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Open hearts, open minds, open doors
We include over 80 churches of the North Central New York Annual Conference. The District is located near the Adirondack Mountains of New York State along the Erie Canal and Mohawk River in the northeastern United States.
Contact us at mohawkdistrict@aol.com
Carl Johnson, District Superintendent
Dear Friends,
In Herb Miller’s book, Jesus’ Twenty Mega Truths, number five is as follows:
“You are blocked from entering God’s kingdom unless you turn away from self-centeredness.”
In the expansion of this “truth,” Miller points some of the ways preoccupation with self presents itself: devotion to hard work, pursuit of pleasure, seeking financial security, need for personal power, and exceeding self-righteousness among others.
However, the most interesting comment had to do with repentance.
Miller contends that Jesus does not just ask us to repent from something and that true repentance is only complete until we repent toward something.
The concept, of course, moves us from being self-centered toward becoming God-centered.
Recent surveys indicate that persons within and without the church relate that God is not at the center of their lives.
That means that God vies for time, talent, and service along with all the other demands we place, or allow to be placed, on our lives.
How refreshing it was to meet with a local church experiencing a change of clergy leadership to hear a mother of teenagers say, “It doesn’t matter what time the worship hour is, my family all knows that we will be in worship together.”
She acknowledged this in the midst of an ongoing conversation from others on what a hardship it would be to move the worship time ½ hour earlier or later.
She was giving witness that the time of worship wasn’t about me or mine; it was about celebrating the family relationship with the love and grace of God.
When the relationships of life are healthy (made whole by God’s love and grace) we are in the Kingdom now and yet to come.
God’s creation will not experience salvation (oneness with God) until the human family can turn from self-centeredness to letting God be at the center
May this Lenten journey and Easter celebration be a time of repentance from and repentance toward all that God promises!
In Christ,
Carl
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