Our Thursday devotional this week has been prepared by Loyce Weaver, a member of our church.
Scripture: Isaiah 12:2.
“Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.”
Reflection
Every human being in this world has events in their lives that make them who they are. Their own events shape them, whether positively or negatively. How you choose to use those events, eventually make you into the person that you become.
In September of 1964, when I was 10 years old, I was on a hayrack ride at Camp Fontenelle, a Methodist Church Camp in Blair, Nebraska. The tractor pulling the hayrack upended, falling back on top of the hayrack. The driver of the tractor ended up on my lap, pinning me beneath him. He died on my lap. It was my first experience with death.
I was also severely injured and could not walk for eight weeks afterwards. I lost the feeling in the backs of my legs and developed an infection. I missed a lot of school. How my family and friends rallied around me, and how they brought me back from this, shaped me going forward. My church family also had a lot to do with it. Lifting me up, both literally and figuratively, when I was down and helping me realize that I had value and God was there for me.
In this time of COVID-19, we are all going through that same thing. We're staying home, we're isolated from friends and family. Our only contacts are through social media—and not all of that is positive contact. Now, more than ever, we need to reach out to our church family and to our God, in order to realize that we are loved and that God is there for us. Remembering that we do matter and we do have value and that we will get through this. Re-affirming that God is our salvation and our strength and our song.
So the question becomes, what will your "new normal" be when this is over? More kindness, more caring? Making sure that the things that do matter during this isolation are the things that matter once it's over? We need to think about that and make ourselves into the person that we choose to be.
Prayer
Our Heavenly Father, be with us during this time, as always, making us realize our value to you as we realize your value to us. Amen
Important Announcements
1. How to financially support our church during the Coronavirus. Even though we are staying home and socially isolating during the pandemic, many of our church’s operating expenses—such as utilities, insurance, etc.—continue. While we aren’t able to pass the offering plate, you can still financially support your church in several ways. First, you could mail a check to the church at 4530 A Street, Lincoln 68510. Or, you can contribute electronically through pushpay by going to: https://pushpay.com/g/connectionpoint A HUGE Thank You to everyone for their financial support during this crisis!!
2. Volunteer Help Appreciated. If you are interested in volunteering to help during the coronavirus, please email us at ChristUMCHelps@gmail.com, or call Richard at 402-617-0355. We especially need help, just making phone calls to church members to touch base with them to maintain our bonds of support and community at Christ United Methodist Church
3. Worship Service this Sunday. Our worship service this Sunday (April 19) will be led by Pastor Beth, with Lily Spader providing music leadership. The service will live stream on April 19 at 11 am. This Sunday, we will be broadcasting from the sanctuary at ConnectioN Point. This will allow members of the ConnectioN Point congregation to feel more at home, watching our worship service from their sanctuary. It will also allow members of our Christ congregation to see all of the upgrades that have been made to the ConnectioN Point sanctuary and experience worship in that context.
You can access both of these services live by clicking on https://www.facebook.com/christumclinc/. If you miss the services live, you can access them later on Facebook as well as our church webpages, https://www.christumclinc.org for Christ United Methodist and https://www.connectionpointlnk.org/ for ConnectioN Point.
Our Facebook page is open to everyone, so we encourage you to invite friends, who may not have access to church services during this time of social isolation, to join us for worship. Of course, they can also access the recorded services online at our web sites listed above.