Henning Memorial United Methodist Church

United Methodist-related medical college working to change inequity in health care that racial and ethnic minorities often face.

Click the link below to go to the Super Bowl video or story, or check out our special big game website, which has the latest news from GateHouse newspapers — including those in New England and New York — and our partners Pro Football Weekly and Bleacher Report. You'll also find features, party recipes and more. Click on the photo or headline to go to the site.

 

Today’s Reflection

GOD, THE WORLD SEEMS CRAZY RIGHT NOW.
It’s frightening how many things are going wrong:
wars, natural disasters, economic crises.
We see suffering all around.
I worry for my friends and family,
for our safety, for job security.
I worry about our earth, what is going to happen next.
Help me remember that you are present in every
circumstance, with every being in distress.
Quiet my fears and enable me to take action
to be your hands and heart in this hurting world. Amen.

-Mary Lou Redding

Prayers for Life’s Ordinary and Extraordinary Moments

From page 61 of Prayers for Life’s Ordinary and Extraordinary Moments, compiled and edited by Mary Lou Redding. Copyright © 2012 by Upper Room Books. All rights reserved. Used by permission. http://bookstore.upperroom.org/ Learn more about or purchase this book.

Today’s Question

Think of the things that make you afraid. Pray today’s prayer. Share your thoughts.

Today’s Scripture Reading

In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.
Mark 1:35, NRSV

This Week: pray for those who need to know God’s love. Submit your prayer to The Upper Room Living Prayer Center or share it in the comment section below.

For Your Spirit:

Join author Derek Maul in our 2012 online Lent eRetreat, Reaching Toward Easter. Daily reflections, prayer, and weekly group discussion will prepare us to fully enter the joy of Easter. REGISTER! For more information on this and other online courses from The Upper Room, click here.

Saints, Inc.:

This week we remember Elizabeth Lange (February 3).

Lectionary Readings

(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)

• Isaiah 40:21-31
• Psalm 147:1-11, 20c
• 1 Corinthians 9:16-23
• Mark 1:29-39

Sponsored by Upper Room Ministries ®. Copyright © 2012, a ministry of GBOD | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA

Today’s Reflection

WAITING MAY BE one of the most maddening and difficult moral and psychological challenges life presents. When all we can do is wait, we feel consigned to passivity, uncertainty, and powerlessness. To wait for housing or food or water or a blanket for a shivering child may rightly inspire outrage, not patience. And if the moment calls for action — resistance, ingenuity, negotiation, confrontation — then waiting turns to cowardice.

But when waiting is inevitable, it may be a summoning. When there is nothing to do but wait, we might discover in what sense it can be true that [as T.S. Eliot wrote] “the faith and the hope and the love are all in the waiting.”

- Marilyn Chandler McEntyre
Weavings, Feb/Mar/April 2012

From “The Hope Is in the Waiting” by Marilyn Chandler McEntyre, page 11 in Weavings: A Journal of the Christian Spiritual Life, February/March/April 2012. Copyright © 2011 by The Upper Room. All rights reserved. Used by permission. http://bookstore.upperroom.org/ Learn more about or purchase this book.

Today’s Question

Think of the last time it was necessary for you to wait. What might God have been prompting you to do? Share your thoughts.

Today’s Scripture Reading

[Jesus] came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
Mark 1:31, NRSV

This Week: pray for those who need to know God’s love. Submit your prayer to The Upper Room Living Prayer Center or share it in the comment section below.

For Your Spirit:

Join author Derek Maul in our 2012 online Lent eRetreat, Reaching Toward Easter. Daily reflections, prayer, and weekly group discussion will prepare us to fully enter the joy of Easter. REGISTER! For more information on this and other online courses from The Upper Room, click here.

Saints, Inc.:

This week we remember Elizabeth Lange (February 3).

Lectionary Readings

(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)

• Isaiah 40:21-31
• Psalm 147:1-11, 20c
• 1 Corinthians 9:16-23
• Mark 1:29-39

Sponsored by Upper Room Ministries ®. Copyright © 2012, a ministry of GBOD | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA

The Bishop Melvin G. Talbert Leadership Institute Fellows are being nurtured to become ethical leaders of vital congregations.

