Saturday, October 22, 2011
Freemason Run Road Cleanup
7 people from the missions groups and the youth picked up trash along Freemason Run Road this morning. Mount Olivet is responsible for cleaning from the square in Mount Solon to Stokesville 3 or 4 times a year through the Adopt-a-Highway program. It was a great morning to enjoy the fall colors.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Pastor's PenPoint - "Tick Tock Tick" - October 2011
"I expect to pass through the world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again."
You've probably seen this quotation many times. It's over 200 year old and from the Quakers.
May I ask you a question I have asked myself recently: If you knew that today was the last day of your life, who would you call? What would you say? What act of kindness would you provide? What broken relationship would you try to heal? Whenever we ask a question like that, it always tends to be theoretical because deep inside, most of us expect to live many more years. That's certainly a reasonable expectation, and I hope it comes true for you. But perhaps we should take Martin Luther's advice to live every day with the day of our death placarded before our eyes. Leadership experts call that "living with the end in view."
I wish to everyone who reads these words long life and good health, but I can't guarantee it for myself or for my own family ... much less for anyone else. Things can change so quickly. Just one phone call and life will never be the same again.
We can reach out to people around us. There are things we need to say now:
If you intend to serve the Lord someday, why not now? Time moves fast ... tick ... tock ... tick ...
Grace ~ Pastor Todd
You've probably seen this quotation many times. It's over 200 year old and from the Quakers.
May I ask you a question I have asked myself recently: If you knew that today was the last day of your life, who would you call? What would you say? What act of kindness would you provide? What broken relationship would you try to heal? Whenever we ask a question like that, it always tends to be theoretical because deep inside, most of us expect to live many more years. That's certainly a reasonable expectation, and I hope it comes true for you. But perhaps we should take Martin Luther's advice to live every day with the day of our death placarded before our eyes. Leadership experts call that "living with the end in view."
I wish to everyone who reads these words long life and good health, but I can't guarantee it for myself or for my own family ... much less for anyone else. Things can change so quickly. Just one phone call and life will never be the same again.
We can reach out to people around us. There are things we need to say now:
- "I love you."
- "I'm sorry."
- "Please forgive me."
- "Thank you."
- "I miss you."
- "I wanted to see you one more time."
- "I wanted to squeeze your hand."
- "I wanted to give you a hug."
- "I wanted to hear you laugh."
- "I wanted to see your beautiful face."
If you intend to serve the Lord someday, why not now? Time moves fast ... tick ... tock ... tick ...
Grace ~ Pastor Todd
Monday, October 3, 2011
Hayride
67 people from Mt. Olivet enjoyed a hayride yesterday on a brisk afternoon. We rode from church to Showalter's Corn Maze, ate lunch, played games, huddled by the fire, then returned safely to church. It was a great day!!!
Monday, September 5, 2011
Kentucky Mission Team
Pray for our mission team as they work at Laurel Mission in Kentucky this week. It will be a challenging time with the recent passing of Rev. Titus Boggs and with the rains from tropical storm Lee.
Pastor's Penpoint - "Preparing ... not Planning" - September 2011
James 4: 13-16. "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.' Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.'
Is James telling us not to plan? Yes and no. James' warning is important to leaders in that leaders are to plan for their organizations but not to plan for their own lives. Does this mean that we are not to establish our 10-year plans for our lives? Yes. James' advice is that if we, as individuals, want to do something, then we should ask God to wish it for us rather than for us to wish it ourselves. The reason for this is that when a person sets out to accomplish his personal will for his life he negates the opportunities that God provides. This is evident in the lives of people who sought their own success and achieved it, yet comment that they feel like something is missing. Contrast this with the people who seem fulfilled in what they are doing and who tell people they would not have predicted a few years earlier that they would be doing what they are doing or going where they are going. The difference between the two types of people is that the first is planning and the second is preparing.
What's the difference between planning and preparing? Planning is deciding what you will do and preparing is becoming ready to do what you might be called to do.
Did Moses 'plan' to tend sheep for 40 years? Did Saul 'plan' to join the very Christians that he persecuted? Think about how Moses' tending sheep prepared him to lead the Israelites from Egypt. Moses argued with God and pleaded with God not to call him to this task. Can you imagine Moses talking to his father-in-law and saying how a few years before parting the Red Sea that he would not have believed that he would do what he did? Can you imagine Paul meeting his pre-conversion friends on the road and commenting to them how well his personal career plan was going? It is a common refrain from folk that if someone told them a few years earlier that they would be doing what they're doing now they wouldn't have believed it. But, using hindsight it is easy to see how our past experiences have prepared us to serve God in where He has placed us.
In the coming months, those who have stepped forward in leadership at Mt. Olivet will be preparing for the plan God will put before us. The Nominating Committee will convene and prayerfully discern who God has called to leadership, the Commissions will meet to prepare the various calendars of activities and work that needs to be done, and the Administrative Board will meet in November to prepare a plan based on how we believe God is calling this church to serve in ministry in the years to come.
As we prepare for our God's plan for our church, please join us in preparing for how God is planning for you individually as well. ~Pastor Todd
Is James telling us not to plan? Yes and no. James' warning is important to leaders in that leaders are to plan for their organizations but not to plan for their own lives. Does this mean that we are not to establish our 10-year plans for our lives? Yes. James' advice is that if we, as individuals, want to do something, then we should ask God to wish it for us rather than for us to wish it ourselves. The reason for this is that when a person sets out to accomplish his personal will for his life he negates the opportunities that God provides. This is evident in the lives of people who sought their own success and achieved it, yet comment that they feel like something is missing. Contrast this with the people who seem fulfilled in what they are doing and who tell people they would not have predicted a few years earlier that they would be doing what they are doing or going where they are going. The difference between the two types of people is that the first is planning and the second is preparing.
