Messages In a Bottle
from Dr. Roger P. Richardson
January 6, 2025
Live In the Moment
This is the day of Epiphany, a word that has come to mean a revelation, a new idea, a clarity in understanding and knowledge, and wisdom from on high. Yesterday is gone, tomorrow is not here but today is God’s gift - that is why it is called the “Present”! Enjoy each day as God gives it to you ! Now there can be for you today’s epiphany!
December 30, 2024
Living Water
That is not unlike the situation of Jesus' disciples in our Gospel. Jesus has been telling them to pour all their resources into their call to be His disciples and hold nothing back. They did and “Living Water” poured forth, for themselves and those that they gave the water of life.Jesus gives us love that sprouts and grows out of His love within us.
December 23, 2024
Advent Goodwill to Men
Why so much goodwill in the Season we call Christmas? Why all the celebrating? Because a little more than two thousand years ago, planet earth was visited by God in a unique way. In the birth of the Lord Jesus, we see God reaching out to reveal His Goodness, Mercy, Grace, Forgiving Love to enfold the earth and all that is within it.
December 16, 2024
Advent The Prince of Peace
In the darkest hours of war, we see the brightest examples of hope from those who desire deep down inside to be the persons God created them to be. This is the message of peace that we are called to reflect.As God’s Christmas gift Jesus Christ comes to you as the Prince of Peace. He brings you the gift of peace.
December 9, 2024
Advent -Preparation/Prophesy
God’s Kingdom coming to earth as it is in heaven finds its beginning in a Bethlehem stable with a baby crying in the night. It is here where heaven and earth meet that should draw your attention, your heart, your very life. For it is here in this humble beginning that Salvation has come to you!
December 2, 2024
Your Best Gift
I heard a gentle voice speak within me: "These are children; they are learning and are doing very well." The voice, of course, spoke the truth. I was judging at first according to my expectations, not accepting that they were all performing according to their ability.
Is this not the spirit of Advent? Each person preparing to bring the best gift of themselves to the Christ Child
November 18, 2024
Wrapping Paper
Today, we are invited to wrap ourselves in the Good News of a gracious God who becomes one of us to tell us that He loves us. The Good News that the harvest is plentiful and the crops have come in and we know that just as the birds of the air we too shall be fed. The Good News that we have friends and a church family who love us and hope to be with us and see us in this glorious time of year called.the Holiday Season
November 11, 2024
The Divinity of Man
According to an ancient Hindu legend, there was a time when all human beings were gods. However, they treated their divinity with such disrespect that Brahma, the chief god, decided that their deity should be taken from them and hidden in a place where they would never again find it. The question was, “Where to hide it?”
November 11, 2024
Abundance and Bread of Life
Where there is Jesus there is always more that enough love to go around always more than enough joy to go around, always more than enough faith to go around and always more than enough hope to go around.
Jesus, the Bread of Life, is always dealing with abundance.
November 4, 2024
The Kingdom of God
In the Legend of the Golden Windows, a young boy works hard all day on the family farm. And each evening at sunset, when the workday was through, the boy had an hour to himself before the evening meal. When the time came, the boy would go up to the top of a nearby hill and look across the valley to a house with windows that shone like gold and diamonds.
October 28, 2024
Love is Forever
He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.
October 21, 2024
Generosity
Psychologists tell us that to have a life that is fulfilled and even happy; one needs to cultivate the art of generosity - to be a giving person!
We have an inner human need to matter and to make a difference. This sense of fulfillment grows as you give. Generosity is a Spiritual vitamin and it works.
October 13, 2024
Days Without End
In Eugene O'Neil's story of a poignant psychological struggle "Days Without End," John Loving, a Roman Catholic boy, prays that his parents, who have been injured, might not die. But their lives were not saved by the kind of miracle he had expected, and he loses his faith. He becomes a skeptic and a cynic. Inwardly, however, he keeps searching deeply for some answer.
