"A child is born to us, a son is given to us, and authority will be on his shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be vast authority and endless peace for David’s throne and for his kingdom, establishing and sustaining it with justice and righteousness now and forever." - Isaiah 9:2, 6-7 CEB Remember when you were a kid? The hardest part about Christmas was simply waiting for it to come. The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas seemed to take forever. The season of Advent can be seen as a season of anticipation. Of waiting. So, the question that begs itself at the beginning of this Advent season is “what are we waiting for?” Let’s face it. We are a society that doesn’t like to wait. We have lost the fine art of delayed gratification. The people of Isaiah’s time were a people who were waiting. The years in which Isaiah prophesied were a time of great struggle both politically and spiritually in Israel’s history. For God had a promise for them, a Savior. He promises that one day the people who walk in darkness will see a great light. Even those who are living on the shadow of death, a light has dawned. For a child will be born and he will have authority over all nations. But they would have to wait. Isaiah wrote these words around 750 B.C., 750 years before the birth of Christ. Yet we look at seconds; God looks at the ages. Waiting, not hurrying is one of his characteristics. Waiting is not one of our strong points. Christmas is coming; what are you waiting for? Well, it depends on what you truly need. No, not what you want, but what you truly need in life. As you journey through this Advent season, as you sit in traffic, or waiting in lines, maybe this would be a time to slow down your hurriedness and talk to God. And listen to God. Maybe God is trying to tell you something this Advent season. Maybe God is trying to give you something, something you need more than jewelry and sweaters. Something that you desire more in your life; like peace, joy, love, closeness, comfort, forgiveness. Those are the things worth waiting for. And even if we cannot say we have them now, we can look into the face of the Christ child, lying in the manger, and we can see hope. That God has not abandoned us but gave us the greatest gift of all. The light shining in the darkness. #Advent #hope #love #joy #peace #Christ #Christmas #grace

I did not grow up following the Church calendar. We attended a non-denominational church that was not traditional in its practices. One of the things I treasure about being United Methodist is the church calendar and all the practices that go with following it. This Sunday we begin the season of Advent. This is a period for anticipating and longing for Jesus' return. Advent is both a period of preparation for both “advents” or arrivals of Jesus. The first arrival was His birth, and the second arrival will be when He returns one day for the Church. During Advent we light a candle on an Advent wreath during worship each week. Every Sunday represents one word describing what Jesus’ arrival brings to this earth. The first week is Hope . We need hope because we see so much injustice in our world. The rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer. We light a candle to remind ourselves that Jesus is our hope and one day He will restore all justice. The second week of Adent is the candle of Love . We know we need God’s love more than ever as we are surrounded by conversations that are laced with conflict and bitterness. We light the candle to remember that it is God’s love that breaks into this world and brings change. The third week and third candle is Joy . This is the pink candle. We are surrounded by people who suffer with grief, people who dread the holidays because of painful memories, or because they don't want to spend another Christmas alone. The candle of joy reminds us that God will bring joy to replace the sadness. Finally on the fourth week of Advent, which is also Christmas Eve this year, we will light the candle of Peace . With the conflict in Gaza and the war in Ukraine, we need to be reminded that the peace of God is coming. On Christmas Eve we will light the Christ candle. It is the light that illuminates the world, on earth just as it is in heaven! Sometimes the words of peace and love are changed out for different weeks, yet still the calendar guides us through the season so that we stay connected to Jesus and His work here on earth. To help us all remain in the Spirit of Advent, we will be passing out an Advent devotional for the adults this Sunday and an Advent Activity book for the kids. It is our prayer that this Advent season will be full of the light of Christ in your life. #Advent #hope #love #joy #peace #LordofLords #grace

