Joy Lutheran Church Ocala, Florida

At JOY!, our hospitality is one of our most positive features. We strive to go beyond warm, friendly, and welcoming. We call the greeters at the door “ambassadors”. That conveys more than “hello; glad you’re here”. There is intentionality, taking an extra step of leading them to another member, explaining the worship service, getting them a cup of coffee, and – best of all – they get a little gift bag! We want to provide the best first impression we can, without being creepy and weird (smothering is going overboard).

Jesus commissions us with His authority to go to the world as ambassadors. The stories in Scripture recounting the travels and encounters the disciples and apostles experienced, prayer walking, starting conversations – employ all of these resources gifted by the Holy Spirit. And all of this begins in your daily life, adding imagination to where and how your influence might spread. Fresh expressions and faithful innovation are needed now more than ever, because institutional church is rarely drawing people in anymore.

Yet again, I feel as if I’m preaching more than blogging. My apologies for that! I just know that there is an abundance of ambassador spirit out there, waiting to be encouraged and launched into this world that God loves unconditionally. Bless you, sojourners and pilgrims, as you see how God’s Holy Spirit is already with you on the way.

Pastor Art

It’s a challenging world.  We feel a Chrisitan responsibility to respond . . . . but how?  I am just one.  You are just one.  Can there be anything at all that one can do? 

I came upon this little message recently.  (Thanks to Trinity Lutheran in Vernon, CT)   To me, it was a word of encouragement.  Perhaps it will be to you as well.

Do not be daunted by the
Enormity of the world’s grief.
Do justly now.
Love mercy now.
Walk humbly now.
You are not obligated to
complete the work but
neither are you free
to abandon it.

May the unconditional love of our Lord fill you and give you strength to carry on.

Judy

Dear friends of ours moved from being our neighbors in Florida, to live in the mountains of Tennessee.  Lucky enough to go visit them, I found myself traipsing through the woods with them, discovering little creeks that flowed through there.  It was like a post card, so picturesque.  Walking farther bigger rock areas appeared, so walking was a little more difficult. Next to a very large rock, one that was taller than a house, we got very quiet, that’s when I heard the water.  Water was trickling down through the rock. Beautiful site and the water was so crystal clear and cold.  Yes, I managed to tilt my head into the crevice and drink the water. Jesus flows through us, but are we guilty of clogging up the flow of His love and forgiveness?  With His unconditional love for us, we should keep the constant flow filling our souls.

Focus your thoughts on His goodness.  Forgive yourself of your shortcomings. Forgive others. Let go of all the perceived woes you might have spinning around in your mind. UNCLOG the flow of Jesus in you!  God is ever present. Do not allow fear, anxiety, sorrow, pain, unforgiveness, hate to rob your peace. Picture that pure Tennessee water flowing through the rocks. Imagine the Holy Spirit pouring into you and flowing through your veins. Pure holiness living within you. What a gift!

Psalm 36:8 “How exquisite your love, O God! How eager we are to run under your wings, to eat our fill at the banquet you spread as you fill our tankards with Eden Spring water. You’re a fountain of cascading light, and you open our eyes to light.”

Jill

We are constantly reminded of the hatred that exists in our world. Every time we watch a news cast or read a newspaper or even sometimes see people interact with each other, hatred is on display. The saying, “I hate so and so, or that food, or that car” is used so frequently, it has become a common way to express ourselves and our even small dislikes.  I’m know that hatred has always been present in our world. It manifests itself in wars, murders, road rage, politics, gang activity and the list goes on, but because of our global connections and social media, we are more bombarded with it than before. Hatred breeds more hatred. Hatred propagates quarrels and leads to divisions. People become consumed with it to the point where we allow the bitterness to fester and take control of our lives.  What a sad existence this must be.

There is remedy for hatred and that is love. It heals all offenses and is the only thing that will restore us. Love can reside in our hearts as easily as hatred and is a much more pleasant way to live.  We are told in 1 John 4:19 We love because He first loved us.

