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Begin Again: Enjoy God’s Good Gifts What word from God can we receive through the story of Job and his incredibly blessed and the “cursed” life. A story of riches to rags, prosperity to poverty, joy to sorrow. Yet, he chooses not to follow his friends suggestion to curse God and die. Wow, that is some advice. But Job has seemed to earn the right to hate and blame. How is it that Job concludes that he will not find the answers to the why of suffering. God owes no person anything, yet we find that God has given us everything. What? And, it is in the storm of life that Job sees God...and God gave Job more than Job ever dreamed. God gave Job himself. Might we be in a storm that we need God’s grace? Can we see and experience God’s good gifts today...and begin again?

Begin Again: Believe Your Trustworthy God Text: Psalm 23:1-4 Based on a book by Max Lucado Lucado writes in his introduction, “Water, All Noah can see is water. The evening sun sinks into it...He can’t remember when he’s seen anything but...Noah has been wondering, How long is this going to last?” “For months they have floated. They have eaten the same food, smelled the same smells, and looked at the same faces. After a certain point you run out of things to say to each other.” “Can God recreate this world? Is he able to start over? Can he, and we begin again?” This becomes the focus of this series, “can we begin again?” All we have seen are the effects of the pandemic...wherever we look, pandemic.” Can we begin again? Not just into a post-pandemic world, but in a world that has shown again the injustices and inability to love God, neighbor and self. We can begin again, and hope and renewal can start today! Today's service: The image of the 23rd Psalm is profoundly inspiring. It becomes a focus for this week. Our ability to begin again...that is begin life with a fresh start and hopefully the future begins with the God who can be trusted to restore our souls. Ok, that is a nice thought, but what about the practice? This week is for you and me to allow the healing, forgiving and guiding presence of God to empower us to begin again.

Begin Again: Believe Your Trustworthy God Text: Psalm 23:1-4 Based on a book by Max Lucado Lucado writes in his introduction, “Water, All Noah can see is water. The evening sun sinks into it...He can’t remember when he’s seen anything but...Noah has been wondering, How long is this going to last?” “For months they have floated. They have eaten the same food, smelled the same smells, and looked at the same faces. After a certain point you run out of things to say to each other.” “Can God recreate this world? Is he able to start over? Can he, and we begin again?” This becomes the focus of this series, “can we begin again?” All we have seen are the effects of the pandemic...wherever we look, pandemic.” Can we begin again? Not just into a post-pandemic world, but in a world that has shown again the injustices and inability to love God, neighbor and self. We can begin again, and hope and renewal can start today! Today's service: The image of the 23rd Psalm is profoundly inspiring. It becomes a focus for this week. Our ability to begin again...that is begin life with a fresh start and hopefully the future begins with the God who can be trusted to restore our souls. Ok, that is a nice thought, but what about the practice? This week is for you and me to allow the healing, forgiving and guiding presence of God to empower us to begin again.

Restoration: Building a World of Difference Restored for Purpose Rebuilding the temple for the Hebrew people was not easy. They also assumed that if they are working, they are holy...but our sacred relationship with the divine runs deeper and demands more than staying busy with church work. By the grace of God, there is an incredible opportunity to make a world of difference, and that difference rests in our trust in God’s holiness, not ours. SugarRiverUMC.org

Building a World of Difference, Haggai Week 2: Perseverance with the Presence This call to restoration is not an easy one. Some of us may seek to simply rebuild what we knew from the past, yet there is something new that is happening. God is calling us into a hope-filled future and in our faithful determination to build God’s just love in our world, we will be guided by God’s presence. This makes all the difference in the world. Scripture: Haggai 2:1-9

Building a World of Difference, Haggai: A Call to (re)Build There are many lessons to be learned from the prophet Haggai. It was clear for the people to hear God’s call to rebuild the Temple from the current ruins. We know that Jesus’ call to faithful living as God’s people is rebuilding and refocusing our lives out of the ruins that surround us. Now we too seek clarity on God’s call to bring focus and life out of the challenges of being a people in a pandemic. God is doing a new thing, and we are called to join in this celebration of life. Let’s get to work!

Made For A Miracle - Easter: The Unexpected John 20:1-16 How do we celebrate Easter? Does it reflect the experience of the first Easter? Pastor Nadia Bolz Weber has said of Easter, “Really it’s a story about flesh and dirt and bodies and confusion, and it’s the way God never seems to adhere to our expectations of what a proper God would do.” What do we expect of Easter? SugarRiverUMC.org

Made for a Miracle: Activate Health & Healing The author, Mike Slaughter writes that more than 700 verses of the 3,779 total across the four Gospels deal with some type of physical or mental healing, including resurrection of the dead. What does healing mean for us, in the twenty-first century?