In case you missed it…the first 4 sessions from our bible study on the Purpose Driven Life..PLUS.

He sent large contributions to the church anonymously in the form of postal money orders and cashier’s checks. We wondered where this big money came from, and we held it in an escrow account until we could find the source. After a few months, he showed up in person wearing fine jewelry, designer boots, and expensive jeans and driving a luxury European sedan. He made it clear that he was the one who had sent the money and described his visits to our services. Jewelry and boots to the contrary, he was clothed in guilt and shame.”
We are often clothed in fine clothes, beautiful jewelry, and expensive shoes. All are outward adornments that cover our guilt and shame. We are putting on the masquerade while we are hurting on the inside. Instead of being clothed in God’s love, peace and joy, we settle for guilt and shame. This is not what God wants for us. We can choose to put on his goodness, put on his gentleness, put on his righteousness, put on his kindness, put on his peace and put on his love. He wants us to live life and live it more abundantly. Today, let us choose to put on clothes of God.

Click the link above to view the outline for the first three weeks of our Summer Discipleship-Purpose Driven PLUS.

In 1915, Coffee County, Alabama was invaded by an insect called the boll weevil. This community’s main crop was cotton like much of the South, and this insect, the boll weevil, ate the leaves off the cotton thereby destroying the cotton crop. The entire community lost its livelihood and faced starvation. They were in a tough situation.
But instead of giving up, they did something incredible, they put their prejudice aside and invited an African American scientist, George Washington Carver, to come to the county. He was looking for the opportunity to display his research on crop rotation. He told them in so many words, don’t be upset because you lost your cotton crop. Your soil is still good for harvesting peanuts. And do you know what happened? They were able to harvest a peanut crop and rescue their community from economic disaster.

At the time many communities in the South were also being destroyed by the boil weevil. Those communities heard about Carver’s success in Coffee County, and increasing numbers began to turn to peanuts and sweet potatoes, and their derivatives for income. Much exhausted land was renewed, and the South became a major new supplier of agricultural products. Before Carver, the peanut had not even been recognized as a crop, but within the next half century it became one of the six leading crops throughout the United States and, in the South, the second cash crop (after cotton) by 1940. In 1942 the U.S. government allotted 5,000,000 acres of peanuts to farmers. Carver’s efforts had finally helped liberate the South from its excessive dependence on cotton and saved thousands of lives.

Are you in a tough situation? Are you facing economic disaster? Is your way of living being challenged? Is your life style being destroyed?
It may look bad but God maybe is giving you the opportunity of your life. He may be shaking up your life to show the terrific opportunity that is right in front you. He may be putting your life in an upheaval to bring to you the greatest blessing of your life. Open your eyes to see what God has for you!

We are living in a time of constant change. We are obsessed with the latest technology, always trading up for the most recent I-Pod, or newest version of a popular video game. Bombarded by countess distractions, it is easy to lose your voice in a world that is always in transition. Do we dream of being like JFK or Michelle Obama, or do we settle for being the next Kim Kardashian or Spencer Pratt? It is hard to find meaning in a world where many sacrifice morality for fifteen seconds of fame.

We allow the loss of all hope for a better world cloud our judgments and force us to cling to meaningless distractions, when it is clear what we really long for is a sense of divine purpose. We all seek meaning in our lives, searching for something larger than ourselves. Our individual purposes may vary, but the need to fulfill them and to heed our true calling is universal.

Many of us know who we want to become, yet are constantly sidetracked. We let the fear of being too good, or not good enough, stop our progress. We let our pasts, hinder us from achieving our goals. But, the reality is, those past mistakes, and those opportunities lost, cannot be retrieved. Instead of letting past mistakes hinder us, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin the work of remaking ourselves into the people we are destined to become. Maybe we were told we couldn’t achieve our goals. Maybe our pasts were filled with cynics who broke our spirits and tore us down. Maybe success was never expected of us because we didn’t have certain opportunities.

But, the true character of a person is shown through their ability to overcome setbacks and continue to move forward to their purpose. It is the student who struggles with schoolwork, only to receive mediocre grades. It is the student, once cut from his high school team, who perseveres, and later becomes the greatest professional basketball player in history. It is the dedication of a kid from Atlanta, Georgia, knowing his purpose at a young age, rising from obscurity, and years later, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, declaring he had a dream. These are the role models we look towards, and the ones we learn from, not despite their past mistakes, but because of their mistakes and because they kept moving forward, in spite of them.

