2012.04.16 Monday Morning Message

Greetings and best wishes from Pilgrim Presbyterian Church, located in the heart of Vinita, Oklahoma.

Holy Week, the most significant week of the Christian calendar, is a drama that portrays life in three acts.

Jesus endured the stress of his arrest and trial, and then was hoisted to a cross to hang in excruciating  pain.  To be sure he was dead, soldiers, with a spear, pierced his side.  Then he was laid in a borrowed tomb, sealed by a large boulder.

The world of his disciples, and those earliest followers of Jesus, collapsed.  When the women went to the tomb on Easter morning to annoint his dead body they found the tomb was empty.  They discovered that Jesus was alive, their Lord and Master was free.

When the disciples got this report, they dismissed it as an idle tale.  But after the report of the women was confirmed, they came alive again!  Jesus was risen from the dead.  Jesus was free!  With that good news, the spirit of the disciples was restored.

How often are you really down?  When everything seems to go wrong, when you are disappointed, when you are in the pits,  Jesus comes with a helpful word or a kind act and you are inspired again.

Let Easter be your year round experience.  Through us, Jesus wants to work to help people, to free people, to cheer the lonely and to heal the afflicted, and to guide the lost.

God needs each of us and we can be joined in a partnership with God, through the living Christ.  Let's not run away from the important part we have in God's plan.

With blessings and fond regards,

Richard

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Bingo at Burroughs Manor Sat. April 21 - 2:00 - 3:00

Helpers are needed

The Reverend Craig Gibson will be in the pulpit this Sunday April 22

(we refer to him as the one who brings his kids)

Please plan to attend.

Attendance April 1 -- 31

April 8 (Easter) -- 79

April 15 -- 32

　

2012.04.09 Monday Morning Message

Greetings and all good wishes from Pilgrim Presbyterian Church, Vinita, Oklahoma.

One note is sounded repeatedly by early Christians in the post-Easter period, and that note is 'LIGHT!" Christians are called out of darkness into God's marvelous light.

There is an old story, which I like, which is a simple, direct explanation of why discipleship is effective.

A little girl was in the 'big church' for the first time. She had been attending Sunday School, but this morning she sat with her parents in the large, beautiful sanctuary.  She was fascinated by the stained glass windows and asked her mother "Who are those people in the windows?"  "They are saints" the mother whispered.

Some time later the mother went to call on Mrs. Brown, an old family friend, and the little girl went with her.  As the story goes, Mrs. Brown didn't have much money.  She lived alone, and though poor, she was about the happiest person anyone knew.

As the mother and daughter returned home, the mother said "Mrs. Brown is a saint if ever there was one."  The little girl was perplexed.  The people in the stained glass windows were saints and Mrs. Brown was a saint.  What possible connection was there between Mrs. Brown and the people in the stained glass windows?

Finally, the little girl said to her mother, "I know what a saint is! A saint is a person who lets the light shine through"

Christians are people who let the spirit of Jesus shine through their lives.

With blessings and in friendship,

Richard

We had 79 in attendance yesterday, Easter Sunday. It was a lovely service with the Rev. Ray Hickman, children's bell choir, Suzy sang and the children had an Easter egg hunt.

　

 

2012.04.02 Monday Morning Message

Greetings and all good wishes from Pilgrim Presbyterian Church, located in the heart of Vinita, Oklahoma.

Holy Week, which began yesterday, is the most significant week of the Christian calendar.  It is a drama that portrays life in three acts:

• Act 1 - Palm Sunday, a carnival mood of exuberance and joy.
• Act 2 - Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, a mood of grief, sorrow, tears.
• Act 3 - Easter, a mood of victory

Life is a whole.  It swings from laughter to tears, from carnival to Calvary.  There are things that can't be greeted with joy or dismissed with a chuckle.  There are things when life stands still, when the landscape is dark and barren.

But Act 3 is different!  If you choose to accept Christ as Lord and Savior, your life will be encompassed by Easter love.  You will know that your life is lived in God's presence, and that you are literally never alone.

