The Church as Your Extended Family

Think about the Church as your extended family. The place with people of faith for whom loving, forgiving, caring and sharing are utmost ideals and actions.

What do you like and appreciate the most about your Church?
Loving acceptance
Gentle teaching and guidance
Honest and open communication
Others who eagerly lift you burdens and help you with your challenges.

If this describes your Church family then be thankful and dedicate yourself this week to continuing these behaviors.

If this is not your church, then make a commitment to model these active and energetic steps in your church. Give an energetic witness by what you say and how you act as to the work and role of your Church family in your neighborhood.


God bless you this week as you help your church family be the best it can be in your community.

Reverrend William R. McBride

How To Build Your Church

we continue our series on the Church/church by looking at two ways to really build up your church

PRAYER IS ONE OF THE WAYS - Do you pray for your church every day? Do you pray for your pastor every day? Do you pray for yourself and what you will do this week to be a part of the building up of your Church? Please pray.

Prayer Intro from DanStevers.com on Vimeo.
www.danstevers.com

LOVE IS THE SECOND WAY. Do you seek to show others your love? Even when it is hard to love someone, do you make up your mind that you will try to love them anyway? Do you show your love in your church with your spiritual family? Love, really love this week. This is how you build up your Church. Please Love.

Growing Your Church

So, how do you grow your church? First we must understand that our church is more than our building. Ultimately, our church is our people who seek to grow spiritually. And as Christians we seek to grow closer to God as we follow the teachings of Jesus Christ.

I offer to you a 2 part, broader understanding of church.
1. The PEOPLE of God gathered together to worship, serve and love.
2. The special PLACE where God's people gather for worship, Christian instruction and support.

Godly Goals from Calvary Chapel Olympia on Vimeo.
What does God desire from us? In this video blog, Pastor Chuck Lind discusses the importance of pursuing Godly goals and the blessings those pursuits can bring.

Churches do not grow by accident, they grow by intention. By grow we mean first of all growing in spirit, trust, life and health. By grow we also mean; that if we do the first grow things right, we will grow in size and stature.

What Can We do to be the church and grow the Church?

1. PRAY – We must always bathe everything we do in sincere prayer. Pray for your pastor, staff and the Administrative Council leaders. Ask that God would continue to make them wise. Talk openly and eagerly with them about your needs, your hopes and your dreams. Pray and ask God what you can do to make and take your church to the next level. Let’s get energized and shine brightly for Christ again!
2. PARTICIPATE – Come to church with the eagerness and willingness to roll up your sleeves and go to work. The more you give of your time, your talent and your treasure the more God will give back to you. That’s how it works. If you attend worship on average once a month, take it up to twice a month for the next three months. Whatever your level of attending church, raise it up a notch. Tithe, giving ten percent of your income for the next three months. Try it and see what happens to you and your church health and life.
3. INVITE – We all have a network of friends, colleagues and neighbors; many who may not have a church home as interesting, welcoming, and inclusive as ours. Invite and bring your network with you to church. Whenever you send an email to your contacts, include the church website, www.lakemillsumc.org & facebook page address, www.facebook.com/LMUMC in your signature line. Tell folks about how your church helps and supports you.
4. GIVE – Your church really needs your support, AND you really need to give. It is a proven spiritual truth that we are created with the God-given need to share ourselves and give ourselves to those things that we believe are important in our community and in our world. Your church is one of those things and she will be well equipped to make your community and your world a better place if and when you give.
5. DESIGNATE – extra and special giving, above and beyond your regular giving for upcoming and much needed ministries and building improvements. Your Staff Parish Committee is working on a job description for a new youth director. Wouldn’t it be grand to be ready to hire one next January? Our children and youth deserve it and need it. You can make it happen. Your Trustees and Construction Committee have some exciting ideas to vastly improve and update our building. You can make it happen.
6. CREATE – new and innovative ways you can enliven and energize our life together. Wouldn’t it be exciting to develop a kid’s choir and have our children share in worship with music played and sung on a regular basis? You can make it happen. All things can happen when we trust and work together.