Today’s Reflection

PRAYING THE SINNER’S PRAYER is not the end goal of the Christian life. Praying one prayer, or having one experience of God’s grace, is not the fullness of what God hopes for us. Please don’t misunderstand me: having an initial experience of God’s grace by faith is absolutely essential, but it does not represent the entirety of the Christian life. When we talk about “getting saved,” we sound a lot like [a] naive couple on their honeymoon who think they have experienced the fullness of marriage. They will soon realize that getting married is just the beginning of marriage, not the end. Similarly, receiving forgiveness of our sins and being born again do make us Christians. … There is a real change, but it is just the beginning of an entirely new way of life.

- Kevin M. Watson
A Blueprint for Discipleship

From pages 29-30 of A Blueprint for Discipleship: Wesley’s General Rules as a Guide for Christian Living by Kevin M. Watson. Copyright © 2009 by Discipleship Resources. All rights reserved. Used by permission. http://bookstore.upperroom.org/ Learn more about or purchase this book.

Today’s Question

What is the next step in God’s grace for you? Share your thoughts.

Today’s Scripture Reading

If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel!
1 Corinthians 9:16, NRSV

This Week: pray for those who need to know God’s love. Submit your prayer to The Upper Room Living Prayer Center or share it in the comment section below.

For Your Spirit:

Join author Derek Maul in our 2012 online Lent eRetreat, Reaching Toward Easter. Daily reflections, prayer, and weekly group discussion will prepare us to fully enter the joy of Easter. REGISTER! For more information on this and other online courses from The Upper Room, click here.

Saints, Inc.:

This week we remember Elizabeth Lange (February 3).

Lectionary Readings

(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)

• Isaiah 40:21-31
• Psalm 147:1-11, 20c
• 1 Corinthians 9:16-23
• Mark 1:29-39

Sponsored by Upper Room Ministries ®. Copyright © 2012, a ministry of GBOD | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA

United Methodist Women join others in bringing awareness of human trafficking to festivities in Indianapolis.

Include God and make the effort, urges president of international hunger-relief organization.

Today’s Reflection

THE CHRISTIAN FAITH teaches that God wants to save us when we are at our worst. God loves us still. God is not ignorant of our sin; God sees it more devastatingly than we do. But God loves each one of us and sees someone whom God wants to redeem and make new. Think back to the words that Paul heard from Jesus: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

It is essential to keep grace at the center of the conversation when we talk about growth in the Christian life. We must remember that grace is the major power source that gives energy to all of our efforts to grow in our faith.

- Kevin M. Watson
A Blueprint for Discipleship

From page 16 of A Blueprint for Discipleship: Wesley’s General Rules as a Guide for Christian Living by Kevin M. Watson. Copyright © 2009 by Discipleship Resources. All rights reserved. Used by permission. http://bookstore.upperroom.org/ Learn more about or purchase this book.

Today’s Question

How do you think about grace in terms of growth in your Christian life? Share your thoughts.

Today’s Scripture Reading

…but the LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.
Praise the LORD!
Psalm 147:11, 20c, NRSV

This Week: pray for those who need to know God’s love. Submit your prayer to The Upper Room Living Prayer Center or share it in the comment section below.

For Your Spirit:

Join author Derek Maul in our 2012 online Lent eRetreat, Reaching Toward Easter. Daily reflections, prayer, and weekly group discussion will prepare us to fully enter the joy of Easter. REGISTER! For more information on this and other online courses from The Upper Room, click here.

Saints, Inc.:

This week we remember Elizabeth Lange (February 3).

Lectionary Readings

(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)

• Isaiah 40:21-31
• Psalm 147:1-11, 20c
• 1 Corinthians 9:16-23
• Mark 1:29-39

Sponsored by Upper Room Ministries ®. Copyright © 2012, a ministry of GBOD | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA

Two churches in the heart of Indianapolis find different ministries to feed the hungry and enable people to reach potential.

United Methodist support helps recruit outstanding faculty and provide students with academic, cultural and spiritual guidance.

Today’s Reflection

THE HAMMERING STACCATO OF NOISE … so infuses our daily lives that we have forgotten we have a choice: we can choose to disconnect from the world’s chatter. Disconnecting from the noise allows us to plug back into our quiet selves and to reconnect with God. Our souls, our minds, our bodies all crave connection, and daily journaling provides that connection.