The Easter faith is the faith in which Christians live here and now, and in the eternal life after we did.

"I'm sure that neither death, nor life...will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."  (Romans 8:38-39)

Thanks be to God.

Richard

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Next Sunday, Easter Sunday, Ray Hickman will fill the pulpit.  Suzie will sing and the Children's Bell Choir will perform.  Please come join us to worship God.

　

2011.6.13 Monday Morning!

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

 

Most people in the Western World, whether religious or not, know that Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus on December 25.

 

Fewer realize that the Resurrection of Jesus is celebrated at Easter, a holiday which coincides with the Jewish Festival of Passover, a time when Jews celebrate Israel's freedom from Egyptian slavery.

 

Fewer still know that Pentecost, a Jewish Festival commorating the giving of the Law to Moses, falls 55 days after Passover, or the Christian's Easter.

 

It was on the first Pentecost, after the Resurrection of Jesus, that the Holy Spirit filled the minds and hearts of a small band of 120 followers of Jesus.  These early Christians had "The MESSAGE" of God's love for all creation, as recorded in the four gospels.  Now, they were enlisted in "The MOVEMENT" to communicate the MESSAGE to all nations.  You can read about the start of the "MOVEMENT"

which we know as the Church, in Acts, Chapter 2.

 

The MESSAGE and the MOVEMENT are inseparable, both created by God.

 

The next time you nibble on those tasty candies, which are called "M and M's", think about the amazing impact the Christian Message and Movement have upon the world, and give thanks to God.

 

With blessings and in friendship,

Richard

2011.4.25 Monday Morning!

Greetings and best wishes from Pilgrim Presbyterian Church, Vinita, Oklahoma.  I hope you had a blessed Easter at worship and with family and friends.
 
I've a story today about a 13 year old Timothy.  He saved his pennies, nickels and dimes to buy a big red kite which he had spotted in a neighborhood store.
 
The happiest boy in the world, Timothy went to a playing field where he let out a little string at a time until you couldn't see the kite anymore.
 
A jogger saw Timothy running, holding string, and asked "What are you doing?
Timothy replied,  "Flying my kite."  The jogger thought the kid was pulling his leg and laughed,  saying, "I don't see any kite.  How do you know there's a kite up there?"
 
And Timothy answered,  "I can feel the tug!"
 
That simple story has a profound meaning.  Isn't it the message of Easter faith?  We can't see the Risen Christ, we can't prove the Resurrection of our Lord.  But, as a Christian, don't you feel the irresistible tug of Christ on your life?
 
I feel the tug of Christ at work through you and other friends and family members who have given me comfort and encouragement since the death of Helen, my beloved wife of more than 60 years.
 
Thank you for your support.  Don't ever lose the Tug of Christ on your life.
 
With blessings and in friendship,
Richard
 
P. S.  We had 104 in attendance at church yesterday.  What a blessing!
 
  www.pilgrimpresbyterian.blogspot.com/
 

2011.4.18 Monday Morning

Greetings and best wishes from Pilgrim Presbyterian Church in Vinita, Oklahoma.
 
If you were on vacation in July or August and went to a nearby church on Sunday morning you might be surprised to hear the congregation singing "Jesus Christ Is Risen Today."
 
Yet, if we believe that Jesus Christ is risen and living then every Sunday commemorates the Resurrection of our Lord, and all of our life is lived in his presence.  That's Easter faith!
 
Easter faith is living in close companionship with Jesus. It is a faith of action more than words, of deeds rather than doctrines.  It is not restricted to one Sunday a year.
 
For me, at least, there are two high-water marks in the Bible that sum up an authentic Easter faith!
 
   First, Micah 6:8.  The prophet asks

"What does God require?"

Answering his own question, he says:

"to be just...to love kindness...to walk humbly with God."

   
    Second, Mark 12:28-34:  Jesus said

"You shall love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself."

    We may not like all our 'neighbors', but we are to love even those whom
    we dislike - we are to do them no harm.
 
Peace and goodwill,
Richard