Taize Service

This evening (Wednesday, Dec. 9th) the First Presbyterian Church will be hosting a Taize service. This service is open to anyone. We hope that you will all come.

A Taize service is one of light, prayer, scripture, silence, and song. This service will focus on the busyiness of the holiday season and how it is not always the most pleasant and joyful time of the year for everyone. We will be having a time during the service where you will be invited to light a candle for a loved one who you miss especially during this time of year.

The Taize service will be held at 6:30 pm in the sanctuary. Please come and join us.

Delay in Time

Dear Friends of the First Presbyterian Church in Bushnell,
As I am sure you noticed, there has been a delay in time since the last time that I have written on this blog. I was under the impression that because no one was writing anything in return, that I must be the only one who looks at the blog. However, I have been corrected. From now on I will again do my best to keep up with regular blogging. If you would like to write or have me write about anything please let me know. Please feel free to comment.
Pastor Elissa

Riley Tug Reimolds

Riley was born on Sunday September 20th at 1:35pm. He weighed 6 pounds and 9 ounces. He was 20 inches long. He is as cute as can be with a full head of light brown hair and currently he has blue eyes.
I got to be Riley's first babysitter along with Rolva for about 20 minutes. It was wonderful!

Welcome!

On behalf of the First Presbyterian Church of Bushnell I would like to say welcome to Baby Riley Tug Reimolds who was born this afternoon! More details to come!

Serving others

I am really looking forward to this evening (Thursday). I have decided to try to have a coffee bar alongside all the other goodies that are sold at the Alpha and Omega shop. I am going to have fruit smoothies, cafe mochas, lattes, americanas, coffee, hot chocolate, and frozen hot chocolate smoothies.
It is an opportunity for me to not only serve others and especially the youth of this community who frequent the Alpha and Omega shop but also others.
Are there areas where you are serving that you would want to share?

A House Divided

What happens to a divided house? On June 16, 1858, more than 1,000 Republican delegates met in the Springfield, Illinois, statehouse for the Republican State Convention. At 5 p.m. they chose Abraham Lincoln as their candidate for the U.S. Senate, running against Democrat Stephen A. Douglas. At 8 p.m. Lincoln delivered this address to his Republican colleagues in the Hall of Representatives. The title comes from a sentence in the speech's introduction, "A house divided against itself cannot stand," which paraphrases a statement by Jesus in the New Testament.
Mark 3: 24-26 says: "So Jesus called them and spoke to them in parables: 'How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come.'"
Clearly it is important to stand as one. How interesting to think that even Satan himself must have the full weight of evil behind him to succeed.
Well, this may sound silly but I always enjoy seeing how the Bible relates to my every day life and it will become apparent this Saturday what a house divided means..
On Saturday, September 12th at 11am the University of Iowa football team will have traveled to Ames, Iowa to meet their biggest rival: the Iowa State football team. It shall be good declares the Lord!
Also this weekend is Grandparent's Day and for this very reason my grandparents are traveling to Bushnell to spend the weekend with me. They are bringing with them their love of the University of Iowa football team. In addition to this, Don is coming and he is bringing with him his dedication to me which means he will be rooting for the Iowa State football team. Drake and Arora are coming as well. Drake is the child of an Iowa State fan and Arora is the child of an Iowa fan. It will be a house divided.
And surely, if Satan a.k.a. the University of Iowa, wins, then the house will not stand. Therefore, as good Christians we must stand behind the Iowa State team so that we will not only bring harmony to our households but also to the world! A house divided against itself will not stand. We must ALL join together for the good of the cause. Go Cyclones!

Lose for Good!

Weight Watchers, which I admit I have belonged to for four years is starting up their campaign - Lose For Good, again this year. The idea is that as members of WW lose weight from August 30th to October 17th, Weight Watchers will donate up to 1 million dollars to help feed hungry families and children in this country.
This may sound slightly familiar to you. We have been working on our Miles and Mission program. For every mile that you walk, bike, or exercise, money is donated to help with those in this community who are in need.
As I reflect on this today I am reminded that you don't need to be a self-proclaimed Christian to do good for others. Maybe that kind of makes you think for a minute but it is true. God uses all of us in various ways and just because you do not have a personal relationship with your savior does not mean that God does not still work in you. So many times we draw this imaginary line of us and them. Those who proclaim the Good News and those who don't. But God does not have that line. To God, we are ALL His children. Yes, ALL OF US! We must remember that our brothers and sisters who do not know Christ are still our brothers and sisters. Maybe they will not have the same heavenly rewards that we have but we all live on the same earth together. God created them too! AND - remember we do not know who will come to God and who will not. All we are called to do is help, to live, and to believe. We must, as Christians, do our part. Whatever that may mean to you. For me, it means to help those in my local community who are without. Who have you helped today? Who have you reached out to help? Was it anonymous? What are your actions saying about you?
Jesus says, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' Matthew 25:40