October 6, 2024
The Miracle of Life
You begin to get your best possible glimpse of the miracle of life when you realize that you are special in God's creative plan. You are one of God's "originals" — wonderfully mysterious in your uniqueness. You are necessary! You belong! God's plan to fulfill His creation includes you; needs you! And you need others bound together by God’s Holy Spirit in forgiving love.
September 30, 2024
Planting for the Future
A kind word in a time of need; a caring smile in a time of stress; a bit of encouragement in a time of frustration; a spark of hope in a time of despair; a gesture of understanding in a time of confusion -- summed up in this line from a beautiful poem: "In a moment these better things are gone -- but there are a hundred ripples circling on and on."
September 23, 2024
The Gift of Autumn
It is written in Daniel 2:29-21 that God Blessed us with this change of Season.
“Daniel said: ‘Blessed be the name of God from age to age, for wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons,’”
This is Fall with all of its wonder and glory. So, enjoy, God’s beautiful gift to you and all of us.
September 16, 2024
Who Do You Want to Be?
A flower, a butterfly, a grain of sand, a single raindrop -- each serves a purpose in God's Creation. We cannot even begin to visualize all that exists in God's Plan and by God's Design! Why this grain of sand? Why this tiny flea? I don't know. But to think that in this world everyone can grow to be like the thing they love most – that's awesome!"
September 9, 2024
Like a School of Minnows
A father and son went fishing together one afternoon. As they prepared to cast their lines out into the lake, the father said excitedly, "Do you see that big swirl? That must be a really big fish out there." With that, he tossed his line out in the direction of the swirl and waited. But nothing happened. Suddenly, he saw it again.
September 2, 2024
Hometown Ministry
Prophets are people who are more interested in playing to an audience of one (God) than being accepted by the crowd, they are more interested in being faithful than being careful to not offend. These are the prophets. We need them, God uses them and they often say things that we just do not want to hear, or accept but in our heart of hearts we know that their message rings with the Truth of God).
August 25, 2024
Plato and Socrates
As the ancient philosopher Socrates told us (through his student Plato), “the unexamined life is not worth living.” So, Philosophy means “love of wisdom,” and the philosopher is concerned with seeking the truth. We who follow Jesus can claim his words, that He is the Truth (the truth of God and the only Truth that really ultimately matters).
August 19, 2024
Grasshopper Anyone
The gospel message often comes to us through a messenger, whether it’s an angel whispering into Mary's ear, or a parent telling a child a story, or a prophet standing knee-deep in a river. What is most striking about the messenger, John the Baptist, is that he was never near a church. Those who insisted on staying inside the church never heard his message.
August 12, 2024
God is Fun
We serve a God who loves us like his children. Maybe we take ourselves too seriously and don’t take God seriously enough! In the beginning God designed a garden for us to enjoy and have time to play and have fun. God is fun, enjoyable, and encourages for us to have a spirit cleansing good laugh. So, have fun, and enjoy today for you will never have another one like it.
August 5, 2024
What's On Your Calendar
My dear friend Rev. Dr. Bob Pitman used to say that his birthday comes every year no matter what because you just can’t stop the calendar BUT what matters is what you do for the Lord each day that is on that calendar’s page.
July 29, 2024
The Bread of Life
Of all the ways that God feeds us, there is one unique, supremely valuable, and incredibly nourishing way: through His presence in the Living Christ. God wants us to understand that if we feed upon Jesus, our spiritual Bread, we will be nourished as in no other way. "I am the Bread of Life," Jesus says.
July 22, 2024
The Symphony of Life
In our symphony of life, we all experience those spiritual and emotional ups and downs, highs, and lows. The shadowy goblin of death comes roaming around, and we're feeling mighty low. But deep down inside, we know that goblin will be back -- and we're afraid. Then something beautiful breaks through to sweep that away, and our life seems bright and clean again.
July 15, 2024
Listen Anyone With Ears
I have heard it said that God gave us two ears and only one mouth. This means that God knows that we need to listen twice as much as we talk. There is truth to that. We often listen far too little. We also need to listen with our heart so we can hear what a person is really trying to express.
