"Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works." Hebrews 10:24 Have you ever needed a little encouragement? If only someone would come beside you giving you the spark of positive support you need. We've all had those moments where a little encouragement goes a long way. So what if that happened every day? If we always sought to motivate, encourage each other to new heights ... how would things look. Here's the reality, the world has enough discouragement. There are people in our communities feeling discouraged by life. There are brothers and sisters in Christ in our community of faith experiencing discouragement. What if we motivated each other to acts of love and good works? What if we took those acts of love and good works out into the communities we serve? What if our encouragement was contagious? There is a world around us that needs to be encouraged. Let's go encourage them! Just this week I experienced what a little encouragement can mean to someone. It can take an overwhelming situation and offer a spark of light. We can be those purveyors of light in our family, our work place, our neighborhood, and our community. We need to be intentional about finding places where we can motivate one another to acts of love and good works. It can be a game changer for the people in our life. I hope you will be in worship this Sunday. We will all be encouraged to be people of radical encouragement for each other. See you in church!

“Then they said to the woman, ‘Now we believe, not just because of what you told us, but because we have heard him ourselves. Now we know that he is indeed the Savior of the world.’” John 4:42 (NLT) In my last church one of the members of the church was serving in The Coast Guard at the Clearwater Air Station. He would tell me about his work as a mechanic on the HC-130 aircraft and then as a Flight Navigator on the same aircraft. I was always very interested in his work as I have been interested in planes all my life. I enjoyed his stories because they were a part of who he was and conveyed what was important to him. Then one day he invited me to come over to Tampa and join him for his last day of training in the state-of-the-art simulator. My experience alongside of him in the simulator that day brought all of his stories to life. It gave them new meaning and gave me a greater depth of understanding and connection. The passage of Scripture we will be looking at this Sunday is a little bit like that. Jesus' encounter with a Samaritan woman at the well is a very important story. As soon as the conversation with Jesus is over the woman goes to tell her story. No hesitation, no questions, no filter, she just tells her story. We do this when we are excited about something in our life. We want to tell people what our experience has been. We want other people to be interested in our story. So we share it. As the woman at the well went back and told the story of her encounter with Jesus, people were interested. They went to see for themselves what she was so excited about. That’s what good stories do to us. It was when the people went and saw Jesus, heard him speak, and experienced him for themselves that they declared, “Now we believe!” You see there was something that took place when the woman’s story mixed with their own experience of Jesus that led them to believe. This is the beauty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. People first experience Jesus through our story. They hear what Jesus means to us, what the Church universal means to us, and what our local church means to us. Because they experience our story and hear what Jesus has done for us, people are more receptive to what Jesus can do for them. Jesus uses our story to tell His story. I look forward to sharing more about this with you in worship this week. As you pray for your none or done this week, ask God if they are ready for you to share your story with them. Maybe they are ready for you to invite them to church? Can’t wait to see you in church!

