God of Hope,
When we are blessed we often don’t know how to respond. Sometimes we say, “Why me? I am not deserving.” Or “Why me? There are so many others with a greater need”. Sometimes we rationalize our special blessings, attributing them to luck or chance or circumstance. Please forgive us, O Lord. When You bless us in special ways, help us to respond, not with questions, rationalizations, or denials. Rather, may we accept our blessings with thankful hearts and then seek to bless others. In the name of Jesus who is the greatest blessing for all the world. AMEN.
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Please pray for Sherry Garrett’s mother, Sue Rogers. She is in the ICU at the Durant hospital and in critical condition.
Please pray for Alex Hernandez’s grandmother, Pauline. She is in the hospital.
Mary Ruth Cooper’s procedure was yesterday. She will have a lot of discomfort for the next day or so.
Bertie Krausse has an appointment with her heart surgeon on December 15. Please continue to keep Bertie in your prayers.
REMEMBER our Horn of Plenty Tree in the loggia. Pick up a bag, fill it with can goods and place on the tree. This is a wonderful outreach project.
ALSO REMEMBER our All Church Christmas Card in the loggia. Sign your name and place a donation in the box equal to the amount of money you would have spent sending cards to your friends at church. All of this year’s proceeds will be used to support Kids Central.
There is a Kids Central Board Meeting this afternoon at 5:00 p.m.
The Board Christmas Dinner is this evening at 6:00 p.m. with hors d’oeuvres at 5:30 p.m.
Winnie Oliver sent the following link. It is a fun, modern look at the Christmas Story:
The scripture for today is Job 19:13-29:
“He has put my family far from me, and my acquaintances are wholly estranged from me. My relatives and my close friends have failed me; the guests in my house have forgotten me; my serving girls count me as a stranger; I have become an alien in their eyes. I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer; I must myself plead with him. My breath is repulsive to my wife; I am loathsome to my own family. Even young children despise me; when I rise, they talk against me. All my intimate friends abhor me, and those whom I loved have turned against me. My bones cling to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth. Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me! Why do you, like God, pursue me, never satisfied with my flesh?
“O that my words were written down! O that they were inscribed in a book! O that with an iron pen and with lead they were engraved on a rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me! If you say, ‘How we will persecute him!’ and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him’; be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishment of the sword, so that you may know there is a judgment.”
Grace and peace,
John McLemore
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