Give yourself permission to listen: What are your body and your spirit telling you they need most? For what are you hungry, or hurting, or grateful? What needs the catharsis of spilling out through words onto paper?…

I believe the Divine can commune with humankind in many ways and sometimes it can be through the process of journaling thoughts on a page.

-Journeying Through the Days 2012

From “Journaling: Connecting to Yourself and to God” by Leisa A. Hammett, in Journeying Through the Days 2012: A Calendar and Journal for Personal Reflection Copyright © 2011 by Upper Room Books. All rights reserved. Used by permission. http://bookstore.upperroom.org/ Learn more about or purchase this book.

Today’s Question

Do you keep a journal? Why or why not? Share your thoughts.

Today’s Scripture Reading

Praise the LORD! How good it is to sing praises to our God; for he is gracious, and a song of praise is fitting.
Psalm 147:1, NRSV

This Week: pray for those who need to know God’s love. Submit your prayer to The Upper Room Living Prayer Center or share it in the comment section below.

For Your Spirit:

Join author Derek Maul in our 2012 online Lent eRetreat, Reaching Toward Easter. Daily reflections, prayer, and weekly group discussion will prepare us to fully enter the joy of Easter. REGISTER! For more information on this and other online courses from The Upper Room, click here.

Saints, Inc.:

This week we remember Elizabeth Lange (February 3).

Lectionary Readings

(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)

• Isaiah 40:21-31
• Psalm 147:1-11, 20c
• 1 Corinthians 9:16-23
• Mark 1:29-39

Sponsored by Upper Room Ministries ®. Copyright © 2012, a ministry of GBOD | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA

Mitt Romney rolled past Newt Gingrich in the Florida primary Tuesday night. Despite the setback, Gingrich vowed to press on.

Click inside to see the latest video reports and more.

From the hard soil of Tucson, Ariz., Youth Farm Project interns help the community to develop a flourishing garden and gathering place.

Today’s Reflection

IN CELTIC TRADITION, the wild goose is sometimes used as a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Geese, like the wind and the Spirit, come from distant places we cannot see and go where God directs them.

When my grandmother died, a flock of Canada geese flew over the cemetery, reminding me again that God’s work goes on, that creation continues. Nature reminds me to trust that God’s wild, mysterious, beautiful purposes will prevail. If God can create and sustain all of nature, I know that God can take care of me.

-Rachel Starr Thompson
devozine, Jul/Aug 2011

From “Like Wind and Spirit” by Rachel Starr Thompson, page 24 in devozine, July/August 2011, the devotional lifestyle magazine for teens. Copyright © 2011 by The Upper Room. All rights reserved. Used by permission. http://bookstore.upperroom.org/ Learn more about or purchase this book.

Today’s Question

If possible, spend some time in prayer outside today. Share your thoughts.

Today’s Scripture Reading

Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40:30-31, NRSV

This Week: pray for those who need to know God’s love. Submit your prayer to The Upper Room Living Prayer Center or share it in the comment section below.

For Your Spirit:

Join author Derek Maul in our 2012 online Lent eRetreat, Reaching Toward Easter. Daily reflections, prayer, and weekly group discussion will prepare us to fully enter the joy of Easter. REGISTER! For more information on this and other online courses from The Upper Room, click here.

Saints, Inc.:

This week we remember Elizabeth Lange (February 3).

Lectionary Readings

(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)

• Isaiah 40:21-31
• Psalm 147:1-11, 20c
• 1 Corinthians 9:16-23
• Mark 1:29-39

Sponsored by Upper Room Ministries ®. Copyright © 2012, a ministry of GBOD | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA

Click the link below to go to the Super Bowl story, or check out our special big game website, which has the latest news from GateHouse newspapers — including those in New England and New York — and our partners Pro Football Weekly and Bleacher Report. You'll also find features, party recipes and more. Click on the photo or headline to go to the site.

 

That’s the question church staff want General Conference delegates to consider in weighing various reorganization proposals.

Today’s Reflection

COMPASSIONATE GOD,
help me not to walk behind others
or to walk in front of them
but to walk beside them with kindness. Amen.

