Thursday, November 21, 2019

Loving and Learning in Lodi November 24 2019

            When my daughter, Amanda, was a toddler, she learned to say ‘thank you.’ However, it sounded like key-oh-koo. If I handed her something to drink or gave her something to eat, her response was “key-oh-koo mommy”.
            This next week is our yearly “key-oh-koo” week…Thanksgiving week, when we remember and give thanks for the many blessings in our lives. We don’t have to think too long or too hard to find things to be thankful for. Most of us have enough food on our tables, a roof over our heads and clothes on our backs. We have our families and our friends. We have our church home where we worship together and find loving encouragement as we seek to follow Jesus.
            We have the simple gifts of life that grace our days: blue skies, crisp fall air, the crunch of leaves under our feet, the warmth of turtle necks and sweaters. Our lives are rich and full.
            I invite us to enjoy this next week of ‘key-oh-koo’ days…days where we pause to remember how blessed we are…how much we’ve been given…how ‘rich’ we are…days when we whisper from deep in our hearts, “Key-oh-koo, God…key-oh-koo”.
                                                                          See you Sunday!                                                                                                                                             Pastor Diane



Sunday, November 24, 2019
Liturgist:      Larry Cray                                                 Greeter/s: Ron & Faye Stewart
Hymns:         We Gather Together                                  verses 1 – 3                         #131
                     Now Thank We All Our God                         verses 1 - 3                         #102
                     Praise to the Lord, the Almighty                  verses 1 – 5                         #139



           “Therefore, I say to you, don’t worry about your life, what you’ll eat or what you’ll drink, or about your body, what you’ll wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds in the sky. They don’t sow seed or harvest grain or gather crops into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth much more than they are? Who among you by worrying can add a single moment to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? Notice how the lilies in the field grow. They don’t wear themselves out with work, and they don’t spin cloth. But I say to you that even Solomon in all of his splendor wasn’t dressed like one of these. If God dresses grass in the field so beautifully, even though it’s alive today and tomorrow it’s thrown into the furnace, won’t God do much more for you, you people of weak faith? Therefore, don’t worry and say, ‘What are we going to eat?’ or ‘What are we going to drink?’ or ‘What are we going to wear?’ Gentiles long for all these things. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them. Instead, desire first and foremost God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, stop worrying about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Leader:    The word of God for the people of God.                        People:    Thanks be to God.


THE CHURCH IN ACTION

Choir rehearses on Thursday evenings at 7pm. Join us!

Our Men’s Group meets this Saturday at 9:00 a.m. in Fellowship Hall. All the men of the church are welcome to attend.

Saturday, Dec. 7 from 4pm-7pm. Winter Wonderland in Lodi.  We will partner with the Village of Lodi on Dec. 7 to Welcome Christmas to Lodi! We will have a live nativity, food, crafters/vendors, organ music, caroling, nativities set up around the sanctuary, and much more!    We need: your nativities to set up in the sanctuary and plastic milk containers for luminaries.  Please let Dottie know if you have a nativity to share or would like to help in any way at mywifedot@aol.com or lodiumcsec.dottie@gmail.com.
           Bring your nativities to the church on Friday, December 6th from 5-6pm or on Saturday, December 7th at 2pm. Or…contact Dottie for other arrangements.


Please save your plastic caps and lids for a “buddy bench” for Sylvia Anderson’s great nephew, Braden’s school.

No comments:

Post a Comment