Remember how Jesus said, "Listen, anyone who has ears" (Matthew 13:9).
July 8, 2024
Like a Mustard Seed
When you plant a seed, you put it in the dark, quiet ground, and nothing happens: no violins sing, trumpets blow, or drums roll. Nevertheless, the spark of life takes place often in the cold, dark, damp ground of sorrow as a person reaches out to minister to the hurt, troubled, grief-stricken, devastated and heartbroken.
July 1, 2024
Magna Cum Pellidentium
if a student graduates "Cum Laude," it means "With Honors." "Magna Cum Laude" translates "With High Honors. And if a student graduates "Summa Cum Laude," it designates “With Supreme Honors.”
“But,” he continued, “there's a new honor I plan to use in the future to be called ‘Magna Cum Pellidentium,’ which means ‘By the skin of your teeth.’”
June 24, 2024
Without God
The famed comedian was persuaded to inspect a palatial ocean-front estate that was for sale. The realtor showed Groucho the many beautiful features of the estate by the sea. Finally, he was shown the wide view of the Pacific. "Now, what do you think?" he challenged. "I don't care for it," replied Groucho. "Take away the ocean, and now what have you got?"
June 17, 2024
Someone Cares
Jesus returns home to Nazareth. His fellow villagers have heard accounts of His revolutionary teachings and His astonishing miracles. Now, here He is, in the flesh, back home again, teaching in the local Synagogue. And the villagers "were astonished" by what they saw and heard. But later they pushed him out!
June 10, 2024
The Mystery of God
Thomas Edison wrote these lines:
"We don't know the millionth part of one percent about anything. We don't know what water is. We don't know what light is. We don't know what gravitation is. . . We have a lot of hypotheses about these things, but that is all. But we do not let our ignorance about all these things deprive us of their use."
June 3, 2024
You Are What You Eat
There is a rush on to combat excess weight or even obesity. Of course we have read in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.”
May 27, 2024
Fields Ripe Unto Harvest
Most of us may have assumed that our friends and neighbors may not be going to church but thought if questioned they would say that they believed in God but that is not the case for one-fourth of them. Of course the poll also found that “Over seven in 10 say religion is losing its influence in U.S. society.”
May 20, 2024
Blessed are the Peacemakers
The religious history of humanity tells us that in those times when the spark grows dim -- when all manner of evil obscures hope for peace and brotherhood, God raises His most formidable prophets. The strongest, loudest, most profound voices of hope always seem to receive the Holy Spirit Power to sound the trumpet of love and hope.
May 13 2024
The Armor of God
Yes, it is so true that we do clothe ourselves with Christ as we wait for the robe of righteousness but today we need the whole armor of God: The Armor of God - Ephesians 6:10-18 “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.
May 6 2024
Self Inflicted Nonsense
What is S.I.N.? Lots of ways to answer this one some say it is breaking God’s Laws, others say it is the result of turning your back on God, while others say it is the outcome of living an evil life. I think that they are all true. I like to say that S.I.N. is and acronym for Self Inflected Nonsense!
April 29 2024
Love Shines With Hope
History of tells us that when all manner of evil obscures any hope, God raises His most formidable prophets. The strongest, loudest, most profound voices of hope always seem to come in different ways but are always present in special ways. Hitler did not prevail. Neither did Mussolini or Tojo. Voices of hope and freedom were stronger and won the day.
April 22, 2024
Caring for Creation Sunday
Mother Teresa was once asked how she was able to accomplish so much good work for the poor. “One by One,” she replied. Have you ever noticed how from seemingly insignificant beginnings, movements can grow to a point of awe and wonder? That one by one, small steps can amount to spectacular outcomes?
April 15, 2024
Scammers and the Emperor
People today are always susceptible to a con-job, scammers are always out there ready to “give” you computer assistance, or help you receive thousands of dollars in government pay out or corporate winnings, sell you new insurance or help you “unfreeze your bank account” or keep you from being prosecuted by the IRS or Social Security.
