2012.04.23 Monday Morning Message

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

A young cynic was depressed by the evil and suffering in the world.  He complained, "Why did God make a world like this?  I could make a better world than this."

His wise teacher answered, "That's exactly the reason God put you into the world...to make a better world.  Now, go and do your part."

The Christian gospel is about changed lives, renewed faith.  Though dependent upon God, God gave us the gift of free will, and God depends on us to choose wisely.  God cannot make a peaceful nation and world unless we root out hatred from our hearts.  God cannot build healthy families unless we work with God to bring sharing love and mutual respect to our relationships.  God needs each one of us.

Now, go and do your part!

With blessings and in friendship,

Richard

Our minister this Sunday, April 29 will be the Reverend Jo Wright from St. John's Episcopal, Vinita.

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

******************

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

　

2012.01.03 Monday Morning Message

From the Archives of Richard Evans...

In this first Monday Morning message of the New Year, I offer you one of the greatest phrases in the Bible: "The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord." (Proverbs 20:27)

Within yourself there is a divine capacity which, when brought forth, can enrich your life and the lives of others. To discover that something within yourself, read and re-read Luke and Acts. You'll be amazed how these two books will bring forth hidden strength and enable you to see the full range of human possibilities.

You are a child of God and by kindling the flame of God within you others who may be spiritually barren and bankrupt can begin to see their own divine capacity.

I have found new meaning and reason for Christ's words, "you are the light of the world". (Matthew 5:14), as I reflect on that great, simple phrase - "The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord."

Resolve now, at the start of 2012, to discover what you may become! Don't set a limit on what you may be.

Richard

 

Richard is still ill.  Please keep him in your prayers. 

Also keep AnnaBelle Mitchell in your prayers.

Final Monday Morning for 2011...

Pilgrim Presbyterians in Vinita, Oklahoma send greetings and best wishes as you make your  journey to the New Year 2012.

I am cleaning out my overstuffed files and found this piece, One Solitary Life, by an unknown author.  It is appropriate for after Christmas, and at the threshold of a New Year.  I hope you like it.  Of course, it comes from Pilgrim Presbyterian Church, Vinita, Oklahoma.

 

ONE SOLITARY LIFE

 

Here is a man who was born of Jewish parents in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman.  He grew up in another obscure village.  He worked in a carpenter's shop until he was thirty, and then for three  years he was an itinerant preacher.

 

He never wrote a book, he never held an office, he never owned a home.  He never had a family.  He never went to college.  He never put his foot inside a big city.  He never traveled two hundred miles from the place where he was born.  He never did one of these things that usually accompany greatness.  He had no credentials but himself.

 

He had nothing to do with this world, except the naked power of his manhood.  While still a young man the tide of popular opinion turned against him.  His friends ran away.  One of them denied him.  He was turned over to his enemies.  He went through a mock trial.

 

He was nailed to a cross, between two thieves.  His executioner gambled for the only piece of property he had on earth, while he was dying - and that was his coat.  When he was dead he was taken down and laid in  a borrowed grave, through the pity of a friend.

 

Nineteen wide ceturies have come and gone, and today he is the centerpiece of the human race, and the leader of the column of progress.  I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that were ever built, and all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon earth as powerfully as has that solitary life.

 

Thanks be to God for self-revelation in Jesus Christ.

 

With blessing and all good wishes for the New Year.

 

Richard

********************************

 

This is the last Monday Morning message I have received from Richard as he is still ill.

 

There will be no Morning Worship Service at Pilgrim Presbyterian this Sunday, January 1.

Services will resume the next Sunday, January 8 at 10:00 a.m.

I would ask that everyone keep Richard in their thoughts and prayers this Holiday Season.  

Peace and Love to him and us all!

Brian

2011.12.12 Monday Morning

Greetings and best wishes from Pilgrim Presbyterian Church in Vinita, Oklahoma, at America's crossroads, on historic Route 66.

 

My Christmas message is simple and direct:  your life in Christ, and Christ's life in you, will change your very being for the better!

 

It is this affirmation that Dickens, in A Christmas Carol, wrote a classic story that is a favorite around the world.  It is beloved because it is a story of hope.