Have you ever had to describe one person to another person? If you have to describe someone you know well, you can describe not only physical attributes but also habits, characteristics, you will have stories that go along with the descriptions. Try to describe someone you don’t know well or have only just met and you may not get their description right, let alone be able to add all the other things about a person. It’s the same when we are asked to share our faith with others. If we cannot answer some key things about Jesus and the church then our attempts will fall flat. But if we have a relationship with Jesus, if we are sold out to Christ and his church we can share not only what it looks like but what it’s like to be a part of it. We’re continuing our new series, “Beyond” this Sunday. We’re exploring what it is like to widen our focus beyond ourselves to see the world around us. This week we’ll be looking at the three key things we need to know, not just be acquainted with, but really know as we try to engage those who are outside of the church, those beyond our walls. Pastor Tim encouraged us to identify one person who is a “none” or a “done.” “Nones” are those folks who have checked, “No religious affiliation” on census and other survey information. They do not identify themselves as any religion and have no church affiliation. “Dones” are those folks who once went to church but for one reason or another have stopped going. They are done with church. Pastor Tim encouraged us to identify one “none” or “done” and begin to pray for that person. I thought I’d share with you a story from college. While I was a student at FSU our pastor at the Wesley Foundation encouraged us to write out a list of people who did not go to church. They very well could have been “nones” or “dones” but most likely they may be students who grew up in the church and were taking a break from church. I wrote down two names – girls that I lived with. I lived in a Scholarship House with 28 girls but I picked two girls that seemed to have no interest in church whatsoever. I began to pray for them. My pastor at the time said that if you were too afraid to talk to the people on your list about your faith that you should pray that God would have them bring it up. So I did. I prayed, “God, you know I’m a chicken. If you want me to share with these girls about my faith then you will have to make it abundantly obvious. Make them come and ask me.” Well, wouldn’t you guess it? Within a day of saying that prayer the first girl came in to where I was studying and said, “I just don’t get why you go to church. What is it about God any ways?” There it was. The door was open. I shared with her my answers to the three key things I will share about on Sunday. That same day the second girl came up to me in the kitchen and said, “So, what is the Trinity? I don’t get it. How can God be 3 and 1?” After I picked my jaw up off the floor that God would answer my insolent prayer, I did my best to share what I understood of the Trinity. One of the girls became an active church member, the other didn’t. But I did what I could to share with them all that I knew about this Jesus that I knew so well. Come on Sunday or watch online to find out what three key things we need to really know before we can effectively engage those beyond the walls.

“I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection…” Philippians 3:10a (NIV) Growing up I remember seeing pictures of the Grand Canyon, Yosemite National Park, The Smokey Mountains, The Pacific Ocean, The Atlantic Ocean, Africa, Ireland, Great Britain, Cuba, Costa Rica, Panama, The Bahamas, The Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Canada. As a kid I could only dream of being able to see all of these places, and more. They seemed so far away and so wonderful. I dreamed of knowing what it would be like to experience them first hand. I am very blessed to say that I have been able to experience them all and know what it is like to be in each of these places. I am sure that we all have had this type of experience in finally knowing what it is like to be somewhere new. Paul is someone who experienced this both physically and spiritually. Paul experienced a complete turnaround in his spiritual life. Jesus personally called Paul from a life of persecution of Christians to a life of producing Christians. Paul knew the power in being called, equipped, and sent into ministry by Jesus Christ. Yet, Paul still wants to know more of Jesus. Paul wants to know the power of Christ’s resurrection. The power that takes sinners and makes them saved, that makes broken people whole, that causes those without sight to see, that frees those in captivity, and that makes all things new. The power of Christ’s resurrection does not come without the pain of the crucifixion. The darkest hours of Friday and Saturday of Holy Week help us understand this. The suffering of Christ is something Paul desires to know as well. Without the suffering, the joy that comes on Easter morning would be out of context and powerless. However, together the suffering of Christ and the resurrection of Christ hold tremendous power. This power is not just for then… it is for always! This Good Friday we remember the suffering, agony, and passion of Christ AND this Easter Sunday we celebrate Christ, the risen Savior. I want to know Christ and to know the power of His resurrection. Will you join me tonight at 7 p.m. for our Good Friday service and this Easter Sunday at 8:15, 9:45, or 11:15? May we all want to know!

"So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless." James 2:17 Nobody wants to be deemed useless. In a world that prizes busyness and success, uselessness could be the most feared label possible. We are supposed to be busy and operating at a feverish pace to be useful, right? I'm pretty certain that our idea of busyness has very little to do with what James was writing about. There is a simple dichotomy that exists in what James is writing about. We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. Yet, we are called to do good deeds in life as people of faith. We do not do good deeds in order to have faith and our faith is not complete without good deeds. So why does James need to address this with the early church? Some in the early church were confusing the reason for doing good works. Others in the early church were saying that faith was all you needed. James reminds them that good works are not done in order to produce faith, but faith without good works is useless. James understands that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. James also is teaching that out of this faith comes good deeds. When we love God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength it is naturally expressed in our love of others. Faith and good deeds go hand in hand. As people of faith we are to express our faith through works of mercy toward others. This is when we are found most useful in God's economy. So as James writes, "...faith by itself isn't enough, unless it produces good deeds..." That's when we know that we are truly loving God and loving others. I can't wait to see you all in church this Palm Sunday. Be sure to invite a friend to our Easter Cantata at 8:15 or 11:15. Remember that our 9:45 service will be in the Family Life Center this week only.

