Expect to meet with God. Anticipate an audience with the Almighty. Prepare yourself for an encounter with the one who loves you … and who emptied himself so that you might live abundantly.

This Sunday’s theme is “belonging to God’s family.” In Christ, our deepest needs and desires for belonging and acceptance are met!

  • Welcome/Announcements: We review our upcoming schedule and important events.
  • Prayer: We welcome God’s presence in our midst as we begin our worship.
  • “Blessed Be Your Name”: We lift our voices in praise to God – no matter what our present circumstances are.
  • Responsive Reading – Psalm 27: We recite together the ancient words: “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?”
  • “Whom Shall I Fear?”: We sing, in response to scripture, this affirmation of God’s provision for us – because he loves us as his children.
  • Offering: Out of thankfulness and praise, we give our very selves to the Lord, symbolized by the tithes and offerings we place in the offering plate.
  • “The Family of God”: We continue in a mode of thanksgiving by celebrating the truth that we have been brought into God’s family, through Jesus.
  • Missions Moment: We take a moment to review our involvement in missions activities around the world. God’s family is quite large indeed!
  • “Facing a Task Unfinished”: We unite with thousands of churches around the world who will sing this song this Sunday as well. It’s a song of commitment to the unfinished work of sharing the love of Jesus with everyone around us.
  • Prayer: We lift our praises and concerns to God, who cares for our every need.
  • “Be Still and Know”: We remember, in song, that God’s desire for us is simply to rest, to know that he is God.
  • Special Music: We contemplate the goodness of being in God’s presence while we listen to a special selection presented by one of our members.
  • Scripture Reading – Philippians 3:17-4:1: This passage teaches us to eagerly await our Savior, Jesus Christ, and the eternal life which he promises us.
  • Scripture Reading – Luke 13:31-35: In this sermon text, Jesus compares himself to a mothering hen who only desires to draw her chicks to herself for protection, love, and life. Yet those chicks are unwilling…
  • Message – “Poured Out: Empty Nest”: This second week of Lent has us thinking about how Jesus poured himself out for all people, even though the people around him did not respond favorably to him at the time.
  • “Just As I Am, Without One Plea”: We respond to God by presenting ourselves to him, without apology or modification, so that he might draw us under his sheltering wing and give us life.

Come and worship with us!

Today is my birthday. Today I turn 35 years old. And today I drove from my birthplace to my current home.

You see, my birthday, by virtue of falling near the end of November, is always somewhere around the Thanksgiving holiday. For the past few years, Tara and I have alternated which side of the family we visit at Thanksgiving time. This year, we drove down to West Virginia to see Tara’s family: for three days, twelve of us stayed in the home of Tara’s aunt and uncle who live in a very small coal-mining village south of Charleston.

Thirty-five years ago, my father was a pastor in a small town west of Charleston. Thirty-five years ago, he drove my mother to Charleston so I could enter the world in a hospital of good repute. And for thirty-five years, my life – like yours – has been wandering from place to place, from experience to experience, from decision to decision.

And today, on our trip home, I drove right past the hospital where I was born. Ten hours later, we arrived at our home.

The long road here took thirty-five years. The short road – although today it didn’t feel very short! – took just ten hours.

That got me thinking: on several occasions, I have heard Christians say that they wish God would put a huge billboard in the sky, drop a message from the heavens, or appear in the form of an angel and tell them what to do, what decision to make, which direction to move. We often speak platitudes to each other such as “God’s timing isn’t our timing,” “It will all make sense someday,” or “You just have to have faith.” But those aren’t always convincing in the moment. And they may just be platitudes: statements that have “been used too often to be interesting or thoughtful” (says Google).

At this point, I could write something like this: “My life, for all its ups and downs, has been marked by God’s blessings. And because of that, I wouldn’t take the short road over the long road for anything! I’m glad that it took this long to get here, because the journey has been worth every minute.” But that would be another platitude.

Take a few moments to read the first eleven verses of the Old Testament book Ecclesiastes. It helps to keep things in perspective on days like one’s birthday.