So, how can we begin to define our purpose and move to reach it? As President Barack Obama stated, first, we must reach competence in our respective areas, which we can achieve by obtaining a basic education. Next, is excellence, a higher level which only some seek. The final level is mastery, which allows us to attain a skill level only a select few possess. I urge you to find your true purpose and master it. Do not let your youth, your fears, or anything at all stop you. You are more than what you have shown in high school. You have the ability to do more than you have even imagined for yourself. Don’t ever doubt the possibility of reaching your goals, and always remain cognizant of your vision for your life. We may continue to make mistakes, and continue to have regrets, but we are always striving for perfection, and Class of 2010, we will get there. (Nia Holston Class valedictorian High School Speech , June 22, 2010)

Maybe you never had a daddy take you to the movies. Maybe you never had a father drive you in his car. Maybe you never had a daddy to love you ,support you ,and nurture you. Maybe you never had a daddy at all. Nevertheless, when trouble comes, when worry seeps into your soul, when doubts cloud your dreams, when disappointment saddens your heart, when fear paralyzes your mind; there is a daddy, a heavenly daddy that has the key. The keys to life and death, the keys to right and wrong, the keys to love and peace, and the keys to prosperity and faith. Don’t worry, Don’t fret, Don’t despair , Daddy has the Key!

Baccalaureate Sunday is the day when we acknowledge the work of the Lord in our graduates from middle school, high school, college and graduate school. It gives us a moment to lift up the importance that the Lord places on education in the building of His kingdom, in transforming our community and in developing our human character.
The Bible contains numerous scriptures which implore us to be educated. Proverbs 1:7 says “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction”. Proverbs 2:7 reminds us “that God layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous; He is a buckler to them that walk uprightly”. II Timothy 2:15 reminds us to “study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of Truth”

Proverbs 10:21 teaches us that the lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for the lack of wisdom. Proverbs 16:16 lets us know “how much better is it to get wisdom than to get gold and to get understanding rather than silver”. Proverbs 24:14 also mentions that “so shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto thy soul; when thou has found it, then there shall be reward and thy expectation shall not be cut off”. Proverbs 3:13 states “happy is the man that findeth wisdom and the man that gets understanding”. Finally, Proverbs 2:10 reminds us “that when wisdom entereth into thy heart and knowledge it is pleasant to unto your soul.”

Not only does the Bible place a great importance upon education, but all human civilization places it at the highest places of human endeavor. The great African- American scientist George Washington Carver said that education was the “key to unlock the golden door of wisdom”. Political leaders such as Bill Gray said that “nothing is more powerful and liberating than knowledge”. Former President Lyndon Johnson said “at the desk where I sit, I have learned one great truth. The answer to our nation’s problems, the answer to the world’s problems are found in one word: education”. Former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela said that education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.

What is interesting about all of these people is that they started with less wealth influence and power than we have right now. But because they grabbed the instruments of education they have grown to be some of the most powerful and influential people of the last century and this century, they managed to transform their own lives, the lives of their communities , and the citizens of their nations and the people of the world. When you grab a hold of education you have the same opportunity. Take full advantage of the opportunity that is before you to change your life, the people of your community and the world.

Dear Pastor Holston and the St Matthew United Methodist Church:

I bid you grace and peace in the name of our God and Father and Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

I lift to God a prayer of thanksgiving for you and your fifty-nine years of worship, nurture and ministry and I extend to you congratulations on your celebration of your meaningful anniversary as a church and your half century in your present building. I only regret that my schedule prevents me from attending.

An event of such historical significance as the 59th year observance of the founding of your congregation quite naturally calls to mind both the spiritually sensitive heritage of the past and the dynamic faith in the adventuresome future God is opening for all of you as you strive to expand your ministries leaning on the Everlasting Arms.

You have been obedient to the call from God to be the Body of Christ as you witness for Him in this broken world. Whenever and where ever persons are in bondage to ignorance, poverty, fear or prejudice, the Church is called to strive for truth, justice, freedom, dignity and peace. Your theme “Let’s Reconcile” brings to mind that whenever and wherever barriers of hostility and distrust separate people, the Church is charged to be ministers of God’s reconciling and transforming love.

I praise God that you have been faithful to this vocation in the past. I rejoice, moreover that you are rededicating yourselves to be a faithful church in the future as you march forward with Christ into the twenty-first century of witness and service to God and God’s children.

Please be assured of my best hopes and prayers on your behalf.
Grace and Peace,
Peggy A. Johnson,
Resident Bishop

“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”Luke 23:34
Maybe the best way to understand what forgiveness is to understand what it is not.
Forgiveness is not forgetting. There is no command that we must forget the wrongs done to us. Instead, we must not hold a debt or grudge against them.
Forgiveness is not forgetting the hurt or shrugging it off. So many people say,’ that’s alright’ when it was not alright. Or that it is OK when it was not OK. Forgiveness means taking the offense seriously not just shrugging it off. Don’t make forgiveness in to a cover for abuse.
Forgiveness is not trust. Forgiveness does not mean that people are put back into a trusted position where they can do more damage. You can forgive but not trust. Forgiveness is given because God gave it to us. But trust must be earned.
Forgiveness is not reconciliation. Forgiveness is the pathway to reconciliation but it is not reconciliation. Forgiveness takes one party but reconciliation takes two.
Forgiveness is a fresh start. An author, Douglas Steere, stated that forgiveness is not a condition in which the sin of the past is not altered or its inevitable consequences changes. But rather, in forgiveness a fresh act is added to those of the past, which restores the broken relationship and opens the way for both parties to meet and communicate deeply with each other in the present and future. True forgiveness is a first step toward healing. ( Previously posted on 2/21/10)