The Spirit Newsletter November 2020

From Pastor’s Desk

As nature ends the season of warmth we end the season of Pentecost. Every year these “endings” of nature and the church year remind me of the “ending” of our lives here on earth. To successfully “pass” on to the next life in Kingdom of Heaven we must first pass a test. Everything rides on our test score. We either pass or have a damnable failure.

Actually, we are taking that test every day of our lives. The course is “Christian Faith and Living”. Jesus is the instructor. Our text is the gospel. And we already have the questions for our final exam.

“Come, you have my father’s blessing. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothe me. I was ill and you comforted me, in prison and you came to visit me… 1 assure you, as often as you did it for one of my least brethren, you did it for me.” (Matthew 25:34-38, 40)

Now there it is! In the end real success is not about how good looking, fashionable, popular, powerful or rich we are. Real success is a life-long embrace of those in need. These are the obvious forms of those needs. There are some that are not so obvious:

* Hunger for peace and justice

* Thirst for love and affection

* The aloneness of divorce, death or poverty

* Illness of anxiety and depress

* The imprisonment of greed, selfishness, alcoholism or materialism.

We here at TOTOWA UNITED METHODIST CHURCH are “Class” in the Kingdom School. More and more let us band together and embrace the answer: Helping those in need. By God’s grace we can “ace” this one!

God loves you and so do I,

Pastor Andrew