Kitty Williams, Director of Music Ministries
As many of you know, Pure Joy! Youth Choir was on the 2020 Choir Tour to St. Louis during Spring Break.
We had a wonderful time sharing our music, fellowshipping and enjoying all the many amazing places in St. Louis.
Thank you SO much for your support to the youth through Stock Sales, Rummage Sale and Dessert Show.
They are so thankful to this loving congregation of First United Methodist Church Garland!
We couldn’t do it without you! We love you! THANK YOU!
Upon returning on AMTRAK the Thursday morning before Friday the 13th, Clay Jenkins ordered that there be no large group gatherings. That meant no church activities.
Little did we know when we exited that train and traveled to our homes, life would no longer be as we knew it.
The Sunday we were in St. Louis (March 8) was a special Sunday here in Garland.
I was disappointed to miss Kimberly Ingram preaching, and Caroline Noll reading as Yolanda Pendleton and Patrick LaBruyere enacted “The Woman at the Well.”
I was finally able to watch the service on YouTube a day ago.
This was the last service before the Clay Jenkins announcement and sheltering in place.
As the scripture was read and the word proclaimed, I thought, “How appropriate!”
Little did we know the scripture would yet again be enlightened by our current situation.
Read these words from John 4:19-24 …
The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.”
Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
“You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.
“But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him.
“God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
When I heard this read, my mind immediately rephrased it to say …
“The hour is coming when you will neither worship in your sanctuary, nor any other sanctuary.”
I don’t know about you, but I miss singing together and hearing the hymns and anthems; uniting our voices to declare, “We are not alone!”
I miss all of it – you beautiful people, the beautiful windows and banners!
Yet the rephrased words speak in my heart …
“You will neither worship in your sanctuary, nor any other sanctuary …”
Am I to truly worship just in my house?
Then I read Jesus’ continued words …
“…the Father seeks … those who worship in spirit and truth.”
The thought of Sunday worship in my house reminded me of a little book I received when I was young called My Heart, Christ Home. It is based on Ephesians 3:16-19.
It’s a little book that encourages you to invite Christ fully into every room of your heart because Christ cares about every aspect of your life.
Christ gave himself fully and wholly for us.
Giving yourself fully and wholly to Christ will allow you to know the breadth, length, height and depth of his love.
This will give you the peace that passes all understanding.
You don’t have to be in a big worship service to give yourself to God.
You can humbly give yourself to Christ right there in your own space.
You will receive the living water that Jesus describes to the woman at the well.
So my prayer is the prayer that Paul prayed for the church people of Ephesus …
“I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, Christ may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.
“I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
Peace to you,
Kitty
First Reflections 