I have been struggling for 2-3 weeks to get a blog out. I know what I want to do with my words. Yet, I can’t place them where I want them. I have about 3 different messages waiting to be delivered to you. I start on one and I can’t remember the words or where they go; the letters don’t look right. I want to scream. I need help. I need focus. I need Patience. I need rest. I need God. I know that God is here all the time. I have my time and He has His. And I started to think that God does not want me working on the blogs and wants me to rest. Then I thought: Housework, church, Alzheimer’s Association, walking, meetings and now I have to work in time for rest? Sigh!

The word focus came in to my mind. I need to sit down and take on one thing that is important at a time. Then I said to myself: “Sara, you have to get the bulletin ready for the service on 8-29-11.” Our pastor sets up 3 month plans, so we can see the themes ahead of time. If one touches your heart and you want to preside or speak on that date, you ask him if it is open or not. Now our church, Community of Christ, uses the lectionary for our worship resources to help support our services. It is wonderful. In the instant I saw the theme “I will be with you”, it did hit my heart hard and I went looking for the Pastor. It was mine! I wanted to preside.

I have presided in the past, not good, not bad, I was not focusing. I know that there is no bad service. If only one person has been blessed by God, it is good.

It was the first of July. I had 2 months to be ready. I read the scriptures, the music, the readings all the things that were laid out that week. Then, I took a break and made time to feel it in my soul. Every now and then I would peek in and move this here and jot that down, take that out. Or, I like this song, it works. Who will play the piano? Who would like to read or sing? Who is working on a sermon, or a testimony or maybe developing a message from something they’ve read in a book? Maybe we could use the short movie the worship resource says is good.

Then I was into August, got to get going. Well, I want to send out a blog, and I did and then, with his permission, I was able to use two of Richard Taylor’s blogs to share some of his insights from his blogs. About that time I was slowly getting tired, and I was getting upset, angry, why can I not be able to work on the blog #6: Laugh and Smiles in the Let’s Talk Words series. I am not laughing or smiling. Why, Why, Why!

I went back on my knees, and again asked why, what is wrong, when will it get better, I know it will. AH! Your Will! O Lord I am so sorry. I have been focusing at the wrong times, not taking rests, and I need to follow your will. It was OK. Laying on my bed, I took the time to Listen to God as I kept my mouth shut. And He answered my questions in my prayer. Focus on the upcoming next two weeks, and you will be able to preside at the Service if you keep focusing. Can I focus? Yes I can, as long as I walk side by side with God.

Praise God, He was with us at our service on Sunday. Below, I’ve included below some of the readings and music used in support of the theme, “I Will Be With You.”

What a beautiful day! And the Lord gave it to us! Praise Him!

Hymn: “Now in this Moment”

Hymn: “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee”

Hymn: “Meet Me in a Holy Place”

*Hymn: “Here I am, Lord”

Ministry of Music: Soloist - “I Know Who Holds Tomorrow”

Call to Worship: As Moses begins to understand that yhwh is speaking to him, he is filled with fear and then resistance to that call. At times we also fail to embrace God’s call because of are inadequacies, doubting our worthiness. God’s call is a accompanied by the affirmation that God is with us. God’s call is not about us. When we faithfully respond, God is able to use us as a blessing to those in need.

Focus Moment: One of our kids put the hula hoop around her and her mom tells us that today’s scripture talks about Moses and his encounter with God. God explains to Moses that God is with us always, surrounding us, with no beginning and no end.

Scripture Used:

Psalm 105:1–6

¹ Give praise to the LORD, proclaim his name;
   make known among the nations what he has done.
² Sing to him, sing praise to him;
   tell of all his wonderful acts.
³ Glory in his holy name;
   let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice.
⁴ Look to the LORD and his strength;
   seek his face always.

⁵ Remember the wonders he has done,
his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced,
⁶ you his servants, the descendants of Abraham,
his chosen ones, the children of Jacob.

Psalm 105:23-26, 45

New International Version (NIV)

²³ Then Israel entered Egypt;
   Jacob resided as a foreigner in the land of Ham.
²⁴ The LORD made his people very fruitful;
   he made them too numerous for their foes,
²⁵ whose hearts he turned to hate his people,
   to conspire against his servants.
²⁶ He sent Moses his servant,
   and Aaron, whom he had chosen…

⁴⁵ that they might keep his precepts
and observe his laws. Praise the LORD

Exodus 3:1-15 - Moses and the Burning Bush

New International Version (NIV)

¹Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. ² There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. ³ So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.” ⁴ When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.”

⁵ “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” ⁶ Then he said, “I am the God of your father,^[^a^] the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. ⁷ The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. ⁸ So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. ⁹ And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. ¹⁰ So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

¹¹ But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” ¹² And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”¹³ Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them”

¹⁴ God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” ¹⁵ God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’

   “This is my name forever,
   the name you shall call me
   from generation to generation.”

Message – Nooma DVD-- Rain by Rob Bell.

*Prayer of Benediction Doctrine and Covenants 161:7

The Spirit of the One you follow is the spirit of love and peace. That Spirit seeks to abide in the hearts of those who would embrace its call and live its message. The path will not always be easy, the choices will not always be clear, but the cause is sure and the Spirit will bear witness to the truth, and those who live the truth will know the hope and the joy of discipleship in the community of Christ. Amen.

Remember: He tells us: “I will be with you.”

What Am I Thinking??? (Living with Alzheimer's Disease)

Friday, September 2, 2011

I Will Be with You