We have celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ and rejoiced during our INDIVIDUAL and PERSONAL moments of epiphany – the moment we knew literally, that God gave His only begotten Son to redeem us – Jew, Gentile, male, female, black, white, you and me. That moment in our lives when we first felt the spirit of Jesus and we first believed. That moment, when there is no longer doubt in our minds that we are connected to something wonderful, something magnificent, something real, something full of grace and full of mercy! That “Aldersgate” moment. That moment when our heart was warmed with the Spirit of the Lord! That moment when we know we are loved, unconditionally! read more…
PASTOR'S REFLECTIONS
Thoughts from the desk of The Rev. Dr. Marcus StallworthSuicide Awareness and Prevention Week
This week (September 5 – 11), marks the beginning of suicide awareness and prevention week.
Suicide, is death caused by injuring oneself with the intent to die. Suicide is one of those topics we don’t like to discuss, but a topic that we all must be aware of in order to prevent ourselves or others from causing intentional harm.
All of us, at some point in our lives, experience feelings of depression, loneliness, sadness, pain and suffering caused by traumatic situational variables of life. Even Jesus had depressing thoughts. read more…
It’s Just That Simple
While growing up in the church, I remember singing simple songs with strong messages – proclaiming the Love of Christ! During the worship service, you could feel the love from everyone engaged in the worship experience.
One of those simple songs was,
“Jesus loves the little children. All the children of the world; red and yellow, black and white; they are precious in His sight! Jesus loves the little children of this world”.
As evidenced, by all that is going on in our world, it seems we keep forgetting the strong message conveyed from a simple little song. read more…
What do you want for your Birthday?
What do you want for your Birthday? What plans have you made? If you had three wishes, what would they be?
Each year as our birthday’s approach, we find family, friends and loved ones asking us these questions. Our answers to these questions are varied and relative to our location in life at the time the questions are asked. read more…