Tag Archives: Spirituality

November 26, 2023 – Newton UMC – Sunday Worship Livestream

JOY Fellowship Worship Service in Holland Hall: 9:00 a.m.

Worship service streams live at 9:00 a.m. EST (-500 GMT)

Worship service streams live at 10:30 a.m. EST (-500 GMT)

Welcome to our live-streamed Sunday Worship Services for November 26, 2023. Today Jesus reminds us that his mission is our mission and what will matter when he returns; thus, we are called to put care of others over our own convenience.

Please support us by giving online: https://tithe.ly/give?c=1377216 or https://paypal.me/newtonumc Or you can make and mail a check out to First UMC of Newton, 111 Ryerson Ave., Newton, NJ O7860

God bless you all for your generosity which is vital to our mission and ministry.

November 19, 2023 – Newton UMC – Sunday Worship Livestream

JOY Fellowship Worship Service in Holland Hall: 9:00 a.m.

Worship service streams live at 9:00 a.m. EST (-500 GMT)

Worship service streams live at 10:30 a.m. EST (-500 GMT)

Welcome to our live-streamed Sunday Worship Services for November 19, 2023. Today we are being called to put our FAITH in Jesus Christ and actively follow him, regardless of the wordly consequences.

Please support us by giving online: https://tithe.ly/give?c=1377216 or https://paypal.me/newtonumc Or you can make and mail a check out to First UMC of Newton, 111 Ryerson Ave., Newton, NJ O7860

God bless you all for your generosity which is vital to our mission and ministry.

November 12, 2023 – Newton UMC – Sunday Worship Livestream

JOY Fellowship Worship Service in Holland Hall: 9:00 a.m.

Worship service streams live at 9:00 a.m. EST (-500 GMT)

Worship service streams live at 10:30 a.m. EST (-500 GMT)

Welcome to our live-streamed Sunday Worship Services for November 12, 2023. Today we learn that it is easy for us to fall asleep in our relationship with Jesus; yet he is calling us to keep awake and to be prepared to make a Kingdom impact.

Please support us by giving online: https://tithe.ly/give?c=1377216 or https://paypal.me/newtonumc Or you can make and mail a check out to First UMC of Newton, 111 Ryerson Ave., Newton, NJ O7860

God bless you all for your generosity which is vital to our mission and ministry.

November 5, 2023 – Newton UMC – Sunday Worship Livestream

JOY Fellowship Worship Service in Holland Hall: 9:00 a.m.

Worship Service in Main Sancutary: 10:30 a.m.

Worship service streams live at 10:30 a.m. EST (-500 GMT)

Welcome to our live-streamed Sunday Worship Services for November 5, 2023. Today we learn that though we may, at times, face scarcity, Jesus receives what we offer, blesses it and provides for us and through us.

Please support us by giving online: https://tithe.ly/give?c=1377216 or https://paypal.me/newtonumc Or you can make and mail a check out to First UMC of Newton, 111 Ryerson Ave., Newton, NJ O7860

God bless you all for your generosity which is vital to our mission and ministry.

October 29, 2023 – Newton UMC – Sunday Worship Livestream

JOY Fellowship Worship Service in Holland Hall: 9:00 a.m.

Worship Service in Main Sancutary: 10:30 a.m.

Worship service streams live at 10:30 a.m. EST (-500 GMT)

Welcome to our live-streamed Sunday Worship Services for October 29, 2023. Today we learn that just as God’s graces flows from Christ to the church, we are called to be conduits of grace to bless the world.

Please support us by giving online: https://tithe.ly/give?c=1377216 or https://paypal.me/newtonumc Or you can make and mail a check out to First UMC of Newton, 111 Ryerson Ave., Newton, NJ O7860

God bless you all for your generosity which is vital to our mission and ministry.

October 22, 2023 – Newton UMC – Sunday Worship Livestream

JOY Fellowship Worship Service in Holland Hall: 9:00 a.m.

Worship Service in Main Sancutary: 10:30 a.m.

Worship service streams live at 10:30 a.m. EST (-500 GMT)

Welcome to our live-streamed Sunday Worship Services for October 22, 2023. Today we learn that when we find our contentment in God, we are freed for a changed perspective on money – no longer all-important for our happiness, but rather a tool to be used in our lives.