Have you ever been or felt lost? When I was a young child my family went to Cedar Point – an amusement park in Sandusky, OH. Cedar point is a large place and often is on the forefront of having some of the craziest and fastest rides. At some point in the day I stopped paying attention to what everyone else was doing. [Shocker, I know.] When I looked up I saw my dad walking away from me, so I hurried after him. Only, once I reached up to grab his hand I realized that I had not been following my dad. I’d been following a stranger. Like any seven year-old girl my immediate reaction was to sit down right where I was and bawl my eyes out. Thankfully a nice theme park worker noticed that I was sitting in the middle of the sidewalk bawling and stopped to see how she might help. I told her I lost my family. She took me to the nearest office and they began to work to find my family. As it turns out they had noticed I had wondered off long before I realized I was going in the wrong direction and so finding them and reuniting with them was easy. Last week, Pastor Tim preached a powerful message on how God can use our failures and our crisis of faith to do incredible work. It was after a crisis of faith that John Wesley had the most powerful breakthrough of his life – his heart being strangely warmed at the Aldersgate meeting. So often once we have experienced failure or a crisis of faith our temptation is to give up. We tend to kick ourselves once we’re down – I know I do. I can be very hard on myself. When we’ve experienced a crisis of faith or a failure – when we feel lost and unsure of what to do next, one natural reaction is to want to withdraw – from friends, from family, and even from God. But what if we were able to discover, as John Wesley did, that it is not in fact about what we do or how good or bad we are? Instead it is about God’s love for us and God’s grace available to us. No matter how lost we are, our heavenly parent is seeking us out – searching for us. No matter how far astray we’ve gone, God’s grace is there ready to bring us back. And then God’s grace is there to help us stay on the right path. In theology we talk about God’s Prevenient, Justifying, and Sanctifying grace. But, at the end of the day – grace is grace and it is a free gift of God available to all of us no matter how lost or found we are. What if, instead of just giving up, sitting down, withdrawing, or bawling we could stop and accept and trust God through that process? What would we find? The answer is grace. Grace is a word that I hope you are familiar with– and not just in the dictionary definition sort of way. Grace is a word that you should hear often in our church. It is THE defining principle of United Methodism and all other denominations that have been influenced by John Wesley. Grace is a free gift of God – it enables us to believe God, accept the salvation God has worked out for us, and continue to shape us for righteous living. We need grace no matter where we are in our lives. And once we have this understanding of God’s work, God’s grace is free to us because God paid the price, then suddenly it’s not so scary to share our faith with others. Then, instead of having to convince someone or persuade them to believe as we do, we can simply point out to them that God is already at work in their lives. We can, like the theme park worker did for me, simply work to reconnect them with their Father who is looking for them and has already done the work so that they can be together. Grace, grace, God’s grace – it’s freely given and available for each of us.

“Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand." Romans 5:1-2 When I was a freshmen in high school I experienced failure. The first semester of my freshmen year I had Algebra 1 with Colonel Firehawk. (I know, what a great name, right?) I really liked Col. Firehawk and did pretty well in his class, remember math is my nemesis. Then right before Christmas break he announced he was retiring and we would have a new teacher when we came back from break. The new teacher was nothing like him. She was strict, downright mean at times, and insisted that you do ALL of your homework. I did not like her. Now, to be clear, it was not her fault that I did not succeed. However, I failed my second semester of Algebra 1. I was embarrassed and humiliated. All of my other classmates were going on to geometry and I was not. I failed. This was a valuable lesson for me to learn. I never failed another class after that, nor had I before that. I didn’t like the feeling and I believed that I was more capable than that. The even more valuable lesson was the one I learned in the class I had to take in order to get back on track in math. The teacher in that class had every right to be hard on every one of her students. We all had failed Algebra 1 in order to be in her class. Most of us had failed because of not applying ourselves. This teacher was not hard on us. In fact, she offered what I would later understand to be grace. We had not earned the right to be treated that way. We did not deserve her graciousness, but she gave it anyway. She encouraged us, built us up, and helped us go where we could not go on our own. This was a more important lesson. You see John Wesley is lifted to a very high and prominent position in Methodism, and rightfully so. In light of this we sometimes forget that he failed. He experienced a measure of failure when he came to Georgia to share the Methodist movement with America. When he returned to England he felt the weight of this failure. It was the grace given to him through a group of Moravian Christians that he understood for sure that he was justified by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. In the words of Adam Hamilton, “This man who was trying so hard to prove himself to God (or to himself) discovered that God offered freely what Wesley had worked so hard to attain.” Grace gives us what we cannot earn and what we do not deserve. God gives this grace freely if we will humble ourselves, repent, and accept God’s offer. I pray that we all fail, or have failed, in our attempt to prove ourselves to God (or each other). I pray that we all experience the abundance of God’s grace in our failure. I pray that we all will receive the heart-warming swell of God’s grace being released in us and through us. It may take a crisis of faith to move us to this point. If so, I pray we all experience that crisis of faith. See you in church this Sunday.

“Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; for it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’" 1 Peter 1:16 Holy! What does it mean to be Holy? Simply put, to be holy means to be set apart. Scripture is full of a variety of people and objects that were made holy. They were set apart for a specific and special purpose. Ultimately, the term holy points to God as the one who is qualitatively different or set apart from all of creation. The Creator is holy and set apart from all that has been created. Theologians and philosophers refer to God as the “holy other” and also the “wholly other” that is set apart from creation. This is who God is. Then how are we to apply this verse in 1 Peter that we are to be “holy, as (God) is holy?” A secondary understanding of what it means to be holy is that God, as the holy other/Creator, will set apart someone or something for a special purpose. God, who is holy, sets apart believers for the purpose of spreading God’s love for humanity. We are set apart for the purpose of loving God and loving our neighbor. We are purposed, set apart, to be wholly devoted to sharing God’s love with the world in which we live and in which God created. We are able to do this because of God’s grace through a growing relationship with Jesus Christ. Christ died to give us purity and freedom from sin. We strive to live in that freedom and share the hope that it brings to a broken world. We are a major part of God’s redemptive work in humanity. We are to be people who are set apart for the purposes of God. So what does this set apartness look like? What does it look like to be holy? We need to look at Christ as the example of how to live a holy life. It means entering into the everyday places of life and bringing the light of God’s love. It means being set apart to go to people who are far from God, broken, battered, and bruised for the purpose of helping them experience God’s grace. It means loving your neighbor in any way you can and as often as you can. The call to be set apart is the call to love like Jesus loves. This is what it means to be holy. The key to be holy is a longing to be holy. This Sunday we will be talking about the longing of John Wesley, and others in his day, to be holy. To be set apart that God might use them for God’s purposes. In the lines of the Wesley Covenant Prayer (written much later in his life), John Wesley expressed holiness this way, “I am no longer my own, but yours. Put me to what you will, place me with whom you will. Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be put to work for you, praised for you or criticized for you. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and fully surrender all things to your glory and service. And now, O wonderful and holy God, Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, you are mine, and I am yours. So be it.” This should be the longing of our heart, to be holy as God is holy. See you in church this Sunday for more discussion on this topic.

