Encounter with Jesus - Luke 8

An Encounter with Jesus

Tony E Dillon-Hansen

Sermon based upon Luke 8:26-38, Psalm 42, Galatians 3: 25-29

Opening prayer

Today, we return to Luke. We observe someone that is so tormented and conflicted that they didn't wear clothes, was chained and lived among the dead.

Was it mental health issues, trauma or spiritual tortures as the cause? We do know what it is like to have something torturing us. Bad memories, something done to us, we did, or in our future: shame or embarrassing failure, something making us anxious. This can be consuming.

This person encounters Jesus - at first, challenges Jesus as someone deeply troubled, shackled and seized. This person pleads not to be further alienated, excluded or tortured.

That experience is all too common for some. Folks seek guidance from those they trust only to get spat at, demeaned, or simply ignored. 

That isn’t what Jesus does. Jesus does something radically different. Jesus doesn’t leave him alone hiding in a hole, has him his name, conversation ensues, Jesus brings him out of the hole.

Why? We must first recognize and name our affliction whether addiction, trauma, loss, etc. Then we can begin to heal.

There is radical transformation - going from tormented individual to proclaiming disciple - a witness to the power and the hospitality of Jesus.

Jesus sends these demons into pigs to drown. How many hog operations would like that? We could ponder the meaning of this, but let’s look at the people’s reaction.

People watch but don’t understand. Something happened: a person is transformed, but he was the only experiencing it. 

They see a system, a caste, slavery, segregation, class upended = an unwritten deal broken. This person was chained up and controlled away from them. They might have even thought what they were doing was good, besides it can be nice to have “out of sight out of mind” (things or people we don’t want to deal with.) Keep over there so I don’t have to see it, and I can ignore it (until one day we cannot.) 

The people want things to go back to the way they were - the familiar. Change can breed fear and contempt.

We do this today. We live around so much anxiety and death, whether actual death, but dead ideas, notions that were once thought to be good. That change has spurred violence from fear - in our neighborhoods, our schools, and communities. 

We watch the world spiral in real time. Worry comes easy, but also fear, anger and hate. Some feign safety for ourselves or those ideas, but people are frightened about what they don’t know, don’t understand or don’t want to understand, whether demon possession or personal transformation.

Ultimately, when guided by fear, we can make some pretty bad decisions until we cannot see truth, reality, or the loving Spirit of God.

Stop. Instead look inside, name what ails you, talk with God & break the chains,. It may just be radical to nudge ourselves and those around us with the grace and love we are taught. If I am the cause of someone’s chains, then release the chains of control. 

Find God’s forgiveness. We can free ourselves in that liberating forgiveness. 

For ourselves, when we look deep inside and see Jesus working, sending the demons of our hearts away, then we might experience something too. That encounter waits for us. That, Beloved, can be transform our broken bodies and our world with healing and growing in love. 

Yes it starts from within and then we share that with the person next to us, and then that person gets it and shares it with someone else and on and on - The realm of God is ready for us.

Then you might understand why this once tormented soul becomes a disciple of Jesus proclaiming all that Jesus did for them. 

Be image bearers of God -transforming folks into images of hope and forgiveness. Jesus transformed this one, simply by first seeing and acknowledging this person. Then let them start to hope and heal.

This passage also shows us the power of hope, healing, and love despite social chains.

Paul reminds (Galatians 3) that our faith frees us, and that faith works against all the wonderful ways society builds barriers and exclusion. The love of Christ dissolves worldly barriers to free us.

Because these words are here, the Gospel is here, hope is here! We have a challenge in this hope to dismantle sexism, classism, racism, heterosexism, political division. To heal trauma and to grow in love instead.

Don’t hide in fear. See how beautiful you are, child of God.

Be image bearers. Beloved, find the work of Jesus inside - transforming you into something new. Then reveal the possible, the love of Christ from your heart.

Thanks be to God

Access to Grace - Romans 5

Access to Grace

Tony E Dillon Hansen

Sermon based upon Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15;Psalm 8; Proverbs 8

Opening prayer

Today is called Trinity Sunday and offers another chance for us to think about the manifestation of God.  We could go into centuries of church dogma on the trinity. 

I submit to you there is something more tangible than dogma. 

I heard someone once say, “We cannot completely comprehend how God manifest’s in our world.” Yet, we know with certainty that we have a leader (not like the ones on the ballots this past Tuesday). We have someone that we can trust, even when things get ugly. 

