“Always guard against self-chosen service for God.  Self-sacrifice may be a disease.  If God has made your cup sweet, drink it with grace; if he has made it bitter, drink it in communion with him.  When the providential order of God for you is a time of hardship, go through it.  But never choose the scene of your martyrdom.  Abraham didn’t choose the sacrifice he would make; God chose for him.  And Abraham did not protest.  He simply went through it.

If you aren’t living in touch with God, it’s easy to pass a rash verdict on him.  You must go through the crucible before you have any right to issue a verdict, because in the crucible you learn to know God better.  Once you do know God, you recognize that he is working toward his highest ends and will continue to do so until his purpose and humanity’s purpose become one.”

This is a quote from Oswald Chambers and goes along with the past two sermons on loss.  I thought it would be good food for thought.

Another plug for a person to oversee the potluck luncheon next year.  If you are interested, please speak to Elizabeth Shelton or me.

I want to thank Elizabeth Shelton for organizing our monthly potluck and church picnic.  Elizabeth has a great team that helps her make those luncheons a wonderful time of fellowship for our church.

The Nominating Committee, with the Elders’ approval, has taken the potluck responsibility from the Coordinator of Hospitality.  We are looking for a person who would like to head up the potluck for 2025.  You would have a great team of volunteers, so it wouldn’t all fall on your shoulders.  If this is something you’d like to do, whether you are a member or not, please let me know.

This past week, areas in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee were greatly impacted by Hurricane Helene.  Some areas in North Carolina and Tennessee have experienced flooding not seen in over 100 years.  The scale of destruction left behind by Hurricane Helene is only expanding with each passing day as new details become available. 

More than 160 people are now confirmed dead from the Category 4 storm, which is being etched in history as the fourth deadliest storm to hit the United States in this century. Hundreds are still missing. 

Cathy and I have donated to Operation Blessing through CBN.  If you would also like to donate to help support relief efforts, click HERE.

Samaritan’s Purse is responding in five locations across four states after Hurricane Helene devastated parts of the Southeast.  If you’d like to donate to this organization online, click HERE.

Please continue to pray for those who were affected during this storm. 

I thought I would send some of the quotes that I used in my sermon this past Sunday in case you wanted to mull on them further.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge: “Alone, alone, all alone.  Alone on the wide, wide sea.  And never a saint took pity on my soul in agony.  O Wedding guest!  This soul hath been alone on a wide, wide, sea; so lonely ‘twas the God Himself scarce seemed there to be.”

Abraham Lincoln: “I am the most miserable man living.  If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on earth.  To remain as I am is impossible.  I must die or be better.”

Alexander Whyte: “But, with all that, it is the terrible cry that come out of the chamber over the gate of Mahanian that makes the name of Absalom so well known & so full of the most terrible lessons to us.  ‘O my son Absalom, my son, my son.  Would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son!’  Yes, that is love, no doubt.  That is the love of a heart-broken father, no doubt.  But the pang of the cry, the innermost agony of the cry, the poisoned point of the dagger in that cry is remorse.  I neglected my son from a child.  With my own lusts I laid his very worst temptation right in his way.  It had been better if Absalom had never been born.  If he rebelled, who shall blame him?  I, David, drove him to rebellion.  It was his father’s hand that stabbed Absalom thru the heart.  O Absalom, my murdered son!”

C.S. Lewis: “Meanwhile, where is God?  This is one of the most disquieting symptoms.  When you are happy, so happy that you have no sense of needing Him, so happy that you are tempted to feel His claims upon you as an interruption, if you remember yourself and turn to Him with gratitude and praise, you will be – or so it feels – welcomed with open arms.  But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find?  A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside.  After that, silence.  You may as well turn away.  The longer you wait, the more emphatic the silence will become.  There are no lights in the windows.  It might be an empty house.  Was it ever inhabited?  It seemed so once.  And that seeming was as strong as this.  What can this mean?  Why is He so present a commander in our time of prosperity and so very absent a help in time of trouble?”

George Matheson: “O love that will not let me go; I rest my weary soul in Thee.  I give Thee back the life I owe, that in the ocean depths its flow may richer, fuller be.”

The Lord to Helen Roseveare: “Helen, can you thank Me for trusting you with this experience, even if I never tell you why?”

If you weren’t at church Sunday or watched the service online, I shared about my surgery and recovery.  I’m writing this for those who missed it.  I want God to receive the glory for helping me and to thank you for your prayers, thoughts, concerns, meals, etc.

I went into surgery at 7:30 a.m. and was getting in the car at 10:30 a.m.  That sure seems fast!  They want you out of there quickly for the next person.

I haven’t had pain.  The first few days I wondered when the pain would hit once the nerve block wore off.  It never did!  That must be the Lord.  Think about it.  They cut you open, pull your muscles apart, saw off your bone, hammer a titanium rod into your femur, put everything back in place, and glue your skin back together and all this doesn’t hurt!  I had no swelling either!  I’ve been able to walk around and do my physical therapy exercises as prescribed.

I am thankful for answered prayer.  This shows me that “all people out to pray and not lose heart.”  I’m back in the office today and excited for VBS this week.

If you weren’t here Sunday, I announced that I am having a total hip replacement surgery tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m.  I thank you for praying for me.  Pastor Charles will be preaching the next four weeks as Sundays require me to stand a lot.  I hope to be back sooner to assist him and worship with you, which I love!

I forgot to put the video link in my sermon notes yesterday.  HERE it is.

Genesis 45:5 is still speaking to me:  “And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sent me here….”  You know you’ve forgiven someone when you’re no longer concerned that they aren’t taking what they’ve done to you too hard.

Thank you for your support in our Pastoral renewal.  We love you all.

Thank you for taking the time to fill out the survey on my pastoral renewal.  If you haven’t done so, please feel free to do so on the link below.  Cathy and I love you and still feel called to Hanover Friends and feel that we have a future building together with you.  We want God’s will to be done, which includes input from you.  All surveys must be in by April 14^th, at which time the denomination will give me feedback on what they feel God is saying through me, the Elders, my staff, and you!  You play an important part in God’s will for our church.  HERE is that link.  

If you missed last Sunday’s service, I encourage you to watch it on our church’s Facebook page. Someone asked me afterwards if I thought that Habakkuk’s message was for us today?  I do.

There’s a lot of talent at Hanover Friends.  I enjoyed the ministry last night of 12 people who sang and/or played music that blessed us.  You won’t want to miss the next time we do this!