God bless you this week as you be the Church and grow your church.

Reverend Bill McBride

Letting Your LIght Shine

God tells us in Matthew to let our lights shine. (Matthew 5:14-16). An important message for us as we often-times walk around in a darkened world.


This is God's call for our lives...to be people who walk in the LIGHT.


How Do We Walk In The Light?

1. Acknowledge that we sometimes walk in the dark and we need some light.
2. Shine our light and share our light with others who are walking in the darkness.
Loving, Forgiving, Encouraging, Helping 

Have a light-filled week.

Blessings.

Reverend Bill McBride

Faith and Hope Together

Faith and Hope are like sisters that need and depend on each other. A lot of times in studying the scriptures we go past faith and hope and move on to the importance of love. "Faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love." (1 Corinthians 13:13)

But for this week consider how significant your faith and hope is to your love.


"Faith is the assurance of things you hope for" (Hebrews 11)
FAITH is belief in your mind


HOPE is feeling that conviction in your heart Feel your hope. It gives energy to your faith. Hope gives your faith a fighting chance.


See how well they go together and need each other?

Have a faith-filled and hopeful week.

Rev. Bill McBride

Any New Things Lately?

Seen any new things happening in your life today? If your answer is no, you need to wake up and smell the roses. There are "new things" happening all the time all around you. and most of them are GOOD! Sure bad stuff does happen to good people, but most of the time good things are happening, we just fail to see them and learn and appreciate them. What a shame!

God is re-creating your world almost every moment. Our challenge is to look ahead with hope and promise. Sometimes though, we are afraid to look ahead with promise and possibility because we wonder if life today or tomorrow will be any better than life yesterday?

In Isaiah 43 God is about to bring His chosen people back to their land from captivity in Babylon. On the doorstep of freedom they think back to when God released them from captivity in Egypt. They wonder if things will ever be as good as they were in the past?

Isaiah 43:16-21 (The Message) This is what God says,  the God who builds a road right through the ocean, who carves a path through pounding waves, The God who summons horses and chariots and armies— they lie down and then can't get up; they're snuffed out like so many candles:"Forget about what's happened; don't keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I'm about to do something brand-new. It's bursting out! Don't you see it? There it is! I'm making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands. Wild animals will say 'Thank you!' —the coyotes and the buzzards—Because I provided water in the desert, rivers through the sun-baked earth, Drinking water for the people I chose,  the people I made especially for myself, a people custom-made to praise me.

God has to remind them through the prophet Isaiah, that their Creator is always in the process of making things new for those who trust and believe.

This is our contemporary lesson form this peak into history.

• Do you believe that today can be a new day for you?
• Do you enter into the day with the expectation that there is something useful and helpful to learn, if you simply look around you and observe?

If you do and if you can, you are well on your way to attracting all the good you deserve. Go for it! You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Blessings

Rev. Bill McBride

How To Get Found

If we are ruthlessly honest with ourselves there are days we get lost and feel lost. Right? When you feel lost how do you get found?

In the Bible in Luke 15:11-31 there is a telling story about one who got lost and how he got found again. Getting found is ultimately a "two way street." It involves the one who got lost and another who seeks to find the one who is lost.

Check out this movie about our theme this week.


How Do You Get found when you get lost?

• Don't let your light go down.
• Don't let your fire burn out.
• Rise up now.
• Don't be afraid to stand out.

There is a really big world at your fingertips and you have a chance to change it.

One clear lesson that goes contrary to cultural trends is this:

Remember that as you seek to fill another person's cup, their life with your love, your cup, your life will be made full with love too. There is a solid spiritual law at work here. "Sowing and Reaping" is one name it goes by; also "The Law of Like Return"; that's my name for it. You may have also heard it called "What Goes Around Comes Around" or "The Law of Attraction."

