Fall Festival tonight! Come support the youth and enjoy Halloween food and fun. I believe we are having barbecue as well as potluck items brought in by the youth.

"Without solitude it is virtually impossible to live a spiritual life. Solitude begins with a time and place for God, and him alone. If we really believe not only that God exists but also that he is actively present in our lives - healing, teaching, and guiding - we need to set aside a time and space to give him our undivided attention. Jesus says, "Go to your private room and , when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in that secret place" (Matthew 6:6). " - From Making All Things New by Henri J. M. Nouwen

We are beginning a three month stretch of busyness and marketing and priorities that may or may not be the same as our Lord has. Intentionally schedule on your calendars some private God time every week through the end of the year!!

Grace and Peace be with you

"The man who is proud of anything he thinks he has reached, has not reached it. He is proud of himself, and imagining a cause for his pride....Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they are of the same spirit as God, and of nature the kingdom of heaven is theirs." - From Life Essential by George MacDonald

Who are we really? The wider we cast our gaze the more able we are to recognize our place in the universe. How about this Fall season appearing around us?

Fried chicken and green beans for dinner tonight at our Wednesday Night cafe! Come join us and stick around for a lesson or some good fellowship.

Have a Good One!

"All our merely natural activities will be accepted, if they are offered to God, even the humblest: and all of them, even the noblest, will be sinful if they are not." - From The Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis

We continually have to struggle with attaching value to our own perceptions of beauty and accomplishment, forgetting that true value comes from offering what we have to God.

Stay warm! We have had a cold couple of days here in Alabama! Have a blessed week!

Immeasurable Love

More Julian of Norwich -

"God only desires that our soul cling to him with all of its strength, in particular, that it clings to his goodness. For of all of the things our minds can think about God, it is thinking upon his goodness that pleases him most and brings the most profit to our soul.

For we are so preciously loved by God that we cannot even comprehend it. No created being can ever know how much and how sweetly and tenderly God loves them. It is only with the help of his grace that we are able to persevere in spiritual contemplation with endless wonder at his high, surpassing, immeasurable love which our Lord in his goodness has for us." - From Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich

What will take to learn to love like this?

Meatloaf and mashed potatos tonight at Central UMC! First time visitors eat free!

Pledge cards going out soon for next year's budget. Prayfully consider how to best please God...

See you tonight!

I came to a new understanding why Jesus passed up the religious establishment of his day, the economically secure, the socially prestigous, and sought out the poor, the outcast, the sinner, the broken, the sick, the lonely. He felt, as we so often do not feel, their sorrow. He was acquainted, as we too seldom are, with their grief. On Calvary he died of a broken heart. but that heart was broken long before Black Friday, by the desolation of the common people. "In all their afflictions he was afflicted." - The Captivating Presence by Albert Edward Day

So many people are seeking understanding. Who can you listen to today?

I stand by the door.

I neither go too far in, nor stay too far out,

The door is the most important door in the world -

It is the door through which men walk when they find God.

There's no use my going way inside, and staying there,

When so many are still outside and they, as much as I,

Crave to know where the door is.

And all that so many ever find

Is only the wall where a door ought to be.

They creep along the wall like blind men,

With outstretched, groping hands.

Felling for a door, knowing there must be a door,

Yet they never find it...



So I stand by the door. - From I Stand By the Door by Samuel Moor Shoemaker



People depend on us.....



Have a great week!

Another good old fashioned pot-luck supper tonight at 5:00 in our Fellowship Hall! We have three classes on tap for tonight as well. I will be leading a discussion on perseverance, our pastor will be discussing Adam Hamilton's book Enough, and a book study is taking place in the library. Tonight I am bringing a corn pudding for dinner.

"God gives us the boat and the oars, but then tells us, "It's up to you to row." Making 'positive acts of faith' is like training this faculty; it is developed by training, as the muscles are developed by gymnastics." From Letters from the Desert by Carlo Carretto

Stewardship is not just about money.

See you tonight at the church!