The village green and commons of "Our Town" are fully
decorated with brilliant Christmas lights. Street lights have been
festooned with Christmas bells and lights. It is beginning to look a lot like
Christmas every where you go. The community is getting ready to join together
for a Christmas carol sing from church to church. Our youth got together
yesterday to decorate the fellowship hall and the sanctuary of our church. It
is an exciting and festive time.
Just
make a note: The St. Petersburg Men's Ensemble, straight from Russia, will be
with us at the Marathon United Methodist Church. They will present "All Night
Vigil" (opus 37) by Sergei Rachmaninoff, as well as some Russian Folk songs.
The Concert will start at 7:00 PM, preceded by dinner at 6:00 PM. All are
welcome. It will be a brilliant concert. BRILLIANT !
Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. This
season of Advent and Christmas center on Jesus the Christ. His birth has
changed the world and the world history. We are entering
one of the busiest seasons of all the days in the Christian calendar. Praise
the Lord that we have so much to do, so much to give, so much to receive, so
much to be engaged in. It is a great and wonderful season of giving and
receiving, blessing and being blessed, loving and being loved, caring and being
cared for, being spent and being used of the Lord in His kingdom purposes. As
we all become fully engaged loving the Lord and serving Him..
"No more
let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.
He rules the world with truth and
grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,And wonders of His love, "
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,And wonders of His love, "
As we all get purposefully
busy and get engaged doing life together the Words of Jesus come to
us:, "Come unto me, all yea that labor and are heavy laden, and
I will give your rest," These are the life giving words coming from the One
"unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known and from whom no secrets are
hid-" -and says it almost unbearably to every last one of us, the young as well
as the old, because there is not one of us who is not in some way heavy laden
and in need of what it is that he brings. Rest.
Jesus is
the one whom we search for even when we do not know that we are searching and
hide from even when we do not know that we are hiding. "Come, Lord Jesus" is
the way the Bible ends, and as The One who Comes we know most truly. We are
waiting for the Long expected Jesus. We are anticipating the best. The Lord
has ushered us into another season, another open door, another invitation. May
He provoke us all to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of
light that we might with joy greet the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer.
Albert
Schweitzer one of the greatest and gifted hearts and minds and a
missionaries said: "He comes to us as One unknown, without a name, as
of old, by the lakeside, He came to those who knew Him not. He speaks to us the
same word: "Follow thou me!" and sets us to the tasks which He has to fulfill
for our time. He commands, and to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or
simple, He will reveal Himself in the toil, the conflicts, the sufferings which
they shall pass through in His fellowship, and as an ineffable mystery, they
shall learn in their own experience Who He is."
In Jesus our
Saviour.
Brown
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