Just as we have the capacity to hate, we fortunately have the capacity to love. Because God modeled for us what love looks like, our love for God is simply a response to His unconditional love for us through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ who died so we might have eternal life.  We love God, but we should also love others and when this takes place, we can bring healing to our broken world. We may not be able to heal the whole world, but we can begin to heal the small part of the world in which we live. It may be a catalyst for others to do the same and bit-by-bit we can make a difference because love generates love.

In Proverbs 10:12 we read these words. “Hatred stirs up quarrels, but love makes up for all offenses.

Take some time to pray and ask God to help you love and not hate. Thank God who has shown us His love time and time again. May we love others in the same way.  Thanks be to God!

Patty

Have you ever experienced a poke from God, while engaging in less than wise behavior? Oh, I don’t mean bad or sinful behavior. I get those all the time. I mean things like questionable eating decisions or watching movies into the middle of the night. Unwise choices.

Well, I do. I had one last night, in fact. While binge watching a favorite series, the battery on my tablet started to fade. I had to switch from ear buds to wireless earphones, so that I could charge the tablet and continue watching. Quietly getting out of bed, I looked for the earphones and looked and looked and looked.

Picture this foolish woman tiptoeing around the bedroom with a flashlight, so she would not disturb the household, searching for a pair of earphones at 2:00 in the morning! Looking high and low. I made three circuits around the room. And, I could not find them anywhere. I was sure that they were in plain view, but I could not locate them.

Then it hit me. This is a soft message from my heavenly Father, gentle Savior and Blessed Dove: “Go to bed. It is two o’clock in the morning. This entertainment will still be here in the morning. And, you, my child, will be able to find the earphones in the light of day.”
I went to bed, quite tired at that hour of the morning and slept soundly. When I awoke, I found the missing earphones lying quietly on the floor next to my chair where I had left them.

Some might say that it is a stretch to say the God sent me this message. But I choose to believe that these messages do come from a loving God who wants only my best interest, my happiness in this world and the next.

I say this because I know that God loves you (and me) unconditionally! Sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite.

“In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, LORD, make me dwell in safety.”
Psalm 4:8

Terri

The story of Adam and Eve is one of the most interesting in Scripture. It is one of the “stories of universal import” that occupy the first 11 chapters of Genesis. They are called that because they are about the whole of humanity. The common theme in most of these stories which include Cane and Abel, Noah, and the Tower of Babel is sin and its consequences.

You know the story of how Even is tempted to eat of the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil by a serpent. The question that has long bugged me is not why the serpent was n the Garden of Eden, but why the tree was there in the first place. Wouldn’t the life of Adam and Eve have been a lot better if the tree wasn’t where they could get at it? It would seem so, but let me ask a question. What would life be like if nothing you did made any difference? Maybe it would be easier, but would life matter at all? The presence of the tree represented a limit to Adam and Eve. There would be consequences of violating that limit, and so there were. They discovered shame and ended up with a much more difficult life. 

Having a choice  was necessary for them to be fully human. There always has to be the potential of getting it wrong if we are to learn and develop.

Chew on that for awhile. I’ll come back to this topic again.

Read Genesis 3:1-7  and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne

I love doing puzzles.  They remind me of my mother.  A lot of things remind me of my mother.  It is good to be reminded of how fortunate I was that God assigned Kit to be my mother.  

Strangely, we didn’t do a lot of puzzles as children.   Too many little pieces and too many little kids could have been the reason.  However, I became my mother’s temporary only child when I moved to Florida in the early 2000’s and then, we did puzzles.

I can still see Mom examining the puzzle pieces.  She would pick up each piece and turn it, first one way and then the other; looking for subtle differences in color and shape.  Searching for just the right piece for the area of the puzzle she was working on. 

I am not that patience.  I look for all the bright colors and pile them together.  I work on one section at a time and when I can’t discern any differences in the pieces, I sort them by shape. I have even given them names, like “dancing man”, “fences” and “four arms.”

Mom always had a card table set up with a puzzle in the works.  I can’t stand to have something sitting around unfinished (except maybe knitting projects), so when I work on a puzzle, it becomes almost an obsession.   Lazy vacations and viral pandemics provide plenty of time to work on puzzles.

