Arranged Marriage

"The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much" (James 5:16).

James Rutz, author of MegaShift, tells a wonderful story of God's supernatural hand in answering prayer.

"I have a good friend named Barclay Tait who sells vacation real estate in Niceville, Florida. Back in 1977, he was a 36-year-old Florida basketball coach. That summer, he decided to hitch-hike to a Christian conference in Front Royal, Virginia. Arriving four days early, he went to a nearby forest and pitched his tent by a stream. On the last day, a tall, thin hiker with a notebook under his arm suddenly appeared, startling him as he read his Bible. Barclay explained that he came out there to fast and meditate.

Dave, the hiker, replied, "Well, I'm an intercessor. What would you like me to pray for?"

Feeling somewhat overwhelmed, Barclay said, "Uh, frankly, I'd like prayer for a wife." The man wrote the request in his notebook and walked on.

By 1988, Barclay, now married to Sherry, has been divinely guided to move to Asheville, North Carolina. A chance encounter in the Holiday Inn parking lot led to an invitation to join a gathering of a Christian group outside of town. Arriving just before the 7:00 P.M. meeting, the host walks in from the kitchen and stops dead in his tracks. "I know you!" he exclaims, pointing his finger. "You're Barclay Tait!" Barclay draws a blank.

"Just a minute. I have something I want to show you," the host announces. He scampers upstairs, leaving the puzzled Taits standing in the middle of the suddenly hushed room. In a moment the host reappeared with a well-worn ledger book. "See here? This is where I wrote your prayer request in column one when I met you in Front Royal in 1977: 'Barclay Tait: God's choice for a wife.'" Barclay looked down at the journal entry. It was the most detailed, methodical prayer journal he'd ever seen.

"I prayed for you for seven years," proclaims Dave. "Then in the middle of the night on December 30, 1984, God woke me up out of a sound sleep and said, 'Write in your journal, "Prayer answered." So I did. See? Here in column two, "Prayer answered.'"

Barclay and Sherry look at each other with their mouths open. They sat down, and their eyes fill with tears. Quietly, Barclay tells Dave, "That was the day we were married."

from TGIF (Today God Is First) Volume 2 by Os Hillman
Thursday, February 18 2010

IHN- Volunteers needed!

We are still in need of a few volunteers for our IHN hosting week from February 28th through March 7th.  

 We need someone to stay overnight on Sunday 2/28, Thursday 3/4 and Saturday 3/6.  We also need someone to be available at the church in the chapel area to assist or answer questions from 7-9 on the following dates:  Sunday 2/28, and Thursday 3/4.  

 If you can help us fill one of these volunteer positions, please call Krista Torrance at 886-5308.

Thank You!

New Groups Forming Now!

NEW LIFE GROUPS

Two new spiritual formation groups forming now!

LIFE as a Christian is about Living Intentional Faith Everyday.

Two new opportunities to live your faith and strengthen your soul will begin in March.

  1. Spiritual Practices  Just as we must exercise your physical body in order for it to become stronger, so must we exercise our spirit or our "inner life" for it to become stronger. If we want to be able to hear God speak to us and to sense God's leading and direction in our lives, we must attune ourselves to God.

 

Spiritual Practices like prayer, silence, reading scripture, and fasting, are some of the tools the Christian church has used throughout its history to help individuals grow closer to God. In this group we will learn about and practice these and other traditional Spiritual Disciplines.

  • Group begins March 2
  • Tuesdays 9:30 am
  • Library
  • Facilitated by Rev. Annette Flynn

    2. The Good and Beautiful God: Falling in Love with the God Jesus Knows, by James             Bryan Smith

Would you like to have abiding peace? A heart overflowing with love? The kind of hope that keeps hoping through the most difficult circumstances?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then this book study is meant for you!

Please join us in this new group for a time to grow closer to God and one another.