“The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land.” Jeremiah 23:5 NIV This Sunday is Christ the King Sunday. Though it may not be one of the most well-known days in the church year, it does play a significant role in the church calendar. For one, it marks the end of the church year. This Sunday is the last day of the church liturgical or church calendar. The church year has a yearly rhythm to it that flows through seasons, Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost. A new liturgical year starts with Advent the following Sunday, the time when the church prepares for the coming of the Christmas, the coming of the Christ child. And it is no coincidence that the Sunday before Advent begins is Christ the King Sunday. As the name suggests Christ the King Sunday is a day when we acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, Lord of all. It is a time when we should be challenged with the question of whether Christ is Lord, Lord of our life, Lord of all nations, Lord of everything. Whose rules do we go by, what drives us, what are our values in life, does our relationship with Christ have any effect on how we live our lives? It’s easy to say of course Christ is Lord of my life with our lips, yet how often are we confronted with situations that slap us in the face to makes us rethink our answer. The honest-to-good reality of the Kingship of Christ is that it stands in stark contrast to the ways of the world. Living as Christ lived is not self-seeking but self-sacrificing for others. It is not desiring to be master over others but being a servant to others. It is not just loving those who love us back, but even loving our enemies. It is not distancing ourselves from other people and holding grudges when we’ve been wronged, but desiring reconciliation, seeking forgiveness. It is not relying on our own resources, but trusting in God that drives our lives. Making Christ King is not just giving Him the title but giving Him your life. Our true hope comes from our faith in God in bringing about His Kingdom, whose King will be, as stated in the Scripture reading in Jeremiah, “a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land.” Living with Christ as King in your life strives to bring about that Kingdom. And living with Christ as King in our life and in our world means that we belief that His righteous Kingdom will someday be realized and that His Kingdom is the true hope for all of creation. . #Jesus #KingofKings #LordofLords #grace

Be tolerant with each other and, if someone has a complaint against anyone, forgive each other. As the Lord forgave you, so also forgive each other. -Colossians 3:13 CEB John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, wrote about "Three Simple Rules," or the "Three General Rules" for living a Christian life. The late United Methodist Bishop Reuben Job wrote a book on these three rules, and he summarized them as this… “Do no harm, do good, and stay in love with God.” The three rules are indeed very simple and are taken from John Wesley’s interpretations of Scripture. All the rules seemed like no-brainer, common-sense, who-could-disagree-with-these statements. Yet the rule of “Do no harm” is what we truly need to grasp in our society today, where there is so much division and discord. It challenges us to look at this rule when dealing with conflict in our lives. Here is what Job writes concerning conflict when looking through the lens of “do no harm”: “If ... all who are involved [in the conflict] can agree to do no harm, the climate in which the conflict is going on is immediately changed. How is it changed? Well, if I am to do no harm, I can no longer gossip about the conflict. I can no longer speak disparagingly about those involved in the conflict. I can no longer manipulate the facts of the conflict. I can no longer diminish those who do not agree with me and must honor each as a child of God. I will guard my lips, my mind and my heart so that my language will not disparage, injure, or wound another child of God. I must do no harm, even while I seek a common good.” Do no harm. Not as easy as it sounds. Makes you appreciate John Wesley even more as one who followed the example of Christ. #grace #forgiveness #love

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! Philippians 2:5-8 NIV As we honor our military veterans this weekend, it is fitting to say we honor those who have “served” our country. There is an honor and virtue in uniting together to serve a cause that is greater than each of us. It takes an act of humility, of cooperation and teamwork, of offering up our own personal sacrifices for something that is a much greater and nobler objective. It’s such a dramatic reversal of what we so often see in our world today, the “what’s in it for me” attitude. Serving others, sacrificing one’s own personal regard for a greater cause. Why that’s somewhat Christ-like, isn’t it? Paul describes in this passage of Philippians the kind of servant that Jesus embodied. Christ, though being in the very nature God, made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, was born in human likeness, humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross. He emptied Himself of his divine privileges to be born as a helpless baby in a dirty animal stable, to be raised totally dependent on his parents. He had to walk to get around or ride a mule. His muscles got sore. He got tired and needed sleep. He had human emotions for which he was subject to. And we are told that we are to “have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.” It describes what those who have served or are serving in the military have accomplished. Serving by humbling themselves and putting on true humility for others. Sacrificing all the conveniences and privileges in life that we cherish for a greater cause. We pause to honor our military veterans on this Veteran’s Day. Because they have answered the call to service. And by so doing they possess the same mind that was in Christ Jesus. For true servanthood belongs to those who have truly accepted the self-giving of Christ as the model for Christian behavior. #veterans #service #serving