“But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first!" Revelation 2:4 When I was in fifth grade I experienced my first love. She was a very cute blond with a great smile, good sense of humor, and a kind heart. I thought the world of her and was in love. This first love carried over to the sixth grade, when people were starting to be boyfriend and girlfriend. I could never muster the nerve to ask her out. What if she said no! So my first love was never fully realized since we moved after my sixth grade year. I remember the feeling of my first love. It changed the way I understood my relationship to girls. I remember my first love for Christ. The feeling I felt when I knew for certain that Jesus died and rose from the dead for me. I remember the overwhelming sense of Christ's great love for me, a sinner. I also remember vividly feeling that Christ loved me as I am. The type of love that showed me that I was fearfully and wonderfully made; a treasure. I was in love with Christ and everything was changed. In the Scripture passage above, Christ is wanting his followers, at a certain church, to know they have forgotten their first love. At the beginning Christ was everything to them. Now they were an established church. There were people bringing different ideas into their community. They were drifting and falling away. They drifted so far away that the word Jesus says to send to them is that they don't love him, or others, like they first did. Their relationship with the One who changed everything is changing. Jesus' reminder to the church is a reminder to us today as well. One of the precursors to revival in our life, and our community of faith, is to ask ourselves if we love Jesus the way we first did. Does our heart beat a little faster when we think of Jesus? Does our life reflect our love for Jesus? Are we following Jesus? Is our life radically different and does it reflect our passion for Christ? Have we lost our first love? I hope you will join me this Sunday as we discuss the precursors to revival in our life and in our church. Come and worship your first love. See you in church.

This week we are starting a new sermon series entitled “Revival.” We’ll be using Adam Hamilton’s book "Revival" as a resource, and several of our groups will be offering the ability to follow and journey along with us as we examine the path John Wesley took on his way to reviving a nation. I have my own hang-ups about the word “revival.” I experienced the wonder and the excitement and also the silver-tongued deception that can come along with “revivals.” I’ve been to the places where the Holy Spirit was being “poured out.” I went to a seminary known for the revival that happened on its campus. And now, now that I don’t have to deal with the idea, it is one that is easier to put up on the shelf. Deep down, if I’m honest, I can admit that I don’t like that word. To me, it smacks of judgment and saying that what I am doing is not enough – that what I am doing is dead or dying and needs to be revived. Revival literally means to bring back to life, after all. At the very least it implies to me that what I am and how I am is not good enough. Then, Pastor Tim started preaching on 2 Chronicles 2:14, “If my people, who are called by my name, would humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and heal their land.” He asked us to start praying for revival. To pray twice a day for that at 7:14 a.m. and 7:14 p.m. I had to take that word, that idea, those experiences off the proverbial shelf and actually deal with them. Do you know what I found? That when I humble myself, and pray, and seek God’s face, that I can see I really do need to be revived. I want more. More than what I’ve settled for. Don’t you? The best way I could think to sum this up and entice you to join us on Sunday was to share a Poem/Prayer with you from the book "Guerrillas of Grace" entitled Let Something Essential Happen to Me . I hope you enjoy it – but more than that, I hope you join in asking God to revive us once more that something essential could happen in us. “O God, let something essential happen to me, something more than interesting or entertaining, or thoughtful. O God, let something essential happen to me, something awesome, something real. Speak to my condition, Lord, and change me somewhere inside where it matters, a change that will burn and tremble and heal and explode me into tears or laughter or love that throbs or screams or keeps a terrible, cleansing silence and dares the dangerous deeds. Let something happen in me which is my real self, God. O God, let something essential and passionate happen in me now. Strip me of my illusions of self-sufficiency, of my proud sophistications, of my inflated assumptions of knowledge … O God, let something essential and joyful happen in me now, something like the blooming of hope and faith, like a grateful heart, like a surge of awareness of how precious each moment is, that now, not next time, now is the occasion to take off my shoes, to see every bush afire, to leap and whirl with neighbor, to gulp the air as sweet wine until I’ve drunk enough to dare to speak the tender word: “Thank you”; “I love you”; “You’re beautiful”; “Let’s live forever beginning now”; and “I’m a fool for Christ’s sake.” Now, not next time, NOW is the occasion, the chance we have to ask, to beg God to do something essential in us. To ask God to revive us once more. To pray. To be humble. To seek his face so that we can find peace and salvation and restoration. I want to live, to truly live again in Christ. Don’t you? Do you want to be revived?