 

  • Group begins March 7
  • Sundays at 6:00 pm
  • Narthex
  • Facilitated by Rev. Annette Flynn

Dinner and Disco on Saturday, 06-MAR-2010 from 5:30-8p

You are invited to attend a Dinner and Disco on Saturday, March 6th from 5:30-8:00 in our church fellowship hall.  There will be dinner and a dance, complete with a DJ.  Everyone needs to dress up in their best 70's disco attire and show up ready to have a great time!  The Disco is serving as the youth's spring fundraiser this year which is always held to help fund summer mission trips. 

Our middle school students will be attending the Camp Lookout Middle High Mission Week and the high school students will be going back to ASP.  Your support each spring is what makes these summer trips possible and we are so grateful for each of you who have attended in the past.  We look forward to seeing you on March 6th!

Sign-ups are in the tiled Narthex each Sunday and will be passed around on Wednesday nights during dinner.  Childcare will be provided for Infants through Pre-K and there will be special activities for Kindergarten through 3rd grade, but you need to make reservations. 

We look forward to seeing each of you on the 6th.  Have a great week!

Blessings,
Kristin Robertson
Youth Director

April 28 Program

My dear friend and colleague, Rev. Steve Martin, will be our Wednesday Night Live program on April 28. He will have just returned from Morocco where he will have done something with Muslim/Christian relations for the King. Please tell everyone you know, and strangers in the grocery store. Let's have a great turnout for Steve. 

Peace,

Donations for Haiti update

Please bring all contributions to our Health Kits for Haiti by this Wednesday February 2nd. The kits will be collected on Thursday.

Also, please remember that this Sunday February 7th is our Souper Bowl of Caring event. The children of Signal Crest will be decked out in their favorite sports jerseys collecting money for UMCOR Haiti relief. 100% of all funds collected will go straight to Haitian relief efforts. Please help our children make a difference with your donations Sunday morning!!

Holston churches give $355,715 to Haiti Relief in 17 days

Holston churches give BIG to Haiti relief: $355,715 in 17 days

As most of Holston Conference shut down to watch for snow last Friday, an important calculation was being made in the conference finance office in Alcoa, Tenn.

As of Jan. 29, churches in Holston Conference have given $355,715 to provide relief to Haiti through UMCOR.

The total includes $50,000 from an anonymous giver, and money is still pouring in, according to the treasurer's office. The Jan. 29 total almost triples the $122,559 total announced on Jan. 22.

By comparison, Holston churches had given a total of $317,946 about five weeks after the Indian Ocean tsunami in December 2004.

Bishop James Swanson praised Holston churches for their compassion for Haiti.

"It's like I've said before: The hearts of the people of Holston are always turned toward those in need. When you clearly show the need, the people always come forward. I am tremendously grateful for the outpouring of generosity and support shown for the people who are in pain in Haiti."

Meanwhile, UMCOR and United Methodists from all over the world struggled to get critical food, water, medicine, and shelter to thousands of survivors in Haiti. (See UMC.org for ongoing updates.)

In Holston Conference, churches focused on assembling health kits as well as donating money, since volunteer teams will not be allowed into Hait for many weeks.

Churches were instructed to take health kits to designated drop-off points in their districts, in anticipation of a Feb. 1 conference-wide collection. However, Bill Daugherty, Holston missions coordinator, delayed the pick-up until the following week (about Feb. 5), citing the weather and requests for a deadline extension.

"Several folks think they will have a lot more kits if we give them another week," Daugherty said.


Annette Flynn
Associate Pastor
Signal Crest United Methodist Church
office:   423-886-2330
mobile: 865-806-1985
home:  423-883-6182

Daily Discipleship Guide for 29-JAN-2010

Please the following in silence.

Romans 8:31-39

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

33 Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.

34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

36 As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,

39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

Now read these verses aloud and then once more in silence. Take a few moments to write verses 31-39 in your own words and then offer your words up to God as a prayer.