Vicki's Wednesday Word

 Thoughts on Last Sunday's Text... Hebrews 12: 1-2  New International Version 12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. You cannot win a race if you have no idea what course to follow. Imagine that eight participants leave the gate at Fountain Square. They go in eight different directions. No one told them what path to follow. One may reach the finish line, unless they get detoured or take a wrong turn somewhere along the course. I don’t know if you’ve driven around the city lately, but it is very easy to get sidetracked or turned around in these parts! Life is the same. If you don’t know what direction to fol...

Thoughts on Last Sunday's Text... Hebrews 13:20-21  New International Version 20 Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, 21 equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Saying goodbye isn’t easy. When I retired six months ago, I said goodbye to the small group of people with whom I had spent an enormous portion of the last twenty years. I chat with them from time to time, but it isn’t the same as spending forty hours together week in, week out. Now, just as my husband and I are dismantling our fourteen-month-old Zoom set-up and returning to the church house, we are saying goodbye to our Pastor and family. For me, this is one of the hard parts about being a Methodist. The relationship between the leader of a congregation and its members can be a...

 Thoughts on Last Sunday's Text... John 3:16    New International Version 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. This is a love so big I can’t even begin to imagine its magnitude. God loves each and every single one of us that much. My parents loved me “no measurement.” That was our way of saying that no measurement in the world was big enough to adequately describe just how much we loved each other. God loves us more than that. What can I possibly do to respond to that kind of gift? I can try to love. I can try to love my husband and my family and my friends no measurement. I can try to love people I don’t know and even people who hurt me no measurement. Most important of all, I can work at loving God no measurement. I believe that is my purpose in this life. It is what I intend to do…something to pray about. Your sister in Christ, Vicki H.

 Thoughts on Last Sunday's Text... 1 Corinthians 12:12-14, 25-27 New International Version 12  Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many…25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. Through baptism we have been given new life, a life that acknowledges that we belong to God. Paul says that in embracing Jesus and his teachings we become one body. People who are like us and people who are very different from us all come together as one. Paul s...

 Thoughts on Last Sunday's Text... 1 Samuel 8:4-8 4 So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. 5 They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.” 6 But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. 7 And the Lord told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. 8 As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you.” Dissatisfaction with leadership is not a new trend, as we clearly see in this passage. I get the notion that human beings tend to want a parental figure, usually male, to be in charge. People want someone they can trust, someone they can believe in, who will take control of the aspects of life that they...