Life sure has gotten busy. That happens so easily this time of year. Part of our busy life this week has included the birth of Matthew's niece. Providential timing considering last weeks sermon. Last week Matthew discussed "Sanctity of Life." Usually "Sanctity of Life" sermons consist of a "Pro Life" message. Now, "Pro Life" is another very important post of its own. For this particular Sunday Matthew instead discussed how important it is that we take care of the life and the body we are given. Sanctity as defined by Webster is " the quality or state of being holy or sacred." Each one of us have been given such blessings, life, family, friends, food....we take so much of this for granted. Sometimes we take those blessings for granted.
Matthew and I are in that crazy busy season of life. I work as an elementary general music teacher, am a full time graduate student, as well as teaching small groups/individuals after school. Matthew works at the church, spends time visiting with members and others that we know and is a full time graduate student as well. Most days we merely cross paths in the driveway as we are headed to the next thing. The last thing we tend to focus on is our health. That has caught up to us in the past couple of weeks. Between our own health and that of many of you, sanctity of life has really come true in our own life...we have seen it each day.
In Romans Chapter 6 we hear Paul tell the Corinthians that their bodies are a "Temple of God" and that they should realize that their bodies are "from God" they are not our own. I don't know about you, but I am pretty sure God is not too pleased about how I have treated my body. I have not treated it as "a Temple."...Far from it. Returning back to the "Sanctity" conversation...Sanctity means that we are working to become holy. With this in mind....do we treat our bodies with that knowledge in mind? If we are working to become more holy, spiritually and emotionally, do we also work to make our bodies fit into that discussion?
Does the thought of "becoming holy" change the way you view your body?
How will that effect the way you treat your body?
What is the biggest thing you need to change to help transform your body to holiness?
~jennifer
Welcome to the Graefenburg UMC blog! Here you can find thoughts, study God's Word, and discuss the issues and challenges of life. This is our online resource for community building and discipleship. Welcome!
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Vision Part 3 - Intentional Faith Development
First of all, I would like to apologize for the delay in posting. This week has been a very trying week here in the Kimmons' household - Matthew lost his Grandfather this week (visit obituary here) among other things. Hopefully I will pull it together and be more "on it" next week. :) Many of you are also going through very difficult times as well. All of our challenges tie into last Sunday's message very well.
Last Sunday Matthew discussed intentional faith development as a part of his three part series on Visioning. For clarification, faith development is defined by Matthew as how you grow in grace and holiness in your spiritual life. Think of your faith development as growing to become a fully devoted follower of Jesus. I don't know about you, but I think this becomes a bigger challenge when we are struggling with life's challenges. It is easy to call ourselves "followers" when things are great, when life is going along just as we planned but when times get tough, we do one of two things. We either call out to God, asking for his help, but still stop learning about Him. Or we turn from God completely, because surely God would not let us suffer so. In either situation we stop growing in our faith. Our attention, while we may be asking God for help, no longer intentionally seeks to know about Him and to become more like Him. We are just try to get through the situation.
During the upcoming year, we are going to focus on being intentional in our faith development, as a church. We are going to be doing this in two very specific ways. First, we are going to participate in a program (Network) that will help each of us identify each of our spiritual gifts, passions, and personality. By identifying these things in ourselves, it will help us become aware of how God has gifted us to help build the kingdom. For example: Some of us have the gift of "Teaching" and should use that to build the kingdom, others may have the gift of "Helps" who quietly use their skills to help build the kingdom either through chores around the church, fixing things, or making the bulletins each week. There are many spiritual gifts and believe it or not, what you find to be your spiritual gift may surprise you....maybe not. Once you identify your spiritual gifts and what you are passionate about, we can together figure out how we can each best serve the church and the kingdom. Also, as a bonus, we begin to understand each other as well. We can become excited for each others' passions and gifts and begin to think about how each of those could work together.
The second part of intentionally growing our faith will be to offer a mid-week Bible study and topical studies that will help each of us grow in our faith and also grow in our relationships with one another. We must spend time learning about God and His Word so that we may become more like Christ each day. Our community will help us with this journey...God did not intend for us be alone in our faith, He intended for us to work and move together as the "Body of Christ."
