A Message for the Season: Love Fulfills God's Requirements

Romans 13:8, 10 (NLTse)
Love Fulfills God's Requirements

[8] Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God's law.
. . .
[10] Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God's law.

Romans 13:8, 10-14 (MSG)
Don't run up debts, except for the huge debt of love you owe each other. When you love others, you complete what the law has been after all along.
. . .
You can't go wrong when you love others. When you add up everything in the law code, the sum total is love.

But make sure that you don't get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed. We can't afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed and get dressed! Don't loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about!

The Providence of God

"He saw also that the providence of God is a circle of loving and giving, God serving His poor through the bounty of His rich, and His poor offering up their thanks to Him."

From "My God and My All: The Life of St. Francis of Assisi" by Elizabeth Goudge, P. 56

Christmas Prayer (or Pastor's Lament)

I lay me down, not sure the reason,
For I can't sleep in Christmas season
When all around me, here and there,
Apathy hath filled the air.
Come Christmas Eve or Christmas morn
Its not about the Savior born
Fellowship? Good News spread?
That egg nog's gone right to your head!
Good pastor, you this Church must grow
But don't disturb the status quo
(Especially the Christmas Show,
It's very special, don't you know?)

Good Christians all (I'm pretty sure)
Come walking weekly through our door
And rush to chat up the rare new face
That finds its way into God's place
Did I say God? Oh, heavens me!
What I meant was Church Trustee.
But just for now I simply pray
That God will grant another day
That I might use to do His will
And grant me sleep, that's better still!
I'll take His testing 'round the clock
For the privilige to guide His flock.

Life of Christ Glass Slides

The images in this slideshow are scans of painted glass slides used for projection shows in the late 1800s (?) and early 1900s. The nearly complete set was found in a wooden box marked "Life of Christ" in our church, The First United Methodist Church of  Saranac Lake. They would have been used in a special projector - early multimedia! I have been told that at  one time there was a big old projector in the church but it is no longer anywhere to be found. The titles are from paper labels on each slide.