Time to Move On - Last week, I talked about getting our lives back by embracing God’s love and acting on it. I spoke about our need to let God’s love heal us from our past hurts and sins and reframe our life story into a story of redemption. I quoted the scripture of 1 Corinthians 5:17, [I]f anyone is in Christ, there is a… Read More
Get Your Life Back - We can quickly fall into the trap of leading our own lives, rejecting any notion and wisdom of God, “I know what I am doing; I don’t need a god or anyone else to tell me what is bad or good for me. I do whatever I want.” We may not say those words out loud, but with our choices… Read More
Back to School Blessing: The Village - Opening humor: Teacher to student, “What are you – animal, vegetable, or mineral?” The boy replied, “Vegetable. I’M A HUMAN BEAN.”The teacher said, “Why don’t you brush your teeth? I can see what you had for breakfast this morning.” Boy, “What did I have?” Teacher, “Eggs.” Boy, “You’re wrong! THAT WAS YESTERDAY!”On Johnny’s first day of school, the class was… Read More
Grandparents: Legacy Builders - I had shared with you before how my grandmother was the one who brought me to church and made sure I learned the teachings of Jesus. She is the one who taught and passed the Christian faith to the rest of the family and me. She was the pioneer of faith among us. Without her, I would not be here… Read More
Godly or Wicked: Compassion vs Violence - Today is the fifth and last message in the series “Godly or Wicked.” We have learned critical distinctions between what is good and evil and established a spiritual and moral framework to overcome evil behaviors and threats. For example, we have talked about generosity vs. greed, and kindness vs. arrogance. I distinguished between what may be sinful and what is… Read More
Godly or Wicked: Kindness or Arrogance - Today is the fourth message in the series “Godly or Wicked.” So far, we have explored some distinctions between what constitutes godly and wicked. Here are some highlights from the previous messages Most human beings are good. They care about their family and friends, respect the right to life of other human beings, and contribute to their community’s safety and… Read More
Godly or Wicked: Generosity vs Greed - Today is the third message in the series “Godly or Wicked.” This series aims to help us distinguish between what is good and what might be evil. The purpose is to warn against what leads to evil and encourage to follow what leads to goodliness. This series is not about becoming judgmental (far from it!) but wise in discerning behaviors… Read More
If I Can Help Somebody - Good morning! My name is Michele Sisson, and I serve as church secretary here at New World United Methodist Church. I have placed the altar arrangements to honor the memories of my grandmothers, Mary Jones Russell and Harriet Garrett Sisson. Those two precious women had the biggest hearts and the most generous spirits of anyone I have ever known. I… Read More
Godly or Wicked - Today we start a new series of messages talking about Godly or Wicked. I chose this topic because it is my opinion that often we don’t know how to distinguish between what is good and what might be evil. Sometimes we are naïve and trust people who may not be good for us, and other times we are quick to… Read More
The Way Of Salvation - Today’s message is about how we understand the way or process of salvation in the Wesleyan tradition. Different Christian traditions emphasize various aspects of this process. In some, you must say a particular prayer; in others, you must be baptized by the Holy Spirit and have a sign that demonstrates it. And, in some others, you must pay the price,… Read More