Isn’t that what we need in these times? 

Trinity explains the experience and history of the church through the ongoing presence of God manifested in spirit and the person of Jesus teaching us. What that means more than anything is that God is relationship. Revealed in the person and further through the spirit. 

You don’t have to have it all figured out because God is going to be with us. The spirit, the advocate, the companion guides us. There is so much power right at out finger tips at our reach. Yes, you have trials and challenges but the spirit of Christ is with us today and gives strength when we access that grace in prayer and our good actions.

No one wants or asks for trials and challenges. You never see a person at the checkout counter when they ask “did you find everything you needed” respond with something like “you know, I was looking for trouble and pain, hurt, and confusion.” I certainly don’t. No one ever said give me more pain, more discomfort, or more confusion. 

There are moments when trouble seems to be stalking and all too opportunistic. Yet we don’t need to feel alone.  We can tap into the mystery. We can tap into the relationship, the spirit, the teachings of Jesus to guide us to better paths, better hearts and clearer minds. 

It is a mystery that we cannot grasp. John’s Gospel starts out by reminding us that Christ is the word made flesh. Experience the Word and feel it in your soul, in your heart, in your breath. Let the eternal connect to you! How wonderful !

God is not about politics or partisan motivator, but God is justice and love that shines light on the world as what is possible. “The Holy Spirit pours God’s love in the hearts of Jesus believers.” Let the spirit pour that into your heart.

That is what I think Paul is referring when saying, God’s Spirit given to us - gives us “access to the grace of God” wherever we are on life’s journey and in the many expressions of God’s love. 

That is why Paul writes we are “justified by faith” and “we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.” This is not flamboyant bragging, but hearty excitement for what God does for us. Be excited in someone that rises above politics to give life and liberation from the worldly torments. We boast in that relationship. 

Like all relationships, they come with risk - not from selfishness or foolishness but something grounded in a loving self-confidence warmed with the Holy Spirit around us.

These divine gifts - faith, love, hope - (1 Corinthians 13); These give us endurance and character to prevail over suffering. God is God; we are not. That can take so much pressure off us. We can let God be God instead of trying to do everything.

Then maybe together, we can figure things out as a church (our relationship with each other and with God) and witness the spirit working within us and between us. 

We can witness God’s promise, God’s grace realized through faith.

Romans 4 reminds us that we all fall short and fail before the perfection of God. We have a lot of noise in our lives. That noise distracts  us. What are we listening to that distract us from what God calls us to do and God says to us? 

Listen carefully and hear God speaking to you in your work, in your prayer, where you sit, where you stand and where you lay down. Look for that relationship (even when you fail) and you will find a doorway to grace.

Then you too will realize “hope does not disappoint because God’s love is poured into you heart through the Spirit.”

Thanks Be to God.

Winds of Change - Acts 2

Winds of Change

Tony E Dillon Hansen

Sermon based upon Acts 2:1-21, Psalm 104 and John 14:27

Opening Prayer

When the Soviet Union released its grip on eastern Europe there was this enormous sense of happiness and relief that erupted as Germany reunited and the East opened up, breathed a collective sigh and celebrations of community. There was this song by Scorpions called "Wind of Change" that seemed to encapsulate the spirit of peace breathing on us all.

There are different ways people can describe the Spirit. Words may not fully do justice, but feeling can.  The spirit is one way people connect to the universe, the spaces, the holy in meditation. When we sit, pause, breathe, Clear your mind, clear your shoulders of your burdens, clear your hearts of worry for just a moment.

Feel the wind around you, witness the spirit in that wind, feel that spirit move you and be with you.

Acts sets into motion for the disciples the next step in their journeys as followers and students of Jesus to become community, to become church. In this unexpected show of the spirit, Did they realize what happened ?

All were filled with the Holy Spirit - what happens when that happens? There is a spirit manifest in communal setting not just the personal.  They became spirit to each other. In your breathing, you join with others in the room.

When that happens, experience pure relief and happiness. Clarity opens your heart, your lungs: clarity that opens mind and soul.

God transcends fear and arrogance to show us the truth in us and with us. Make room for the spirit to clarify and open up your heart. Then we find places in our hearts full of love. Let that love pour out into our world. Together in community, we feel and sense the love and spirit of God’s peace found in all life (Psalm 104).

