Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ;
Grace to You, and Peace from God our Father, through our Lord, Jesus Christ!
It’s hard to believe, but Thanksgiving is just a few days away. Every Thanksgiving morning we drive up to my Mom and Dad’s home in Holland, Massachusetts, and celebrate the day with family and friends. We would arrive at Mom and Dad Beres’ home around 11 a.m. that day, and the Thanksgiving Dinner would be served mid-afternoon, after which we might go for a drive and visit a friend.
Whether we visited Pastor Bob or one of our other friends, the whole idea was that Thanksgiving was a time for giving thanks to God for our many blessings, but it was also a time for connecting (or re-connecting) with our family and friends. It is a time of meeting new members of our families, making new acquaintances and friends, and a time of renewing relationships and friendships that we have been blessed with over many years. My Mom and my Yiayia both taught me a little song a long time ago that said “Make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold…”
We are also seeing new faces in our family here at First Congregational Church, and this would be a good time to get to know some of them. We also have people here at First Church who have been a part of this church family for a long time. God is weaving us into a mosaic of faces, gifts, talents and personalities which are unique to this church family, and which changes with every new person who becomes a part of our growing family.
With each person in our family comes a story. Some of our stories are of Church Suppers and Bazaars, Dances, Parties, Fellowship Nights, and Hymn Sings that we have enjoyed. Some of our other stories are of Weddings, Baptisms, Funerals and other family events. My ears perk up when I hear somebody saying “I remember when…” or “Do you remember when we did the…”
Some of our other stories come from the newer faces in our family. Some of these stories come from concerts, coffeehouses, other churches, and other great experiences.
The point is that as members of the same family, we can’t help but sharing our stories with one another, and together we weave the story of what God is doing here at First Congregational Church. This is history… This is His Story.
In November, let’s take advantage of each and every opportunity of connecting with the people who gather to worship with us each Sunday…and who are involved with us in the activities which take place every week. Let’s celebrate every one of our stories, old and new, and let’s gather together to praise God from whom all blessings flow.
From the Beres household and family to your household and family, may we take this time to bid each of you a safe, happy and memorable Thanksgiving.
I Bid You Peace…
Pastor Ken+
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Saturday, October 6, 2007
In The Temple With Him
Amid the hustle and bustle of our daily lives… amid the trials and tribulations which so easily beset us, HE draws our hearts closer to him… if we would only just take the time to take a step back from the world’s distractions and focus, if even for only a moment in time, on HIM.
Popular denomination’s slogan “God is still speaking…” My reply to that is “are we still listening?”
A very dear friend, Fr. Jim Dwyer (Columban Fathers) who was one day spending some time in Contemplative Prayer (just basking in God’s Holy Presence…)
Friend asked Fr. Dwyer “Oh, you were in the temple with HIM… how did he look to you?”
Contemplative Prayer (something very near and dear to my heart... getting alone before God… is something that I have been practicing for a long time, and it makes a difference in my life…)
It takes discipline to take a step back, and just do nothing… just leave yourself silent before God…the natural thing for us to do when we are faced with a time of silence is to fill it with some activity… it is in human nature to abhor a vacuum, and yet God’s word to us today is to “be still and know that HE is God…”
In other words “Don’t do something… just stand there…”
Contemplative Prayer can best be defined by breaking down it’s Latin root words…
Con – “with”
Templare – “In The Temple”
Contemplation – “To be in the Temple with HIM…”
So… the key to our survival at the end of a rough day… or even at the beginning of the rough day… is to spend time alone with Jesus… To be in the temple with HIM…
Point of Emphasis: Meditative or Contemplative Prayer is NOT yoga… it is focusing on the presence of Christ Jesus in your life… focus on listening…
It is allowing yourself to steep in HIS word and in HIS presence…
Illustration: making a cup of tea… involves pouring a cup of hot water (interesting how we want to focus on his presence most often when we are in hot water…) and then placing a tea bag in the water… and just leaving it there to steep…
The longer the tea bag stays in the cup of hot water, the stronger the tea becomes…
In like fashion, the longer we stay steeping in God’s presence and in God’s word, the stronger we become in our faith.
Even God’s word points to the value of steeping and growing in God’s word…
Habakkuk 2:20 says “But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him."
Ecclesiastes 3:7 says that there is “a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak...”
And Revelation 8:1 says of the last days that “When he (the lamb) opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour…
Can you imagine that? Silence anywhere for a half hour???
()Experience with Columban Father’s Prayer Group (Sounding like Darth Vader…”
()Experience with Prayer Summit: trying to stay silent for half an hour (85 pastors trying to stay silent for more than 5 minutes is unheard of… we tried to last for a half hour, but most of us never made it past 12 minutes…
The silence that was spoken of in the book of Revelation would be best described as a “stunned silence” or a “shocked silence…” (OH NO, Lord… not that…!!!) As the Lord was about to move mightily…
The Lord is in HIS Holy Temple…
The Lord is about to move mightily among His people…
Let all the earth keep silent before him…
The great Christian Writer, C.S. Lewis once wrote these words to an American Friend on the subject of Contemplation…
“We all go through periods of dryness in our prayers, don’t we? I doubt whether they are necessarily a bad symptom. I sometimes suspect that what we are enjoying is the satisfaction of apparent success, as in executing a dance or reciting a poem. Do our prayers sometime go wrong because we insist on trying to talk to God when HE wants to talk with us? Joy tells me that once, years ago, she was haunted by a feeling that God wanted something of her, a persistent pressure like the nag of a neglected duty. And till mid-morning she kept on wondering what it was. But the moment she stopped worrying, the answer came through as plain as a spoken voice. It was “I don’t want you to do anything. I want to give you something.” And immediately her heart was filled with peace and delight. St. Augustine says “God gives where he finds empty hands.” A man whose hands are full of parcels can’t receive a gift. Perhaps these parcels are not always sins or earthly cares, but sometimes our own fussy attempts to worship HIM in our way. Incidentally, what most often interrupts my own prayers is not the great distractions but tiny ones… things one will have to do or avoid in the course of the next hour.”
