Thursday, April 7, 2022

Getting Ready for the "Moving" Experience

 



            He is moving again.   Moving is nothing new for most United Methodist pastors.    I must say that I am very experienced in the moving process since I have done it a few times.    

            He will get the help he needed to move the boxes and furniture.  He will hang the pictures and  unpack the boxes.   There are some other things that he needs in this moving process, and this friend  cannot do it as much as I would like to.  First, my friend  and his family need to meet and make new friends and neighbors.    A  neighbor is more than a person that lives near you.  They are also persons with which you develop friendships.  I hope and pray that happens. 

            We live in a society that has become increasingly mobile.  While you might have lived in the same community all of your life, our community is increasingly being filled with people who have moved from other places. I read a couple of months ago that of the members of our town’s city council, only two are natives.   Like my friend,  they need neighbors and friends, and they need a church home.     In Hebrews 13:2, we hear:  “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.”   Bill Hybels says that the first step in evangelism is sometimes simply walking across the room and saying Hi (or walking across the street, down the road, or across the sanctuary).    For Christ’s sake and for the sake of  those who are strangers among us, let us seek to be a neighbor to those new to our area and invite them to visit our church home.   Have a joy-filled week.  He is risen indeed!-  Pastor Randy Wall

 

PRAYER

            O God, give me eyes to see the strangers among us.  Give me the courage to go beyond my comfort zone and offer hospitality to them;  through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen. 


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