In that discovery, we find the spirit, part of the holy in us. Isn’t that a wonderful thought? Isn’t that something worth celebrating? Are you worth celebrating? Yes you are! 

Feel that grace. People may say it’s only 10:00 and they look drunk. When you are full of the spirit, you may look a little different, happier with assurance, confident with holy courage and comforted with grace hugging you in the wind of change around you. 

Life is still a challenge and full of change. Change is not to be feared but to be embraced when you invite and witness the holy. Who accompanies you in this journey of life, of community, of church?

When we allow ourselves to witness that spirit in our hearts, we find the strength as well to speak up against violence in our world; to speak to someone who needs a nudge in their own lives; to help someone see and feel a better way of peace and love rather than those of fear and demagoguery.  

Think: how much pain someone must be feeling to plan murdering 2nd graders, grocery shoppers, or church goers?  What could someone have said to them to witness their pain, be with them and change their hearts from cold to God’s warmth? Sometimes, all it takes is “I see you; I feel you - you are loved!” We can’t reach all, but we can reach those near us.

Find the spirit nudging us to share the Spirit of peace with others. Then, together we might be able to prevent a shooting. Besides, schools do not need to be the front lines of our culture wars, and they need less guns instead of more. 

The spirit is not just for personal but for communal witness - to be shared. Reach into your community, into your neighbors to show them this way of love and grace - the winds of change. Find that spirit growing in you, in your breath, and know that the holy walks with you. Find that spirit growing in us and walking with us.

When the Soviets left, all of the world breathed a sigh of relief. There was no longer east versus west, but all of Europe and world full of opportunities. There was a spirit of peace that prevailed over all countries and languages. A holy spirit to be experienced. All understood and felt the spirit. Maybe that is what it was like in that room over a couple millennium ago.

“Take me to the magic of the moment 

On a glory night

Where the children of tomorrow share their dreams

With you and me 

Take me to the magic of the moment 

On a glory night

Where the children of tomorrow dream away

With you and me in the wind of change.”

Sit, pause, breathe. Feel the “peace I give.” Witness the magic of this moment, the wind of change. Take the next step.

Thanks Be to God

Ubuntu - Acts 16

Ubuntu 

Tony E Dillon Hansen

Sermon based upon Acts 16:11-15, Psalm 67, John 14:27

Opening prayer

Ubuntu is the name of a Linux OS. One of the reasons I enjoy this OS is because of its name. Ubuntu. “I am because we are.” Say it with me: Ubuntu.

Why do I bring this up today? 

We meet Paul and Silas on the way to Philippi in Macedonia. There they meet these women spending a wonderful afternoon by the river. They were praying and talking. 

We have seen this before. Missionaries saying, “have you heard the good news?” Who invited them?

Yet there is something else here. Imagine meeting these folks and trading these stories about spiritual wonders, Jesus, lives changing and beauty of all people.  They heard visions of love, grace, and community. They heard personal stories of challenge and triumph all because of this God.

Prayer has a way of doing things and getting people to listen who don’t want to listen. Prayer can help people come together as community. Oh what a blessing we have in that ! A good, welcoming community versus our divided world that would rather show a pistol than shake a hand, a world that demeans differences, a world that defines itself on money, likes, guided by distrusted governments or religions that push mantras of success based upon power, wealth and exclusions. Our broken world around us gives us heartburn, headaches and endless worry.

So yes they heard Paul’s group talking about this other world, this world of Jesus, one created by God for us all, one that has a place for each us to use our gifts, one that has its challenges but it has true community. Utopia! This is the community of God and you are invited! I am sure with questions.

When you pray, invite to share your thoughts, concerns and questions with those around you.  You may not agree everything, but people will witness personal, honest concerns (education, health, family and friends). Witness hearts full of love and welcome having similar concerns and questions as themselves. Let God be with you - Meeting in that commonplace: perhaps some utopia.

Lydia may have been skeptic of these ideas, but she listened. She may have even questioned the messenger, Paul. She may have heard how they were cynics and skeptics with the sins they have committed - because we all fail.

Yet, she heard them talking about community and religion in a different way than the corrupt world around them. She heard Paul say (and we have read Paul write) “I am because we are.” Ubuntu. + “We are because God is working through us and with us.” 

Lydia witnessed, saw something Christ-like in Paul and friends thinking “I want part of that.” 

