Daily Discipleship Guide for 17-MAR-2010

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

In his sixteenth year, Patrick was carried off into captivity by Irish marauders and was sold as a slave to a chieftain in a territory of the present county of Antrim in Ireland, where for six years he tended his matster’s flocks.  During his captivity while tending the flocks he prayed many times in the day: “the love of God,”, he added, “and His fear increased in me more and more, and the faith grew in me, and the spirit was roused, so that, in a single day, I have said as many as a hundred prayers….”
In the six years of Patrick's captivity he acquired a perfect knowledge of the Celtic language in which he would one day announce the good news of Redemption.  His master, Milchu, was a druidical high priest, and so Patrick became familiar with all the details of Druidism from whose bondage he was destined to liberate the Irish race.
Any one of us can be like St. Patrick.  All he did was submit himself and his circumstance to God.  God then redeemed this circumstance - took it and made it useful for God's kingdom.  Patrick allowed God to transform his disgrace.

What disgrace have you suffered?

Have you submitted it to God?

Ask God to use it and you for the kingdom - how might God trade in those negative circumstances in your life for something God can use to save a person or a nation?

Daily Discipleship Guide for 16-MAR-2010

Eating together is a big deal to God.

Find some examples of the importance of "being at the table together" in the Old and New Testaments.  Here are some to get you started: Genesis 18: 1-16; Psalm 23; Isaiah 55:1; Acts 2:42.

Few of us need to be told that a meal is a sign of hospitality and friendship.  When you make plans to get together with friends, how often does it involve eating?  The Isrealites believed that when they shared fellowship around a meal that they were experiencing God's goodness.

What are signs of God's goodness and blessing that we can derive from sharing food with others at the same table?

Do you say a blessing over your meals? At home? In restaurants?

When we do so it is not to somehow make the food holy or taste better, it is to make US more holy and aware of God's presence and provision for us.

United Methodists and Evangelism

United Methodists in the Holston Conference are focusing on reaching people who don't go to church with the Good News that Jesus has to offer them.  An Evangelism Conference was held in February, and featured the Rev. Rudy Rasmus as a keynote speaker.  Rudy's message can be viewed on-line at http://holston.org/news/2010/feb/20/evangelism-conference-live/.

This event was held to kick-off 40 days of prayer for reaching people with the message of the Gospel.  Please be in prayer for God to lead us to meet people where they are in the name of and for the sake of Jesus. Thanks.

Daily Discipleship Guide for 15-MAR-2010

The church is mandated by God to care for the poor and the disabled.  In this week's sermon text, Jesus is taking "care" further; he says to invite them to dinner.  This is the New Testament's understanding of hospitality.  The literal translation of "hospitality" means "love of a stranger."  Hospitality, for Jesus, means welcoming those who are in no position to host us in return.  The scripture does not speak of sending food to anyone; rather, the host and guest sit at the table together.  The clear sign of acceptance, of being equals, of true fellowship, is breaking bread together.  In the Christian community no one is a "project."

IHN is a beautiful example of our church "loving the stranger."  The next time we host IHN is April 11 – 18; will you come eat with folks who are in no position to host you in return?

What are some other ways that we can be hospitable to strangers in our church?

Are you willing to help make it happen?

Daily Discipleship Guide for 09-MAR-2010

Please read I Corinthians 12:4-13 once and then read it again.


Try something a bit different today.  Write this passage using an example other than the body.  Try some other living organism.  How about a flower?  A tree?  You decide. If you have trouble, simply rewrite these verses in your own words.

Did this exercise help you understand this passage any better?

What gifts do you believe you have for ministry?

What are you involved in at Signal Crest?  In the community?

As a way of serving, what would you like to do in the church or in the community?

Please close this session with St. Francis’ Prayer

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.    

 

SCUMC Disco Update

I just want to remind everyone that the Youth sponsored Disco is this Saturday, March 6th from 5:30p-8:00p. 

Several families have been hesitant to sign up because they weren't interested in dressing up, but I am here to tell you that you do not have to dress up in 70's style clothing.  If that isn't your thing, then don't worry a bit!  Just come on in for some good food and great music (provided by a DJ) and support our youth so that they can have lower costs for the Middle High Mission Week and Senior High ASP this summer.

Please make sure to have your childcare and dinner reservations into me by Wednesday.  You can just email it to me at
KRobertson@SignalCrestUMC.org or drop me a Facebook message.

Hope to see you Saturday!
Kristin Robertson

Family Game Night

The Signal Crest Children's Team is hosting a Pot Luck dinner and Family Game Night this Friday February 26th from 6:30-8:30 in the Fellowship Hall.
Drinks and dessert as well as a nursery for infants-age3 will be provided. Bring a dish and your favorite game and come play with us!!!
Please sign up on the bulletin board across from the nursery or on the sign up sheet at dinner Wednesday night.
We are going to have BLAST!!!