10:50 a.m.
3-17-20 FUMC Update
Good morning – afternoon – whenever you read this. This is the video message I posted on Facebook today. If you don’t have Facebook yet, the instructions were in yesterday’s email. Also, while I may be in the office this week, and Laquita is training our new Office Manager, WE ARE MAINTAINING the required 6 feet of distance between us. Please keep that in mind if you have to pick something up or drop anything off.
BUT WE CAN DO THIS! We MUST do this and the sooner we make the sacrifices NOW. The sooner we get ahead of this nasty little germ and the faster we can get back to normal! THIS IS A TEMPORARY NEW NORMAL and this too shall pass!
As you know we WILL worship together this Sunday at 10:50 a.m. right here on Facebook. So invite your friends who ALSO find themselves following the new guideleine. You heard them, right? For the next 15 days (and this will be re-evaluated), NO GROUPS larger than 10 should gather. ANY interaction with another person should be at least 6 feet apart – and if you’re sick – stay HOME and call your doctor.
AGAIN … WE CAN DO THIS! If you have elderly neighbors, call them before you go to the grocery store and offer to pick up a few things – or pick up a prescription. Social distancing is not in our nature but we can actually TALK to each other on the phone or engage on Facebook together. I think we should call this PHYSICAL distancing, not social distancing because we need social interaction!
Yesterday I talked about worry (attached) but today I want to talk about fear and this is the best scripture EVER, especially for this time … get ready to write it down … are you ready …
GOD did not give us a spirit of fear. We tend to muster up fear all on our own! GOD gave us a spirit of POWER, do you hear – of POWER for love and self-discipline! We will need love and self-discipline more than ever and if EVERYONE is responsible then this VIRUS … well, it too shall pass!
I couldn’t help but imagine a life without fear, worry, or anxiety.
THIS IS WHAT GOD WANTS FOR US … freedom from anxiety but it seems the things that is so difficult today is … the unknown. What will I do IF … How will I handle this WHEN …
If we stop to think about it, our lives are pretty much one large pile of unknowns. We take risks of one sort or another every day of our lives and most of these unknowns don’t trouble us at all. And if they do, we deal with them easily. But sometimes, we face an unknown that scares us, paralyzes us, and robs of us whatever peace of mind we might have enjoyed. Such an unknown can cause us to make terrible decisions.
Trust or turn back?
I was studying FEAR in the Bible this weekend and reading from the END of book of Numbers chapter 13:30-14:4. It’s a GREAT story of a choice the Israelites had to make after escaping from slavery in Egypt.
After they had fled across the Red Sea, God led Moses and the people to Mt. Sinai where He laid out the covenant within which God and the people would live together. This was a set of instructions for what it means to love God and to love neighbor, including the Ten Commandments. He also gave them instructions to build a movable home in which God would dwell with them.
Then God led them from Mt. Sinai to the borders of Canaan so that the Israelites might move into the land that God had promised to Abraham centuries before. Yet despite all this, the people seemed plagued and troubled by fears, doubts, and anxieties, sometimes even going so far as to wish they were still back in Egypt.
Time and again, they quickly forgot about their escape from Pharaoh and even the food God had rained down upon them from heaven (Exodus 16). Instead, they could see only the unknowns ahead and embrace only their own fears.
When the Israelites arrived at the borders of Canaan, at God’s instruction, they sent in a team of spies to check things out. Sensible enough. However, when the spies returned after forty days, they reported that though the land flowed with “milk and honey,” the Canaanites were simply too strong and as big as giants. In their fear, the people turned back, some even desiring to return to Egypt.
Despite their experiences with God, their experience of God, their faith was weak. They trusted God too little. They weren’t really sure that God would or could keep his promises. Indeed, their faith was not really placed in Yahweh, the God of Moses.
Rather, their faith was in a god of their own making, a god much too small to trust with life and death. So, led astray by this tiny god of their own conception, the people would wander aimlessly for forty years until they had died, until their children were ready to trust, fully trust, the God-Who-Is and begin their conquest of Canaan.
Trust or panic? LET’S CHOOSE TRUST.
Watch the video on Facebook tomorrow – I’ll try to post before noon.
Don’t forget … wash your hands, pray diligently and TRUST IN GOD.
Debbie Lyons, Pastor
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3-16-20 FUMC Update
But I will admit, this makes me take a deep breath and my mind goes into overdrive to think about: how will we take care of each other, how will we stay in touch, how will we worship? But then I remind myself:
Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Matthew 6:34
Again, I believe we have done the right thing, and your Church Council will be meeting tonight to talk about plans for the future. So I will email you all tomorrow with updates.WE ARE NOT ALONE!
– Please set your notifications to let you know when you DO get a text
As of today, our worship on Sunday reached 1,266 people (this does not include when more than two people listened together!). Perhaps this is one SMALL way that God is working for good! If we use the same metrics to determine how many full views we had (total minutes watched, 4,263, divided by the length of the worship, 43 min.) we had 100 full views. I PRAY we are reaching NEW people for Jesus Christ!
DO YOU NEED ANY ASSISTANCE? Picking up a few things from the grocery store, a prescription from the drugstore? PLEASE LET US KNOW! We will try to find volunteers to help you! I DO want to encourage everyone to stay safe which means following the CDC guidelines to stay six feet away from each other, but there is PLENTY we can do within that recommendation.
I know I am missing things so watch your emails …until then …
Debbie Lyons, Pastor
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3-05-20 FUMC Update
I hope your LENTEN season has gotten off to a great start and you have found a way to grow spiritually in this pre-Easter season of fasting, almsgiving, and prayer. As you know, our Wednesday night excess meal money will be going to the Methodist Children’s Home as part of our commitment to social holiness, but I hope you’re looking for other ways to deepen your faith during this very holy season.
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2-25-20 FUMC Update
Debbie Lyons, Pastor
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2-20-20 FUMC Update
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