One of the seven places where I believe we will find the Holy Spirit awaiting us this year is as together and individually we read the book of Acts.
 
I believe there are a lot of hidden lessons to be found in our reading of the book of Acts. Some of these stories are so obscure like last week’s, or take so long to develop that we don’t take the time it takes to read them all the way through in worship. And that is why I’ve asked all of us… at our own pace, to read the book of Acts.
 
Sunday was the first experience of what I am anticipating happening more and more as we move through this year of “Opening ourselves to the Holy Spirit” with the book of Acts as our model.  Sunday was the first day we used a difficult, mostly unknown scripture to make an important statement about our church.  If sitting in church was the first time you encountered this story in Acts 5, as I know it was for many of you, it was very hard to get beyond the plot…And you probably had a little less “bandwidth” to be open to the message that… like the early church, we cannot bear deception and hidden agendas and be all that God intends for us to be together.
 
So today I want to do everything to both inspire and motivate you to read Acts. Here are some suggestions. If you need a Bible let me know…we are a church…we have Bibles to give away. The Gideons do a great job with this, but they do not have a corner on that market.
 
 You can get the Bible on whatever device you’re reading this memo on.  There are so many versions out there I want to remind you that I am using two…The Message and The New Revised Standard Version.
 
You can click at the listed scripture at the end and go directly to the scripture for Sunday morning.  You can check out the worship page in the newsletter for the Sunday morning scripture readings a month in advance or find them on the home page of this website. Maybe read a few chapters or verses before and after each one of those readings.
 
If after reading the scriptures you have some significant question or wonder what was that… Come to the Sunday morning 8:30 Bible Study that Drake Talbert and I lead.  The nursery is staffed, and older kids can hang out together.  We have a great core group for this study, so you won’t feel like you are the only one in the room.  We will spend the hour talking about the context of scripture and bringing that context to our lives.  It’s a very interesting hour. Those who have been in this study often comment that it deepens not only their understanding of scripture, but also their experience of worship. (We also have our own coffee pot.)
 
If you want to give me a text, email or a phone call or even a get together about your questions or concerns about the scripture…do it.  I would be overjoyed to spend time on a couple of emails or at a lunch or two every week.
 
This week is another example of how important is your reading ahead of time to deepen your worship experience and to participate in Opening Ourselves to the Holy Spirit.  So how about it…check out the story of Stephen in Acts 6 and Acts 7.

Keep the Faith,
Pastor Dan
 

​I enjoy responses to these weekly writings or musings or reflections or whatever you want to call this Thursday thing.  A couple of weeks ago when I told you about losing my credit card… not knowing how to use the push button start on the rental car…. then leaving the rental car running because I didn’t understand that you had to push the button to turn it off as well and what else was it… I forget…Anyway after that memo, my good friend Drake Talbert said, “You need a vacation.”  Drake is often right, and so this week Katie and I are taking a few days up north at the family cabin.
 
One of the more relaxing things to do up here is just sitting by the patio windows watching the birds come and go to the bird feeders. My wife purchased this one birdfeeder in the hope it would keep the squirrels out…As you can see it doesn’t work so well…So we also watch this one little red squirrel come and go from the bird feeder.  That’s right this is a picture of a red squirrel INSIDE the birdfeeder.
 
This little red squirrel will come up to the patio door… stare down our dog Otto, who is going crazy… Otto doesn’t like squirrels.  After getting Otto all wound up, the squirrel will jump onto the screen of the patio door, hold on for a moment, and then jump onto the lip of the bird feeder and then just step into it. 
 
She sits there and eats and eats and eats.  She’s protected from the birds and other grey squirrels… she’s so comfortable that you have to go outside and practically shake the bird feeder to get her to leave.  What is that?
 
You could say a squirrel finding a way inside a birdfeeder is a lot of things. Determination for one… Courage and ingenuity…. Desperation… What it is for me today however is just interesting.  It’s one of those things you hope to see when you are taking a couple of days or hours or minutes to slow down and notice something other than how distracted you are by life. … it’s one of those things you have to be here for a couple of days to fully appreciate. 
 
There is the laughter of surrender by my wife who engages in the bird feeder versus squirrels struggle at home, at the cabin… and at every store we go to that has the newest, squirrel-resistant bird feeder. There is the dog. Otto never gives up…. He will push his nose against the glass forever in anticipation that this time, it’s gonna give way.  I’m not sure he’d know what to do with the squirrel if he got it, but the thrill of his chase is fun to watch. And then of course there is the squirrel herself. Just out for some food on a sunny February day with two people and a dog to watch while she has lunch.
 
