Raggedy Ann turns 95! - Local News - Rochester, NY - News - msnbc.com

For those who were wondering whose birthday it was --

Raggedy Ann turns 95! - Local News - Rochester, NY - News - msnbc.com

Bring the Rain

I was listening to Mercy Me's Bring the Rain earlier today. It seems to me that rain can signify three things:

1. The storms of life that God uses to shape us
2. The showers of blessing that can cleanse us when we have strayed
3. The cool nourishment that we need to sustain us

May I experience all three today.

New Word - Massefer

My wife's newest word - Massefer

Definition - "The appearance of a Shih Tzu when sleeping in a circle and his tail is intertwined with his or her head."

Typical sentence: "When my dog is sleeping on the bed, he is a real massefer."

Yours because His,

Pastor Patrick

Saying Goodbye

    Saying Goodbye    

        How do you say goodbye to a church.  It seems like an easy question.  Pastor's leave churches all the time.  They learn to say goodbye.  But sometimes it is more than a pastor or a pastoral team saying goodbye to a church.  Sometimes it is a community saying goodbye to its focus.  Sometimes it's saying goodbye to a lifetime of spiritual support.  Sometimes it is more than just saying goodbye.

            And that is happening in Garland.  A church with a 187 year history is closing its doors.  What are the loses that our people are feeling:

• There is the family whose roots go back four generations.  Though they now have another church home, they have taken the responsibility for saying goodbye the church for their family.
• There is the family who came to our church three years ago - even before they were a family.  They said their vows a little over two years ago.  Now the only church they have known, is closing its doors.
• There is the neighbor who has never attended church here, but has come faithfully to our Turkey and Ham Dinners and the annual Strawberry Festival in June.  Recently, as we struggled to survive, they also have supported our new Roast Beef Dinner (in August) and the new Rummage Sale held each May.  These events will be missed in our community.
  
• There are others.  Families who have supported, both by their attendance and their giving, the Garland Church.  They too have to find ways to say goodbye.  
• There is the pastor that came 7-1/2 years ago to a struggling, hurting, and broken church.  He hoped to see it grow - and it did in ways.  Just not in numbers.  The hurt that was felt too many years ago never quite went away.  This was the same pastor that has married, baptized, confirmed, taught, preached, and walked with others as they said other kinds of goodbyes.  It was this pastor that worked through the God and Country Award with a group of Girl Scouts for three years.  It was this pastor who took a group of teens through confirmation class - including the overnight retreat.  It was this pastor who cried when he heard the church had decided to close its doors.

Saying goodbye is not just saying goodbye.  "Goodbye" is a reflection on all that has gone before.  On December 31, 2009, we say goodbye to the Garland United Methodist Church.

Trapped?

I learned this week that baseball games can be dangerous. Oh, they are good about warning foul balls or thrown bats. But their is a danger that is not covered by the regular disclaimers. It was last week when a young girl, 4 or 5 years of age, got her head caught in the railing which follows the stairs up into the stands. And tonight, a young man of about the same age got his foot caught in the seat. Both were painful reminders that a ball park can be a dangerous place.

But it would seem that there might be spiritual lessons as well. To many times we think the things we find in life are safe, but when we get to involved with them, like those two children, we find that they do not match with what God expects - they are, in fact, dangerous. What am I, what are you, doing that seems safe, but is dangerous to my spiritual life?

Personal Statement of Faith

A Personal Statement of Faith

Using the model of E. Stanley Jones, I want to examine the truths that have defined my life over the last 35 years. It is not intended to represents the faith of the church I serve (a small United Methodist congregation) or the church with whom I hold my ordination (The Wesleyan Church); rather, it is intended to be a personal statement of faith that has developed from my personal study, my training, and my experience with a loving God.

I expect that this will be a growing list - but I also expect it to be finite at any given time. I can never know God in His entirety, but I can know Him personally. The next step, perhaps a lifetime task, will be to add scripture and references in support of the statements given below.

Floyd H. Johnson

1. God exists
2. God is all knowing, all powerful, and always present (omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent)
3. God is love
4. There is a Trinity, consisting of three persons, yet one God
5. The Father is God
6. The Son is God
7. The Holy Spirit is God
8. Scripture is inerrant - God so prepared the authors of scripture that they wrote without error what God intended for them to write.
9. I am more concerned with how we view and use scripture than what we call it - though the original writings were inerrant, we do not have an inerrant copy
10. Jesus is God's Son
11. Jesus never sinned
12. Jesus gave His life for our sins
13. Jesus died, was buried, and rose again on the third day.
14. Man and woman are God's creation
15. All have sinned
16. All need God's forgiveness
17. Christians do sin
18. Christians know that God has forgiven them
19. God does not force his grace on us
20. God's perfect Son died on the cross for everyone
21. We must choose how to respond to Jesus
22. There are consequences (both in the present and in the future) for choosing Jesus-this is salvation
23. There are consequences (both in the present and in the future) for rejecting Jesus
24. The Holy Spirit is given to all who choose to believe - the indwelling of the Holy Spirit
25. But, just as we must respond to Jesus, so must we respond to the Holy Spirit
26. When we respond to the Holy Spirit, we are filled with the Holy Spirit
27. There are consequences (both now and in the future) for responding to the Holy Spirit
28. There are consequences (both now and in the future) for rejecting the ministry of the Holy SpiritThe church is Christ's representative on earth - His body
29. Christ has commanded us to individually be baptized and corporately receive communion
30. Jesus will return

Let's Talk About Sin

Let's Talk About Sin

   

I have been told that it has become unpopular to talk about sin.  Some would say that it has become politically incorrect to refer to sin in the 21^st century.  In a world where we learn and see daily that anything goes, how can one speak of doing something wrong.

   

Yet, of course, we do.  Though "anything goes" we still live in a world of laws - laws made by man.  We do not like to speak of laws that come from a being higher than ourselves, laws that come from God.  Once we focus on laws made by God, we hit the law of immutability.  As long as we only derive our lifestyles from man made laws, we are free to change the law.  But once we admit that God also has laws, we are not free to change those laws.  We must do our best to free ourselves from God's Laws.  We hear that "God does not exist", "God is dead", or "God is irrelevant".  

   

Yet we do want to hear about the more positive gifts that come from God - things like "forgiveness", "grace", "mercy".  But I have a problem.  Unless we talk about sin (or its synonyms), these terms make no sense.

   

   Forgiveness has little value, unless I have sinned.
   Grace means nothing, unless I am broken.
   Mercy is not needed, unless I have fallen short of God's expectations.

   

I do not need to be afraid of sin - mine or someone else's - because unless I know something of sin, I can neither experience God's forgiveness, grace, and mercy; nor can I show it to others.

   

Blessings,

   

Pastor Patrick