SUNDAY SERVICES:

Don't Forget--This Sunday...

Join us for the 10 am service this week and you get an extra Advent bonus!

Come witness the birth of Jesus through the eyes of our children.

December 17, 2016

11:00 am-3:00 pm

The African Refugee Christmas Party

Summit Church

Herdon Campus, 735 Herndon Avenue, Orlando, FL 32803

Originally sent to the parish via email 11-4-16.

Originally sent to the parish via email September 16, 2016

I have a strange way of relaxing, or perhaps not so foreign to some. I may lose some of you right here as I admit that I love to sit in front of the television and vegetate when I have nothing else special to do. The idea of viewing the world through another's eyes is somehow intriguing.

"Do not be afraid, little flock..." How we need these words from our Great Shepherd. We are a vulnerable, fearful little collection of people, aren't we? This fallen world is violent, unsafe, unpredictable, and just downright scary. This is the current state of America, SE Asia and everywhere else. My dear Asian friends live with a great deal of fear. Their cultural and religious practices are primarily driven by fear and striving. Sometimes we, as Christians, are scared too.

Do you remember the movie, Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade?  Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones is forced to follow clues to retrieve the Holy Grail in order to save his father, who has been shot by the villain.  He comes across a chasm spanning a greater distance than any human could leap.  There is a pregnant pause as Indiana Jones stands, one foot precariously in the air, contemplating the step that he is about to make with his father's voice wafting in the background, "Have faith, boy!"

What is Infinity + 1?

I remember sitting in my eighth-grade math class, half-excited that it was nearly over and half-annoyed that we were listening to a classmate argue with the math teacher about the definition of infinity, in math used to symbolize the largest number imagined. She wasn't really arguing. She was trying to understand how infinity could be the largest number possible. Every time the teacher tried to explain that the term was not really a number but a rather a symbol, she would exclaim, "Well then, what is (Infinity+1)?"

John and Susan Stevens offer a gracious invitation as we await Pentecost:

"I am going to send what my Father has promised, but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."

These were the last instructions Jesus gave his disciples before he ascended into heaven. The disciples went to Jerusalem and waited.

Dr. Bob Tuttle was one of my favorite professors from seminary because, in my experience with him, he lived out what he preached.  My first encounter with him, before ever having him as a professor in class, was when he grabbed me by the arm and dragged me to the other side of the hallway so we could pray.  “Your classmate needs us to pray over him.”  He not only believed in the power of the Holy Spirit, he reveled in it.  He believed in the supernatural power of God.

He stretched my openness to God and my openness to the Holy Spirit by sharing his experiences. Though I may not have originally thought some things possible before, his belief in them, combined with his Christian witness, left me open to God being more.