed.  Terry closed the service and talked about the offering we as a church gave them last year.  She told us the amount and that the amount given would fully fund the feeding program for sixteen months.  In my opinion, it gets better from there.  When Steve, Terry, and Melissa were finished, we took up a second offering for the morning with the entire amount of this offering going to Haitian Island Ministries.  I can tell you that the total amount of this offering was the biggest we have ever given to Haitian Island Ministries and it totaled $1,738.14.

But the weekend was not done.  Pleasant Hill Church had a singing Sunday afternoon.  There were approximately 38 people in attendance and 18 of them were from Bell City UMC.  We sang and praised God for almost two hours and it was just a wonderful way to end a truly incredible weekend.

Here is something for you to try.  I came across the “Gratitude Salute.”  This salute initially began to show our gratitude for those who have served in the military on our behalf.  Many times you may have seen a soldier in the establishment that you are in at that time (it may be a restaurant or the grocery store or the airport) and you wanted to thank that person but you didn’t know what to say.

Well next time, try the “Gratitude Salute.”  Simply, place your hand over your heart, then you just bring your hand down and out in front of you with your palm up.  This simply means “Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

As Christians, we should offer God the “Gratitude Salute” and not with just a single gesture, but with our whole body, mind, and spirit; with our whole being.  And not just one time, but every time you wake up in the morning and go to sleep at night, and as much as possible in between.