Creation Museum

Creation Museum T-Rex

Last week I had the opportunity to go to the Creation Museum near Burlington, Kentucky. It was absolutely fascinating. I learned an amazing amount of things and just have the visuals with the Biblical story was something to see. I invite you all to visit this place. One of beliefs that you are to take away from this is that the dinosaurs were around the same time as Adam and Eve. What do you think about this?

Hurry Up and Wait!

I have to say that the word I think I hate the most is wait! And I know that I am not alone in this. Why do we just hate to wait all the time. Don't we know that all good things come in time? It seems like I have been waiting forever for Saturday. I entered the whole process over five years ago and it is now finally almost over. I recently had to plan my own ordination service and have everything done by a certain amount of time. I hurried up and got everything done. But now, now I must wait for Saturday. It seems so far away. Yet I know that it is much closer than it was five years ago. There isn't anything I can do to make it come any quicker. It still will take 24 hours for the earth to completely rotate thus causing a day.
I think this is something the disciples knew all too well. They were told they needed to do all of these things and they did them. They knew that Jesus would return. Yet, they believed that it was just right around the corner, our time. Not in God's time. The disciples waiting the rest of their lives for Christ to return again and yet their desire to see this was never fruitful. Puts a whole new meaning to what it means to hurry up and wait.

A Sunday Morning Thought

So I am sitting in my office on Sunday morning thinking about everything that is to take place today. I have a list of things to do. Tomorrow a professor of mine is coming into town so I will not be in the office most of the day. Instead I will be working on Friday when I normally do not. However, I still want to get some extra stuff done today so that I will feel relaxed tomorrow. I need to go visit a couple of people this afternoon. I need to do next week's bulletin. I need to update the blog that I have neglected this past week. I need to start looking at my sermon. And I also need to get my house ready for more company.
We always have lists of things to do, don't we? But I often wonder how much of it is for us? Well, probably all of it. God doesn't just want us to spend an hour with him on Sunday mornings. He doesn't just want us to spend some personal time with him each day. He truly wants us to spend our whole lives with him. But how do we do that? In the midst of our crazy busy schedules, how is every moment spent with Him? We still have things we need to do. The fishermen still fished didn't they?
So anyway, as I continue to ponder this for myself, what does it mean for you? How do you live in God's midst even in your busiest times?
More thoughts on this later...

Holding on to what we DON'T need!

I have always been a person who relates stories of real life to how God loves us and cares for us. I suppose that shows in my sermons as well. But last night I got to thinking how so many times we so desperately hold on to something that is not good to us. Whether it be relationships, belongings, bad habits, even money.Last night I was standing in the kitchen after I had gone grocery shopping. When I buy meat the first thing I do when I get home is divide it all up in to me size portions and wrap it and put it in the freezer. Well, I had just finished the chicken. I had cut the fat off and put it in the garbage which was getting full. All of the sudden I hear Issie growling like I have never heard before. I turn around and see that she has a piece of this raw chicken in her mouth and she is trying to eat it. Jake is trying to get it from her and she is not happy. I barely touched her and she screamed at me and clawed me. I was truly worried how I was going to get this raw meat out of her mouth. Eventually, I quickly managed to pick her up by the scruff on the back of her neck and pry the raw chicken from her jaws while she growled at me and had a death grip on my hands with her claws. She was not happy.Ten minutes later... she did it again.God takes things from us or at least attempts to do so when they are harmful for us. We kick and scream and cry about it because we think we want it but God knows we don't need it. And then what do we do? We get it back. We go through this cycle of constantly having things we don't need. And all the while I can imagine that God is laughing and shaking his head thinking why don't they just believe me when I tell them they don't need something?