Suddenly, God opens Lydia’s heart. The idea, the spirit, of good people doing good things with each other moves her.  I can imagine how she may have had tears of joy and not sure why.  Her heart becomes light and free.

Maybe it was like a Peter Parker moment.

She leans into Paul saying, “alright mister fancy pants, Christ-in-your-heart” do it. I am right here. We are right here next to this river. You and your friends, baptize US.”  She was so moved - she says let US be baptized. 

The woman of the house has spoken. The spirit moved.

She says, “if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.” Ubuntu. She invites: people she barely knew. She may not have seen eye to eye on everything, but her witness is real and her invitation is clear - “come and stay my home.” She became church. They became church. 

She heard about Jesus invitation and welcome. She in turn welcomed because she witnessed “I am because we are.” Ubuntu. She witnessed the faith and Christ-like in Paul’s friends. She wanted people to witness that in her and her house. 

I am because we are. Ubuntu. We are because You, God, are so good to us. 

We meet people every day who are skeptics and cynics. We meet folks who barely let us get word in edgewise, some so bent on misery, people corrupted by lies of social media infatuations and materialism. 

They just need someone to show another way - to witness a way of peace and love. We meet people all around us that want a personal invitation to feel the love of God.  

Be like Lydia! Be the church and be the welcome you seek. Let them witness Christ in you - the good way. They will want a part of that. Invite them to pray with you - with us - with God - with eager hearts - and come they will. God’s mission of love is ours too.

Open your hearts to the spirit of baptism today! God is working among us and with us. Come and stay at home with us at St John.

I am because we are. Ubuntu. We are because You, God, are so good to us.

Thanks Be to God

Hearing Hope - Acts 9

Hearing Hope 

Tony E Dillon Hansen

Sermon based upon Acts 9:36-43, Psalm 23, John 10:22-30

Opening prayer

Today is the 4th Sunday of Easter, Good Shepherd Sunday, and Mothers Day! So we read from Psalm 23, a text often used in funerals. Consider how different it sounds in the spirit of Easter, resurrection, and springtime.

In John 10, Jesus, our good shepherd, tells us the sheep hear his voice and follow. Confirmation students tell me that sheep in their flock know them. Further, Jesus gives life. 

Want more life, read some scripture and read comics. I hear people tend to live longer and people could use a good laugh these days. So daily, I try to read Garfield and I read devotionals - hope. 

Acts 9, meet Tabitha/Dorcas a disciple from the Greek city of Joppa. Disciple meaning a student that witnesses and devoted to good work.

That is what we see here. Tabitha is described as devoted to good works and acts of charity. She made clothes and she was known by many.

Tabitha dies. Peter is summoned, comes immediately and performs this deed. (As opposed to Peter an apostle, is one who is sent.) Peter then calls all the saints and widows to witness what has happened. Tabitha heard Peter, the sheep hear the shepherd.  All in the community heard and witnessed.

God is doing something here; bringing people together to witness the work of God. There is inclusion here - all genders. There are support groups, students, and teachers. The whole community comes together. 

Note: People going to church to live longer as well. Maybe it’s the good news, maybe it’s the community and fellowship. Maybe it’s the support we have.

God is showing and revealing to the whole community. God is helping us understand the role of disciple is to hear God, to serve, and to support each other - to care for my neighbor. No one is left out.

That is so much different than the world around us; seeking to divide and exclude. This world around us measures folks based upon account balances, where you live and the clothes you wear.  This world around us promotes that we can only live and be with certain kinds of people - our measure of self is based upon those around us that have worldly materials and connections. 

That may be all well and good, but what do we do with those materials?  Better question, How can we make our world a better place? Probably not with more division and more measures.

Instead, God brings us together in service to support each other wherever we are on life’s journey.  That is God’s kingdom among us. Hear Jesus calling you to service, community, and yes some laughter and good news. 

That goes beyond church too. UBFM often works with another organization called  Joppa. Their mission comes from this Acts 9 passage. The least of us need the best from us. We all need each other.

People want to hear their name and to be treated with dignity and respect. People come to God from different ways of thinking. Great, let us learn together those ways and  many voices. Let God bring us together.

We all have challenges and we all fail. Thus, we need community - church, to support us along the way, to find God working with us. 

Read again Ps23. Who has helped to restore your soul? Who has led you by still waters and walked with you through the valleys of evil? The paradox of our faith in shepherds as sometimes they are sheep in need of shepherds. As community of faithful people, sheep and shepherds walk together and know your name.