Please support us by giving online: https://tithe.ly/give?c=1377216 or https://paypal.me/newtonumc Or you can make and mail a check out to First UMC of Newton, 111 Ryerson Ave., Newton, NJ O7860

God bless you all for your generosity which is vital to our mission and ministry.

REVISITED: Them

Read Deuteronomy 10:14-22

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
“The LORD protects the foreigners among us. He cares for the orphans and widows, but he frustrates the plans of the wicked” (Psalm 146:9, NLT).

There’s a series on Prime Video that was recently released, entitled, “Them”. It was conceived of and produced by Little Marvin who, up until this series, was a little known actor and producer. From the get go, I could tell that this series was going to be edgy to say the least and that it was likely to keep anyone watching it at the edge of their seat, if not scared out it. Yet, the edgy horror that I was expecting watch was not what I discovered in this film; in fact, this film’s horror was far more dark and REAL.

The film follows the Emorys, who are a black family living in Jim Crow North Carolina. The show opens up with a scene that immediately sets you on edge and it soon becomes clear that being black in North Carolina was not ideal. The very first scene shows the horror of Jim Crow and the way blacks were treated less than human, even though Federal law technically said they were free citizens of the United States.

Without giving away what happens at the beginning of the show, suffice it to say that the experience is the last straw that causes the Emorys to uproot and leave North Carolina behind in search for a place to live where they will be treated like the free citizens they are. This show, of course, takes place in 1953 in the midst of what has since become known as the Great Migration, where countless black families uprooted and left the Jim Crow South for the American Promised Land, places that actively promoted themselves as places of opportunity and the American Dream.

Sadly, black families soon realized that the land of opportunity was not TRULY for them. Places like the Bronx, the South Side of Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, and West Compton were lily white suburbs that were as hostile as the Jim Crow South, but in more pernicious and hidden ways. Areas that blacks moved into were zoned off to be “red zones”, meaning that they were beyond help and that the local and state governments would not send funding in for infrastructure or anything else. Property sales dropped in neighborhoods where black families moved in, furthering the already racially charged resentment against these new, and most unwelcome neighbors.

In the neighborhoods themselves, white people did everythign they could to rid themselves of black neighbors. Some white folks uprooted and left right away. Others took measures to ensure that their neighborhood would not be overrun by blacks. Sitting outside their homes, staring in their windows, placing signs and whatnot on their lawns, all in an attempt to intimidate the black families and scare them out of the neighborhood. When those attempts failed, and eventually they did, white folks left those neighborhoods en masse and the money followed them. Businesses and jobs dried up as a result of white people fleeing away from their black neighbors. This flight of white people became known as white flight and, when we look at patterns of moving today, it still exists.

All of this racism not only had a negative effect on beautiful, loving, and hopeful black families looking to leave Jim Crow behind, but it also destroyed what were once beautiful neighborhoods that offered hope and promise to all who lived within them. Let’s be clear, it was not the black families who destroyed those neighborhoods, it was white families and systemic racism that brought about their demise. Sadly, as has been all too often the case, racism destroyed perfectly good neighborhoods and left black people to fend for themselves in a system that saw them less than human.

The challenge for us is to recognize that the “us” vs. “them mentality is, at its core, sinful. It results in the evils of racism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, and plenty of other evils. Christ has not called us to view people as “other” than us. There is no “them” in God, there is just US. Regardless of what one’s views, we are never called by God to dehumanize others or see them as less than us. We are always called to LOVE and treat people equally as created in imago Dei (aka the image of God. Let us shed our biases and fears off of us and live as Christ calls us to live.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
“Racism comes in many different forms. Sometimes it’s subtle, and sometimes it’s overt. Sometimes it’s violent, and sometimes it’s harmless, but it’s definitely here. It’s something that I think we’re all guilty of, and we just have to make sure that we deal with our own personal racism in the right way.” – Jordan Peele

PRAYER
Lord, forgive me for my biases and help me to overcome viewing other people as “other” or less than I am. Help me to view all people as equally made in your image. Amen.

REVISITED: Vampire Hunters

Read Ephesians 6:11-18

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
“Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.”  (1 Peter 5:8, NLT)

I just watched a new Netflix Original film entitled, “Vampires vs. the Bronx”, which is a comedy horror film about Vampires moving into the Bronx in order to take over the community and feed on its people. With that said, these vampires aren’t doing so out in the open; rather, they are hiding behind a real estate company that is run by a “familiar”, a human being who is promised by the vampires to be given immortality if he faithfully serves them.

