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Good morning and happy Sabbath wherever you are.

Today is brought to you by the letter E

“Every good and endowment and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of light, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” James 1:17

This promise is embedded in the first chapter of Scripture my wife and I learned way back in graduate school in the mid 70s (1970s- not 1870s!) It still reminds me of the promise- “good comes from God,” and that will never change. I can get confused on that axiom when bad things happen and I ask the question, “Why God?” Sometimes the answer to that question is better stated, for me as, “What do I expect? I live in a world being bombarded by Satan with a God who allows us to experience the consequences of choice.” Choice is a gift, given by God, that distinguishes us from other forms of life. He made everything perfect and it was His intent, I believe, that it should have stayed that way. He also provided the opportunity for humanity to choose if they wanted it that way or not. We did not choose well! He provides the ultimate escape from the consequences of that choice through His Son, the celebration we can all be a part of this weekend. The answer is secure, the waiting is the challenge. God is the author of all good; the devil is the deceiver and author of all bad. I get to choose. Sometimes the junk in this world is my fault and can be directly traced back to my bad choices. If that’s the case I need own that, accept God’s forgiveness, and make the necessary changes to decrease the probability that it will happen again.

But most of the junk comes, I believe, more generically as the result of the build up of the effects of sin on this world. Natural disasters, pandemics, even global warming cannot be traced DIRECTLY back to one bad choice. I wrestle with those evidences of sin and though I can help change the course of those trials, I cannot change them completely. The only hope I have is to focus on the fact that NONE if this junk is God’s will, nor was it in His plan. When I realize that God is the author of good, then I can keep my foundation and faith in Him as the ultimate author of the solution. His plan has not changed. He still wants EVERYONE to love Him and come to the knowledge of HIS plan of salvation. Everyone will not choose that and Satan will continue to distract us from that. Once everyone has decided yes or no for or against God, HE will put an end to all the junk and bring us through to His ideal.

In the meantime, if the junk keeps happening I will change what I can, be a responsible citizen of this world but above that, a faithful follower of Him, believing that if the junk is still happening then there must still be people out there who are going to come to Jesus and realize He is the only hope of a “cure” for problem. I’ll put up with the wait because I’m confident in WHO I am waiting for, and the wait will be worth it.

Have a great day trusting patiently for His promise,

Pastor Rich

My hymn for the day that starts with E- “El Shaddai!” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuXB1a3NBCw

Here is an alternative- The title starts with “E”- Mercy Me with “Even If” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6fA35Ved-Y

Now here’s what we have to help bless your Sabbath:

The Well Worship Experience will take place every Sabbath morning at 10:15am, Join us at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYi6Wl4BefTeUeKU9lALgpg

Tune in to your favorite on line worship service this morning! I’m going with CVC. Hear Pastors Harold and Kessia Reyne as we celebrate this Easter weekend. Go to the College View Church Web page and you’ll find it! https://www.collegeviewchurch.org/

Remember you can text your prayer requests any time to 256 257 0149

Today in Quarantine,” presented daily (as in 7 days a week!) by associate young adult pastor Renae Cross at CVC. Join her by friending her on Facebook for the 15-30 minute interactive spiritual connection with God and your young adult friends. It all starts at 4pm each afternoon

Join the Kansas-Nebraska Conference staff at 4:00 this afternoon for a one-hour Resurrection Celebration. He Is Alive!! Use their website to join: www.ks-ne.org

Nightly Check In” @ 7pm for 15 minutes. Join via Zoom ID # 529 282 199

And an extra special bonus @ 10am SUNDAY with Pastor Kessia Reyne as we celebrate the open tomb. https://www.collegeviewchurch.org/

And now my blog from the week—

A lesson from Mr Rogers about focusing on others as Jesus’ calling in our lives:

For Fred Rogers, the practical outworking of loving our neighbor—using not only our heart and eyes but our hands—is what defined a hero:

“To see people who will notice a need in the world and do something about it, and rather than view it with despair they view it with hope—that to me is such an enormous gift in this life. Those are my heroes. You know, there are so many people who say, ‘It’s not my kid, it’s not my school, it’s not my community’—you know, ‘forget it.’ But there are some others who say, ‘It is my kid, it is my school . . .’”

Fred’s mother had always called these people “the helpers.”

When he was a boy and he was frightened by some news he had heard, his mother would say, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”

Fred did look for the helpers, those who notice a need in the world and do something about it, and they became his heroes, modeling the lesson Jesus taught His disciples, as recorded in Matthew 25:35–45.

Helpers are people like Dr. Orr, who not only taught theology but also lived it. Fred remembered one day when Dr. Orr went out to lunch on a winter afternoon and came back without his overcoat. Fred asked him about his errant coat, and Dr. Orr simply replied that he had another one at home. He never let on that he had given it to someone who didn’t have one.

“I needed clothes and you clothed me.”

Another helper was Henri Nouwen, the prolific writer who taught at Harvard but resigned to become pastor to the disabled members of the L’Arche community in Toronto. Among Henri’s daily responsibilities was the bathing, shaving, dressing, and feeding of a severely disabled man named Adam. In the end, Henri noted, it was Adam who taught him. This is why Fred called Henri “one of my revered people in this life; he’s a hero.”

“I was sick and you looked after me.”

Helper William Wasson started a ministry for “Our Little Brothers and Sisters” in Mexico. Fred told me why he considered Father Wasson his hero: “He went to Mexico forty years ago to die. He was very ill. Obviously he didn’t die. He was in a little parish there, and there were two kids who were stealing from the church’s poor box, and those kids were taken to jail. And Bill Wasson went to the jail and said, ‘Do you think I could take care of those kids at home?’ and they said, ‘Sure,’ you know, ‘gladly.’ So he took them home, and two days later the people at the jail called and said, ‘We’ve got two more,’ and he said, ‘Send them over.’ Well, in a matter of a month he had about seventeen kids, and he had to move to bigger quarters, and he’s adopted them all, legally adopted all these kids.

“In the last twenty-five years he has adopted about six thousand children. They have their own schools, and many of them now are second generation, and they have come back to help work with the new pequeños who are coming. They have places in Haiti; I went to visit a place in Haiti that they have for babies with AIDS.” Father Wasson went to Mexico to die but instead discovered a reason to live.

“I was a stranger and you invited me in.”

Fred was a helper too. He didn’t view the television set as a protective buffer between himself and his audience, like the raised pulpit of old that elevated the preacher above the common fray. He wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty. He once told me he went into a maximum-security prison in Pittsburgh and taught a college course in child development. “I’m still in touch with a couple of the students (one was released, one was not),” he wrote in a letter. I noticed that he used the word “students” and not “inmates.” He was their teacher, but in return he learned from them and forged enduring friendships.

“I was in prison and you came to visit me.”

“Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?” the disciples asked Him. “When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?”

Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me” (see Matthew 25:35–40).