We need Tabithas and Peters doing good works and acts of charity, but mostly, all witnessing together the work of God among us, supporting each other in times of need. 

When you look around the room, notice who is here and who is not.  This is your church, your community. There are more beyond these walls.  Who needs to be welcomed and to hear their name? Who needs support? Look to the left and right at the people and the spaces. 

Our church is not so rigid as to exclude - so we need to reach out into our community. Growing this church is duty of all. To do good works, to hear others around us that need community. We invite them to witness with us, to welcome together, to hear together and to grow together. 

Its Sunday morning. Wake up to good news and fellowship. Get started right for another week. That is why we do church - to hear some hope, to gain life - even laugh with a comic strip.

So in the morning next to a devotional, maybe look at a comic, laugh a little, share them. In fact, come to church and share your laughter.

When we do that, when we truly open our doors, hearts and minds to God speaking and working, then we will truly see God’s kingdom working among us.

Beloved, witness God speaking to you, supporting us, and laughing with this day.

Thanks Be to God.

Road to Damascus - Acts 9

The Road to Damascus

Tony E Dillon Hansen

Sermon based upon Revelations 5:11-14, Psalm 30 and Acts 9: 1-20

Opening prayer

This is a conversion story for two people encountering Jesus in different ways.

We know the feeling of working on something and then something just strikes us odd or different.  We can’t explain it or quite picture it, but what we have been doing is somehow needing to change. We have been a path that has worked for us, but something changes. No reason why. Its a phone call, there’s been an accident, the layoff after 15 years, a visit to the doctor, the season-ending injury or parents trying to teach children. 

You see and feel the difficult; we must meet the moment. 

Good thing is that we will and we are not alone. With a team, you work through the fog. You hear, learn, and grow together. Then finally it happens, the promised land - something you never anticipated arrives. With some help, we find understanding; we find gifts.

From wherever you are on life’s journey, encountering God converts hearts into new ways and new life: seeing with grace, love and extravagant welcome.

Sometimes, people refuse to see, but God continues, tickles us and speaks to us. In fact, Jesus has supper with the doubting and deniers.

There will always be someone that threatens because they have not experienced this life. They only know broken and confronting culture. They deny because they have not experienced how Jesus challenges that brokenness with new life. Thus, the encounter of Jesus is counter-cultural. It’s personal and communal. 

As Christians, give that life that experience to your neighbors through listening and welcoming love. Why?

“If Christ is the body of God, which he is, then the bread offered is also the body of the cosmos. Look deeply and you notice the sunshine in the bread, the blue sky in the bread, the cloud and the great earth in the bread. . . . You eat it in such a way that you become alive, truly alive.” We do Christian so that when people see us they have no doubt that Jesus is here in us - revealed in what we say and do.

Thus, Saul encounters Jesus with Ananias - real people with very different viewpoints. The Lord speaks to Ananias and lays out plans for Saul. Ananias has heard a lot about this one. You can almost hear the “no way - not this one.”  Yet, Ananias listens and does what is asked. Saul gains sight.

Ananias revealed Jesus to Saul. Where would Saul be without Ananias? Where would you be without that someone who helped you?  Where would you be without community? 

Better yet, how can we be that encounter in our community ? 

Help turned someone’s “mourning into dancing” through listening and welcoming. Have faith that the holy spirit will take the worst and change that to good. That is the power here. Paul, where he is on life’s journey, is welcomed with the power of the holy spirit (with the help of Ananias.)

Life is full of challenges and grief, but we evolve. Hope is tangible and a gift to be discovered and encountered with the spirit. Sunshine in the bread.

You who question, you who doubt and you who put up curtains to keep out the light of God, find God peaking into your heart to reveal to you through each other.

God is pouring love over you! 

Beloved, open your eyes to see all that is so beautiful in creation. Beloved, you who are hurting, be healed. You, who are wondering, see that you too are beautiful; you are a child of God.

Be that child for those around you and let God surround you and be you. Close your eyes and hear Jesus calling you.

Even when everything is lost, find Jesus! Believe there is someone to help - by the grace of God, yes by the grace of God - Experience the dramatic change from refusal to full embracing love.

Don’t take it from me; take it from God! Experience the risen Jesus in your heart and open your eyes Beloved!

