Optimist Roundtable

By Martha Sykes

We’ve all heard the saying “opportunity knocks”. As I was leaving our Lenten service in our community last week, my thoughts went to how God gives us an opportunity every day to follow Him.

Our church services during Lent have been very enjoyable and moving, in my opinion. As I was leaving our service, which was hosted by St Joseph’s Catholic Church last week, I was thanking God that so many attended, but I also was thinking of those that miss this opportunity to worship together and honor God for all that He does for us.

At the end of the service, Deacon Dan Heiser remarked about how nice it is that our churches come together to worship during Lent and Advent in our community. It is a perfect opportunity to visit our churches and hear our different ministers speak to us and touch our hearts with their messages of hope and grace during these forty days of Lent. This time of our church season gives us that time to look into our spiritual journey and how we can have a closer relationship with Jesus.

In the book of Ephesians 5:16, Paul reminds us to “Be very careful then, how you live- not as unwise, but wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.” We all see how busy the devil is in our world today, so we sure do need to take Paul’s words into our hearts, and do what we can to have more good in the world. He tells us to be full of the Spirit, to share in Psalms and singing of hymns to fill us with the love of God.

These community services are a good place to worship and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Hope that we will see more people taking advantage of our future services.

Holy Week will also be coming soon when we will have many opportunities to worship and thank Jesus for the sacrifice He made for all of us. On Good Friday, April 7th, we will be having a service at 12:00 noon at the First United Methodist Church. Everyone is welcome!!