Working on puzzles also reminds of the Great Puzzler.  Who? You ask.  Why our gracious Heavenly Father and Creator, of course!  What a puzzle He developed when he designed and set in motion our world and universes.  I try to think about what went into the divine plan, but I am overwhelmed with all the details and different directions that creation has taken.  I ask for the serenity to accept the things that I cannot understand.  I ask for the grace to accept the love given by the Creator without questioning.

Then, the pieces fall into place.  I am convinced without a doubt that God loves you (and me) unconditionally.  Read Isiah 40:28

Terri

One of my favorite musical groups is Steely Dan. The talent of Donald and Fagen and Walter Becker, the incredible studio players they collaborated with, are iconic to me. Quirky compositions, oftentimes obscure lyrics, along with a successful run of FM hits, like “Reelin In The Years”. I think I “stow away the time” whenever my nostalgia tear beckons and I pull out the old photo albums. How can it be twenty years since I last saw my uncle who died yesterday? Thirty years since we lived in Hawaii? Fifty since I finished my first year of high school?

There’s a lot of road ahead, a lot more years, God willing. The precious commodity of time never pauses, but every present day is both marvel and majesty. Going back to photo albums – are they becoming obsolete, extinct, like the slide shows (and I’m not talking Power Point)? Video reels still have their place even amid the dizzying “tech.” Churches like us still debate what forms of communication and media will “reel them in”. Our personal and collective histories will always be catalogued and chronicled. When we run the reels of Scripture, God’s Holy annals, we get nostalgic but hopefully always schooled and taught how we might grasp those timeless truths.

Dear readers, may your days and minutes of kairos and kronos time be blessings. May the reels of memories affirm your value to all the someones you have loved and have given you that same gift. Live momentously in the unconditional love that passes beyond the years.

Pastor Art

Picture a little girl with a small record player and a few records, all her own.  That was me.  Tucked away in my bedroom, I could play these whenever I wanted.  My favorite was the Parade of the Wooden Soldiers.  Can you hear the scratches on that old record played over and over.  I would march around my little room, waving my arms to conduct “my” band.  There was just one problem.  At a certain point, the same certain point, the needle got stuck in a groove.  The soldiers stopped marching.  The same crackling sound, repeated over and over, until the needle was lifted from its trap and placed on ahead.  Following instructions from my mother, I performed this task very gently – well as gently as a five-year-old was likely to do.  

Do you remember playing those old records?  Do you remember the needle stuck in a groove?  We weren’t surprised, we just had to fix it and move on.

I’m thinking, is there anything in my life right now that is stuck on repeat?  Am I stuck in an unpleasant groove?  Are you?   Perhaps it’s old grudges, old stress or old habits.  Does the needle get stuck there and let my mind repeat over and over again by day and by night?   Is it time to pick up the needle and move on.  Ouch, how do I do that?  Can we ask God for the courage to let go of that troublesome groove and move on?  Just let it go?   Not so easy is it.  Some of our “grooves” are dug more deeply than others.  But our God is bigger than our grooves.  He can pick us up.  He will pick us up.  Just ask Him.

Judy

While taking yoga classes and also Tai Chi stretch classes, I heard the instructors talk about “planting” your feet. Standing or sitting feel your feet “planted” in front of you. They become one with the earth as you focus on them being planted.  They are then able to help you keep your balance and you find strength knowing they are “planted” and supporting you.

I believe God does not always want us to be reminiscing about the past, going over and over our past memories, nor do I think He wants us to be always planning our future days, excursions, comings and goings.  I think this phrase helps us realize “living in the now,” and “planting my feet,” are what we should be concentrating on. Where am I right now? Am I Christ-centered at this particular time? You might have heard the popular expression, “BE PRESENT.” Right now, be aware of God and His unconditional love. Right now, be aware of what you are thankful for. Right now, pray for others. Right now, ask for forgiveness. Be present. Live in the now. PLANT YOUR FEET.  Feel your feet stabilize your body.  Envision the arteries and veins and sinews and muscles and blood and bones all giving strength to the feet that are planted.

Maybe you only have one foot. Maybe you don’t have any feet. Maybe you are physically unable to stand up. Plant your body and be present, live in the now, be thankful, pray for others, ask for forgiveness. Our Father is our gardener. Get planted with your feet or body and visualize His strength within you. Get planted in Him.

Jill