Pride - by Rev. Sheila Cumbest

Read Matthew 25:31-46 https://biblia.com/bible/Matthew25.31-46#

Lent is particularly a season of the Christian year that makes me glad I’m in a church that uses the Christian year.  You might say, “Really?”  I really am glad to have a season that forces me to reflect in depth at what sin have I let take hold of me.  Of all the sins that known as deadly, pride is probably the death trap that we can slip into very easily without realizing it.  How do we know we’ve gotten there?  Whenever our religious life is making us feel that we are good, or above all, better than somebody else then we’ve let Pride enter.  Our real test is can we forget about ourselves?

Matt. 25.37 says,

“then the righteous will answer him…”  Has our self-righteousness blinded us?  The opposite of pride is humility.  The first step toward humility is realizing you are prideful.  Righteousness is only through God’s grace and not of our own doing. 

C.S. Lewis, in The Joyful Christian, said “the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride….Pride leads us to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.”

I don’t know about you, but I can easily think that I have gotten everything right.  I begin to measure everyone else by my standards. 

As you search your heart this Lenten season, ask yourself what sin is it that you struggle with most.  And dwell on the Psalmist’s word in Psalm 143:1-2

… hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my supplications in your faithfulness; answer me in your righteousness.  Do not enter into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you.  

Oh Lord, My Strength and My Redeemer - by Jane Sikora

Read: Psalms 119: 105-112 https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Ps119.105-112

Wayne and I were married twenty-eight years when he got sick. We both had a gastro-intestinal upset in March and I got over it but he continued to have problems.  In the next two months he became jaundice and just didn’t have much energy.  After many tests and procedures we were referred to Oschner hospital in New Orleans for further procedures and hopefully a diagnosis.  In July they determined he had a very small tumor at the junction of his stomach, small intestines and gall bladder. He was scheduled for a Whipple procedure to remove the tumor and reconnect that junction.  The recovery from this was slow.  Then we traveled to MD Anderson for treatment options.  It was cancer and required chemotherapy that could be done in Gulfport.  In September he started his treatments. That day was his best day in months. He was able to eat and called several people on the phone that afternoon. We found out later that many of his co-workers at WLOX had a prayer meeting at the same time as his treatment. Through all of this Wayne continued to read his Bible and strengthen his faith.  Two weeks later he developed a pulmonary embolism and died. 

There is NO DOUBT in my mind that he is in heaven.  He was a much stronger Christian than I and better Methodist than I’ll ever be. GOD,

The church family, our Sunday school class (Scrap Iron) and Christian friends got our family through this crisis. PTL

Dear God, “ Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight.  O LORD, my strength and my redeemer!”

Amen.  Psalms: 19:14

God is Unchanging - by Jason Thornton

Forever, O Lord,
Your Word is settled in heaven.
Your faithfulness endures to all generations.                                                       
                       Psalm 119:89-90
                                                            
God Himself says: “I, the Lord, do not change” (Malachi 3:6)
With God “there is no variation or shadow of turning” (James 1:17). “Jesus Christ is the same. The same yesterday, today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8)

He is immutable—unchanging. He is not loving one moment and wrathful the next. His wrath coexists with His love; therefore, the two never contradict, even when by human logic they seem in opposition. Such are the perfections of God that we can never begin to comprehend these things. Above all, we must not set aspects of God's nature against one another, as if there were somehow a discrepancy in God. God is always true to Himself and true to His Word (Romans 3:4; 2 Timothy 2:13). We can trust that His love and justice truly will remain steadfast forever (Psalm 136).

The Lifting of the Holy Hands - by Gwenda Wells

This is the day that the Lord has made,

I will rejoice and be glad in it.

Every morning when I get on my knees and thank God for watching over me while I slept, my heart rejoices thinking, “this is the day that has never been,” I am blessed.  Over thirty-five years ago when I faithfully started studying the Bible (basic instructions before leaving earth), I realized that as I understood what I learned I must live it out to reap the benefit.  When I read Psalms 141:2b “the lifting of my hands is like my evening sacrifice” as incense wafting up to God, I had a new outlook for the reason that I lift my hands in praise to God.