This next year we want to grow in our faith, working as God designed us to work, as a healthy community of faith.
Are you ready to come join us?
Are you excited to being working in the Kingdom the way God designed you to work?
Are you ready to grown in your faith and to grow in relationships with others?
We are excited....are you?
~Jennifer
Last Sunday Matthew discussed intentional faith development as a part of his three part series on Visioning. For clarification, faith development is defined by Matthew as how you grow in grace and holiness in your spiritual life. Think of your faith development as growing to become a fully devoted follower of Jesus. I don't know about you, but I think this becomes a bigger challenge when we are struggling with life's challenges. It is easy to call ourselves "followers" when things are great, when life is going along just as we planned but when times get tough, we do one of two things. We either call out to God, asking for his help, but still stop learning about Him. Or we turn from God completely, because surely God would not let us suffer so. In either situation we stop growing in our faith. Our attention, while we may be asking God for help, no longer intentionally seeks to know about Him and to become more like Him. We are just try to get through the situation.
During the upcoming year, we are going to focus on being intentional in our faith development, as a church. We are going to be doing this in two very specific ways. First, we are going to participate in a program (Network) that will help each of us identify each of our spiritual gifts, passions, and personality. By identifying these things in ourselves, it will help us become aware of how God has gifted us to help build the kingdom. For example: Some of us have the gift of "Teaching" and should use that to build the kingdom, others may have the gift of "Helps" who quietly use their skills to help build the kingdom either through chores around the church, fixing things, or making the bulletins each week. There are many spiritual gifts and believe it or not, what you find to be your spiritual gift may surprise you....maybe not. Once you identify your spiritual gifts and what you are passionate about, we can together figure out how we can each best serve the church and the kingdom. Also, as a bonus, we begin to understand each other as well. We can become excited for each others' passions and gifts and begin to think about how each of those could work together.
The second part of intentionally growing our faith will be to offer a mid-week Bible study and topical studies that will help each of us grow in our faith and also grow in our relationships with one another. We must spend time learning about God and His Word so that we may become more like Christ each day. Our community will help us with this journey...God did not intend for us be alone in our faith, He intended for us to work and move together as the "Body of Christ."
This next year we want to grow in our faith, working as God designed us to work, as a healthy community of faith.
Are you ready to come join us?
Are you excited to being working in the Kingdom the way God designed you to work?
Are you ready to grown in your faith and to grow in relationships with others?
We are excited....are you?
~Jennifer
Friday, January 14, 2011
Forgiveness...oh my!
This past Sunday Matthew preached a very meaningful and relevant sermon on the topic of Forgiveness. I don't know about you, but I tend to get a bit squirmy during sermons of forgiveness. I am more of a "conflict avoider" than one who likes to deal with it...in fact, in "fight or flight" I fly quickly in the other direction. I would rather suffer with whatever emotions I am dealing with then to begin to face them or another person. Matthew is the exact opposite, he would rather deal with it, right now. (Which has made for some interesting times in our household. hehe) Unfortunately my preferred method of avoidance is not what God calls us to. We are called to forgive and to live in love....which is not easy.
What is your preferred method of conflict resoloution?
Last week Matthew stated:
"Authentic community is built upon accountability, transparency and love, but it is maintained through forgiveness."
In order for us to become all that God has intended us to be we must have these characteristics. We must not hide from each other, neither physically, spiritually or emotionally. We must accept responsibility for our own actions. In teaching, one of the hardest things for students to do is to own up to their own actions. They fear the consequences, however, with proper instruction they realize that owning up to their mistakes doesn't make the consequences go away, but definitely makes them less severe. For adults, owning up to our mistakes means that we have to admit that we were wrong. That hurts the ol' ego...which is far worse than any consequence. We must learn to move past ourselves to allow ourselves to become all that God wants us to be.
We must be transparent. People need to know what we are feeling...we must communicate our emotions, anger, fear and joy. As the extreme introvert mentioned in the sermon, my vulnerable emotions are reserved only for those most intimate friends/family. Transparency is extremely difficult. In order for us to heal and grow, we must take that difficult step of faith and share ourselves with all of those in our community. Now, please let me clarify...this does not mean that you need to share your innermost thoughts with every person in the church, however we do need to be transparent in issues relating to the church, including relationships. If you are harboring feelings of anger, sadness or guilt, those need to be addressed and resolved.
