2010.12.27 Monday Morning!

Greetings and best wishes to you, and your loved ones, in the New Year!

I've been teaching an adult study class, "To Know My Bible - 101", and realize how much God must love stories.  The Bible revolves around stories and Jesus was a master story teller.

 

The story of Jacob, in Genesis, the first book of the Bible, tells about a spiritual traveler.  Like all of us, Jacob was flawed.  He tricked his brother Esau, and deceived his father, Isaac, and then ran away from home.

 

Many years later, Jacob decided to return home.   Enroute he had an experience that convinced him of God's presence.  After searching his soul - his authentic inner self - he was faced with a crucial question:  "Am I traveling in the right direction?"

 

All of us need to ask that question for ourselves.  I believe "God is with us",  and to determine the right direction for our travel into the time ahead is to treat others the way we want to be treated.

 

Sounds simple, but it's not always easy, yet it's worth an effort.

 

Happy traveling in the right direction in the New Year!

 

Richard

Christmas Sunday Photos

The Chancel on Christmas Sunday.

April Wheeler, flutist; Teresa Wheeler, harpist

The Morgans lighting the Advent Candle, Jared, Jewell, Jacob, Josh, and David Morgan

"Thank You" to Jewell Morgan for continuing to send Church Photos for the blog!

2010.12.20 Monday Morning!

Greetings and Best Wishes for a Merry Christmas from all of us at Pilgrim Presbyterian Church in Vinita, Oklahoma.

 

Do your best to be consistent.  Let your outward life, visible to all, reflect your inner life.  That may be the best Christmas gift you can give yourself.

 

Will Durant, who wrote an eleven volume story of history said, on his 94th birthday, "Loving kindness is the most successful method of behavior."  Loving kindness...warm fuzzies...will equip you to live as God intends life to be lived.

 

The good news of Christmas is reconciliation, beginning with oneself.  Go for it and enjoy a Merry Christmas.

 

Richard

Christmas Eve Service at 1st Presbyterian Church Chelsea

1st Presbyterian Church Chelsea will hold our Christmas Eve service at 7:00 pm. We would like to invite all of our Vinita friends and family to attend!!

Merry Christmas!!

Alaine Dye

For more information please contact Alaine Dye at:

AAA Insurance
445 S Brady
Claremore, OK 74017
918.341.2100
918.341.2154 fax

2010.12.13 Monday Morning!

Best wishes for a MERRY CHRISTMAS from Pilgrim Presbyterian Church in Vinita, Oklahoma.

 

Christmas is a time for lights.  Beautiful lights are shining in every city and village.  Lights are an important part of Christmas, symbols of the Christmas story:

    The true light that enlightens every person has come

     into the world in the birth of Jesus.  In him was life,

     and the life was light for all people.  His light shines

     in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

                                            (Will you read John 1:1-18, please?)

 

The mood of despair, however, is familiar in our dark patches.  Immense problems face our nation and the world;  war, an economic recession, unemployment, hunger, home foreclosures, terrorism.

 

And, there are personal difficulties:  problems within families and among friends, jobs that no longer give satisfaction, loss of health, unexpected death of a loved one.

 

I understand how people may feel abandoned by God.  Sometimes I ask myself "Is there really a God who cares?"

 

Then the light of Christmas comes with the assurance that in smooth and rough places "God is with us".  None of us is alone.  Confident of that helps disperse times of darkness.  I haven't  answers to the many questions that bother me, but of this I am sure; God is with me and helps me carry on with courage and strength.

 

My thoughts and prayers are with friends for whom 2010 has been a shattering year.

 

Richard.

2010.12.06 Monday Morning!

Top of the morning from Pilgrim Presbyterian Church, located in the heart of Vinita, Oklahoma.

 

Do me a favor this week?  Will you read a story found in Matthew 25:1-13?  You may think it is an odd request for this Advent season, but, like all Bible stories it is a guide from which we can receive ancient wisdom into our life.

 

Five of the maidens discovered they could not borrow oil for their flickering lamps.  There are things in life we cannot borrow, and faith is one of them.  We can't live off the spiritual capital of someone else.

 

The birth of Jesus is an opportunity to rekindle connection to "God with us", and to the responsibilities those three little words place upon us.

 

God needs our services.  By our little and big acts at this season - by writing cards and notes to friends from the past, by visiting a shut-in, by phoning a lonely person, we affirm our contact to "God with us."  We become God's instruments of love and friendship.

 

Share the depth of your spiritual capital.

 

Cheers,

Richard