On Tuesdays, I accompany Micquel to Millcreek in Moss Point, MS where several of the clients greet us upon our arrival.  One gentleman, with a speech impairment, can not dress himself or even raise his hands above his chest, waits in his wheel chair until he can greet us hopefully without interruption.  He reminds of the man in John 5:5-7 who had been invalid for thirty-eight years, told Jesus that he has no one to help him get into the pool when the water is stirring.  The gentleman at the center asked me, “Did you go to church on Sunday?”  It always blesses me to share with him and his excitement is overwhelming.

While I am telling him about the sermon and Sunday School, he is always in high praise, lifting his hands as high as he can, bouncing up and down in that wheelchair and smiling as if he can see Jesus.  When I finish, he always says, “you gonna make me shout in here.”  To see this man raising his hands as high as he can and bouncing up and down in the wheelchair is a sight that has to glorify God.

When I share this story with different ones I can just see this man jumping with his hand going up and down, praising God in the highest.  Oh, my God what a sight that You allow me to experience.

God, let us be thankful for our life, whatever the situation, let us realize that You know the ending before You started the beginning.

Psalms 150: 6 – Let everything that has breathe praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord!

Judge Not - by Rev. Elijah Mitchell, Associate Pastor

“Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it shall be given unto you: good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over…”   Luke 6:37-38

The writer is saying, we are to act like Jesus in our compassion for others. We are not to condemn anyone. We are not good enough or smart enough to decide someone else eternal destiny. Jesus was not saying that we are never to make evaluations. We are told to know people by their fruit, guard against false prophets, admonish one another, and discipline one another. But that type of judging is to help people, not hurt people.

The point is, we never are to give up on people. We are to reach out to them with love and be willing to forgive them when they do wrong. Unforgiving spirits among Christians are major barriers that keeps the church from making the impact it should in the community and city.

Then, Jesus promised that Christians will be rewarded in proportion to our broadness of our practices.  It is the law of the harvest:

“If we give sparingly we shall reap also sparingly: and if we give bountifully we will receive bountifully”   (2 Corinthians 9:6).

When we plant seeds of generosity, showing the mercy of God and being strengthen by His love, we can be generous and merciful to other people. Every 60 seconds, a child in Africa dies of Malaria. “This preventable and treatable disease transmitted through the bite of a mosquito, claims 655,000 lives each year”.

Lent is a good time to think about our relationship with Jesus and how our relationships affects our love and care for one another.

During this Lenten season, as a church family, let’s pray and support the “Imagine No Malaria” initiative of The United Methodist Church during the 2017 session of the Annual Conference.  The world does not understand the meaning of Luke 6:38. If people did understand, it would change their whole lives.

Prayer: Lord, we seek to know Your Word that we may know Your will, help us not to know Your will without doing it. In Your name, Jesus. Amen!

Favorite Fragrance - by Nancy Lemon

For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing;         2 Corinthians 2:15

As I was doing my Bible study this morning, the above scripture was quoted and it brought to mind something that happened many years ago.  My friend came over for coffee and brought over a huge bag of hand-me-downs.  Her girls were just older than mine and she was always so sweet to share! My girls loved it and took great delight in trying on EVERYTHING and having their own fashion show.  That afternoon my youngest daughter came in from kindergarten and said,"When was Miz Moreton here?"  I was really surprised and asked how in the world did she know she had been here? Her response, even more shocking, : I could smell her!  The Moretons were our wonderful friends. We visited in their home, our kids played together, went to Horn Island together so she knew their "fragrance ".

That starting my wheels turning: was my fragrance for Christ as noticeable.  When I meet new people, is it obvious that I am His? Do people know from my words and actions that I am a follower of His? As you go about your day today, be aware of who you are and whose you are and reflect that to others.

Prayer : Lord, make me ever aware that I am yours and want others to see You in me.  Amen

Call Upon Me - Joan Simpson

“Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which

you do not know.”                           Jeremiah 33:3

One Sunday a friend of mine came over and we went and shared lunch together.  We came out of the restaurant and she couldn’t find her cell phone.  So we spent time looking in her car and then we went back to the church to see if it was there.  No one had turned a phone in to the church.  Then we really did some praying at my home. My friend felt led to go back to the church and she found her cell phone on the left side of the road.  We both rejoiced in how we had called upon the Lord and how He had answered our prayers.  Great is His faithfulness.

Prayer:  Thank you Lord that we can call upon You and You answer us and show us great and mighty things.  Amen.