The story centers around a young teenager (maybe 14 or a little younger) named Miguel Martinez, who is also nicknamed Li’l Mayor because of his desire to community organize. In fact, we first see him and his friends passing out flyers to save a local bodega (convenience store/deli), which is suffering because of people “moving out” of the community due to being bought out by a real estate company named, “Murnau Properties.” If you are a vampire fan, you will recognize that the real estate is named after F. W. Murnau, who was the director of the 1922 film, Nosferatu.

As it turns out, these business and home owners were not moving out; rather, they were being “bought out”, sold out, and then killed by the vampires. Miguel and his friends discover this and set out to stop the vampires from taking over their community; however, they find themselves grossly underprepared. Why? Let me just say, it is not because they are kids. In fact, if anything that is their greatest strength because their innocence and imaginations aren’t destroyed by adulthood.

The reason they are underprepared is because they don’t have all the tools they need to hunt and fight these vampires. They aren’t just fighting human beings behaving badly. They cannot just call the police, because they won’t believe these kids of color in the ‘hood over an establised, white real estate business. These kids are fighting SPIRITUAL forces of evil and injustice and, community organizing isn’t enough in spiritual warfare.

These kids, then, realize that though they typically avoided church and religion, they had to turn to it in order to fight these vampires. They needed to go to church, they needed to understand the power of the Eucharist (Holy Communion), they needed to rely on the power of the Cross, and the power of FAITH in Jesus Christ to defeat these foes. Suddenly, the church they saw as a boring obligation became their hope, and the priest they thought was too tough on them became their ally.

These kids learned an invaluable lesson that it takes more than activism and community organize to fight the forces of sin and evil. Spiritual warfare needs to be fought spiritually. In one of my favorite scenes, a vampire is about to kill one of the kids who, suddenly, pulls out the host and places it in the vampire’s mouth after proclaiming, “The Body of Christ”. The vampire was, at that very instant, rendered to ash.

This should challenge us to remember the importance of faith. Activism and community organizing will only ever take us so far. Why? Because people are sinful by nature and, even with the best intentions, will fail in truly setting up sinless institutions and organizations of change. What’s more, we are fighting forces that are not merely human, but are spiritual and evil in nature. In order to conquer such forces, we need to turn to the ONE who conquered sin, evil and death on the cross! Only Jesus Christ can help us overcome such forces and usher in the Kingdom of God in this world. Let us look toward Miguel and his friends as our example of why religion, faith and Jesus Christ are VITAL to changing our world.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
Do you rely on Jesus to resist sin, evil and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves?

PRAYER
Lord, I place my full trust in you. Hold me to this and steer me on the path of righteousness. Amen.

October 15, 2023 – Newton UMC – Sunday Worship Livestream

JOY Fellowship Worship Service in Holland Hall: 9:00 a.m.

Worship Service in Main Sancutary: 10:30 a.m.

Worship service streams live at 10:30 a.m. EST (-500 GMT)

Welcome to our live-streamed Sunday Worship Services for October 15, 2023. Today we learn that we are invited to seek the Kingdom of God and experience a growing trust and freedom from worry.

Please support us by giving online: https://tithe.ly/give?c=1377216 or https://paypal.me/newtonumc Or you can make and mail a check out to First UMC of Newton, 111 Ryerson Ave., Newton, NJ O7860

God bless you all for your generosity which is vital to our mission and ministry.

October 8, 2023 – Newton UMC – Sunday Worship Livestream

JOY Fellowship Worship Service in Holland Hall: 9:00 a.m.

Worship Service in Main Sancutary: 10:30 a.m.

Worship service streams live at 10:30 a.m. EST (-500 GMT)

Welcome to our live-streamed Sunday Worship Services for October 8, 2023. Today we learn that God is calling us to not get stuck in the mud but to press on toward the goal.

Please support us by giving online: https://tithe.ly/give?c=1377216 or https://paypal.me/newtonumc Or you can make and mail a check out to First UMC of Newton, 111 Ryerson Ave., Newton, NJ O7860

God bless you all for your generosity which is vital to our mission and ministry.