Brownsboro First UMC
by The Elliotts

I have a friend at work that gives the best hugs of anyone I know. When she hugs you she says, "I love you and there is nothing you can do about it." That makes me think of God. "I love you and you can't do anything about it." His love is unconditional, free to us even though it cost Him greatly. Can you imagine how great He would feel if we loved not only Him but each other the same way? Unconditional with our whole hearts?

Our prayers and thoughts go with Betty Fitzgerald who is in the hospital recovering from an illness.

When you are not in your church, regardless of which church you attend, you leave a hole no one else can fill. Please keep the Simmons and Porter families in your prayers over their loss of loved ones.

We had a blessing of liquid sunshine, visitors from out of town, and a loving service Sunday. If you're not attending somewhere please find a church home. You need God in your daily life and He wants you to love Him as much as He loves you. We are believing God is going to do great and mighty things at Brownsboro UMC this coming year and we can always use another soldier for Christ in our congregation. Sunday School at 10:00, church at 11:00.

Remember God loves you and there is not a thing you can do to stop it.

From Bro. Ernest: In Thursday, April 5th's Speak Out there was someone who called in that really made me wonder where we as God's people have missed the boat, so to speak. The caller said, or was recorded to have said, "Sometimes, trying to find God is like trying to smell the color nine. Nine's not a color. Even if it were, you can't smell a color." I did not know that God was lost! If he is, who lost him? Could it be that we, his church, are the ones who are guilty of hiding him from the rest of the world?

There is a modern parable told of a small dog which had been struck by a car and was lying by the side of the road. A doctor, driving by, noticed that the dog was still alive, stopped his car, picked up the dog, and took him home with him. There he discovered that the dog had been stunned, had suffered a few minor cuts and abrasions, but was otherwise all right. He revived the dog, cleaned up his wounds and was carrying him from the house to the garage when suddenly it jumped from his arms and scampered off. "What an ungrateful little dog," the doctor said to himself. He thought no more about the incident until the next evening when he heard a scratching at the door. When he opened it, there was the little dog he had treated, with another hurt dog.

What are we as a church doing to help those who think it is God who is lost, find what they need? Are we acting as the doctor, willing to help as long as they respond in the way we think they should and act in the way we think they should? Are we loving and open to others' problems even if they are not in our circle? The hurt dog knew where to take his companion to get help. Are we a church others can bring loved ones and friends to when they are looking but cannot find?

I pray we are a hospital for the sin-sick and not a retirement home for those sick in sin.

See you in church Sunday!

- Bro. Ernest