Immanuel United Church of Christ

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Autumn Blessings

10/31/2024

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  As a person that loves warmer temperatures, the bright sun, and all the grandeur of summer, I tend to hold on tenaciously to summer.  But there’s a time when the brisk cool breeze, smell of wood burning in the fireplace, and colors of the autumn leaves, invariably win me over.  I have a cup of hot cider or pumpkin spiced latte, sit back, and think to myself, autumn is here, it’s time to enjoy the beauty of the season before the colors fade to winter.   I enjoy the fall festivals and the roadside crafts, and my favorite, a relaxing drive down a country road that winds through fields with famers harvesting crops and forests with trees bundled in fall colors.  
  It reminds me that each season of the year has its special beauty and its own unique blessings.  It also reminds me that each season of life has its special blessings to be enjoyed.  More often than not we tend to look to the past or press to the future and forget to simply be present in the moment and enjoy God’s many blessings.   I invite you to lean into the moment and enjoy the beauty of creation, the warmth of family, and the blessings of hearth and home.  Make every day a special day and give thanks to God for His manifold blessings.  God is good.  All the time.
 
(scripture of the week)
“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to reap,
a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to break down and a time to build up, 
a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, 
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
  a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, 
a time to gain and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to cast away, 
a time to rend and a time to sew, a time to keep silence and a time to speak, 
a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. 
What do workers gain from their toil?  I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race.  He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-11)
 
(prayer of the week)
Lord, help us to embrace each season of life and live each day to the fullest.  Help us to thank you for the blessings and to lean into your strength for the battles.  Thank you for the gift of life itself, and help us to live each day as a gift given to others and to you, in your name, Amen.
 
Blessings in Christ–Pastor TJ
 
God's grace, unsought and unearned, blows through my life,
and all I need to do is raise my sails
to catch the full wind- Catharine of Siena
 
Listen to recent sermons by Dr. TJ Jenney at YouTube &
http://inspiresundaymessages.blogspot.com/
Check the latest leadership blog by Dr. TJ http://www.drtj.us
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Bible Sunday

10/24/2024

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“For you have set my heart free”—what beautiful words!  So often people think that God’s Word is a list of “don’t’s.”  But God’s Word is a river of life!  It is truth that sets our heart free because it guides us to the One who loves us and has a plan and purpose for our lives.  It is not the dry, dusty pathway of heartless rules, but a path of life and truth and fulfillment and love.  It is the pathway of Christ.  “I run in the paths of your commands, for you have set me heart free.”  Let go of the chains of guilt and shame and failure and sorrow and be set free by the life and love of Christ.  Discover God’s promises for your life.  Trust God!  God loves you!
 
(scripture of the week)
I have chosen the way of truth;
  I have set my heart on your laws.
I hold fast to your statutes, O Lord;
  Do not let me be put to shame.
I run in the paths of your commands,
  For you have set my heart free. (Psalm 119.30-32)
 
(Prayer of the week)
Almighty and Loving God, thank you for your great love and the way you forgive us and give us new life.   Strengthen and guide me with your Word.  Open my heart and mind to trust in your plan and purpose for my life.  Open my life to your power that touches and transforms life.  Renew within me a fresh appreciation and confident hope in your love and plan and purpose for my life.  Let your love burn within me that others may see you in all I do.   Amen.
 
Blessings in Christ! –Pastor TJ
 
(quote of the week)
I have a fundamental belief in the Bible as the Word of God, written by those who were inspired. I study the Bible daily—Sir Isaac Newton
 
Listen to recent sermons by Dr. TJ Jenney at YouTube &
http://inspiresundaymessages.blogspot.com/
Check the latest leadership blog by Dr. TJ http://www.drtj.us

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The Road Less Traveled

10/17/2024

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This is a beautiful season for a walk along a path in the forest or wooded park to enjoy the beauty of the leaves changing colors and the cool, crisp autumn air.  The poet Robert Frost once spoke so eloquently about choosing the road less traveled, and how it wonderfully changed his life.  It is a beautiful picture of the choices we have in life, and the paths we may take. The psalmist uses this very same imagery, painting a picture of our journey down the path of life. Choosing the way of truth is not drudgery or boredom; rather it is choosing the path of life . . . and in the end, we discover that it empowers and sets our hearts free.
 
(Verse of the week)
I have chosen the way of truth;
I have set my heart on your laws. . .
I run in the path of your commands,
You have set my heart free.
(Psalm 119.30-32 selections)
 
Prayer of the Week
Loving Creator, help me to set my heart on your ways, and discover anew the joy of living in your purpose and plan.  Let me find strength and power in your Spirit.  Help me to allow your Word to take root in my heart and life and bear the fruit of a deep and abiding faith and a life that gives you honor and praise. May I live a blessed life and be a blessing to others, through your power and to your glory. Amen.
 
Open your heart to God's amazing love!-Pastor TJ
 
(quote of the week)
The challenge is to be a light, not a judge; to be a model, not a critic
-Stephen R. Covey
 
Listen to recent sermons by Dr. TJ Jenney at YouTube &
http://inspiresundaymessages.blogspot.com/
Check the latest leadership blog by Dr. TJ http://www.drtj.us

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World Communion

10/3/2024

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Do you enjoy the feeling when you are at a football game cheering with thousands of other fans?  Are you touched by the time when you are holding a candle with many others celebrating of a special moment?  That is the power of unity.  Sometimes we fail to fully appreciate the power of unity, especially when it comes to faith.  This Sunday is World Communion Sunday – a time when believers from all over the world, every nation, every race, every place will take Holy Communion as a gesture of our common spiritual bond in Christ as believers and as a family of faith.  Many of us are torn by the many signs of division and strife in our nation and in our world.  But there is hope.  The Apostle Paul encouraged us to a special unity in Christ: “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called, 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all (Ephesians 4:3-6).” I hope you will join us for World Communion as a time to come around the Lord’s Table and connect with God and reconnect with others as we grow personally and spiritually renewed in Christ’s love and the power of God’s promises.  I also hope you will make this a time of prayer for our community, our country, and our world.  Listen to these words that Jesus prayed to the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane before going to the cross:
 
(verse of the week)
All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them.   I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one (John 17.10,11).
 
(Prayer of the Week)
Gracious and Loving God, open my heart to your Family of Faith around the world.  May I see your face in others as part your great united church and may I extend your grace to others in every place.  Amen
 
Open your heart to God’s awesome love!
--Pastor TJ
 
(quote of the week)
Unless you assume a God, the question of life’s purpose is meaningless ---Bertrand Russell

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    Pastor Dr. TJ Jenney
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1526 South 18th Street

Lafayette, IN 47905

Phone 765-474-6496

Summer Worship Services:
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Sunday School & Adult Ed 9:00am

Coffee & Conversation 9:45am

​Worship Service 10:00am  
 

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No matter who you are, or where you

are on life's journey, YOU are

welcome here!