Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Greetings from our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ.

   I hope you all had a great summer and a time to spend some time with family and friends out in God’s wonderful creation.

             As I read scripture, especially the life of Jesus, I notice that Jesus often challenged his disciples to try a new way of living out their life of faith; from feeding the five thousand, to walking on water.  In the spirit of Jesus’ challenging style, I would like to challenge you with a few requests.  Three of the requests are short in duration, the third one lasts all year.

The first challenge was suggested during my sermon on August 28th and this challenge is to write a two-minute conversation about why your faith in Jesus is central to you.  If you were going to tell someone why your faith was important, what would you say?  I was asked this same question at a retreat and I found it very useful in thinking about why my faith is important.  My guess is most of us do not think very often about this question, but it is a useful question to think about.  Once you have written it down share it with someone safe, (i.e. a spouse, a child, a fellow Christian).  And now the hardest part—ask God to give you the opportunity to share it with someone who may need to hear it from you. 

The second challenge is to attend a three hour retreat on September 17th from 9 am to noon.  This retreat will focus on your identity as a Child of God.  In this time of crisis and uncertainty, it is important to remember who you are and what God has planned for you.  We will provide food and drinks, as well as childcare for that day.  This retreat is open to everyone, including a neighbor or anyone else who would benefit  in strengthening their identity in Christ or is just begin to explore what that might mean for their life.

The third challenge is for men.  We are having a men’s retreat on September 30th and October 1st in McCall.  We will be leaving on Friday evening and returning by late afternoon on Saturday.  This retreat will focus on having fun together and also exploring what it means to be a Christian Man in today’s world.  There will also be good food and good company.  So plan to attend this retreat to create new friendships and to think about what your faith means to you.

The fourth challenge has to do with prayer.  I invite you to walk or drive your neighborhood once a week and before you leave to go, pray to God that God would reveal to you a home or person that needs prayer that day.  Or maybe you already know of a neighbor in need, pray for them.  I believe many in our neighbors are in need of prayer and this is an easy way for us to have a positive impact on where we live.  If you live by a school or you have children in school, pray for their school.  Try to be as specific as you can in your prayers, like one time pray for the teachers, or bus drivers.  Again if you know of a particular problem pray for that, asking God to bring his healing power and wisdom.  Now what if someone asks what are you doing?  Tell them that God has place on your heart to pray for this house or this person.  You do not need to know why God wants you to pray, all you need to do is to be willing.

See you in worship,

Pastor Mike