Leten Blog Series - Gratitude

 The following blog entry is written by Carol Pooser:  

 

For me, acknowledgment and gratitude are the keys.  While I am in the waking up mode in the morning, I thank God for another day and affirm that the day is in his hands.  If I know that it is going to be an exceptionally stressful or busy day, I ask that I will be alert to the work of the Holy Spirit in my life that day.  During the day, I try to remember to thank God for whatever is happening at the time--sunshine or not, family or friends that I am in contact with, work that I am doing.  As I am falling asleep at night, I thank God for a time of rest and for being with me during the day.  Practicing these two attitudes not only draws me closer to God, but is the best medicine for stress and anxiety that I have found.

Lenten Blog - Music Monday

This is a song about the struggles we have living into our dreams, or in the case of Lent the dream of God's perfect world. We live in the dark, but also in a world where God is active everywhere. As Christians we should all be trying to make this world fully realized, released from the cage of those who would rather the world be something less than that which God wishes it to be. We are all loved by God and empowered to be what it is that we were created to be. We have to go be it regardless of the struggles of the world. We are the stewards of the world, and of the dream that is innate with-in us from creation. The Avett Brothers with Head Full of Doubt, Road Full of Promise -

Lenten Blog Series - Tea Time

The following blog entry is written by Karen Rollins: 

This may sound a little funny………….but I have “tea time” with God.   

I started having a regular morning devotional probably about 8 years ago.    I can’t really explain what made me start waking up at 5:30 AM so I would have time to read and pray before heading out the door.  I just started.   Looking back, I think it was God “calling” me.    God still calls and I get up.   I fix my cup of hot tea, settle in the recliner (sometimes I sit on the porch in the summer), and I read.    Sometimes I read from the Bible, sometimes it is from a devotional book, sometimes it is some inspirational piece.  Sometimes I write things down.  And then, I pray …  Sipping my tea in prayer.   Without a doubt, this quiet, one-on-one, tea time with God has changed my life.   I’ve grown in my faith through this time in a way more so than any other.  I have also come to that know that my day is so entirely different when I start off the day in God’s presence than when I don’t.  

Lenten Blog Series - Introduction

How often we look upon God as our last and feeblest resource! We go to Him because we have nowhere else to go. And then we learn that the storms of life have driven us, not upon the rocks, but into the desired haven. - George Macdonald

It is easy to not connect with God regularly when things are going well.  Sure we may say a quick thank you in our prayers for how blessed we feel, but we rarely spend the same kind of time with God when we feel life is good as we do when we are struggling and desperate.  Here on Ash Wednesday, at the beginning of Lent we are reminded of how we are always in need of God, not because God can save us from the world, but because with God the world itself can be seen through eyes of Joy and Love and Peace.  When we travel with God, it is not some journey where we just can't wait for it to be over, but one where all things that feel old become renewed as we journey together as co-creators and as Creator and creation/steward of the world.  Lent calls us to recognize that we do not always travel as close to God as we should, and thus cannot see the world in the way that God sees it.  Yet, we all have times, places, and ways that we get so close that we can get a glimpse of that recreated world and we may know the joy of God's peace.  This blog series through Lent will tell the stories of how some of us here at HVPC find ourselves close to God, and we may sprinkle in a guest post from other church leaders as well.  Come journey with us!

Grace and Peace