Spring of Hope

A typical worship service at a United Methodist church may include a greeting and opening hymn and prayer, time for people to greet each other, scripture readings, silent prayer and meditation, an offering time for voluntary giving, the Lord's Prayer, a children's message, the sermon, special music and hymns, and a closing prayer. Though it is not required to light candles, many churches do. Lighted candles remind us that Jesus Christ is the Light of the world. "Jesus said: "I am the light of the world" (John 8:12). The presence of the light reminds us of Jesus' coming into our world and into our lives. The light is carried into the worship service as a symbol of Jesus' coming into the presence of the worshiping community. Communion may also be served. All are invited to celebrate communion, but you can choose whether or not you wish to participate. Often churches will print words and responses in the bulletins to help those who are unfamiliar with...

Imagine if Jesus called you and said that He wants to visit your house in eight minutes, what would be your response? A person wrote a blog: "One day Jesus called me and said he is visiting our house in eight minutes. I said, "what? now? come on Lord, give me some more time." He said He is at the next house and would be glad to visit us if we are ok to welcome Him. I called out to my wife in the other room and she said, "Who? Jesus? is it real?" I said, "yes." She ran out of the room and started giving instructions to the kids. My mind was racing with what needed to be done in the next eight—no only seven—minutes. I turned off the reality show on TV, and the movie playing on my IPad. I turned off the kids’ TV that was playing cartoons. My wife had already taken out the magazines on the coffee table and put 'Christianity Today' on top. I looked for the Bible, but could not find it. We had five minutes to go. I noticed a lot of junk mail ...

Mile markers are stones buried on the sides of highways that help us to determine direction and distance when we travel. In the USA, they generally increase from the South to the North,and from the West towards East. The exit numbers are generally lined up with mile markers so that you can calculate how long you have travelled and how much distance is left to the destination. Without them, we become lost and vulnerable. If you call for emergency help, they will ask your location about your mile marker or exit number to get to you quickly. These exit numbers give us a sense of comfort and peace in knowing where we are and what direction we are heading. The prophet Samuel set up a stone to commemorate the victory over the Philistines at Mizpah (1 Samuel 7:12). He called it Ebenezer which means 'thus far the Lord has helped us.' It is a mile marker in his life and the peoples' lives. We all have mile markers like birthday, firstday of school, sweet 16, graduation, marr...