Did you get Lewis’ point? The moment his wife stopped worrying, and trying to control the situation… the very moment she stopped, she could hear the still, small voice of God telling her “I don’t want you to do anything… I want to Give you something…” And as soon as she left her heart open, God filled her heart with peace and delight…”
And then Lewis makes the point that “A man whose hands are full of parcels can’t receive a gift… and then he hammers it home… “Perhaps these parcels are not always sins or earthly cares… but our own FUSSY attempts to worship him in our way… instead of in spirit and in truth.”
As we gather around the table this morning, let us take the time to leave our hearts and minds open to HIS leading, and let us stay patiently and quietly before him… and allow us to hear HIS still, small voice…
I Bid You Peace...
Pastor Ken+
Popular denomination’s slogan “God is still speaking…” My reply to that is “are we still listening?”
A very dear friend, Fr. Jim Dwyer (Columban Fathers) who was one day spending some time in Contemplative Prayer (just basking in God’s Holy Presence…)
Friend asked Fr. Dwyer “Oh, you were in the temple with HIM… how did he look to you?”
Contemplative Prayer (something very near and dear to my heart... getting alone before God… is something that I have been practicing for a long time, and it makes a difference in my life…)
It takes discipline to take a step back, and just do nothing… just leave yourself silent before God…the natural thing for us to do when we are faced with a time of silence is to fill it with some activity… it is in human nature to abhor a vacuum, and yet God’s word to us today is to “be still and know that HE is God…”
In other words “Don’t do something… just stand there…”
Contemplative Prayer can best be defined by breaking down it’s Latin root words…
Con – “with”
Templare – “In The Temple”
Contemplation – “To be in the Temple with HIM…”
So… the key to our survival at the end of a rough day… or even at the beginning of the rough day… is to spend time alone with Jesus… To be in the temple with HIM…
Point of Emphasis: Meditative or Contemplative Prayer is NOT yoga… it is focusing on the presence of Christ Jesus in your life… focus on listening…
It is allowing yourself to steep in HIS word and in HIS presence…
Illustration: making a cup of tea… involves pouring a cup of hot water (interesting how we want to focus on his presence most often when we are in hot water…) and then placing a tea bag in the water… and just leaving it there to steep…
The longer the tea bag stays in the cup of hot water, the stronger the tea becomes…
In like fashion, the longer we stay steeping in God’s presence and in God’s word, the stronger we become in our faith.
Even God’s word points to the value of steeping and growing in God’s word…
Habakkuk 2:20 says “But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him."
Ecclesiastes 3:7 says that there is “a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak...”
And Revelation 8:1 says of the last days that “When he (the lamb) opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour…
Can you imagine that? Silence anywhere for a half hour???
()Experience with Columban Father’s Prayer Group (Sounding like Darth Vader…”
()Experience with Prayer Summit: trying to stay silent for half an hour (85 pastors trying to stay silent for more than 5 minutes is unheard of… we tried to last for a half hour, but most of us never made it past 12 minutes…
The silence that was spoken of in the book of Revelation would be best described as a “stunned silence” or a “shocked silence…” (OH NO, Lord… not that…!!!) As the Lord was about to move mightily…
The Lord is in HIS Holy Temple…
The Lord is about to move mightily among His people…
Let all the earth keep silent before him…
The great Christian Writer, C.S. Lewis once wrote these words to an American Friend on the subject of Contemplation…
“We all go through periods of dryness in our prayers, don’t we? I doubt whether they are necessarily a bad symptom. I sometimes suspect that what we are enjoying is the satisfaction of apparent success, as in executing a dance or reciting a poem. Do our prayers sometime go wrong because we insist on trying to talk to God when HE wants to talk with us? Joy tells me that once, years ago, she was haunted by a feeling that God wanted something of her, a persistent pressure like the nag of a neglected duty. And till mid-morning she kept on wondering what it was. But the moment she stopped worrying, the answer came through as plain as a spoken voice. It was “I don’t want you to do anything. I want to give you something.” And immediately her heart was filled with peace and delight. St. Augustine says “God gives where he finds empty hands.” A man whose hands are full of parcels can’t receive a gift. Perhaps these parcels are not always sins or earthly cares, but sometimes our own fussy attempts to worship HIM in our way. Incidentally, what most often interrupts my own prayers is not the great distractions but tiny ones… things one will have to do or avoid in the course of the next hour.”
Did you get Lewis’ point? The moment his wife stopped worrying, and trying to control the situation… the very moment she stopped, she could hear the still, small voice of God telling her “I don’t want you to do anything… I want to Give you something…” And as soon as she left her heart open, God filled her heart with peace and delight…”
And then Lewis makes the point that “A man whose hands are full of parcels can’t receive a gift… and then he hammers it home… “Perhaps these parcels are not always sins or earthly cares… but our own FUSSY attempts to worship him in our way… instead of in spirit and in truth.”
As we gather around the table this morning, let us take the time to leave our hearts and minds open to HIS leading, and let us stay patiently and quietly before him… and allow us to hear HIS still, small voice…
I Bid You Peace...
Pastor Ken+
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