Thinking about this causes me to wonder how it is that so many of the great things that are happening these days at EPUMC are also things you have to be there in order to experience fully.  There’s the rush of kids leaving for Sunday School… the look on the faces of the choir at the end of an anthem…the din of chatter in the fellowship hall after worship.  I’m looking forward to seeing you there on Sunday.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

On Sunday we are receiving a number of new members.  This is a great opportunity for us to reflect on a “Challenge of Vitality” of our church. We are a different congregation than we were a year ago at this time.  And it is important for all of us old timers and new comers and everyone in-between to recognize we need each other. We are not all in the same place in our journey of faith at EPUMC but we are all moving together at the direction of the Holy Spirit at this time at EPUMC.  
 
This Sunday I’ll be preaching on a story in the Bible that is often over looked.  It’s just a few verses in the book of Acts that describes what the combined effect of the actions of the Holy Spirit is on those who have opened themselves to it. 
 
This is a new adventure in preaching for me. I’ve always been more of a storyteller than a teacher in my preaching. I’m changing a little because this year I’m convinced that in the book of Acts we have a model for how we at EPUMC can recognize our need for each other however long we’ve been around here. 
 
The Holy Spirit is bringing us together. She is using those of you who have been here a while to give us roots and stability.  She is using those of you who are newer to give us a fresh energy and different voices.  The Holy Spirit is using those of us who have found our place to model for others for others how that can happen for them.  The Holy Spirit is using all of us who are searching for a fingernail grasp of God in our life to remind those of us who think we have it all together that…. well… we are still searching.
 
When the Holy Spirit brings people together, the effect is exponential.  It’s more than how it is that you and me can do twice as much good as we can individually… The model in the Bible says that when you and I are brought together by the Holy Spirit the world can be changed…or at least some part of it.
 
An important piece of our making room for the Holy Spirit this year will be as we continue to trust that each and every one of us is needed:  Let’s strive this year to replace our common language of newcomers and old timers, of us and them, into US.  As we practice this, I believe we will open ourselves to the power of the Holy Spirit and who knows where that will take us.
 
Keep the Faith,
Pastor Dan
 
 
 
 

It feels to me like there is an extra sense of intensity all around us.  It’s as if something is in the air that makes some of us nervous and some of us afraid and some of us angry and others of us don’t know what we are feeling.  This past weekend on my trip to St. Louis, I discovered that whatever I was feeling, I was also distracted.  It was quite the adventure.
 
It started at the airport at about 7 o’clock last Thursday. I got lost. I don’t know what it was, low blood sugar… lack of sleep whatever… I panicked… for about 10 minutes I looked all over until I found my wife and daughter right where they said they would be.
 
When we got to St. Louis we got into our rental car… a brand new Altima…that had this push button start.  I pushed the button but the car wouldn’t start.  It took about 5 minutes and a call to my well-traveled brother to find out that you need to put your foot on the brake and push the button.  
 
We went out to lunch with my brother, and when we got back to the hotel, I was going to take a nap.  The front desk called just before I feel asleep to tell me my car had been running in the parking lot for two hours.  I mean, who knew you had to push the button to turn the car off just like it said on the button, if you could lock it with the bob…. Not me.
 
So on Friday morning we go to something called “The London Tea Room”… As I go to pay  the check my credit card is not in my wallet.   (It was at the restaurant from yesterday as it turns out, but I wouldn’t know that for a few hours.)…. So here is the thing.  I only carry one other credit card and that is the one I use only at Costco.  I felt compelled to call to make sure it would work.  The nice guy in Phoenix answered the phone by saying, “How can I help you with your Costco  Anywhere Visa.”  Without missing a beat I asked, “Can I use….my Costco go Anywhere Visa… anywhere”……To his credit, the guy didn’t laugh.
 
The wedding of my nephew Nate and his new bride Mindy went fine…I got through it without calling Nate… Nick… which, in my defense, is his brother’s name. We arrived home without incident until Monday morning when as I pulled up to the gas pump at Costco and discovered that my Costco Anywhere Visa was somewhere else and not in my wallet.
 
You could say, as many did this past weekend, that this stuff just happens and to some extent, you’d be right.  But I think there is something more to it, at least for me.  When there is some extra intensity surrounding me, I need to really slow down and be attentive.  Unfortunately that most always takes me some time to notice.  I can put up with losing credit cards and leaving the car running, but what really troubles me is when I am inattentive to others. 
 
In these days when more than a few of us are also distracted by these times, let’s take the time to take care of our relationships.  Not only are relationships a little harder to fix, but one thing faith tells us is that we are going to need each other to live in these times.
 
Keep the Faith,
Pastor Dan