Here is what I will say about the long and short roads. Had I never traveled the long road, I would not have realized the significance of the short road. If I had not been born in Charleston, today’s drive would have been simply a long road trip.  The course of my life to this point made today’s drive more meaningful for me than it would be for anyone else.

We wait for God to show us the way to go, but in the meantime our experiences form us into who we are becoming. God uses them to form us after the image of Jesus Christ. The long road defines us.

And then we remember, from scripture, that “generations come and generations go.”

Happy birthday, everyone. I’m happy to be on this journey with you all.

This Sunday was the fifth day of Christmas, a season which lasts twelve days and extends all the way to Epiphany, the next holiday in the church calendar.  On this day, Pastor David highlights “five golden rings” from Hebrews 2:10-18, a passage that explains the connection between Jesus’s birth and death.  Listen in to this message, and allow the word of God to transform your life!

Listen now!

Reflections on Guatemala

I sit here on a snowy Thursday morning and find myself reflecting on how, just one week ago, several of us from Mt. Haley were experiencing different weather, a different language, a different culture, and a different sense of community.

We as a church have been building up for this Guatemala “Shack Attack” trip for quite some time.  We gave over $2,500 toward expenses for the trip and, more importantly, for a house to be built for a family in Guatemala City.  We joined hands with a neighboring church, Meridian Church of God, to bring about this experience, in which we shared the love of Christ with hundreds of children and adults and in which we learned a great deal about ourselves and our own way of life.  I’d like to share with you a few of the lessons I learned on this trip.

  1. Though cultures differ greatly, family is universally important. The house we worked on will soon be home to a family of five, and yet it is very small – certainly smaller than our youth room at church.  This family will make this newly constructed space their home, and that is quite significant.  We also visited the home of a family whose house was built this time last year – a truly beautiful space that has quickly become their home in the past few months.  Having a space for families to live life, to build relationships, to grow together – this is a crucial component of life both in the Guatemalan community we visited and for us here in the States.  What is your family life like?  What space have you created for those relationships?
  2. Though languages differ greatly, Christian love is universally understood.  We saw this lesson most clearly when we attended a Sunday morning worship service in the church just a hundred yards down the railroad tracks from the house construction location.  We witnessed laughter, greetings, and hugs among the Christian community there.  We participated in tremendous worship of our Lord with familiar and unfamiliar songs sung in Spanish.  We experienced a remarkable display of Christian humility through a public confession of sin, and we saw the body of Christ extend forgiveness to those who made that confession.  Where do you see Christian love expressed in your life?  How would your life change if you saw it more clearly?
  3. Though personalities differ greatly, relationships are universally meaningful. 
    Andrea and Julia
    Andrea and Julia

    Many of the children we met in Guatemala were gregarious, excited to see us, talkative, and very expressive.  Some, however, were much more quiet and reserved – like me!  While I watched the dozens of children we saw each day, I noticed that some children, just like here at home, tended to be in the center of attention, while others stayed on the edges of the group.  And then, on our last day at “the tracks,” two young girls appeared at my side:  Andrea and Julia. These two girls, eight and seven years old, respectively, were very shy and not very talkative.  But they plopped themselves down next to me and were content just to be next to me or to be held on my lap for the bulk of the day.  Who are the “overlooked” people in your daily life?  Are you one of them?  How can God use your personality to be a blessing to people around you?

Whether in the sunshine or in the snow, whether in 70 degree weather or 20 degree weather, God is at work in people’s lives.  I am excited to continue bringing about the kingdom of God in our own community after seeing it at work in Guatemala City last week!  Will you join me in our ongoing mission work?

–Pastor David

Caring for Our Parents

I am learning so many things in my first few weeks as pastor of Mt. Haley Church of God.  One of the most significant of these is a reality facing many people in our congregation (and in society in general):  the need to care for our elderly parents, even after we ourselves have retired.  While I was preparing for this Sunday’s sermon, I was struck by how directly the scriptures address this very issue.

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