April 8, 2024
Be the Church For Others
As a community of faith, one of the most serious charges that can be leveled at us is the claim that "Church People" are turned in on themselves. We Christians are vulnerable in the extreme to such a charge because the Gospel we preach is the Good News that God is a loving God who cares about all His human creatures. .
April 1, 2024
Believe on the Lord
Straightforward. Simple. Relating a lot of information. The same can be said of our text in today's Lesson wherein Jesus says to the Apostle Thomas, "Doubt no longer but believe." Straightforward, simple, and conveyed in a kind of show and tell way. Go ahead and touch if that is what it takes for you but blessed are those who can not see but still believe.
March 25, 2024
The Fullness of God
Orchidaceous! I can think of no better opportunity to call forth one of my favorite words than today, Monday of Holy Week leading us to Easter Sunday. Even when you hear it for the first time, it's a word that immediately evokes an image of awesome beauty. When no other word will do, it is an expression of something extravagantly wonderful.
March 18, 2024
The Work of the Spirit
The Holy Spirit is given to the church to bring about community in the deepest sense, a true loving and accepting spirit and a fellowship dependent upon grace for themselves and for each other. When the Holy Spirit is present and active you can truly sense the bonds to togetherness the are beautiful, hopeful, faithful and gloriously joyfully loving.
March 11, 2024
Sheep Need a Shepherd
Sheep are very skittish and run away at any unfamiliar sound, animal, or person. But once they get to know you, they are very dependent creatures needing to be led to water and given good grass to graze and protection from dangers. Sheep need and depend upon a “Good Shepherd” and so do we.
March 4, 2024
Together in the Family of God
Remember that God created us to be relational beings. To relate first to Him and then with each other. One of our great responsibilities today is to help people find their way into the church, God’s family and have a beautiful loving relationship with the church family as together we dispel loneliness in the arms of a loving Heavenly Father.
February 25, 2024
Someday in God's Time
We have the promised commitment of God and the reassurance of our faith the God’s somedays are eternal guarantees ready to happen, to spring into being, and fix’n to be real. So bet your life on God and you have the absolutely safest bet in heaven and on earth.
February 18, 2024
Let Go and Let God
Into every loving relationship comes the inevitable quarrel that moves those involved into their respective corners, holding fast to their version of the truth. And as the saying goes, there’s three sides to every story: Yours, mine, and the truth.
February 11, 2024
Healing Spiritual Goodness
If a member of the tribe acts irresponsibly, they are placed at the center of the village. Every man, woman, and child gathers around the accused in a large circle. Then, one at a time, everyone calls out all the good things the person in the center has done previously. All the positive attributes and the kind acts are recited carefully and at length.
February 4, 2024
Love Casts Out Fear
Mortified and disgusted by leprosy, St. Francis may have wished to pass by on the other side of the road, but God’s still, small voice told him to stop, reach out, and embrace the man with leprosy.
Both the man with leprosy and Francis were transformed in that moment.
January 29, 2024
Being a Temple of Praise
Jesus says, "if you want to know all you need to know about who you really are and where you’re going with your life - Trust Me! Not just when it's convenient, not only when it's easy, not just when it doesn't hurt, but trust Me, especially when you feel like you can't handle life's burdens anymore."
January 22, 2024
Make Disciples of All
And Jesus said to them, “19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.””
January 15, 2024
Love and Justice For All
With fiery words of hope, wisdom, and a passion for justice that resonate as much today as they did years ago, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., stirred the deepest convictions of listeners everywhere, inspiring them to extraordinary acts of courage and perseverance
January 8, 2024
Beloved Son of God
In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came out of the water, immediately He saw the heavens opened and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove; and a voice came from Heaven, 'You are My beloved Son, with You I am well pleased'".
January 1, 2024
Happy New Year
On the second visit the Rabbi brought drinks to all to enjoy and how did these people from the concentration camp still suffering the ravages of torture and malnutrition respond? Each lifted their glass and cried with a loud voice that rang throughout the building and beyond, “ L'chayim! ” which means “to life!”