Mission u is coming next week!

You are invited to join United Women in Faith’s (Summer) Mission u, titled “Welcome Home”.

This study explores how we can know God as an intimate friend who welcomes us. Abiding in God’s safety and dwelling in God’s provision allows us to open our hearts to a full embrace of the power and presence of God. This enables us to find our home in God. The study leads participants outward so that what starts with our personal homes, expands to welcoming others to join us in our work as co-creators to establish God’s kin-dom on earth.

UWFaith will offer the study on consecutive Tuesdays: July 9, 16, 23 and 30. This study is all virtual on Zoom.

Register here: https://mtnsky-reg.brtapp.com/MissionuSummer2024WelcomeHome
NOTE: Please copy / paste the link in a new browser.

Litany for Independence Day

As we remember the birth of our nation, and the gifts of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, let us offer our thanks and prayers to God, the giver of all good gifts.

For the brave women and men who braved the long journey by sea to come to this new world,

We thank You Lord.

For the tribes and nations who inhabited this land for generation upon generation,

We thank You Lord.

For patriots who dreamed of, and fought for, a free nation,

We thank You Lord.

For the men and women who laid the foundation of our democracy, and who pledged liberty and justice for all,

We thank You Lord.

For those who built this country brick by brick, road by road, and town by town,

We thank You Lord.

For the brave soldiers who have fought for our country, for all who paid for our freedom by their service, and those who paid by their sacrifice,

We thank You Lord.

For the innovators and artists, poets and teachers, farmers and factory workers; for all who labor and provide for the common good,

We thank You, Lord.

For this land, with its peaks and valleys, coasts and deserts, fields and meadows,

We thank You, Lord.

For our own community, for those who came before us in this place, and for our neighbors near and far,

We thank You Lord.

Lord, we pray for The United States, that we might always be a nation which defends and promotes liberty and freedom, truth and justice.

We thank You Lord.

That we might always be a nation where all are free to worship and pray,

We thank You Lord.

That we might be a beacon of freedom to all those who live under the shadow of terror and hopelessness,

We thank You Lord.

That those who are elected to govern and lead would be guided by You, and be ever aware of the trust that has been given them,

We pray to You Lord.

That we would be a people who repent from our sins, and who always return to You and to Your grace,

We pray to You Lord.

Gracious God, Father of all nations, bless and defend us and our land; prosper the work of our hands, and increase in us Your grace and compassion, and our offerings of thanks to You, our rock and our salvation; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

~ written by Rick Morley and posted on http://www.rickmorley.com

Wednesday with the Wesleys

This is the way to understand the things of God; Meditate thereon day and night; So shall you attain the best knowledge; even to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent. And this knowledge will lead you, to love Him, because he hath first loved us: yea, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. Will there not then be all that mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus? And in consequence of this, while you joyfully experience all the holy tempers described in this book, you will likewise be outwardly holy as He that hath called you is holy, in all manner of conversation.

"If you desire to read the scripture in such a manner as may most effectually answer this end, would it not be advisable, to set apart a little time, if you can, every morning and evening for that purpose? At each time if you have leisure, to read a chapter out of the Old, and one out of the New Testament: is you cannot do this, to take a single chapter, or a part of one? To read this with a single eye, to know the whole will of God, and a fixt resolution to do it?

In order to know his will, you should, have a constant eye to the analogy of faith; the connection and harmony there is between those grand, fundamental doctrines, Original Sin, Justification by Faith, the New Birth, Inward and Outward Holiness.

Serious and earnest prayer should be constantly used, before we consult the oracles of God, seeing "scripture can only be understood thro' the same Spirit whereby "it was given." Our reading should likewise be closed with prayer, that what we read may be written on our hearts.

It might also be of use, if while we read, we were frequently to pause, and examine ourselves by what we read, both with regard to our hearts, and lives. This would furnish us with matter of praise, where we found God had enabled us to conform to his blessed will, and matter of humiliation and prayer, where we were conscious of having fallen short. And whatever light you then receive, should be used to the uttermost, and that immediately. Let there be no delay. Whatever you resolve, begin to execute the first moment you can. So shall you find this word to be indeed the power of God unto present and eternal salvation."

~ John Wesley (from the "Preface" to Explanatory Notes Upon the Old Testament)

Action Alert: Tell Congress to Prioritize SNAP in 2024 Farm Bill Reauthorization

Contact your representatives today to advocate for access to nutrition through protection of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Learn More and Take Action at this link.

This week @ St. Paul's UMC

Monday: 

Pastor Charles begins year 6 @ St. Paul's UMC

9:00 AM, Office Hours

Tuesday: 

9:00 AM, Office Hours

Wednesday:

9:00 AM, Office Hours

9:00 AM, Wednesday Weeders 

10:00 AM, Zoom Fellowship

Thursday: Independence Day

Saturday:   

6:00 AM, BBKC Prayer Time

9:00 AM, Yoga class  

Seventh Sunday after Pentecost:

8:45 AM, Study class

10:15 AM, Worship

11:15 AM, Fellowship

12:30 AM, BBKC

Scripture lessons for July 7

We begin our sixth year together with the beginning of Pastor Charles' annual summer sermon series. This year, the series is inspired by Peculiar Treasures: A Biblical Who’s Who by Frederick Buechner. 

Woodcut from the Cologne Bible, 1478-80

The first in the series will take as its starting place the story of Balaam's ass with readings from Numbers 22:1-14, 22-35.

And we're off!

We Awaken in Christ's Body

We awaken in Christ's body

As Christ awakens our bodies,

And my poor hand is Christ, He enters

My foot and is infinitely me.

I move my hand, and wonderfully

My hand becomes Christ, becomes all of Him

(for God is indivisibly

Whole, seamless in His Godhood).

I move my foot, and at once

He appears like a flash of lightning.

Do my words seem blasphemous? Then

Open your heart to Him

And let yourself receive the One

Who is opening to you so deeply.

For if we genuinely love Him,

We wake up inside Christ's body

Where all our body, all over,

every most hidden part of it,

is realized in joy as Him,

and He makes us, utterly, real,

and everything that is hurt, everything

that seemed to us dark, harsh, shameful,

maimed, ugly, irreparably

damaged, is in Him transformed

and recognized as whole, as lovely,

and radiant in His light

He awakens as the Beloved in every last part of our body.

- Symeon the New Theologian (949-1022)