Showing posts with label Impermanence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Impermanence. Show all posts

Monday, June 25, 2012

2012.06.25 Monday Morning Message

Greetings and warm regards from Pilgrim Presbyterian Church in Vinita, Oklahoma.

If you could, would you turn the clock back?  A columnist, writing in the Tulsa World, wrote "Maybe while praying for the America we want, we can remember the America we had."  Those words awakened my memory, and I realized that we must not live in the past. We can use the past for guidance and inspiration, but we can't go back.  We must go forward or we perish.  To live is to change.  The one thing that does not change is a fossil, and a fossil has been dead for a long time.  We should not fear change.

  • I remember the scourge of tuberculosis and polio epidemics, and I wouldn't want to go back to them.
  • I remember when Presbyterians would not ordain women ministers and when anyone who sold alcoholic drinks was barred from membership, and when the Revised Standard Version of the Bible was assailed as heresy, and I wouldn't want to put the clock back for any of that.

To live is to change, and we ought not fear that.

With blessings and in friendship.
Richard

Announcements:

We were blessed to have Brian Dishman and his family  in church yesterday.  He and his wife Motoko and daughter Rina live in Japan.  Rina played a special piano piece for our church service.  Also, Brad, his wife Edith and daughter Madison were in attendance.  We had a pew full of Dishmans.

SUNDAY, July 1
4TH OF JULY POTLUCK
Drinks and meat will be provided.
Bring a side dish and join us for a delicious meal.
Following morning worship at 10:00.

The Reverend Nancy Covington will be here.
All are invited to Communion.
Liz Logan will prepare the communion elements and invite 2 Elders or Deacons to help serve.
Sue Ratcliff is Worship Asst. for July.

Monday, March 28, 2011

2011.3.28 Monday Morning!

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

In the last three months our family has mourned the sudden deaths of two dear friends.  Both friends gave their hearts to Jesus Christ.  By their kind, gracious lives they declared and demonstrated Christ as a living power.

Their wholly unexpected deaths remind me of the impermanence of life.  As pilgrims on a journey, none of us is assured of tomorrow.  We live to the rhythm of life and death, of sorrow and joy.

The Tulsa World, a daily newspaper, devotes a page which is called "Our Lives."  On that page notices of birth and deaths, marriages and divorces are reported.  Behind each notice their is a case of human sorrow and human joy.

No one can escape from this rhythm of life.  Know that we are not permanent residents on earth, but pilgrims of eternity.

Know, too, that Christ is with us on our pilgrimage.  Christ gives us his life, his spirit, his love, joy and peace.

With blessings and in friendship,
Richard