No matter how you name it and what you call it, it is absolutely true. If you feel a bit lost this week, find someone else who is a bit lost; struggling, afraid, lonely, sad or distressed. Ask them how you can help them feel better. Do it for them. What you give away will always come back to you.

In our story in Luke 15:11-31 the lost son:

1. Needed to admit that he was lost.
2. He then headed back in the right direction, toward home.
3. He hadn't even got there yet and his dad who was looking for him and hoping to see him on his return ran out to welcome him back home.

When you feel lost, admit it and return to your spiritual center. When you feel lost believe and trust that God in love is already out there looking for you to return.

This is how the lost get found.


Get found this week. Help someone else get found too.

Blessings

Rev. Bill

Thinking and Becoming

Consider how strongly connected your mind and your thinking is to what you experience and do. When it comes to doing extraordinary things; our theme for this week, we often think and say "Well, I can't do anything extraordinary. I'll stick with the ordinary. Let's leave the extraordinary to Jesus and his miracles or at the very least those special few really gifted individuals."

But that is not how God wants to work today with you. God wants to use ordinary people to do extraordinary things.


What extraordinary thing is God wanting to do with ordinary you this week?

In fact, listen carefully, you are only just a thought away from extraordinary things. Yes you are! "Cogito ergo sum" - "I think, therefore I am" is a philosophical statement in Latin used by René Descartes. If you can think then you can become. And when it comes to our Creator, the sky is really the only limit.

What did these ordinary people end up doing?


We are the ones who limit God working in and through our lives. God does want to do extraordinary things in our lives and for others through us. Miracles are not just for the Bible days any more.

Three lessons come to us from scripture; especially in the extraordinary story of the feeding of the five thousand in Mark 6:30-44.

1. Use what you have right now today. Don't wait for something special to come your way before you make use of the time, talent and gifts you already have.


2. Commit what you have right now to God. Give God the credit for all the good things given to you and that come to you.


3. Expect great things to happen for you, to you and through you for others.

More great things would be seen in our lives and in our world if we all said and thought this: "I Can." As the wise sage said, "The people who say 'I Can' and 'I Can't' are both right."

Blessing to you.

Have an extraordinary week.

Reverend Bill McBride

How to Handle Your Guilt

So, are you feeling guilty today? Ever made a bad choice or done something for which you then felt guilty? Ever done something and then in hindsight said, "Ouch, I wish I hadn't done that one?" How do You Handle Your GUILT?

We allow our poor choices to imprison us and defeat us when we hold onto the guilt they bring. We can learn some things from our guilt, if we take a brief step back from it and see it in a larger frame. The useful thing that guilt can do for us is to show us that the choices we made did not bring to us what we needed or wanted. Guilt can point us in a new direction and motivate us to seek amends and make it right. After that, guilt serves no purpose or use. In fact, when we hold on to the guilt, we harm ourselves and make ourselve into far less than God intended.

Guilt imprisons us when we make it more powerful then it really is. If you can picture our emotions as energy, which on a metaphysical scale they really are, how would you rate the power of guilt? And, what is the most powerful emotion we can bring to the world? Remember that guilt only has as much power as you give it.

Use your guilt to build a newer and better life this week.

• Admit your fault
• Acknowledge your failure
• Accept forgiveness

Use your guilt to correct your mind, heart and actions and then use your renewed energy to give your best to yourself and others.

Watch this short movie to find the answer and to understand why you must release your guilt.



Blessings to you this week as you love.

Rev. Bill

The Unexpected Arrives

We thought together last Sunday about "Getting Ready for the Unexpected." (You can listen to my message by clicking the link on the right side of this page)

Right after church the unexpected happened to me. On the walk home from church, right on the walkway by the front porch, I came upon an unexpected little fallen nest and two baby birds. Recall the rain and big wind on Sunday morning? The storm must have dislodged this little nest from our big Maple tree. Mom and Dad bird, whom appeared to be finches or wrens, were flitting back and forth among the branches and calling as loud as they could in their tiny bird voices.