What's the difference between planning and preparing? Planning is deciding what you will do and preparing is becoming ready to do what you might be called to do.
Did Moses 'plan' to tend sheep for 40 years? Did Saul 'plan' to join the very Christians that he persecuted? Think about how Moses' tending sheep prepared him to lead the Israelites from Egypt. Moses argued with God and pleaded with God not to call him to this task. Can you imagine Moses talking to his father-in-law and saying how a few years before parting the Red Sea that he would not have believed that he would do what he did? Can you imagine Paul meeting his pre-conversion friends on the road and commenting to them how well his personal career plan was going? It is a common refrain from folk that if someone told them a few years earlier that they would be doing what they're doing now they wouldn't have believed it. But, using hindsight it is easy to see how our past experiences have prepared us to serve God in where He has placed us.
In the coming months, those who have stepped forward in leadership at Mt. Olivet will be preparing for the plan God will put before us. The Nominating Committee will convene and prayerfully discern who God has called to leadership, the Commissions will meet to prepare the various calendars of activities and work that needs to be done, and the Administrative Board will meet in November to prepare a plan based on how we believe God is calling this church to serve in ministry in the years to come.
As we prepare for our God's plan for our church, please join us in preparing for how God is planning for you individually as well. ~Pastor Todd
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Church Picnic at Oakdale Park
What better way to end a summer than with a picnic in beautiful weather.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Pastor's Penpoint - "The Fickleness Problem" - August 2011
The heat was rising off my head ... the humidity engulfed my entire body. I couldn't breathe! I was trapped, or strapped into "The Raptor" ... a loop-de-loop roller coaster at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio. I had just ridden with Leah, and I was seriously regretting doing so. Although I wanted to ride with her, it was not a wise move on my part in the heat. My lungs burned, sweat ran down my neck and my clothes were drenched. "When will this awful heat stop?" I wondered as I trudged, very queasy to the parking lot where I discovered the surface temperature was 103 degrees! Heat waves can be dangerous, and certainly zap summer fun. I wanted to wave at the heat ... wave good-bye! As I drove down the Ohio Valley, fighting nausea and trying to cool down - my thoughts turned to last winter. Snow mounds covered everything, with no sign of what was underneath. I remembered the cold bite of air when opening the door. The frozen numbness of my fingertips after clearing away the mass of snow from the cars and driveway made me wish for warmth and sunshine. Now sunshine and warmth surrounds us and we're wishing for winter again.
The Lord reminded me about the fickleness of our human heart. Never content seemed to scream in my ears, as I realized how much complaining I had been doing. Whine, whine, whine like a squeaky wheel. Reading the story of the Old Testament Israelites has always made me feel a bit smug. I'm not going to be like them I've resolved. When I read the account of their exodus and travels, I saw their ungratefulness and lack of faith in God. How foolish they were to whine about going back to a life of slavery in Egypt I thought. Just read their words of discontent in Exodus 16 after just being rescued miraculously at the Red Sea and see for yourself. These ridiculous and fickle people were always finding fault with Moses. The poor man could not please them. Their journey wasn't going to be long. He was leading them to the promised land of Abraham. Yet, here they were, unprepared emotionally and mentally for the task before them. Finally Moses spoke a hard truth to them:
"And Moses said, This shall be, when the Lord shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full; for that the Lord hears your murmurings which you murmur against him: and what are we? Your murmurings are not against us, but against the Lord." Exodus 16:8
Wow! The realization of my own fickleness has pulled me up short. I hated the winter cold, and now I hate the summer heat. The Spirit nudged me. I am humbled by the reminder of God's sovereignty. He does what He will. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Paul learned this lesson well too. Listen to this:
"Not that I speak in want: for I have learned, in whatever state I am, to be content. I know both how to be humiliated and I know how to thrive everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to thrive and to suffer need. I can do all thing through Christ who strengtheneth me." Philippians 4:11-13
Blessed be the name of the Lord ~ Pastor Todd
The Lord reminded me about the fickleness of our human heart. Never content seemed to scream in my ears, as I realized how much complaining I had been doing. Whine, whine, whine like a squeaky wheel. Reading the story of the Old Testament Israelites has always made me feel a bit smug. I'm not going to be like them I've resolved. When I read the account of their exodus and travels, I saw their ungratefulness and lack of faith in God. How foolish they were to whine about going back to a life of slavery in Egypt I thought. Just read their words of discontent in Exodus 16 after just being rescued miraculously at the Red Sea and see for yourself. These ridiculous and fickle people were always finding fault with Moses. The poor man could not please them. Their journey wasn't going to be long. He was leading them to the promised land of Abraham. Yet, here they were, unprepared emotionally and mentally for the task before them. Finally Moses spoke a hard truth to them:
"And Moses said, This shall be, when the Lord shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full; for that the Lord hears your murmurings which you murmur against him: and what are we? Your murmurings are not against us, but against the Lord." Exodus 16:8
Wow! The realization of my own fickleness has pulled me up short. I hated the winter cold, and now I hate the summer heat. The Spirit nudged me. I am humbled by the reminder of God's sovereignty. He does what He will. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Paul learned this lesson well too. Listen to this:
"Not that I speak in want: for I have learned, in whatever state I am, to be content. I know both how to be humiliated and I know how to thrive everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to thrive and to suffer need. I can do all thing through Christ who strengtheneth me." Philippians 4:11-13
When trouble comes to us, we will not be prepared because we are so used to our comforts. Murmuring and discontent will be our lot if we do not remember the lesson learned by the Israelites and by Paul. With God we can, meaning we are enabled, to do and to stand all that comes our way. Be assured, God knows our circumstance. Let us be content in our circumstance, while He works out the details.
Blessed be the name of the Lord ~ Pastor Todd
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