In preparing for a lesson Sunday on “Computers, Humans and God” it occurred to me that there might be some who would be interested to know about some tools that you can use to enhance your devotional life. In this issue, I want to tell you about two of them.

For many Methodist, The Upper Room has been a standard devotional guide for years. They publish devotionals for various age groups and they publish devotional studies as well. Many of our members look forward to getting the printed version of The Upper Room when it comes out every two months. It comes in regular print and in large print.

But if you are into using your computer regularly or your smart phone or a tablet, etc. you can receive this devotional in your email box every day by simply subscribing to it. Here is what you do. In your browser, go to http://upperroom.org

• Under the date there will be a drop down box to select different pages. Click on the down arrow and pick “Daily Devotional.” It will take you to today’s devotional which you can read on line.
• There is a highlight in the lower part of the third column to make the type larger. Of course there is always a way to do that with any browser.
• In the first column, there is a heading called “Subscribe.” Under this heading are options to subscribe to a printed version which will be mailed to your address or to subscribe to an email version. Large print and other languages are also options. If you want the email, just click on it and it will open a sign up page where you give your name and email and tell it if you want html (with graphics) or text only. Fill it out and click “subscribe.”
• Every day about 3:30 in the morning you will get today’s devotional in your email box which you can read wherever you can get your email.

The second resource I’d like to mention is an on-line Bible. There are many options out there, but let me tell you about my favorite. It is the Bible by LifeChurch.TV and you can find it in your browser at http://www.youversion.com If you want information on the various mobile versions, simply add /mobile to this address in your browser. This resource has 41 translations in 22 languages and it is all FREE! From your smart phone or tablet, go to your app store and search for “Bible.” You may need to tell it to list them by price so that the free ones are on top. This one simply has a picture of a brown Bible with gold print saying “Holy Bible” and it may have the tag “LifeChurch.TV.”

What makes this fun is that you can use it across your various platforms—phones, tablets, computer—and it will keep track of your preferences, bookmarks etc. You can pick your favorite translation which will become the default, but you can always switch to another one. It includes a great search engine for finding verses by key words or phrases. It includes a variety of study aids including devotionals and various Bible reading plans from which you can choose as many or few as you want. You can add your own personal study notes, read comments shared by others, or share yours with others. It is a great app. I use it all the time on my phone and iPad and when I’m borrowing a computer. (I have another program I normally use on my own computer that includes all kinds of other study books, but it is not free.)

Every four years the United Methodist Church has up to 1000 laity and clergy delegates elected from every annual conference in the world meet to update our Book of Discipline and the Book of Resolutions. This year they will meet April 24-May 4 in Tampa, Florida.

The Book of Discipline contains our church’s constitution, Articles of Religion (faith statement), Social Policy, and polity for how we are structured at every level of the church.

The Book of Resolutions contains statements that express our official position on everything from spiritual matters to political matters.

These ten days are intense with the first five focused on committee meetings that consider all of the petitions that were sent in suggesting changes and the second half meeting as a committee of the whole to debate and vote on the recommendations.

Here is a sampling of a few of the items that will be considered:

Delegates to the 2012 United Methodist General Conference will be asked to affirm a new relationship with the African Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal Zion, African Union Methodist Protestant, Christian Methodist Episcopal and Union American Methodist Episcopal denominations. A celebration of Pan-Methodist full communion will be at 4:30 p.m. May 1, a day also set aside for recognition of United Methodist ecumenical partners.

United Methodist bishops on April 18 heard a challenge to embody the peace of Christ to the 2012 General Conference, to an anxious denomination and to the greater world. Charlotte (N.C.) Area Bishop Larry M. Goodpaster delivered that call during his final address to the Council of Bishops as that body’s president. He said more anxiety precedes this General Conference than any in recent history.

For too long, cabinets have had to struggle to place each clergyperson in a congregation. All that could change if the General Conference scraps the guaranteed appointment system, writes the Rev. Laura Jaquith Bartlett, a pastor in the Oregon- Idaho Annual (regional) conference. “What if we had a system in place to care for clergy who were no longer appointed?”

United Methodists and other members of the Interfaith Working Group on Global Hunger and Food Security have sent letters to congressional leaders, asking them to fundamentally change U.S. food aid policies to lower costs, deliver disaster aid faster and better help hungry people break out of poverty and aid dependence. “Food shipped from the United States takes longer to arrive than food purchased regionally,” reads part of the letter. “For people facing a famine or other crisis, additional waiting time for a food delivery can be a matter of life or death.”

From April 23 until May 8, the United Methodist denominational website will switch to full coverage of the 2012 General Conference. Audiences will be redirected to the General Conference site. You can read news in advance at the General Conference site.

See you Sunday in the place where it is a joy to worship God!

Yours in Christ,
Bro. David (home: 940-683-1724;
davidrucker@fumcbridgeport.org)

First, let me say, “Thank You!” for your faithful giving in 2011. We finished the year well and were able to give 10% of our balance for the year toward Second Mile giving for apportionments. Apportionments, for those who don’t know, are the monies we pay to the district, annual conference, jurisdictional conference and general conference to support our various ministries as a connected church. We are able to do much more together than any single church could do alone. Here is what our district superintendent had to say,

“Thanks also to those that made District Second Mile contributions. Because these 18 churches were willing and able to contribute to help the 2 churches in the district that fell short, we as a district were able to continue our long tradition of 100% payment. I am sincerely grateful for your pride and determination in seeing that our district paid out in full!”

Second, I am pleased to report that we have more than 25 signed up for Financial Peace University. That is a great response for the first time it is offered here. It has resulted in the Trustees making a decision to move more quickly than they had planned to get a TV set up in the Fellowship Hall for large events. We hope to wire our internal TV set up to include this location as well as the Nursery so that we can have a space for those occasions when we have an overflow in the sanctuary. I say, “Thank you!” to those who have already made a special donation to help pay for it. If you would like to make a special contribution, please mark your gifts for “TV.”

Finally, I want to say a few more words about our “Will you be my neighbor?” program. The first phase, the trial run, will launch the week of Ash Wednesday, February 22, and run to Easter Sunday. Here is what you need to know:

We hope most of the groups will meet in homes to make it convenient for people to attend close to their own home, so we are looking for some volunteers to host it.

Each group will need a designated leader which we are calling the “facilitator,” so we are looking for these volunteers as well. We will provide training for both hosts and facilitators.

We hope the groups will be intergenerational so that youth and children can be a part of the same group with adults of all ages. I am convinced we need this kind of interaction in order to grow healthy Christians.

The trial run will last six weeks and we will have a suggested plan for what each group will do so that initially we are all trying the same things. Then at the end everyone will have a chance to evaluate what we have done. In the second phase, each group will have more flexibility to shape how often they meet and how they spend their time so that the groups meet the needs of everyone. Of course we will still have some common goals, but every group will not be identical.

If you have not had an opportunity to sign up to be in a group at a worship service, please call Tamara in the church office and add your name to the list. We need to have all of our groups identified by Sunday the 19th. Thanks for your help in making this happen and please sign up sooner rather than later!

See you Sunday in the place where God is renewing us daily!

Yours in Christ,
Bro. David (home: 940-683-1724)
davidrucker@fumcbridgeport.org