I did what any self-respecting man who is totally in charge of his world would do; I quickly went inside, found Loretta and asked, "What should we do Loretta, there is a nest on the ground and two tiny baby birds next to it?" Well, Loretta knew exactly what to do. She went into "mom mode" and hurried outside and scooped them up, nest and all and then said we have to get them back into the tree so hopefully their parents would rescue them.

Well to make this story short, we improvised a nest spot and waited and watched. Unfortunately the parents never came back or were unable to find their kids. They did fly around the yard, from tree to tree for a while, but eventually the day fell silent with no more bird calling for lost young. We then went outside and prepared the best we could, to adopt and raise these two little guys, or gals?

Loretta fashioned a home including the original nest and I did what I know best, told her how to find all the information and training she needed online. "Why don't you 'Google' how to care for baby birds?" She did and now today, it's Wednesday, only three days after our quick adoption and countless feeding later, did you know baby birds need to eat every 20 minutes?, and our two sibling birds, which I named "Peep & RePeep" have nearly tripled in size and are now trying to jump out of their box in the garage? By the way, if you need to know anything about raising baby birds call Loretta. (photo on right is a hungry bird eager for food).

And here is the really weird thing. According to the research, guess what is the best food for baby birds? Cat Food. Yup, our Mittens the cat is sharing her food with some little birds. Ironic isn't it?

As I preached on last Sunday, you never know when and what the unexpected will be and when it will happen. You just have to be ready for it; and as Micah 6:8 says "Do what is just and right, Do what is kind and merciful and Do a daily humble walk with God." Good idea for bird raising and people relating too.

Now I do not believe for a second that God caused these baby birds to tumble out of their tree to give me a test of faith or to help me practice what I preached. More likely, their descent to my walkway was caused by wind and some poor "bird-nest engineering." But I am humbled still, by how dependent these two birds are on others for their very life. As it said online, their chance of survival is low, even if they learn to fly out of our garage to the nearest tree; but as Loretta reminded me, "We will do everything in our power to give them a chance." We keep telling Mittens the cat, about how nice it is for her to share her food, but she does not get to visit them up close and personal.

I might now add to our life lessons that unexpected Lessons can come from some unexpected places. What will you do this week to give the folks around you and yourself the chance you and they need to live, thrive and become an abundant success?

To give us a quick review from Micah 6:8

• Do Justice - life is not always fair but that does not mean we just walk on by and ignore a need even if it comes from tiny peeping birds.


• Do Kindness and Mercy - All God's children need some love this week, big or small.


• Do Humility With Your God - Be prepared to lend a hand and stoop to help someone or some creature that just might benefit by you. You never know; so be prepared.

Thanks Loretta for your motherly love for Peep and RePeep this week.

(photo on left, Loretta is getting lunch ready and I get to hold a bird in the hand. In just 3 days they are already flapping their wings and trying to fly.)

Thank God for our Creator's wonderful love for each of us.

And, this definitely means you.

Blessings

Rev. Bill

Hi Mom!

Mother's Day is this coming Sunday, the second Sunday in May. We have celebrated Mother's Day as a national holiday since 1914 when president Woodrow Wilson declared this event as a national holiday.

Since several hundred years after the time of Jesus Christ the church has portrayed the Creator in masculine language and personality. People generally think of God as a "Father" figure who is all powerful, a king and a warrior who rules the universe with power and might. But what about the motherly side of God?

It is important to not allow the customary gender bias to cloud our view of God. God is neither male nor female, even though we humanize the Creator so to understand, bring God down to earth. And since God is not a man or a woman, it is equally proper to consider the mothering qualities of God, for these qualities really do enhance our lives.

