Midweek Message 11/04/2020

MIDWEEK MESSAGE #33

Good morning and welcome to MM #33!  I appreciate you taking some time from your busy day to cozy up and read this.

It sure is hard to believe Thanksgiving will be here in just a few weeks. Even amidst the year we have had time still seems to fly right on by us.  This came home to me even more as I have been working on sermons. I finished my two sermons involving Thanksgiving and have been working on my Christmas sermons.  Now, that will get you wired!  Christmas already?  Yep, in less than two months.  6 ½ weeks. 51 days. Sorry I don’t know the amount of hours, minutes and seconds. The math taxed my brain to figure out the weeks and days.  🙂  Anyway, time flies by us. I guess that is why one of my philosophies to enjoy life while I can. Make the best of it now. No, I’m not espousing my best life is now. I am saying that we need to live life fully and abundantly as Jesus said we could.  (John 10:10)

One of the “most fun” things I have done over the past couple of years is the Real Men Read program.  It was sponsored by the United Way in Bloomington. They asked for men to read to Kindergarten classes. Ryan was the first of us when he started reading to Cara King’s class at MCES.  He liked it so well I thought I would try it. I have been reading to Mrs. Lee’s class at SES for the past 3 years. The RMR program was suspended this year in Owen County (for some crazy virus thing) so I contacted Mrs. Lee about reading on my own. Tami, our daughter, is a Kindergarten teacher so she has plenty of books I can borrow and Mrs. Lee said that it sounded like a great idea. We have had to make some changes, like I had to read outside the first time. It has been cancelled several times for various reasons (one of them because it was raining) but today (Tuesday) I am scheduled to read. It has to be outside, which I am okay with. That may be sort of tough to do in the winter months though.  🙂  So I will enjoy it while I can.  Maybe I can do “Frosty the Snowman” one of those days!!  Given how cold it might be maybe I could find a book about Frosty and his popsicles. Okay…I can see you rolling your eyes as you read.  But then again, maybe I gave you a chuckle at my lame attempt at humor.

The past few weeks I have tried to focus on the youth area and highlight them some. This week I’d like to begin a couple of weeks focusing on some adults. During the pandemic when we were shut down, we were just one of many churches who were not ready for broadcasting our services. But that first Sunday, Tami took her iPhone and broadcast to our FB group. I heard I was like a bad Japanese movie- the audio and video were not in sync. Each week Tami worked hard at making it better and she succeeded. I was still like a bad Japanese movie. An actor I’m not. 🙂 Then someone donated money to buy some new equipment and the quality changed overnight. First, thanks to the person who made the donation! Second, I owe a big, huge shout out to Ryan for getting the equipment up and running! He was way out of his comfort zone when we started this. I can’t say enough about how Ryan persevered, wanted to give up, then kept going. Until…Joe Pavich stepped up to the plate. Man, Joe was a lifesaver. He saved Ryan’s sanity. And he saved a lot of headaches. Each week it improved. Joe trained Karen Turner to do the live stream and she now does the first service.  Austin, whom Ryan met while doing ministry at the high school, is now involved in helping with the second service. So my shout out this week goes to those involved in the streaming of our weekly services. Thanks Ryan, Joe, Karen and Austin!

One last thought: I mentioned earlier than I have been working on Christmas sermons. My theme is A Grand Production. (Every time I type that my fingers want to do “Grandi” instead of Grand. Why is that?) It hit me this morning how appropriate the Christmas message is. Today, Tuesday, is voting day.  I have no clue how it will turn out. Neither do you.  I would ask two things though: First, we all remain civil to each other even though we may disagree on our choices. Second, we pray for our country no matter the results. Only God can bring the spiritual revival which is needed. But what struck me as I worked on my sermon this morning was how relevant and how the Christmas message of “Peace on earth” is so desperately needed. And just think: we have the story to share.  There is no question our country is in an upheaval.  Hate speech. Mean acts. Vitriolic words. Cities burning. Peoples’ lives taken for granted.  I wrote a blog about what Jesus has done for E.VE.R.Y.O.N.E. because to Him All Lives Matter.  I based it on Romans 10: 9-17 where it uses the word “Everyone” twice and the word “All” once.  The love of Jesus is for all people-no matter their class, color, creed, political persuasion, lifestyle, status, job, or lot in life. He loves each one and offers His peace to all.  My prayer for you, for me, for our world, is to come to Jesus, the only One who can give the meaning to life so many crave.

Well, I’ll step off my soapbox and say thanks for reading.  I hope you have a great rest of the week. I say this seriously: I love you.

Pastor Bill

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