God's Plans

So I will confess that I started the morning out a little bummed that everyone had cancelled on me. Originally, my two best friends, TyLacey and Becky, were going to come to Bushnell today and stay until tomorrow when Don was coming. Well, due to various circumstances, no one is able to come this weekend. HOWEVER, God had a different plan. I received a call this morning from a man named Joe. He is the director of a Christian group called Live Offensively. If you want to check our their website it is www.liveoffensively.com. Well, they are coming to Cornerstone and due to some allergies, they were hoping to find a place to stay. Anyway, the four guys are going to stay at the CCC and the three girls are going to stay at the manse. You see, everyone cancelled on me this weekend because I have to spend the weekend getting ready for company next week! God is so good. Amen! Never doubt that there is a plan.

Do you have Jesus?

Do you have Jesus in your life and in your heart? I sure hope so. I am glad that I do for so many reasons. But right now, one of those reasons is that I know where I will spend eternity. I have been healed by the power and the touch of Jesus Christ. I know I will have an everlasting life with my Father in Heaven. But most of all, I don't need to get use to this HEAT! :)

The sermon this week is Mark 5:21-43! The Healing Touch of Christ.

Storms

One question:
What storms have you been through?

Think about this. Answer if you would like.

Disruptions in life

The manse has been vacant for some time. Due to this, other creature's in God's kingdom have made it home. Now, I am not a fan of the huge jumping spider I saw outside by the back door last night. Or the couple that I have seen in the house. I tend to eliminate them (thought I couldn't get my shoe to last night's spider quick enough and therefore it was able to escape). However, once in a while I am surprised by what I find. Last night as I was walking around the manse looking at the flowers that had been planted before my arrival, I spotted a nest. I don't know whether it was a duck nest or a goose nest, but it was clear that it had been made by one of my feathered friends that live in the pond across the street. In the middle of the nest was an egg. It saddened me to see this egg knowing that it's mother would never return to it to keep it warm until it was able to hatch. Why? Because there was a disruption in life. The mother probably thought that this was a good place to go since she never saw anyone around. THEN! All of the sudden, change begins to happen and there is a lot of activity going on all around her. People coming in and out, a huge moving van pulling up with 15 people surrounding it and then a week of two toddlers playing outside in the lawn. She had no choice but to abandon her post as a watchful mother and leave her youngster behind.
I wonder how many times God feels this way. God has made us a cozy little nest for us to rest in. He keeps us warm and waits for us to come out of our shell. Then, just before we fully give ourselves to Him, something happens. Life takes a different turn or we choose to take a different path. Maybe as children and young adults, we fall into the wrong crowd. Maybe we simply choose not to listen to what God is telling us or calling us to do. Either way, there is a disruption in life. HOWEVER, no matter what direction we choose to take, unlike the mother bird, God never abandons his post or leave us behind. At times, it is more like we leave God behind.
Where in your life are you leaving God behind? Choosing to give in to the various disruptions that take place and not focusing on God?

Planting Seeds

How many of you have ever planted a garden? I have tried to plant a small garden at the manse. so far, I seem to have more weeds growing than anything else. Anyone else ever have that happen? I am not a fan of weeding. Personally, I would prefer that I could just plant the garden and walk away for a couple of months and then come back and reap the harvest. Yet, I know it does not work that way. There needs to be much tending for anything to happen. I think faith works like this as well. Especially when we share our faith with others. We want to just tell someone about Jesus and then walk away and come back later and see that the person is living for Christ. Sometimes we do that with our children as well. Monday through Saturday needs to have the same message as Sunday morning. There needs to be watering and weeding taking place all week. Maybe that is an even bigger challenge that planting the original seed.

This weeks sermon is about planting the seed of faith. The biggest thing we have to remember is that God is in control of all of it.

What are your thoughts? Does anyone have any stories about the weeding to share?

Good Morning First Presbyterian Church of Bushnell! I am so happy to be here, sitting in my office, and beginning my preparations for writing Sunday's sermon. I am beginning a blog for all of you Internet savy people who would like to communicate electronically about how my sermons are going, ideas I have, or just talk about Jesus!

So, here goes! This Sunday is Trinity Sunday. The Scripture passage that the sermon will be revolving around is John 3:1-17. This is the story of Nicodemus not understanding how a person can be born again.
So, my question for you is: What does it mean for you to live in the Spirit of God?
I will share my thoughts later this week.

Blessings,
Pastor Elissa