- Richard Morgan
Settling In

From page 138 of Settling In: My First Year in a Retirement Community by Richard Morgan. Copyright © 2006 by Richard Morgan. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Upper Room Books. http://bookstore.upperroom.org/ Learn more about or purchase this book.

Today’s Question

Think of a situation in your life where kindness is called for. Share your thoughts.

Today’s Scripture Reading

Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to live in; who brings princes to naught, and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing.
Isaiah 40:21-23, NRSV

This Week: pray for those who need to know God’s love. Submit your prayer to The Upper Room Living Prayer Center or share it in the comment section below.

For Your Spirit:

Join author Derek Maul in our 2012 online Lent eRetreat, Reaching Toward Easter. Daily reflections, prayer, and weekly group discussion will prepare us to fully enter the joy of Easter. REGISTER! For more information on this and other online courses from The Upper Room, click here.

Saints, Inc.:

This week we remember Elizabeth Lange (February 3).

Lectionary Readings

(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)

• Isaiah 40:21-31
• Psalm 147:1-11, 20c
• 1 Corinthians 9:16-23
• Mark 1:29-39

Sponsored by Upper Room Ministries ®. Copyright © 2012, a ministry of GBOD | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA

Today’s Reflection

May I walk this day
in the realm of grace,
walking with You
my feet firmly on your earth-path,
my heart loving all as kindred,
my words and deeds alive with justice.

May I walk as blessing,
meeting blessing at every turn
in every challenge, blessing,
in all opposition, blessing,
in harm’s way, blessing.

May I walk each step in this moment of grace,
alert to hear You
and awake enough to say
a simple Yes.

- Robert Corin Morris
Wrestling with Grace

From page 213 of Wrestling with Grace: A Spirituality for the Rough Edges of Daily Life by Robert Corin Morris. Copyright © 2003 by Robert Corin Morris. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Upper Room Books. http://bookstore.upperroom.org/ Learn more about or purchase this book.

Today’s Question

Spend time reflecting on today’s poem. Share your thoughts.

Today’s Scripture Reading

They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching–with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.”
Mark 1:27, NRSV

This Week: pray for those who are struggling to endure hardship. Submit your prayer to The Upper Room Living Prayer Center or share it in the comment section below.

For Your Spirit:

Make 2012 a Season of Prayer. Join us and take the pledge to pray every day in 2012. Click on this Take the Pledge link today to register your pledge. Let’s join together—let’s commit with a pledge—and Let Us Pray!

Saints, Inc.:

This week we remember Francis de Sales (January 24).

Lectionary Readings

(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)

• Deuteronomy 18:15-20
• Psalm 111
• 1 Corinthians 8:1-13
• Mark 1:21-28

Sponsored by Upper Room Ministries ®. Copyright © 2012, a ministry of GBOD | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA

Today’s Reflection

May I walk this day
in the realm of grace,
walking with You
my feet firmly on your earth-path,
my heart loving all as kindred,
my words and deeds alive with justice.

May I walk as blessing,
meeting blessing at every turn
in every challenge, blessing,
in all opposition, blessing,
in harm’s way, blessing.

May I walk each step in this moment of grace,
alert to hear You
and awake enough to say
a simple Yes.

- Robert Corin Morris
Wrestling with Grace

From page 213 of Wrestling with Grace: A Spirituality for the Rough Edges of Daily Life by Robert Corin Morris. Copyright © 2003 by Robert Corin Morris. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Upper Room Books. http://bookstore.upperroom.org/ Learn more about or purchase this book.

Today’s Question

Spend time reflecting on today’s poem. Share your thoughts.

Today’s Scripture Reading

They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching–with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.”
Mark 1:27, NRSV

This Week: pray for those who are struggling to endure hardship. Submit your prayer to The Upper Room Living Prayer Center or share it in the comment section below.

For Your Spirit:

Make 2012 a Season of Prayer. Join us and take the pledge to pray every day in 2012. Click on this Take the Pledge link today to register your pledge. Let’s join together—let’s commit with a pledge—and Let Us Pray!

Saints, Inc.:

This week we remember Francis de Sales (January 24).

Lectionary Readings

(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)

• Deuteronomy 18:15-20
• Psalm 111
• 1 Corinthians 8:1-13
• Mark 1:21-28

Sponsored by Upper Room Ministries ®. Copyright © 2012, a ministry of GBOD | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA