Dear friends,
We are over halfway through summer, which is really hard to believe. I
hope you have taken time for rest and reflection for yourself and have been able to enjoy a different pace of life than what you experience other times of the year.
Ray and I really enjoyed a long weekend we had with our daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter just before July 4th. Many of you have seen pictures on Facebook from that time. Play and rest are two things we hopefully get from vacations.
I just heard yesterday that women who take more than one week’s vacation from work are less likely to have heart trouble than those who do not. We are a nation that works itself to death! Our European counterparts have much more vacation time than we do and are generally healthier than we are. Of course there are other contributing factors as well.
God loves us and wants us to enjoy time in his good creation. This month
we will be focusing on God the Creator and how we relate to that aspect of God. We will be using different scripture readings on Sundays, with Mark still as the gospel reading.
Whether you’re on vacation at home or away or vacationing another time of year, I would like to challenge you to do one thing. Each night, before you drift off to sleep, think about your day. Where did you see God at work in it? Where was God in it? What were the highs and lows of your day? This exercise takes but a few minutes, but in this time you have a chance for self examination and time to process the day's occurrences.
Remember that God has good things in store for you:
“No one’s ever seen or heard anything like this,
Never so much as imagined anything quite like it—
What God has arranged for those who love him.
But you’ve seen and heard it because God, by his Spirit,
has brought it all out into the open before you” (1 Corinthians 2:9-10).
God’s peace,
Pastor Ivy
Pastor's Message
August 2018