'For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ Matt. 25:35-36, 40 For this year the Missions Team has decided to change our special holiday giving. For the past several years we have celebrated the 12 Days of Giving, supporting 12 different needs in our community in the first 12 days of December. This year, we will support our community in two different ways. For the month of November, we will be collecting blankets for Dover Elementary. Dover Elementary School has been a mission of St. Andrew's for over 25 years. If you do not know about this school, it is located in Dover with an enrollment of 626 students; Head Start through fifth grade. The students are from multicultural, transient families who follow the agricultural growing seasons with 98% of these families fall below the poverty level. Many cannot provide basic needs such as clothing, personal hygiene items, shoes, nor a bed or pillow. All month long we will collect blankets for the kids of Dover Elementary. Blankets are often used for beds for these kids. Fleece blankets or throws from Walmart are inexpensive and deeply appreciated. In December, we will shift our support to two other schools, Springhead and Wilson Elementary schools, both located in Plant City. Both schools serve low-income families who need a lot of extra support. We will be collecting shoes for these kids. During December, we will have a Christmas Tree located in the narthex where you can come and grab a paper ornament which will give you the needed shoe size for either a girl or boy tennis shoes. All shoes can be delivered unwrapped during the month of December. For both November and December, there will be boxes at the front of the sanctuary to collect your items. These boxes will be out for blankets beginning November 12. We thank you for your willingness to bless the communities around us that need the most support! #giving #grace #love #mercy #children

In 1908 The Florida United Methodist Children’s Home was established in Enterprise, Florida as the Florida Methodist Orphanage. It began with the purchase of one building, eight town lots and a tract of forty acres of land purchased from Miss Emma Tucker for $1,250 dollars. Articles of Incorporation were filed with the State of Florida on June 3, 1908. The Florida Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South began this institution by declaring, “Here we propose, by the help of God and the cooperation of all good people, to found a noble Christian institution for the relief, education and training of destitute, fatherless and motherless children, who may look to us for help.” For over 100 years this has been the guiding principle of the Children’s Home. The early years of the Children’s Home were difficult as the church sought to build a solid foundation to care for Florida’s children. The Fifth Sunday offering, and many individual gifts led to the expansion of land and buildings. During the 1930’s as many as 150 children would be in care at a time. Many important milestones of the 20th century are noted in the records of the Children’s Home. No deaths were reported during the worldwide flu pandemic of 1918. During the Great Depression of the 1930’s the Children’s Home grew much of its own food, tended dairy cattle and raised a variety of animals. As many as 100 former residents of the Children’s Home served in uniform in World War II. In 1939 our name was changed to The Florida Methodist Children’s Home. This name change reflected the reality that an increasing number of children coming into care were not simply orphans, but victims of abuse, abandonment and family breakdown. In 1971 The Florida Methodist Children’s Home merged with the Sarah Hunt Methodist Children’s Home in Daytona Beach, Florida and was renamed The Florida United Methodist Children’s Home not only to reflect this merger, but also to indicate the merger of The Methodist Church and The Evangelical-United Brethren Church into The United Methodist Church. During the 1940’s and 50’s the philosophy of child care began to change. Children needed much more than three meals a day, a safe place to sleep and basic care. The emotional and psychological needs of the children required a higher level of clinical care and attention. In 1955 the first two cottages were built. Before this time, the boys and girls lived in dormitory style buildings. We now have 14 individual homes that provide a family like atmosphere for each child. Every cottage is under the care and supervision of dedicated house parents and a trained therapist. The Children’s Home continued to expand during the 70’s and 80’s. Our gymnasium was built in 1976 followed by our campus chapel in 1979. Our Day Care Center began serving the community in 1982. The therapeutic ropes course was added in 1989. A tremendous period of growth began in 1998 with the addition of the Bruton Counseling Center, Waller-Jeter Cottage, the completion of the Worrell Education Center, and the renovation of Hardin Hall, the largest building on campus. The Florida United Methodist Children’s Home is now a diverse ministry that includes residential care, therapeutic group care, foster care, emergency shelter care, independent living assistance, and community childcare center. Throughout its long and valued history the Florida United Methodist Children’s Home has been a haven of peace and a merciful blessing to all that have come into her care. Click HERE to watch the historical video of the Children's Home. #grace #love #mercy #children

