2011.7.4 Monday Morning!

Greetings to you and your loved ones on this 4th of July.  Let your celebration be joyful and safe.  And, thanks for visiting our "off site - on line" ... center ... of our Church Family, Pilgrim Presbyterian, in Vinita, Oklahoma.

My heart aches at every war casualty reported in your daily press.  I know the grief families are experiencing, and my prayer for each sorrowing person and family is not to lose hope and give up.  No power on earth can take from you the love you have experienced.  Difficult as it is, ask yourself what life is still expecting from you.  With an aim, with goals, you'll find reasons to carry on.

I have found that in the most difficult moments of my life a look to the future gives me courage and hope.  New challenges, new opportunities give me reasons to live in spite of my sorrows and sufferings.

There is purpose to our existence.  If you nuture your inner life you'll find the light of Christ will shine into your deepest darkness.

With love and in friendship,

Richard

2010.10.04 Monday Morning!

Greetings and best wishes from Pilgrim Presbyterian Church in Vinita, Oklahoma.
 
Some of you reading this Monday Morning Message know little or nothing about our Church. Did a mutual friend invite you to visit our blog? A big thanks to whoever that might be! I hope you'll return next week and that you'll invite someone else to be a part of our off-site/on-line outreach.

Our 128 year-old Church is a welcoming, healthy congregation. We know that no one lives by bread alone. From as long as we can go in history, human beings have exhibited a need for religion. Cave drawings indicate that ancients worshiped one kind of deity or another.

For Christians, the development of religion reached its climax in Jesus of Nazareth. Revolting against hardened ritual and pious self-righteousness, Jesus showed us how to live in relation to God and toward one another. (Try reading John, chapter 15). Love is complex. For me, at least, its opposite is not hate but indifference. It's a lifetime task to ward off indifference!

Courage for today in your determination to overcome indifference!


Richard