Thanks Be to God

Easter Miracles - Luke 24

Easter Miracles

Tony E Dillon Hansen

Sermon based upon Luke 24: 1-12, Psalm 118

Opening prayer

Let's wind the clock a short bit. Thursday brought us windy winds, then relative calm paralleled the story of the anguish and tumult that Jesus endured before fateful silence. Yet in the darkness, we saw light - light shining upon the cross and before us today to remind us that God’s power (God’s love) prevails over violence and anguish. God’s showed us a path to victory. 

Why? Because you and I are worthy. 

Now today is Easter - Hallelujah! Today is marked with miracle because this day itself is miracle. Discovery at the tomb leads to confusion gives way to recognition.

Why do miracles happen? Why do people try to explain them away as some farce that ought to be forgotten? 

We could do that and lose a moment of teaching reduced to happenstance.

We could sit and argue over why miracles happen. Doing so, we would forget that miracles do happen. These women remember what Jesus said with what they see.

A colleague of mine once said to me, everyday he wakes is a miracle. Yes this day is itself a miracle.

As a martial arts instructor, I have witnessed a few miracles as well like when a young girl who discovered she can break a board with her bare feet. Or how a parent and child grew a bond together as they rose in ranks.

For years an acquaintance and I did not see eye to eye. Then one day, we sat down and started talking; we learned about each other.  We remembered history and we still had doubts, but it was perhaps a miracle that we spoke after so much between us. 

Miracles contain blessings and discoveries not anticipated - some good news. If we explain them away, we lose what is truly there.

Still some contain our contributions. That means you don’t experience it alone. We contribute with effort and prayer, and then let faith and hope guide the next step because all things are possible with the help of God.

How do we explain the runner crossing the marathon finish line that years before doctors said she wasn’t going to walk, how a martial artist became master instructor after blowing both knees. How do we explain cancer that goes into remission? 

Our Gospels says Jesus does the ultimate - victory over death. The discovery at the tomb wasn’t some circus show, but recognition of victory over the gruesome and brutal torture (a Remembrance of what Jesus said).This miracle contains blessing - the freedom from bondage from sin.

This miracle was not just for one to escape death but for us to find life through Christ. 

Through this miracle, we have the blessing of freedom and the gift of life through this spirit. All of this is possible through God.

Yes there are miracles that contain our agency through training, discipline and skill, but maybe, a miracle is that we didn’t give up hope and faith; didn’t give up on the possible. Why because all things…  

Maybe, we have help along the way. You don’t have to walk alone. You are part of something bigger. Let God help us learn what is possible.

Miracles are lessons that with hope and faith, we persevere. They’re lessons that reveal God’s love and work in our lives - that we don’t do this alone - because we cannot. We need each other and we need God. That is why we come to church.

People like to say otherwise (e.g. No one helps me; I can do it all myself). A little idolatrous don’t you think? To think you have all that you need and all the answers, please write a book because people want to learn from you. 

Whether healing from injury, repairing friendships, surviving and recovering from a tornado, building a church, or simply raising a family, they don’t happen/grow on their own. They require care, effort and faith. Will there be mistakes? Probably. Perfection? Perfectly yours. Thank God, because all things are possible… 

In the darkest days and nights, when things are not going the way we feel they should, that is when we need strength to persevere. That is when we can reach deep and find that miracle of Jesus, the life in Christ, helping to build that strength - setting purpose and path before us. 

We may not understand the wisdom or see the end game, but wisdom of the divine is there. We go forward with God’s blessing and assurance that there is possible. 

Miracles are blessings because we believed the possible and prayed. We have hope; all is not lost. We believe there is a mystery that lifts us in greater purpose than we can imagine. That, my friends, is for you and for me today. We are set free through Christ’s victory to free us from the chains of sin. Why? Because all things

Finally, our task then is to share what we learn and what is possible with others. Like Mary witnessing so long ago shared the good news with the others. 

Our neighbors around us need that just as much as you do.

We are called to grow in miracle love of God and of neighbor - called to witness and to be a blessing for those around us. To show others that through God all things…

So share your smile, prosperity, helping hand, comforting arms and listening ears. Let the light shine upon you and be gracious to you. Let that light flow - be a miracle (a blessing) to others that God has been for you.

Through the Easter victory, we are set free to live in freedom together with our neighbors in Christ’s life of love. 

This Easter Christ is risen indeed hallelujah!

Let all things be possible for you too.

Thanks be to God!