Do you ever struggle to not judge others? So often we see people making bad decisions and it is so plain to us that they are in the wrong. We can’t imagine how they do not see their own error or their poor reasoning. Then I think about a story in 2 Samuel 12:1-8. It is a time in the life of King David when he has grown bored by life, and he has an affair with another man’s wife and then orchestrated the man’s death to clean up his mess. God sent the prophet Nathan to confront the king, but the prophet wisely knows that he must be careful with his words or he may lose his own life for truth telling. Nathan shares a tale with the King David about a rich man who had many sheep, but still steals a poor man’s only lamb and slaughters it for a banquet. When David hears this story, he is filled with rage and righteous indignation declaring the rich man must die. That is when Nathan bravely reveals that David is actually the rich man. When David heard the prophet declare, you are the man , it says "the scales fell from his eyes." He finally could see the truth and he repented. For most of us, we don’t have a prophet helping us see the truth. Usually, we finally stumble upon our own faults when we are stuck in the middle of a mess we have created. It might be a financial situation or a relationship that goes south, but suddenly we see the error of our way and we are forced to see the chaos we have created. The good news is, like David, we can experience God’s forgiveness. He will even help us climb out of the disarray we are responsible for. Still there will be consequences. Yet, we will eventually move past our mistake and we will know we are forgiven. I think David was chief among sinners, yet we also know David was a man after God’s heart. That means we are not eternally judged by our mistakes, rather we are chosen and accepted by God as His beloved children. #grace #forgiveness

Then Job replied to the LORD: “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted. You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know." Job 42:1-3 NIV As Christians, our quest in life is to seek God. We encounter God through worship, through prayer, through Bible study, through the sacraments, through the Word proclaimed in sermons, through reading renown theologians share their understanding of God, and through works of service. You would think that as one who went to seminary, I would have an adequate grasp of God and what faith in God means. But in actuality, I feel like Job. Why do I feel like Job? Because in the book of Job we read that he and his friends began speculating, explaining, and discussing God to Job in their little small group sessions. And in the midst of all this lecturing, Job actually encountered God. And it silenced him. This encounter with the Almighty so overwhelmed Job that it silenced all his questions and he just sat back and was hushed. As one person explained to me, Job was awed into humility. What I am trying to say is that the more I know about God the more inadequate I feel. The more I encounter God, the more I realize how little I know about what the Holy Spirit can do in my life, of the atoning work of the grace of Jesus Christ offers to us salvation. Once I think that I got a handle on who God is, on what his powerful presence in our lives means to us, once I feel like I got my arms around him, he gets bigger. Once I have him fixed in a place where I can comprehend him, I look around the corner and there is more of God. Occasionally, we all need to throw out all the categories we put God in, that narrowly attempt to define him, to be silenced and just stand in awe of who God is and accept that we will never find categories to fully describe him. We may never be able to fully comprehend all things. And this is something that should not frustrate us in our Christians walk and something in which we feel defeated because of our lack of knowing. But it is something we can simply accept and indeed marvel about who he is and how wonderful and satisfying his grace is. We should always be searching for who God is. For this is not a bad thing, for once we think we have found out the whole essence of God, we stop looking. Once you find Waldo in the “Where’s Waldo” picture book, you put the book down. But isn’t it just like God to be a God that we cannot completely find, rather it is a God for whom we must constantly be searching. For if we are searching, we are growing. Once we stop searching, we are dead. Matt. 6:33 says “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you.” And as we continue to seek his kingdom, we are not to be dismayed that we haven’t fully found it yet, but to be encouraged to know in all that we do, his grace is sufficient. #God #seekingGod