Lastly, we must love. To love means that we share those emotions that are holding us back and we must resolve those conflicts. We must forgive those who have hurt us, and accept forgiveness from others. We must not hold on to those negative feelings. When you hold on to anger and resentment, the one who is suffering is you. By holding onto that anger and never resolving those feelings, you become prisoner to those emotions. We think that we are making the other person suffer by withholding our friendship...but it is us who misses out.
Our goal is to make our community as authentic as it can be so that we may grown in Christ and grow in numbers. In order to do that we must have those tough conversations and show much forgiveness and love.
What conflicts are still weighing on your heart?
Do any of them keep you up at night?
What is ONE step you can take to begin healing?
When are you going to take that step?
~Jennifer
What is your preferred method of conflict resoloution?
Last week Matthew stated:
"Authentic community is built upon accountability, transparency and love, but it is maintained through forgiveness."
In order for us to become all that God has intended us to be we must have these characteristics. We must not hide from each other, neither physically, spiritually or emotionally. We must accept responsibility for our own actions. In teaching, one of the hardest things for students to do is to own up to their own actions. They fear the consequences, however, with proper instruction they realize that owning up to their mistakes doesn't make the consequences go away, but definitely makes them less severe. For adults, owning up to our mistakes means that we have to admit that we were wrong. That hurts the ol' ego...which is far worse than any consequence. We must learn to move past ourselves to allow ourselves to become all that God wants us to be.
We must be transparent. People need to know what we are feeling...we must communicate our emotions, anger, fear and joy. As the extreme introvert mentioned in the sermon, my vulnerable emotions are reserved only for those most intimate friends/family. Transparency is extremely difficult. In order for us to heal and grow, we must take that difficult step of faith and share ourselves with all of those in our community. Now, please let me clarify...this does not mean that you need to share your innermost thoughts with every person in the church, however we do need to be transparent in issues relating to the church, including relationships. If you are harboring feelings of anger, sadness or guilt, those need to be addressed and resolved.
Lastly, we must love. To love means that we share those emotions that are holding us back and we must resolve those conflicts. We must forgive those who have hurt us, and accept forgiveness from others. We must not hold on to those negative feelings. When you hold on to anger and resentment, the one who is suffering is you. By holding onto that anger and never resolving those feelings, you become prisoner to those emotions. We think that we are making the other person suffer by withholding our friendship...but it is us who misses out.
Our goal is to make our community as authentic as it can be so that we may grown in Christ and grow in numbers. In order to do that we must have those tough conversations and show much forgiveness and love.
What conflicts are still weighing on your heart?
Do any of them keep you up at night?
What is ONE step you can take to begin healing?
When are you going to take that step?
~Jennifer
Sunday, January 9, 2011
A post about posting...
Some have had trouble posting comments to the posts here on the blog - so here are some simple instructions for posting a comment:
If you want to post with your name: you will need to have a Google/Gmail account. To create one go here. Then you will be able to use your account to post to the blog.
If a Google account is not for you: You may choose to post anonymously and either put your name in the post...or not. Either is fine. :)
To post: Go to the post that you would like to comment on, scroll to the bottom of that post. There will be line at the bottom that tells you who posted and what time. Then it will tell you how many comments...click on the word "comments"
Then it will show you a screen that says "Post a comment" and a box underneath of it. You can type your comment in that box.
When you have typed in that box and are finished underneath the box it says "Comment As" click on the drop down menu and either choose "Google Account" (you will have to sign in) or "Anonymous" which should allow you to comment without signing in, although you may be asked to verify that you are a real person by typing a word it gives you.
Then you should be finsihed.
Please let me know if something does not work...I want this to be user friendly for you. :) Have a great week!
~Jennifer
If you want to post with your name: you will need to have a Google/Gmail account. To create one go here. Then you will be able to use your account to post to the blog.
If a Google account is not for you: You may choose to post anonymously and either put your name in the post...or not. Either is fine. :)
To post: Go to the post that you would like to comment on, scroll to the bottom of that post. There will be line at the bottom that tells you who posted and what time. Then it will tell you how many comments...click on the word "comments"
Then it will show you a screen that says "Post a comment" and a box underneath of it. You can type your comment in that box.
