Mt.Zion - Orange United Methodist Charge

Mt. Zion - Orange United Methodist Churches “Faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see.” Hebrews 11:1 I often sort of laugh to myself when I hear someone say they are not religious, but they are spiritual. To my thinking if you are spiritual and don’t follow a religion you are wandering without a direction or even a path and your faith is in yourself. On the other hand, if you are religious without being spiritual you are just following rules and your faith is in the rule makers of that denomination. Religious spirituality is faith with a within a path. Not to check off some required boxes or follow step by step instructions, but to seek the way to what the originator of the path sought. In Christianity that is to follow the way of Jesus in loving the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and to love your neighbor as yourself. These are followed by the statement by Jesus that “...

Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 It is common for people to say when a loved one dies that “God has taken her/him” or that “God needed another angel”. This is misunderstanding of the nature of God’s Omniscience or Omnipotence (all knowing or all powerful). The understanding that God knows all things and can do all things doesn’t mean that God takes loved ones from us as part of God’s plan. God’s plan for us is that we would love God as God loves us and ultimately live with God for all eternity (God being, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). While God does not take loved one from us God surely receives our loved ones in love as only a creator can love their created. Peace and Blessings Pastor Tom

Happy Memorial Day.  Please take time to remember those brave men and women that have paid the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country.

Ascension Sunday Worship May 24th, 2020 Gospel Luke 24:44-53 Hymn Praise the Lord Who Reigns Above Hymn Open My Eyes, That I May See

Genesis 12:2 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I know that I have been blessed. I may not be filthy rich, but my family and I have enough. Whether I have been a blessing to other is not something that I can determine myself. Back when my kids were in high school, I attend a performance of the musical Hello Dolly. In the musical there is a monologue by the main character Dolly Levi about wealth. She says: “The difference between a little money and no money at all is enormous –and can shatter the world. And the difference between a little money and an enormous amount of money is very slight –and that, also can shatter the world.” Most of us have enough, so we are blessed and are call to be a blessing to others. Whether the “we” is on a personal level or the “we” is the Church we are called to be a blessing to others. From some of the things I have seen on social media lately ...

Deuteronomy 31:1-6 31 Then Moses went out and spoke these words to all Israel: 2 “I am now a hundred and twenty years old and I am no longer able to lead you. The LORD has said to me, ‘You shall not cross the Jordan.’ 3 The LORD your God himself will cross over ahead of you. He will destroy these nations before you, and you will take possession of their land. Joshua also will cross over ahead of you, as the LORD said. 4 And the LORD will do to them what he did to Sihon and Og , the kings of the Amorites, whom he destroyed along with their land. 5 The LORD will deliver them to you, and you must do to them all that I have commanded you. 6 Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” Two thoughts come to mind when reading this passage. The first is the last sentence, which have seen as a theme all through this Easter Season. That being that God will never forsake us. The ...

Acts 27:39-44 Paul is Shipwrecked while being taken to Rome 39 When daylight came, they did not recognize the land, but they saw a bay with a sandy beach, where they decided to run the ship aground if they could. 40 Cutting loose the anchors, they left them in the sea and at the same time untied the ropes that held the rudders. Then they hoisted the foresail to the wind and made for the beach. 41 But the ship struck a sandbar and ran aground. The bow stuck fast and would not move, and the stern was broken to pieces by the pounding of the surf. 42 The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners to prevent any of them from swimming away and escaping. 43 But the centurion wanted to spare Paul’s life and kept them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land. 44 The rest were to get there on planks or on other pieces of the ship. In this way everyone reached land safely.     Often, we see that the decis...

Mt Zion - Orange United Methodist Churches Worship -  Sunday May 17, 2020 Orange UMC Harold Hoover 441 Orange Rd Dallas, PA  18612 Mt. Zion UMC Karen Daniels 1214 Marcy Road Harding, Pa 18643 Peace Pastor Tom

Philippians 2:3-4 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. Be part of something  bigger than yourself. People who have faith and purpose in their lives are happier, feel more in control and get more out of what they do. A simple way to describe having faith is that it's about being part of something that we really believe in that is bigger than ourselves.  This seems an appropriate reminder for this time in our lives when we are being asked to do things that may not benefit ourselves but may protect others. Peace and Blessings – Pastor Tom

Especially now, many of us may be overcome with the felling of loneliness What King David wrote in his Loneliness Psalm 25:16-21    Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted.    Relieve the troubles of my heart and free me from my anguish.    Look on my affliction and my distress and take away all my sins.    See how numerous are my enemies and how fiercely they hate me!    Guard my life and rescue me; do not let me be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.    May  integrity and uprightness protect me, because my hope, LORD, is in you.  You can take hope in that God is always with you. And since we (the Church) are the hands and feet of Jesus here on earth. We can and should reach out to those who may be the loneliest during this time by making a phone call or sending a card. Things like this and more are what followers for Christ are called to do. Peace and Blessings Pastor To...

I believe that God can and will let good come out of everything, even the greatest evil. . . . I believe that in every moment of distress God will give us as much strength to resist as we need. But it is not given to us in advance, lest we rely on ourselves and not on God alone. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer Romans 8:35-39 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”[a] 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[b] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Pastor Tom

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY Mt Zion - Orange UMC Worship May 10th 2020 Scripture: 1 Peter 2:2-10 Music: How Firm a Foundation & In Christ Alone (Guitar playing was a little rough, please forgive)

John 13:34-35 34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” There are many situations where people can question whether a person is what they present themselves to be. Someone could ask a person wearing a fire department t shirt, “do you fight fires, or just have the t shirt” . Or back in the day a magazine advertisement that I used to find funny was “Be a model, or just look like one”. I used to imagine using that phrase in other ways, like maybe “Be a mechanical engineer, or just look like one” for college recruitment. Ok now you know how weird my mind works. But how about when we wear a cross, or a shirt that has something about Jesus on it. Or maybe we have a fish emblem on our car or maybe the cross, or a sticker that says “Honk if You Love Jesus” Are we loving like Jesus? Will the people that you en...

For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:12   A few weeks ago, Beth and I painted our living room, dinning room, and kitchen. The weather was cloudy while we were doing the work. In fact, except for a few fleeting moments of sunshine it was basically cloudy and gloomy for two or three weeks after painting. But then there was yesterday, May 3 rd , 2020. Yesterday was brilliantly sunny, barely a cloud in the sky. That bright sunshine revealed several places on the walls that needed some touch-up .   That’s how it is with the light of our earthly understanding. Even with all the brilliant minds of humankind on earth, we can only partially understand God’s creation. There are things seen and unseen, physical and spiritual that we can’t understand. Understanding will only come when we are raised and become like Jesus. And that is probably t...

Worship May 3rd, 2020 Mt. Zion - Orange United Methodist Charge Gospel John 10:1-10 Music: : ”Softly and Tenderly” and “Psalm 23”

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11 You are amazing.       While watching a documentary on America; specifically, the United States. I started thinking how blessed we are not just to be living in the USA, but to be alive and alive anywhere. Between the fact that as a species in prehistoric times due to sickness and natural disasters, the human population  may have been down to fewer than 200,000. Then when you think about death from infant mortality rates throughout history, sickness, infection, injury, conflict, and war. It is amazing that any particular one of us are here today.       Just for my own family in the 20th century my grandfather was killed in a powder mill explosion. My father was five, had that happened five years before, well…. Then my other grandfather narrowly missed being crushed by an automobile size boul...