In case you couldn’t make it to church this morning, I got your back. Here is a devotional for the fourth Sunday of Lent. Here is a devotional from Reverend Dr. Heecheon Jeon.

God so loved the world

Rev. Dr. Heecheo Jeon
John 3:16

Greetings!

My name is Heecheon Jeon. I am the central district superintendent. I am very honored to share with you one of the Lenten series from the lectionary today.

Let us pray:

Holy God of love,

We give you thanks for this journey of the lent that gives us a space to reflect on our life in you. May our hearts be attuned to your spirit. May our thoughts and words be acceptable to you, O God. Amen.

I want to begin with the famous passage, John 3:16, that you might recite from your heart:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

I grew up in a Christian family in Korea. When I was a child, I loved my home church. I always went to the church ground to play. I had so many friends and families in the church I could play with, and the church was always a place for relationships and a sense of belonging, and for me, the church was another family. As I grew older, my grandmother took me to an early morning prayer service at the church every morning. For some reasons, I enjoyed that early morning service. It gave me joy, happiness and peace. I even followed a loud prayer in a room full of adults, singing hymns and listening the pastor’s message. As I reflected on those days, I realized that the everyday spiritual practice nurtured my soul, and more than that, it really helped me to sustain my faith in my early ages. It eventually strengthened my deep love for God and for the church. And then when I was in high school, I was introduced a book about Korean Minjung or people’s Liberation theology. I was so enlightened by how the church courageously spoke up against the unjust and evil power of military dictatorship that oppressed the people. The church has really taught me how to respond to that evil and unjust world. It strengthens my love for the world, because the church eventually taught me how to heal the broken and suffering world.

During those days, John 3:16 was always grounded in my heart.

“God so loved the world…”

Christianity is about the world that we are living in. More than that, it is about God’s love for the world.
The world is a place where we live together with all other beings; it is an “oecumene,” the household or dwelling place of all beings. It is a community for all beings. It is the whole ecosystem on the planet. And God loves the whole universe.

There is a plenty of reasons why we might be fearful of the world. Violence, hatred, discriminations, wars, divisions, or natural disasters are threatening human lives and lives of all things around us. However, in spite of all these, God still loves the world that the Son of God who is with us is the manifestation of God’s saving grace that may sustain our lives and lives of others, because love is the only way to overcome the radical evil and to transform the world.
Likewise, John Wesley boldly stated at the brink of a worldwide Methodist movement, “I look upon the world as my parish.” I feel his profound passion and love for the whole world. The world is my parish. The world is my church. The world is a place where God is dwelling and God’s love is manifested. The world is where I can bear witness to God’s saving grace. God’s love for the world breaks down all the walls and barriers and chasms between us, and between the church and the world. That is what the churches taught me. This is what John 3:16 is all about. The world is my church, my community, and my people that I am belonging to. We need to embrace them and we need to love them all, because God so loved the world.

I hope we imitate God’s love for the whole world that may unite us all, embrace us all, and make us whole in peace.
I hope our journey to the Easter morning be blessed and guided by God’s love for the world.

Gracious and loving God,

We give you thanks and gratitude for your love for the world.

May we overcome all the barriers, divisions, and discriminations against each other.

May the Holy Spirit unite us all as the people of resurrection hope.

Amen

Here is the second collection of images from the annual candid portrait photo shoot with Scottie D. and Melissa’s progeny:

There is still one more collection of photos from this photo shoot in the hopper.

Today was the second Sunday of Lent. If you couldn’t make it to a worship service, I have your back.. Here is a devotional from Rev. Dr. Moody Colorado:

Living to benefit the Lord

Mark 8:34-38
By Rev. Dr. Moody Colorado, Northeast Region Superintendent

When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

Prayer:
Heavenly Father, we worship and thank you, and we rejoice for this day that you have made.
Jesus, Son of God, we claim you and proclaim you as our Savior and our Lord.
Spirit of God descend upon us and help us to love God with our hearts, our minds and our soul.
Amen.

What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?

There was a young man in the 12th Century Italy, who was scared of losing his own soul because his father was rich, a textile businessman. This young man kept telling his friend, “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and lose his own soul?” This young man took some of his father’s merchandise, sold them and tried to give the money to the priest to be given to the poor as needed. The father asked the church to discipline the young man. The young man appeared before the church authorities and his father. Instead of apologizing to his father, this young man removed all his clothes and gave them to his father. Totally naked he declared that from then on he will be a poor monk and the Heavenly Father shall be his provider. From his hometown’s porciuncula, or little church, he reached the world with his preaching and became to be known as St. Francis of Assisi. His disciples, the Franciscans, reached many nations around the world. Francis even preached to a Muslim leader in Egypt.

What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?

I used to work as a manager of a Gold Mining Business in the Philippines. Working in the mountains is so complex which included dealing with illegal miners, rebels and the military operations. I knew I have seen hell when my wife and I almost died in one of the gun-battles. Our lives could have been wasted in search of gold. One director of the Mines Bureau told me, “There is no job worth dying for.”

I shared this with my father, Isaac Colorado. He himself gave up his military career for the sacrificial work of a pastor in the country. My father admired my professional job and he also said that the Mines Director may be correct, except for the evangelist’s job. He said that after dodging the bullets in the military service, God somehow showed him that there is a job really worth dying for—the salvation of the world. Its Jesus’ sacrificial job and we are invited to join this very humbling work. The apostle Paul expressed the concept for us, “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21)”

We are living in difficult times. Many lives are being lost. I pause and think and hope that it’s not too late to make use of our lives that benefits the Lord and our soul.

We need to care for ourselves and for each other. But let us not forget to keep the main thing as the main thing for the Church. Jesus the Christ is our Lord whose job was and is to save the whole world. I like the United Methodist Church because we can act locally and make an impact globally. Coming from the Philippines I see myself as an evidence that the global UMC system of American Methodist Mission works great. Let us not lose our great task of evangelizing the world. When we are able to save the soul of the world, we have practically saved our own.

Let us pray:
Make me a channel of your peace
Where there is hatred let me bring your love
Where there is injury, your pardon Lord
And where there’s doubt, true faith in you.
Make me a channel of your peace
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.
In giving of ourselves that we receive.
And in dying that we are born to eternal life.
The love of God, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

Next Sunday I will share a devotional from Reverend Ron Carlson.

A couple months back I got together with the Degeneffes for the annual photo shoot with Austin & Porter. Here are some of my favorites:

While I may have lost the Howard account in 2020, it was good to see that I still hold the Degeneffe account for now. There are plenty more of the Degeneffe boys to come!