03.17.09
Posted in General Blog Post at 11:34 am by Pastor Don
Dear Friends:
Spring is in the air! Here at the NHUMC Garden Center, I’m celebrating a new arrival…a bird house. It’s part of inviting birds to come in and find refuge, some bird seed, and peace. Along with it, they’ll enjoy the beauty of a flower garden that is soon to be.
To be inviting and encouraging is certainly a part of the Christian’s agenda. To offer a place where one finds one’s needs met…physically, socially, and spiritually, ah yes, the Christian Church. That place can be a building like NHUMC or it might be a person (after all, Paul challenges the early Christians to be a “temple of God”). How does that work for you? Someone once asked, “Does the room light up when you enter or when you leave?” How does your hospitality grow? Are you helping others to find their needs being met, or are you creating more needs for them to meet?
I encourage you to be inviting, even as I invite you to Normandale Hylands UMC. I encourage you by your example and witness to be an invitation to the refuge and peace that comes in knowing Jesus Christ as the Lord of your life. Blessings to you.
Feel free to drop in. The coffee’s fresh, the lights are on, and the hospitality is grand.
Your friend, Pastor Don
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03.04.09
Posted in General Blog Post at 4:16 pm by Pastor Don
4 March 2009
Dear Friends:
Lenten greetings! While engaged in worship on March 1, I had something brand new happen to me. I became a grandfather. While one never seems to think that they are old enough to be a grandparent, nevertheless the reality is such that I am now one.
Here we are, granddaughter and me; her name is Alexis Lucille. We’re doing a little bonding. Hopefully, we will become good friends. Of course, that will take time, as anything of value does. In so many ways, love is spelled, “T-I-M-E.” And of course, I will dote and try my best not to “spoil.” I’ll probably get her outfitted for a BWCA canoe paddle and get her acquainted with Mother Nature. But beyond that, perhaps the best thing that I can do for her as a grandparent is to help her “to know Christ and his resurrection.” That way, I know that her life on earth will have purpose, joy, hope, love, and faith. What more could a grandfather offer a granddaughter? And…that way, I’ll know that even after I pass on (as grandfathers eventually do), I’ll see her for an eternity.
So…stop by; catch up with a grandpa and share with me a little of your own faith story or of the gifts that you seek to offer the children. The coffee’s fresh, the lights are on. Blessings to you on your spiritual journey.
Your friend, Pastor Don
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