 

You may remember that Ebenezer Scrooge is pictured as a wealthy man who employs his nephew, Fred, at pitiful poor wages, supported a joyful, closely bonded family, including a handicapped son.

 

By every reasonable standard Scrooge should have been on top of the world.  He wasn't!  And, the clerk's family should have been miserable.  They were not!

 

Dickens implied that faith makes the difference.  Faith has its own ability to change a person for the better.  In this dramatic story, Scrooge was confronted with two facts:

1. The fact of Christmas - the fact that God has come to dwell with us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth;
   
2. and the fact of his own selfishness. 

Scrooge had to choose which of those two facts he was going to embrace.  After intense struggle, Ebenezer scrooge consciously chose to embrace the fact of Christmas - God with us.  The result of that choice was a remarkable, dramatic change in his life.

 

Jesus - God with us - does change lives.  What are some of the enduring changes we cherish as Christians?

The power of compassion, the healing of forgiveness, the transforming power of love, the energizing power of prayer and the sustaining power of faith.

 

With fond regards and all good wishes for a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 

Richard

2011.10.10 Monday Morning!

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

Do you remember the film " Bridge On the River Kwai?" The film was based on a book by Ernest Gordon, a Scot and an officer in the British Army during World War II. He was captured early in the war and spent the remainder of the war in a prison camp in Southeast Asia. After the war, he immigrated to the United States and became a chaplain at Princeton University.

In his book, Gordon wrote that he had no religious faith at all when he was captured, but he came away from that prison camp convinced he had been touched by God and he was called to spend the rest of his life serving others. He wrote: "In the muck and misery of that dreadful prison camp, I learned to care for others and that God cared for me. I discovered I was important to others. God found me in the most unexpected place."

Life is filled with strange interruptions - unexpected moments that change our lives forever. At the time such interruptions are often unwelcome and resented. At other times, they are signs of hope. In retrospect, they often seem as if they were destined.

When you may have unexpected interruptions, evaluate them for they may change the whole landscape of your life.

With blessings and best wishes,
Richard

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
 

 

2011.1.03 Monday Morning!

All of us at Pilgrim Presbyterian Church in Vinita, Oklahoma send you greetings and best wishes at the beginning of this New Year.

 

God loves stories.  The Bible revolves around stories, and Jesus was a master story teller.  I hope you like stories.  In reading folk lore you"ll find wisdom to help on your life's journey.

 

The story of Jacob, in Genesis, is about a spiritual traveler.  Like all of us, Jacob was flawed.  After tricking his brother, Esau, and deceiving his father, Isaac, Jacob ran away from home.

 

Decades later, Jacob decided to return to his home and people.  Enroute he spent a long night wrestling with an unidentified man.  Was it his own conscience?  Guilt often ignites civil war within .

 

In that all night nightmare, Jacob realized God's presence was with him.  He asked himself:  "Am I traveling in the right direction?"  And he determined that the right direction for him was to trust God, and to affirm God's presence by practice - to treat others the way he wanted to be treated.

 

Happy travels in the right direction in this New Year.

 

In friendship,

 

Richard

A PEARL OF VALUE

When we learn to respect ourselves,

it becomes easier to respect others.

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

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

 

2010.01.11 Monday Morning!

From Pilgrim Presbyterian go these best wishes to you and your loved ones, at the beginning of this new decade:

"Come on everybody, it's time to sing praise to the Lord our God with all our heart."

Time to sing praise to God? How can anyone sing in these chaotic times?

We sang with euphoric gladness ten years ago when we greeted the new millennium. Today, if we can sing at all, it'll be the "blues".

"Come on everyone, it's time to sing...sing out your faith loud and clear!"

"Faith"?...yes, everyone has faith.. Faith can be used for good or for evil. Everyone has faith. It can't be eliminated. Use your faith, don't misuse it. Stand in the sanctuary of your own soul, stand in the presence of God, and your good faith will be renewed.

Let's make this New Year a time to rediscover the spiritual origins of our Christian faith, its endless possibilities, its eternal meaning. God is with us, that's the message of Christmas. That's the foundation of our faith.

That faith is a fountain of power. Release that power and discover victory which overcomes the world.

Go for it...God is with you!

Richard