I want you all to know how excited Patty and I are to be appointed to Allen Memorial United Methodist Church. We are indeed grateful for the use of the parsonage; we will treat it as our own home while being cognizant of the fact that we are guests in your house. Our doors are always open and we are willing and able to serve and help you in any way we can. Together as a Body of Christ, we will do some wonderful things for God’s people here in Oxford and the surrounding area. We will do hard work, we will do intentional work, but more than anything we will do Christlike work.
The scripture reading for this newsletter comes from the first
chapter in the Gospel of Mark, beginning with the first verse. Read this
passage with an open heart and mind and then hopefully you will find
the strength to persevere in hard situations.
Mark 1:1-15
1 The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God
2 As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, ‘See, I am sending my messenger
ahead of you, who will prepare your way;
3 the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight”’
4 John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
5 And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
6 Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.
7 He proclaimed, ‘The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals.
8 I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.
9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.
10 And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.
11 And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’
12 And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.
13 He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.
14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God,
15 and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’
May God add his blessing to the reading, hearing, and doing of this, God’s Holy Word.
During the gold rush, a man from Ohio traveled to California. It
had taken him months to get there. He had to stake a claim and register it
and buy tools before he could start mining. The determined man had
been mining for months. Finally, after all of his labors and sleepless
nights, he had accumulated absolutely ZERO gold! So, he quit. He had
worked himself to utter exhaustion, so much so he lost the will to
continue. And so, he sold his claim and equipment to another man who
resumed mining where he had left off.
The new miner was advised by a surveyor that there was gold only
three feet away, again three feet away from where the first miner
stopped digging. The surveyor was right, which means the first miner
was a mere three feet away from striking gold before he quit.
The Moral:
When things start to get hard, try to persevere through the adversity. Many people give up because the work becomes too difficult, tedious, or tiresome–but often, we’re just 3 feet away.
Many here today are going through hard times or have gone
through them and may go through them again.
Will you persevere or will you give up, when the Gold is Three Feet away?
Grace and peace,
Rev. Tim.
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