Definitions of the word, “love”, are many and varied. But one common thread running through them is that the object of our love becomes the focus of life.

For a small boy a long time ago, love had nothing to do with warm fuzzies. It had everything to do with responsibility. No doubt there were days he didn’t even like his older sister; and would certainly never have confessed love for her. But when she was caught out in the back yard by the old red rooster, he found the courage to grab the pitchfork and skewer the attacking beast before it could rake her with those terrible two inch spurs.  

He quickly learned that deliberation is unnecessary when a loved one is under some threat.  Something rises up in the one who loves and inures him to danger as he defends the one who is the object of his devotion.

Loyalty and devotion seem to have been dropped from our understanding of love. More attention is given to feelings of warmth among individuals than to the bedrock commitments made at some sacred moment between them and God.

Each of our relationships must be founded on personal commitment rather than emotional response. Marriages that last are the ones not dependent on feelings. Friendships that endure are founded on a willingness to be a part of each other’s lives.

Go ahead. Take the risk. Commit yourself: to family, to friendship, to community, to church, to LOVE, to God!

Richard Orrell, Pastor    

Blessings for Obedience

Deuteronomy 28:1  NLT

28 “If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully keep all his commands that I am giving you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the world.”

Friday we inaugurated the 45th President of the United States.

Our God-given responsibility is to keep all His commandments, which includes praying for our leadership.   If we straighten up and fly right as a nation—God will exalt our nation and give us favor above all other nations.

Let’s resolve today to pray for and support our new President, Vice President and other elected leaders.

Let’s pray that God returns America to her prior greatness once again, so that God will exalt our nation.

 Love ya,  Pastor Phil      

Rich Reflections

Early on as we were all trying to learn computers we occasionally heard the phrase, “garbage in, garbage out”. Although most of us are definitely not computer programmers we have been around them enough to understand the concept. If the program is not well written only lesser quality performance can be expected. If inaccurate data is keyed into it, the finest retrieval methods can only extract the actual file content.

Life is rather similar; don’t you think? We can expect to get out of life exactly what we put into it. Small     investment, small return. Poor quality building materials, poor quality building. Shoddy relationship building     efforts, shoddy relationships. Well; you get the idea.

So…as we examine our recently turned calendar page do we recognize the same old patterns from the previous year? Perhaps worse, do we find ourselves locked into the same old, same old from many years of our past? Have we already given up on finding meaningful change for our lives?

Come on! We haven’t yet begun to fight! Of course it is a battle!

Most  progress is truly difficult but worth the price. We’ll never lose an ounce unless we become willing to experience the normal human condition of hunger.  Establishing friendships and even deeper relationships requires learning to consider life’s highest privilege: the well-being of that other person. It is high time we each make the supreme effort to apply what we know to be the right way to live. Give it our very best. Do unto others as we would have them do unto us.

Expecting God’s best for you in 2017!

Richard Orrell, Pastor

Love one another this year!

2 John 5  (NLT)

^5 “I am writing to remind you, dear friends, that we should love one another. This is not a new    commandment, but one we have had from the beginning. ^"

With our 50th Anniversary being Dec. 30th, my mind goes back to when Twila and I met.    It was “Love at first sight”.   It is so great when love comes our way as a gift from God, exciting, natural, powerful and awesome!

Thinking about 2107—  it is not always so easy to love ‘everyone’ as we’re commanded to do, but there it is in His Word, “We should love one another.”

How about if we join in a pledge for 2017?   Let’s work on loving one another in spite of our differences.  God so loved the world, we need to follow His example — my 2017 goal.

Thank you for all your kindness and love shown toward us!  

We Love ya,       Pastor Phil