November 5, 2018 - Sunday was All Saints Sunday. Last Thursday was All Hallowed Saints Day. We still celebrate All Hallowed Saints Eve (Halloween), but few Christians celebrate All Saints Day on Thursday. So Sunday has become the day we remember the saints of our church and the saints of our lives. We are having Texas autumn weather with cool mornings, but some afternoons the temperature nearly reached 80! Droughts seem a thing of the past as we are now well ahead in rainfall for the year.
In November we are collecting rice and beans for Community Christian Services. The church also sent a check to First Baptist in Joaquin for buying Christmas gifts for kids. Next Sunday we will have a Gideon speaker at our church. The church voted to double our budget to $400 to give to the Gideons. Today, being the first Sunday of the month, we celebrated Holy Communion. On Thursday we head to Focused Care for our monthly ministry.
The Gospel Lesson for today was Mark 12:28-34, where we see Jesus being questioned about the most important commandment. Sometimes we mistakenly think that there are only 10 commandments—actually there are 613! But Jesus immediately says to love God and love neighbor as oneself is the two-part “greatest of all commandments.” This is the core and everything else is extra—just window dressing.
Our Sunday School lesson came from Genesis 25: 19-34, dealing with the birth of Esau and Jacob. They sounded like typical siblings, with all the rivalries that come with that relationship. The scripture and lesson seemed to create more questions than answers for us students. The prayer that ended the lesson was longer than normal, power-packed with good thoughts: Fannie had us read it in unison so we could really concentrate on its meaning.
“Whoever you are, in whatever faith you were born, whatever creed you profess; if you come to this house to find God you are welcome here.” Paxton United Methodist Church is an inviting church that takes to heart the idea of “Open Doors, Open Hearts, Open Minds.” Sunday School starts at 9:30 and Worship begins at 10:00. Our email address is paxtonumc@yahoo.com. If you would like the weekly email newsletter about Paxton Methodist you can send me your email address to the Paxton email address and I will add you to the list. God’s Speed.