Throughout the month of September, we have been talking about God’s command to all followers of Jesus Christ to love our neighbor. Yet one faithful follower asked Jesus directly, how many times am I supposed to forgive those people that I am commanded to love? To answer him, Jesus gave him a parable. This story is found in Matthew 18:21-35. There was a man deeply in debt who begged to be forgiven of a debt he could never pay off in his lifetime. Unbelievably, he was fully forgiven for his huge debt. Later that day, someone came to the same man and asked him to forgive him of a much smaller debt, but the man who knew great forgiveness of debt refused to forgive a much smaller debt. This encounter made it back to the first person that forgave the huge debt. When he heard of the hard-forgiving heart of the one he forgave, he revoked his decision to forgive his debt and threw the man into prison. So, what does this teach us? I think this teaches us that loving our neighbor gets personal here. When we think of loving my neighbor, we generally think about all of humanity. Loving all humans. But when we hear we must forgive that person in our life that irritates the heck out of us and constantly pushes our buttons, that gets a lot harder. Yet, and this is a big yet. Yet, if we desire God’s love and forgiveness, we must forgive again, and again, and again. You see, God was not kidding when he said to us to love, to forgive, to share, to build up our world that is breaking down around us. We live in a world that is angry and mad at each other. We are commanded to look like Christ and that means we must be a forgiving people. Let me be clear. We can only forgive by the grace of Jesus Christ. We can only do what Christ asks of us because of the Holy Spirit that resides in me and in you. This past Sunday we talked about the radical love that inspires us to do the tough thing is also the same radical love that will empower us to forgive the person that we don’t want to forgive. Please don’t ever hear this as an excuse to take abuse by someone who holds power over you. Rather, hear this as a warning to us that God is serious about loving and forgiving that will be impossible outside of the help of the Holy Spirit. Radical love is how we are all going to be the church, be a Christian, and be the body of Christ. #love #grace #forgiveness

"A Samaritan, who was on a journey, came to where the man was. But when he saw him, he was moved with compassion." Luke 10:33 CEB Throughout the month of September, in our morning worship services, we have been focusing on The Good Samaritan parable that we read in Luke 10:25-27. We have been looking at this parable from different angles. It is so robust with meaning that we feel that we can never cover all its entirety. We know that a legal expert encountered Christ and was commended by Jesus for acknowledging that to inherit eternal life one must “…love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.” But then the legal expert asked, “and who is my neighbor?” Jesus could have just answered his question, straight-forward, cut to the chase. Simply said, “Everyone is your neighbor.” But instead, Jesus tells the Parable of the Good Samaritan. In so doing, he put the legal expert and all of us in the story. So that it will make an impact on the lawyer and us. We can experience what it feels like to be a good neighbor, instead of just being told what to do. This shows the brilliance in Jesus in reaching people in a heartfelt way. The key phrase to me is in verse 33. For as the other two, saw the injured man and walked past him, the Samaritan saw him and “was moved with compassion.” Stories and parables can put us within the narrative. In this case, so that we will be moved to compassion when encountering a neighbor in need. Or a phrase I heard a lot when I was growing up, to “rile us up.” What would rile you up enough to reach out to a “neighbor,” with the definition of a neighbor being anyone we encounter ? We must all look deep inside ourselves and discover what would it take for us to be “moved to compassion?” #prayer #love #grace #compassion

"I cry aloud to the LORD; I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy. I pour out before him my complaint; before him I tell my trouble." Psalm 142:1-2 NIV I read a devotional today from The Upper Room written by a woman in Pennsylvania, who was lamenting that she had felt that God was blessing others, but not her and her husband. Her prayers seemed to go unanswered. She was not thanking and praising God for His great blessings, as she saw others doing. After talking to a Christian friend, she realized that her prayers had been the scripted and polite type. Just praying “for God’s will to be done.” She was not sharing the depths of her spirit. Gushing out her concerns. She noticed in Scripture how so many people poured out their hearts to God. Even complaining, as King David did in Psalm 142. There is even a whole book in the Old Testament, filled with complaints – the Book of Lamentations. God wants you to be honest with Him. To pour out your heart, whether you are celebrating or lamenting. God desires a sincere and open relationship with His creations. And as we are honest with God, He will cultivate our hearts so that they align with His. Then, God can bless us with the desires of our heart (Psalm 37:4). Note: To submit a prayer request to the church, click on Prayer Request - St. Andrew's United Methodist Church . Unless you specify it as “Confidential,” the request will be emailed out on Tuesday’s Intercessory List. They will also be prayed for by a small team of people, called the Prayer Team, who are dedicated and committed to regular and ongoing prayer for the concerns of this church and our community. If you would like to join this team, contact Pastor Gary at gary.rideout@saumc.net . #prayer #love #grace