Brownsboro First UMC
by Ernest Elliott

I pray you and your families had a blessed Christmas and a happy new year; we certainly did. God has blessed our lives so much with our move to Brownsboro.

We had a good service Sunday. God worked in and around His people showering His blessings. It was Communion Sunday and it thrilled my heart to see so many young ones at the altar.

We continue to pray for Mr. Vernon, Ms. Nettie Jo, Jackson and Gracie, and all the other loved ones unable to attend services due to illness. Please know that if you were not in church you were missed.

The subject of Angels has been on my mind a lot lately. I believe they're all around us and some are flesh and blood. There is an angel that comes to Chandler Nursing Center every week and quietly goes down the halls visiting, reading scriptures, praying with all that will receive. She never misses an opportunity to share Jesus or to tell the staff they are loved and appreciated. I can't tell you her name, but Jesus knows it and knows what a blessing she is to those around her.

My favorite author is Max Lucado. He's got a book titled "It's not About Me" rescue from the life we thought would make us happy. Have you ever been there? You finally get what you thought would make you happy only to be disappointed? You're led out of the preverbial wilderness then wonder if God has more? Isn't it amazing that God has managed very well before you or I came along to tell him how to do it?

Let go and let God work. "Be still and know I am God." Take time to be still, let His spirit wash over you. May God continue to bless in spite of us.

From Bro. Ernest:

Isaiah 42:25 "... and it set him on fire all around, but he did not understand; and it burned him..."

Some scientists took a frog and put the frog into hot water. The frog hopped out -- fast! They put it in a second time. Same result. Then they dropped it into a vat of cold water and it relaxed. What the frog did not know was that vat of cold water had a fire beneath it. While the frog relaxed, the water was heated ever so gradually. The frog sat there, the temperature of the water rose slowly, and before long the frog was in hot water; it boiled to death.

Isn't this a parable we all need to hear? We do not know or understand how it is in the frogs' world, but in our world it fits many of us to a T. Mediocrity is the fire. Mediocrity, average, indifferent, common, ordinary is that which destroys. Mankind, or the ordinary church member, represented by the frog, sits and relaxes until its mediocre ways destroy it. Let US stay content without goals and motivations just so long, and one day WE will no longer care to move. God Delivers Us From OUR Apathy and Complacency!

Get involved in the life of your church. Know what is going on and be caught up in it. Go to church to praise God and not the people around you, and "you shall be blessed."

Remember, service is at 11:00, Sunday school at 10:00, and we need to see you there.