A NOTE FROM PASTOR MARGE
Have you ever lost something before and then went on a long search to find it? I remember one time in college I lost my dorm room keys and I basically tore apart my entire room searching for them. Eventually, out of frustration, I opened my mini fridge to get something to drink and lo and behold, there were my dorm room keys, just chilling in the fridge (get it, chillin')? On this first Sunday after Christmas and on the eve of a new year, we too find ourselves searching. We make our New Year's resolutions, seeking and searching for a better life, a better version of ourselves. Maybe we find ourselves searching for a better routine or a healthier diet. Perhaps we are searching for a better way to do our finances. Perhaps we are searching for answers to questions we have been wrestling with in 2023. Perhaps we are searching for meaning and purpose. Perhaps we are searching for a deeper faith. Perhaps we are searching for any faith at all.
As another year begins, the question is this: what or who are you searching for in 2024? Are you searching for the things of this world, like a better job or a better house or a better car or a better school or a better family or a better schedule or a better body? Or are you searching for Jesus, for God, the One who came to be with us forever?
In this new year, you are invited to search for Jesus Christ. What does searching for Jesus actually look like, you may be wondering? Perhaps for you, you have never had faith in Him before. Perhaps your search looks like believing for the very first time that when Jesus died on the cross, He indeed died for you too. Perhaps for another, your search will look like deepening your faith. Maybe your faith has been surface-level, and you want to go deeper. So perhaps for you, that looks like signing up for a Bible study in the new year or establishing a daily routine to be in God's Word. Perhaps for another, you have some big questions about the Christian faith and so maybe your search will involve attending worship here, as Pastor Bob and I will be preaching about tough questions in the faith. Perhaps for someone else, maybe your search will involve putting your faith into action. Perhaps you will get involved in one of our many local mission opportunities here at the church or volunteer in some sort of capacity.
Whatever your search will look like in 2024, remember this: our search for Jesus doesn't stop at the manger. Our search for Jesus, for the personal, knowable, yet incomprehensible God, is a life-long pursuit. John Wesley would call it sanctification. It's the process of searching for and seeking God with all of our hearts and all of our souls and all of our minds and all of our strength, becoming more and more like Him as we do. The great promise for each person who searches for and seeks the Lord is that you will find Him. And when He is found, we will receive the greatest reward: God himself.
Happy New Year, St. Petersburg First United Methodist Church!
— Pastor Marge
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