Weekly Services

8 AM - Traditional Worship

9:30 AM - Sunday School for All Ages

10:45 AM - Contemporary Worship

gizlinet pornoxo latin porno

Welcome to Emilie United Methodist Church

Sunday, January 15th to February 12th - Series on Discipleship

This Call's for You, 2 -- Healers and Messengers of Good News

"Have you not known? Have you not heard?... The LORD gives power to the weakened, strength to those worn-out" (Isaiah 40:28-29).

This line from today's reading from Isaiah is the primary reason this larger text from Isaiah is paired with today's gospel reading from Mark. It is exactly what we see Jesus doing as he continues to inaugurate the kingdom of God in the midst of the people in Capernaum and, in the process, trains his disciples (and us!) to be ready to do the same things.

Simon Peter's mother–in-law was weakened by illness, and Jesus visited and healed her. Her power restored, she was able to prepare a meal for Jesus and all his disciples that night (Mark 1:30-31).

Crowds of people afflicted and worn down by many diseases and demons began crowding around the house later that evening, seeking a cure. And Jesus gave it, strengthening them anew (Mark 1:33-34).

When Jesus left the house and the town before sunrise next morning, and his disciples wondered why, he told them he and they were heading out to make sure people in the surrounding towns and villages both knew and could hear the message of the coming of God's kingdom (Mark 1:35-38).

And that is what he and they did -- —proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out more demons -- so that everyone there could know and everyone there could hear (Mark 1:39).

This is the work of Jesus. And it is our calling as his disciples to join him in it, that everyone may know and everyone may hear that God's kingdom has drawn near.

We encountered the ministry of deliverance from demons last week. But this week focuses on the two other ministries that figure most prominently in today's reading -- evangelism (getting the word out that God's kingdom has come near) and healing (offering others the healing power unleashed because God's kingdom has drawn near).

Taken from the Lectionary Planning Helps, General Board of Discipleship, UMC

This Week's Scripture

Lectionary Scripture Readings for This Week

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Isaiah 40:21-31

A reading from what scholars call the "Second Isaiah" — a prophecy to Judean exiles in Babylon that their God is sovereign in all the earth and will continue to sustain, support, restore, and lift up God's servants.

Psalm 147: 1-11 (UMH#859)

I Corinthians 9: 16-23

Paul writes that he "can't not" share the gospel, and so has no basis for boasting about his commitment to his ministry. He also decribes his strategy of "identification" with others, of coming alongside them and seeking to connect with them as they are.

Mark 1: 29-39

Mark recounts, in almost breathless fashion, Jesus' intensive ministry of healing and exorcism in Capernaum, his withdrawal for prayer and his determination to move out into the other Galilean villages to proclaim the nearness of the kingdom of God