Last Sunday I was so proud of you as a church. We had a new couple visiting us and I stood back to see how we re-acted. There were several people who went to them and introduced yourselves and I am sure they really felt welcomed. I have been to Methodist Churches all over the place in in some no one ever speaks to you. YOU GUYS DID A GREAT JOB!!

I ran across a series of questions that we all might think about as to whether or not we can continue to do a great job.  Here they are:

1. Do you look people in the eyes? People feel like you care when you look them in the eyes. They feel you do care.

2. Do you ask questions? Questions allow them to open up and tell you who they are.

3. Do you analyze the interaction? May seem a little too mental but did the person seem to need something more. For instance, did they need seem to need to speak to the pastor or find out where the nurseries are? Also, how did you come off? Did you think you seemed friendly?

4. Did you actively seek a way to make our church more welcoming? For instance, not only welcoming someone to the church but invite them to Terrific Nights Together or a group like the United Methodist Youth.

5. Did you apply your experiences here at the church. For instance if you talk about the church, share with them what it is that you love about our church.

Oh and by the way, these apply not only here at the church but in all you may do in life as well.

Peace and grace. Reed. 

Like many of you I make New Years Resolutions. I thought you might like to hear mine. This year: I will change my user name to password and my password name to user. I will work with neglected children…my own. I will change all those clocks in the house that are flashing 12 to some time so they stop flashing. I will replace the nozzles at the gas pumps before driving away. Next year I will come up with my own list and not the one I just used I found on the internet.

You know, you really can find everything on the internet. No need to always invent everything.

Anyway I think we can all agree that we need to change the way we live our lives and faith. So here are some that we might all agree on.

1. Put God first in you daily planning. Just think how different you life will be if you were to re-order your life.

2. Give to others random acts of kindness and words. You will make someone’s day. We Just imagine the smiles when you say to people “Happy Thumb day and you have a nice one” on February 18th.

3. on a day when you play to go out and eat, go by the store and get supper. Go home and fix it together and sit down with the family and offer prayer for all you have. Then give the difference in the costs to a charity.

Those resolutions will change you life and the lives of those around you.

Peace and Grace.  Reed.

I’ve been thinking about what to give you for Christmas. I have come up with several good gifts. I hope you enjoy the presents: For Christmas I give you laughter. There is nothing like a laugh that makes you sides ache. For Christmas I give you tears. Nothing like a good cry when you are upset, experience a loss or just when things feel lousy. For Christmas I give you thoughts. Thought are when we dream dreams, and see visions. They also help us to think about things that we don’t normally think about. For Christmas I give you remembrance in things past, enjoyment in today and hope for tomorrow. For Christmas I give you disappointment. Without it you will never know achievement. For Christmas I give you both victory and defeat. One gives you pride and the other keeps you humble. For Christmas I give you health and even sickness. In both you will find that neither has anything to do with living. For Christmas I give you work, rest, and and good shower at the end of a long day.  For Christmas above all else I offer you Jesus Christ.

Peace and grace.  Reed

Check the “Music and Worship Arts” page for details about this year’s Christmas cantata, “His Love….Reaching:  A Celebration of God’s Gift”.   This is one of the great Christmas cantatas of the modern age, composed by the team of Ron Huff and Bill and Gloria Gaither.  You and your family will not want to miss this opportunity to worship together!

Some years ago Msgr. Joseph P. Dooley wrote a defense of Santa Claus. I thought you might enjoy it. “It’s not Santa Clause’ fault that people forget the Infant Jesus. Why does the world love Santa Claus?

First of all, he’s a joyous individual. People are attracted to joyous individuals as filings are attracted to a magnet. Next, Santa Claus is interested in making others happy. He increases the happy moments in the life of everyone he meets. He loves his work; he gets fun out of his job.

He is childlike, simple, humble, sincere, and forgiving. Finally, he is a giver. His philosophy is to give himself away in service. He is a friend to everyone. He smiles.

Perhaps you and I could attain greater happiness if we emulated Santa Claus a little more, for his way is the way of the infant Jesus also.”

Ho, ho, ho and grace. Reed.

Presidential politics are with us for the next year. There are a lot of candidates to select from. I thought I might offer one and you decide if you would vote for him.

He was born into poverty. His family was forced from their home. His mother died. Failed in business. Defeated for the state legislature. He lost his job and tried to go to law school and wasn’t admitted. Failed again in business. Went bankrupt.

Finally he was finally elected to the legislature. His sweetheart died. He had a nervous breakdown. He was defeated trying to become the speaker of the legislature. He was defeated to become a member of the electoral college. He was defeated trying to become a member to Congress.

He was elected to Congress.He was defeated in a re-election bid to Congress and lost his seat. He tried to become elected for the Senate and lost. He ran as a vice-presidential candidate and lost. He was defeated again in an attempt to become a senator.

Now, would you vote for this guy?

I doubt most of us would.

