Today’s message was written by Guest Pastor, Rev. Andy Odom. 

Scripture: You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:11)

I recently read a story about a teacher in an impoverished area in Colorado who goes through the same experience every year when she learns the names of her new class. Every time she does it, she inevitably comes across a name that has more than one pronunciation. When the student is asked for the correct pronunciation, the typical response is, “Whatever is fine.” It is then that this teacher stops and, with clarity in her voice, replies, “No, it is not. It’s your name. Tell me how to say it.” Her hope in doing so is to help students understand the importance of their names. For some, she says, it is all they have.

Life is uncertain and comes with no guarantees. It holds no promise that tomorrow will be better than today. But when we are baptized, Jesus calls us by name and then gives us his name. Amidst the uncertainty of life, the name that is above all names is generously and abundantly given to us, imprinted upon our very souls. God claims us in baptism, promising us a life filled with the sound of his voice and the confidence of his presence, the one who keeps calling us by name. After all, nothing is quite as personal as a name. In the end, it is all we really have, and it is enough.

Prayer: Gracious God, you have created each one of us. You have given special attention to who we are and who we can be. We are your children, and you call us by name. Give us ears to hear your voice, hearts to know you are near, and hands to reach out to others, in the name of Christ we pray. Amen. 

I recently read a story about a teacher in an impoverished area in Colorado who goes through the same experience every year when she learns the names of her new class. Every time she does it, she inevitably comes across a name that has more than one pronunciation. When the student is asked for the correct pronunciation, the typical response is, “Whatever is fine.” It is then that this teacher stops and, with clarity in her voice, replies, “No, it is not. It’s your name. Tell me how to say it.” Her hope in doing so is to help students understand the importance of their names. For some, she says, it is all they have.

Life is uncertain and comes with no guarantees. It holds no promise that tomorrow will be better than today. But when we are baptized, Jesus calls us by name and then gives us his name. Amidst the uncertainty of life, the name that is above all names is generously and abundantly given to us, imprinted upon our very souls. God claims us in baptism, promising us a life filled with the sound of his voice and the confidence of his presence, the one who keeps calling us by name. After all, nothing is quite as personal as a name. In the end, it is all we really have, and it is enough.

Prayer: Gracious God, you have created each one of us. You have given special attention to who we are and who we can be. We are your children, and you call us by name. Give us ears to hear your voice, hearts to know you are near, and hands to reach out to others, in the name of Christ we pray. Amen. 

Today’s message was written by Guest Pastor, Rev. Andy Odom. 

I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? (Isaiah 43:19)

Today I want to talk to you about what hope means. This ministry is called Dial Hope, but what does hope mean really? To be honest, I think we often think of hoping for something in the same way that we think about wishing for something. After all, we wish for things all the time. “I sure wish people would stop being so petty,” we say. “I sure wish drivers would stop cutting me off.” Many of us have a long list of things we wish the world would be or how other people would treat one another. And it is all right to have those wishes, but that is not the same thing as hope. Hope has more to do with what God wants rather than what we want.

Eugene Peterson writes about that, saying, “wishing grows out of our egos; hope grows out of our faith. Hope is oriented toward what God is doing to me; wishing is oriented toward what we are doing. Wishing has to do with what I want in things or people or God; hope has to do with what God wants in me and the world and people beyond me.

If you’re going to incorporate more hope in your life, then you need to practice wishing less. If you want to live in anticipation of what God is doing in the world and to be surprised by what God is doing in the world, then you have to actively suppress the things you are wishing for all the time. The more you focus on your own wishes, the less open you will be to what God might be actually doing. It is fun to fantasize about what we want, but if that is all we do, it leaves little room in us for being open to what God wants.

Prayer: Dear God, help us to wish a little less so that we might hope a little more. Give us eyes and ears to see and hear what you are doing in the world and what you want from us. Help us to do more than just dial hope. Help us to live it, in Christ we pray. Amen.

Today’s message was written by Guest Pastor, Rev. Andy Odom. 

My question for you today is: What do you do first when you get up each day? When you first wake up, what do you do? I guess my real question is: How long is it before you begin checking the news or jumping on social media? And then, how much time do you spend there? And then I want to ask: How stressed are you?

One of my mentors in ministry, Margaret Marcuson, recently posted a word about the news. She wrote about how there is so much in the news these days that we can hardly seem to turn away for even a second. We don’t want to miss anything, after all. And then she wrote about how she has been trying to limit her online news consumption to 5-minutes a day. She quotes an article she read stating that “Being up-to-date on the news is a trap and a scam. Five minutes a day is all you need.”

She goes on to share that on the days she is successful at limiting her exposure to the onslaught of “breaking news” reports and urgent updates, she does better. “On those days, I am calmer, more able to focus on my own goals, and more productive,” she says.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself about how you take in the news:

1. Where do you typically get the news?
2. Do you time yourself on how long you spend “getting updated”?
3. Have you turned off alerts and, instead, checked the headlines at certain times?

The point is, if you are not deliberate in how you take in what is going on in the world, you are going to be overwhelmed all the time. I recently ran across this suggestion:

“When you wake in the morning, don’t open your internet, or read the papers, until you have first said good morning to God. Have a prayer or a psalm that you say first thing, to greet God, to reaffirm who you are, and why you are. Rediscover joy first thing in the morning: think on what is true, and lovely, and honorable and pure, before you face the world – and Facebook.”

Prayer: Good morning Lord. Thank you for being who you are and for making us who we are. Be with us today in all that we do. Help us remember that we are always yours, and you are always with us. Amen. 

How does faith mend a broken heart? Sooner or later, heartache comes to all of us. Sadness, sorrow, disappointment, grief, rejection, hurt – whatever you wish to call it – rears its head and covers us like a heavy blanket. Let me suggest some resources of the Christian faith that can help us walk through the dark valley of sorrow. First, claim the fellowship of the church. Let the church family’s arms of love surround you and support you. Never forget that you are not alone. God is with you. Nothing, not even death, can separate you from the love of God. No matter how hurt you may feel, let the church be an integral part of the healing process.  

Second, and this may surprise you, claim the power of helping others, which comes only from having gone through the grief pilgrimage. Those who have gone through sorrow of any kind have a new empathy, a new sensitivity, a new compassion, a new power to help others. Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted!” The word comforted comes from Latin words – cum, which means “with” and fortis, which means “strength.” So the word comforted means literally “with strength”! Thus, Jesus was saying “Blessed are those who have gone through sorrow, for they are with strength.” Someone once put it like this; “Whoever among us has, through personal experience learned what pain and anxiety are…. belongs no more to themselves alone; they are the sister, the brother of all who suffer.” 

Friend of Dial Hope, claim that strength to help others which comes only on the other side of trouble, only from walking through the valley of grief. God needs you to share yourself with others. Memorize this verse: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). Trust God…trust God….trust God. 

Let us pray: God of love, some days there is so much pain, so much emptiness. And yet, you know what we are feeling. As we count our blessings, keep us from wallowing in self-pity so that we may encourage and comfort others. Turn our sadness to laughter, remembering that “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a downcast spirit dries up the bones.’ (Proverbs 1 7:22) Through the grace of Jesus Christ. Amen.