September 17, 2025

Last Sunday we continued our series, New Beginnings.  We focused on Joseph and learned he faced a lot of new beginnings - and all of them seemingly bad!  He started out being his dad’s favorite, but then was sold into slavery and then thrown into prison after a false accusation!  And yet he never once lost his faith.  He trusted God had a plan, despite all those challenges.  Through all he faced, his faith increased! Because he trusted God - who made him “forget all his troubles.”  That is what all consuming faith can do!

As I mentioned last week, you might start seeing some changes around here.  I know how hard change is, but they are all intended to help us grow as a church.  I fully believe the Spirit is strong here - and our faith can move mountains! We just have to keep in mind we are running a marathon, not a sprint. Growth takes time and patience, but also effort on all our parts.  As I review articles and talk to other pastors, the one thing that is always number one on every list is:

Spend a great deal of time every day on your knees.

Remember the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. James 5:16

I task all of us with praying, not just for numeric growth, but most of all for spiritual growth.  As we grow spiritually, I am certain we will grow numerically!

I am working on ideas for upcoming events that we can invite the public to, ones that are small and ones that are bigger.  As we enter into the fall season, this is a great time to host things for kids and families, as well as empty nesters and retirees.  I welcome any thoughts you have as to what you would like to see here - my door is always open! Take care and blessings!

Pastor Marcy

Here is this week’s devotion:

Most of us, no matter how strong our faith is, still struggle sharing that faith with someone.

We all have friends or family or neighbors that are suffering, angry, hurt and could use some faith to just simply survive this hard life. We also all know folks who have never been to church. And we probably all know someone who just has no spiritual guidance at all.

It's not necessarily that they do not  believe, it's not like they have never heard of Jesus, God, the Bible, or anything else associated with religion. But their knowledge has come from society. Their understanding has been through the media – from movies, from TV shows, from social media.

Is that giving them the right impression of who Jesus is?

You may feel uncomfortable sharing about God with someone who is not a church-goer. It may feel awkward. You may fear how they will react. You may just not know what to say. But guess what? God knew you’d struggle with that. And that is why we have the Holy Spirit here with us today:

…for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say. Luke 12:12

Don’t let someone’s knowledge of who He is come from any other source. You can remove the erroneous impression they may have from simply sharing your own story – why and how did you come to know Jesus? And how has your life changed since then? Your testimony is the most powerful way to share Jesus with someone.



Because, you could be the only one who ever tells them who Jesus really is.