But then again, we would have lost out on the genius and leadership of……Abraham Lincoln.

We should not always judge by human standards but try and find the spark and goodness God places in every human.

Peace and Grace. Reed.

There is such a danger as a pastor to talk bout our lives and experiences too often. We don’t want to seem self centered. It’s just that if we were to talk about sin which would you prefer, the pastor to talk about his sins or to name names? It think you might prefer the former.

So allow me the privilege to talk about a personal issue but I will try and make a Christian moment out if it. Our newest grand child is Macy born just last week. She is a preemie. Preemies usually have a lot of things they have to learn that babies who are full term don’t have to learn. I didn’t know that until Macy.

One of the things that babies learn when full term is that when they nurse, full term babies will suck suck, swallow swallow, breathe breathe. Preemies will sometimes suck suck, swallow swallow and forget to breathe breathe. You have to remind them to do so.

Never thought about that one before.

We Christians are much the same. For us the nourishment comes in the forms of PRAY PRAY, LOVE LOVE, WORSHIP WORSHIP. However, we tend to forget to do all three. We will still PRAY PRAY especially when we need Him. We will LOVE LOVE  in many ways. We will love our families, our lives even our teams when they win. Where we fail is to WORSHIP WORSHIP. But you see, without WORSHIP WORSHIP we are actually failing to BREATHE. In fact, we wing on praise song that says, “You are the air that I BREATHE.”

I can guarantee that without WORSHIP (BREATH) you will not PRAY  for long. Without WORSHIP and PRAYER, you will not LOVE for long as well. And without all three you may survive but you will never live.

Just a thought taught by and one week old baby.

Peace and Grace. Reed.

I want to thank those who helped out Sunday while I was in the prison. During church Sunday morning, I was praying for you one and all. I understand the Methodist Home really gave a great presentation. I want to share some thoughts about the week end with you.

While we were in the prison sharing God’s love for these men, we celebrated Veteran’s Day. We invited all the veterans to come up, even some of the prisoners were vets. Here we are in a place where do to poor choices men have lost their freedom and yet they were among those who had fought for those very freedoms.

We salute the veterans who have fought to keep us free. Thank you one and all. We are all in a fight for the very heart and soul of humanity. Now for good news, we freed 22 men from their sins as they accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. They still have to serve their time but are now free from their sins. The veterans who have defended our nation made the freedom to share God’s grace possible.

Oh, and by the way, because of the cookies that you made, we actually made their stomachs almost bloated!! It was a good feeling for them. One guy summed it all up, “You mean ladies in your churches who don’t even know us made all these cookies? Why? I don’t understand..” The next day he gave his life to Jesus Christ.

Peace and grace. Reed.

Believe it or not there is an interstate highway in Hawaii!  Now to be an interstate it has to be connected to another state otherwise it’s intrastate. Now, I can’t wait to see the bridge for that project to connect it to California. Plus there would have to be an exit or two with four gas stations, two McDonalds and a Motel Six along the way. Well enough of this.

Now, let’s think of how do we go about getting something done at the church when it would seem impossible for us to do. How would we go about it? I want to offer some suggestions and then let’s see what we might do.

First of all we would need to realize a vision no matter how extreme it might seem. Without a vision, we never would have walked upon the surface of …Plymouth Rock. Bet you thought I was going to say the moon but before we got there someone had to have a vision about the colonization of America. Second, there needs to be prayer. Prior to disembarking the colonists first spent the day before in worship and prayer on the Mayflower.

Once there is a vision and prayer next comes several words that become important. These are: Be relentless. Be determined. Have a single minded focus. Have a hands on approach. Do you see the power of those words? Those words that sets our minds to the task.

Then comes the active part of the project. First we say “lets’ get it done” and then we get to work.

Oh and by the way, these three steps correspond with who we are. The first our spirit, the second is our mind and the third is our bodies.

So, what do we want to do as a church?

I have a Facebook page but I still don’t twitter. I am not sure I want to twitter all that much but I may some day. Anyway, with Facebook you are asked to if this person or that is your friend and want to add them to your list. For a time I said yes to all then decided to pare it down. Now I have to know your name in order to get on the list.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could just add on to our lists as easily clicking a button. You can also get rid of someone by just as easily clicking them off the list. With the instantly available technology we are so much more connected than we once were. It is a great blessing but it can also be a real problem if we are not careful.

Well, all this caused me to think about what a friend is or is not. there are a lot of definitions. I came by one I thought we might share. “A friend is someone who sees you through when others see you are through.” (Anom.) That’s a pretty good one I think. After all our real friends do see us through when we are at our lowest.

I hope that we all pray for each other and care about one another here in our church. We are after all more than mere friends here. Jesus calls us to be brothers and sisters together. Be sure that when someone you know feels they are through, we care and pray them through. Oh and by the way, if we need to pray and care about someone that is not formally a part of the flock, we want to pray can care for them as well. Just let us know.

Peace and Grace. Reed