2012.01.30 Monday Morning Message

Greetings and best wishes from all of us at Pilgrim Presbyterian Church, Vinita, Oklahoma.  


We are a congregation with a big heart overflowing with loving care and concern. I know this to be true from personal experience. Because of poor health, I have had to resign as part-time pastor. Friends in the congregation have overwhelmed me with their kindness.

So...this is "Thanksgiving time for me"...KUDOS to Jewell Morgan, church secretary at Pilgrim Church, and Brian Dishman, editor of the Pilgrim Church Blog. They have kept our "on site, on line" ministry on track.

     ...Thanks to each of you who have sent cards and notes.  Each one has buoyed my spirit.

     ...Thanks for the food, for the thoughts and prayers, which have helped me regain strength.

     ...The attractive, unique album you have given me is filled with beautiful words from cover to cover. Sentiments in the album are humbling, especially those I know to be a little exaggeration.

And, I am thankful to friends in Grace Presbyterian Church, Grove, where I served for six years as a part-time minister, and to members of John Knox Church, Tulsa, where I was pastor for more than ten years, for comfort and concern.

I shall always cherish the friendship of each of you.

With blessings and affectionate regard,

Richard

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

2011.9.26 Monday Morning!

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

Today, I want to share a story about God's embracing grace and my young college friend, Bill.

Bill and two good friends from his dorm pooled their resources so they could tour Europe "on the cheap." They traveled light, slept in youth hostels, and enjoyed the unique characteristics of every country and village they passed through.

The amazing part of Bill's story didn't happen during a visit to the cathedral; it happened in a pub in Ireland. The thee young travelers were enjoying a meal in a quaint Irish pub when they heard a loud groan. At a nearby table a man struggled to heave himself out of his chair. They saw immediately he had only one leg. He reached for his crutch, but lost his balance and began to fall. Instantly his companion at the table jumped up and caught him.

The man with one leg muttered, "Thanks! I'm as crippled as a blind man."

His friend steadied him while replying, "Well now...come to think of it, who of us here isn't crippled?" A hush fell over the pub as the friend continued, "to lend each other a hand when we're falling is maybe the one kind of work that really matters in the end."


With love, peace and affectionate regards,

Richard

2011.8.8 Monday Morning!

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

Today, I want to put in a good word for the gift of receiving.  It is commonly said that it is more blessed to give than to receive, but I've learned there is virtue in receiving as well as in giving.

We praise people for doing good things for others, but who refuse to take any credit, any gift, any reward, for doing so.  People like that should give others a chance to say thank you and show their gratitude.  It is a fine thing to give, but it can be a mark of pride to refuse to receive thanks for acts of kindness.

Jesus received a boy's picnic lunch, and with it worked a miracle.  (John 6:1-14).  And He received the offer of the use of a room by some anonymous friend in Jerusalem, and used that room to institute "The Last Supper".

There is a courtesy in receiving as well as in giving.  When the two meet, who knows what 'miracle' will follow?

With blessings and in friendship,
Richard

"A PEARL OF VALUE"
We're taught that it is more blessed
to give than to receive, but receiving
is also important in the development
of our soul.