“23 For this is what the Lord himself said, and I pass it on to you just as I received it. On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took a loaf of bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." 1 Corinthians 11:23-24 Growing up I remember the tags on Christmas presents very well. In my house they were always the ones that had “To:” and “From:” printed on them. The person wrapping the gift would choose an appropriate sticker/tag and write who it was to and then who it was from. I absolutely loved those stickers when I was a kid. My love for them was not because it allowed for me to clearly identify to whom I was giving a gift. No! I loved those stickers because they clearly identified for me what gifts I would be receiving. I would go through each year and look at all the tags and count up how many were for me. I wanted to know exactly how many of those gifts would be given to me on Christmas morning. It is a little ironic for me that the three words in the title of this article are words Jesus used when instituting this remembrance of himself in Holy Eucharist (Communion). Jesus said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” Those three words have been prominent in my understanding of Holy Communion, since becoming a Christian. I love these three words. I understood from the beginning the incredible act of God’s grace revealed and evident in communion. This act of remembrance is given for me so that I can participate in Christ as a part of Christ’s body, the church. It is nothing that I have done, nothing I could earn, nothing of which I am even deserving. It is given for me. What beautiful words. These are important and beautiful words because they indicate the manner in which communion is administered. We don’t take communion, we receive it. Communion is a gift of remembrance given for us by the one who gives us the gift. We receive the gift that has been given for us in order to remember. Jesus offered and gave his life for us. An atonement for our sins when we could not atone for them ourselves. This gift was given to us when we least deserved to receive it. Yet that is what we are called to do, receive. Every time we serve communion it is a gift that is given for you. It is an opportunity to share in Christ’s life, ministry, death, and resurrection. An opportunity to remember and to receive. After all … it is given for you. I hope you will join us in church this Sunday as we receive the gift given to us. See you in church.

“After breakfast Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” Peter replied, “you know I love you.” “Then feed my lambs,” Jesus told him.” John 21:15 Have you ever had someone ask you this same question? Do you love me? The answer is revealing to be sure. There is something even more revealing than the words one uses to answer the question however. Even more important than saying the words are the actions preceding and following the question. Remember, when Jesus asked this question to Peter he already knew the answer. Jesus knew that Peter loved him. Jesus had walked with Peter, taught Peter, eaten with Peter, and called Peter the rock upon which he would build his church. Jesus knew that Peter loved him. I believe Jesus was asking Peter if he loved him in order to help Peter understand the type of love Jesus required. A love of action and not just words. Peter followed Jesus and professed his belief in Jesus as the Son of God, the Messiah. Peter fulfilled Jesus’ commands and did whatever Jesus asked of him. Jesus needed for Peter to now be the leader of the church of Jesus Christ. Jesus would be going to sit at the right hand of God, the Father, and he would need Peter to love him beyond following him. Every time Peter answered the question in the affirmative, Jesus asked him to do something. Jesus wanted Peter’s love to be demonstrated by feeding his lambs and tending his sheep. Jesus desires that his followers show their love for him by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for the poor and widowed, visiting those in prison, and loving their neighbor everywhere. This is what love for Jesus looks like. As we wrap up our series "How to Change the World," we will look at how to stay in love with God. John Wesley instructed the people called Methodists to engage in works of piety and works of mercy. Acts of piety draw us to a greater love of God through the practice of spiritual disciplines. They strengthen our love of Jesus by spending time with Jesus through prayer, Scripture reading, fasting, and worship. We also strengthen our love of Jesus by growing our love of neighbor through works of mercy. Whenever we help someone defeat poverty, injustice, or inequity in their life we are offering them mercy and love. The more we love our neighbor through works of mercy the more we demonstrate our love of Christ. In my own life I have rarely, if ever, asked someone if they love me. I can either see their love for me or I cannot. Jesus knew Peter loved him. Jesus also wanted Peter to show that love by leading his church forward in spreading God’s love. After Jesus ascended to heaven, Peter demonstrated his love for Jesus the rest of his life. I look forward to continuing the discussion of how we are called to stay in love with God as the third simple rule for changing the world. Be sure to join us this Sunday.