GOD'S LOVE CAN LIFT YOU HIGHER




If Jesus succeeded in restoring a vital connection between God and the people by evoking the love between father and child, perhaps, today, the vitality of faith can be recaptured by drawing upon the equally intimate relationship between mother and child. What better way to emphasize the intimacy of our relationship with God than to imagine a mother's love for her child? When you think of the devotion, the sacrifice, the tenderness, and sometimes the suffering that a mother pours out for her children, doesn't that reflect in some deep way the love God feels for each of us?

Of course, this is nothing new. In ancient religions the idea of Mother God was very closely related to the idea of Mother Earth or Mother Nature. It seemed only natural and obvious that a God who gave birth to the world must have at least something in common with a woman who gives birth. As a human mother gave birth to us all, God was quite naturally seen as the Mother of us all.

So, there is really only one thing to say into the cameras today; "Hi Mom" and I hope your Mother's Day is wonderful.

Blessings,

Rev. Bill

WHAT IF?

Have you ever wondered, "What If?" What if I had been speeding, like I was a few miles back, when I passed that police car a few seconds ago? What if I had actually said to my neighbor what was going through my mind a moment ago? What if I had been on that plane, train, subway, car, bus that just crashed? What if?

What if the sun stopped shining or the earth stopped rotating and brining in the dawn?

Much of the time we do the "what if thing" in the context of negative or bad outcomes.

Consider two interesting Bible stories this week.

• Acts 9:1-20- Saul's encounter with the "Light" of God on the road to Damascus-"What if Saul had not listened to Jesus? What if Ananias had not listened and gone to Saul's' aid. What if Saul,now called Paul the great defender of the faith,had not decided to follow Jesus? What if he'd kept killng Christians?


• John 21:1-19- Peter's post resurrection encounter with Jesus while fishing on the Lake Galilee- "What if Peter had not accepted the 'three time' words of forgiveness and encouragement Christ gave him? What if Thomas had not decided to believe and follow too?"
  

Kind of makes you wonder doesn't it? WHAT IF for you and for me?

To make a switch to the "what if positive side of our lives", I challenge you to consider and answer this week;

• What if I choose to follow God's word to the best of my ability this week?


• What if I believe and behave like the spiritual truths and principals are true?


• What if I love and forgive the way that God loves and forgives me?

WHAT IF-We always remember that living is not so much about us as individuals; not W.I.I.F.M. (what's in it for me); but more about US. - together, we, teamwork, unity, the church family as the Creator intended it to be?

What if we believed, behaved, thought, felt, and did things with the best intentions and the highest ideals?

What If?

Blessings to you today,

Rev. Bill

The Law of Like Return

Our beatitude for this week is Matthew 5:7 "Blessed are the merciful for they will receive mercy." I'd venture to say that no one will debate the value of this beatitude. Mercy appears at leat 208 times in the Bible. God is merciful and God wants us to show mercy. No questions here.

What I'd like to share with you is a more general and larger understanding that this scripture prompts. I call it The Law Of Like Return. This law goes by many assorted names; perhaps you have heard some variations or even said them.

• What goes around comes around,
• Life is a cricle,
• Like attracts like;
• The Law of Attraction
  
  Here is how I understand this law that governs everything we do: "You will always get back into your life what you fist give away to others through your life." Pretty simple and pretty basic. BUT do we forget it a lot and then wonder why our lives get so messed up and "under enjoyed."
  
  

The prblem is we think that to get something or enjoy something we have to work really hard to acquire it and hold onto it and never let it go. Here is another really important point; the Universe is not a finite sum game. We wrongly think there is a finite amount of that which we want and need. So therefore, when we get some we had better not give any of it away or we will lose it for sure and never get it back. WRONG!

God, the source of all that is good, gracious and enjoyable has an infinite suply of good things and wonderful experiences for you and me to enjoy. And the only way to get them and keep them is to be willing to first give them away. It is not grab and hold on tight, it is give and share and receive in return. This is how The Law of Like Return Works. Guaranteed!

"Blessed are the merciful for they will obtain mercy."

Blessings

Reverend Bill McBride