When you have typed in that box and are finished underneath the box it says "Comment As" click on the drop down menu and either choose "Google Account" (you will have to sign in) or "Anonymous" which should allow you to comment without signing in, although you may be asked to verify that you are a real person by typing a word it gives you.
Then you should be finsihed.
Please let me know if something does not work...I want this to be user friendly for you. :) Have a great week!
~Jennifer
Saturday, January 8, 2011
A Poem for You
Today I read a fantastic poem called "June Bug on a String." This poem was written by a Tennessee author and poet laureate named Richard "Pek Gunn". I believe this poem can be found in his book entitled Tumblin' Creek Tales and Other Poems, however the book is now out of print. :(
June Bug on a String
In days way back on Tumblin Creek
The latter part of Spring
'Twas sport for every boy to have
A June Bug on a String.
The bug would fly like all the rest
But what impressed me so
Was that the length of string controlled
Just how far he could go.
Some might have thought he was free
To go his way but still
I held the string that gauged his flight
And pulled him in at will.
A man can get entangled too
No matter when nor where;
And set a boundary upon
His freedom then and there.
He may fly high and buzz about
And have a mighty fling
But after all he's governed by
The one who holds the string.
Pek Gunn
June Bug on a String
In days way back on Tumblin Creek
The latter part of Spring
'Twas sport for every boy to have
A June Bug on a String.
The bug would fly like all the rest
But what impressed me so
Was that the length of string controlled
Just how far he could go.
Some might have thought he was free
To go his way but still
I held the string that gauged his flight
And pulled him in at will.
A man can get entangled too
No matter when nor where;
And set a boundary upon
His freedom then and there.
He may fly high and buzz about
And have a mighty fling
But after all he's governed by
The one who holds the string.
Pek Gunn
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Welcome 2011....
" If people can't see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves. But when they attend to what He reveals, they are most blessed." Proverbs 29:18 (The Message)
During this time of New Year's resoloutions and changes we can't help to think of the church. GUMC has been through a lot of changes in the last year. Many ups and downs. Many times of confusion. So now, we have this fresh start - this time of renewal and time to move past some of the events of the last year. I am not sure about you, but I felt as though the board meeting last Sunday was a time of renewed energy and enthusiasm for many of you. So as we look to the new year, we must think of our vision, mission and goals.
Who exactly is Graefenburg UMC? What do we do? What do we do well? What do we not do so well? What do we want to be known for? Where do we want to be at the end of this year? 5 years?
So as we think about these things, let us be very clear: A vision is picture God paints in your heart and mind of what should be. A goal can help you realize the vision, one step at a time. A vision is on going, ever changing. A goal is a step we take to acheive that vision.
A vision can be simple. Matthew used the words "Holy discontent." There are those times in our lives, small moments, where we look around and see something that just isn't right. Those are the moments that God gives us a vision of what should be.
What vision do you have for or church? What do you think should be part of our vision for the next year? Where is your "holy discontent"?
During this time of New Year's resoloutions and changes we can't help to think of the church. GUMC has been through a lot of changes in the last year. Many ups and downs. Many times of confusion. So now, we have this fresh start - this time of renewal and time to move past some of the events of the last year. I am not sure about you, but I felt as though the board meeting last Sunday was a time of renewed energy and enthusiasm for many of you. So as we look to the new year, we must think of our vision, mission and goals.
Who exactly is Graefenburg UMC? What do we do? What do we do well? What do we not do so well? What do we want to be known for? Where do we want to be at the end of this year? 5 years?
So as we think about these things, let us be very clear: A vision is picture God paints in your heart and mind of what should be. A goal can help you realize the vision, one step at a time. A vision is on going, ever changing. A goal is a step we take to acheive that vision.
A vision can be simple. Matthew used the words "Holy discontent." There are those times in our lives, small moments, where we look around and see something that just isn't right. Those are the moments that God gives us a vision of what should be.
What vision do you have for or church? What do you think should be part of our vision for the next year? Where is your "holy discontent"?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)