Immanuel United Church of Christ

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Autumn Blessings

9/27/2018

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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
t
o catch the full wind- Catharine of Siena

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    Author

    Pastor Dr. TJ Jenney
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1526 South 18th Street Lafayette, IN 47905
Phone 765-474-6496

Sunday Schedule
8:30 AM Contemporary Worship
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9:45 AM  Sunday School for all ages
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Whoever you are, where ever you are in life's journey, YOU are welcome here!