Cleaning supplies provided. Please bring your own elbow grease.
Monthly Archives: May 2024
Friday’s Word
A note from Jason: Hello, Saint Matthew family. With the storms that blew through our area on Tuesday morning Pastor Max was without Internet and couldn’t upload his article in time for publishing. I hope you’ll indulge me as I share one of my personal favorite Friday’s Word articles with you, published February 18, 2022, in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Did you ever notice how reasonable Jesus is?
In fact, he teaches us the principle of consistency.
“A bad tree cannot produce good fruit,” he told us.
“You cannot serve two masters,” he said.
You will end up cleaving to one and letting the other go.
Now let me test your awareness of consistency. Which of these words does not belong with the other words? Dog, Cat, House, Mouse, and Moose.
I know you got that right. The word “house” is not consistent with the words which name animals.
Now another test, just as easy. Scripture passages:
1-God so loved the world that he gave his only son.
2-God is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.
3-While we were sinners, Christ died for us.
4-God is love.
5- Then God rained sulfur and fire from heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah.
Now, which of those statements is inconsistent?
Again, the answer is obvious. The last statement does not agree with the other four.
If God is love, if God is kind even to the wicked, then God does not rain fire down on anyone.
If God deals with our sin by dying for us, then God does not seek to destroy us. So, if the first four statements are true, the last one cannot be true.
And here’s the point:
If you are a biblical inerrantist, you must believe that all five statements are equally true.
In other words, you must believe nonsense.
In other words, you cannot accept what Jesus teaches us about the nature of God.
You are a house divided. You are trying to serve two masters, two very different ideas about God’s nature.
You can’t do that, Jesus said. So, stop trying!
Let inerrancy go.
Mary’s Corner
Greetings in the name of Christ,
I prayed as we left services on Sunday that you enjoyed the praise and worship music we sang together as much as I enjoyed the experience. I know it is not our usual to sing this genre of music; however, including these songs in our repertoire broadens our reach into the community. Folks who have never attended church may have heard these songs in other places besides a church. The likelihood of hearing a Charles Wesley hymn outside of a church is very slim. I would appreciate your input about the music on Sunday. Please email me at mary.teague@saintmatthewumc.com if you have any comments on the music or if you have any special requests for a particular song. We are so blessed at Saint Matthew to have such talented AND flexible musicians as Blake and Shannon. They love what they do and I believe if I give them more notice, they would love it even more. 😊
I have spoken with the family of John McIntosh and they are grateful for your prayers. We will have a memorial for John at Saint Matthew when the family can travel to Fort Worth. I will let you know and we will have a meal in John’s honor. For those of you who did not know John, he was a very small man, perfect size for a sailor, with a heart the size of Texas. He loved Saint Matthew and especially loved talking to Max. He will be missed.
CHURCH CLEANING Saturday at 10am! Cleaning supplies provided! Bring your own elbow grease!!
Attendance May 26 was 61, and the offering $3070. I was very pleasantly surprised that the crowd was so big and so very beautiful. I hope everyone comes back this Sunday! It is communion Sunday. We may also learn a couple of more new songs if you are willing? My love to all, Mary
Kids’ News
This week, we talked about showing love for others. In our scripture, Paul explains what love should look like for the church and others in the community. He says we should hate evil and cling to what is good. We should love one another like family and show honor to one another. He also said we should serve the Lord enthusiastically. We are to find happiness in hope and stand our ground in trouble. We must celebrate with those who are happy and cry with those who are sad.
Paul calls upon us to bless people who harass us and not curse them. Jesus taught us to treat one another as equals and not to think of ourselves as better than anyone else. We are not to seek revenge on those who have wronged us; we are to show respect for those who believe something differently than us. Most importantly, we are to live in peace with everyone. We are called to love.
We were extremely happy with the wonderful group of kids we had Sunday. They are all aware of the way they should treat others. And they practice this in their daily life at school. Have a wonderful week. See you in church.
Blessings