Parkland United Methodist Church: CLOSED

Parkland United Methodist Church has closed:  Parkland United Methodist Church was de-conscrated on June 29, 2014.  Former Parkland members are attending Spanaway United Methodist Church at 163rd St. S. and Pacific Ave.   Worship is at 10:30 with singing beginning at 10:20.  All are welcome.
Phone # 253-537-5134

Spanaway UMC will have it's annual Parkling Lot Sale on Sat. August 9 beginning at 9 am.  This multi-family sale includes household goods, furniture, children's clothing, books, linens, toys and games.  Come and see what you can't live without.

Summer's Beauty

Beautiful God, you fill the earth with beauty,

painting breathtaking sunsets

and splashing colors into bouquets of flowers.

Let me bloom this month.

Let my life bring light and color into your world.

Let me shine for you, play for you, delight in you.

Open me to the miracles of summer, the flowering of praise, the sunshine of song.

Amen.

 

-Larry James Peacock

Openings: a Daybook of Saints, Psalms, and Prayers 

In Our Hour of Need

In times of weakness and hour of need,

yours is the strength by which we carry on,

the shoulder we rest our head upon.

When our load is heavy and too much to bear,

yours are the arms stretched out to help us

the grace that we depend on.

In times of weakness and hour of need,

your voice is heard,‘Come… find rest.

’This is grace divine,

the path we tread to wholenessof body and spirit,

the path that leads to you,

and for which we offer our offering of praise.

~John Birch

www.faithandworship.com

Being Christian

The smile on my face 

doesn't mean my life is perfect.  

It means I appreciate what I have and 

what God has blessed me with.

Our Journey

As Helen Steiner Rice says;

" Life is a highway on which the years go by...

Sometimes the road is level, sometimes the hills are high...

But as we travel onward to a future that's unknown, 

We can make each mile we travel a heavenly stepping stone!"

May Angelou

Listen to yourself

and in that quietude

you might hear the voice of God.

 

-Maya Angelou

(her last tweet sent 4 days ago)

 

A woman of wisdom, courage and love who was a bridge-builder, justice-bearer and literary giant.  Another bright light is shining in the great cloud of witnesses.

Who is Master of Me?

      I would rather please God
        and have a few people
          upset with me than
         to please people and 
       have God upset with me.

Trust God

When God pushes

you to the edge,

trust Him fully,

because only two

things  can happen.

Either He will catch

you when you fall

or He will teach

you how to fly.

Loving

“When we feel love and kindness toward others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace.”

14^th Dalai Lama  (b. 1935) 

Greetings

God of the Good News,

in the fullness of my life,

empty me of distractions.

Still my busyness.

Quiet my chatter.

Sing your song of grace to me

until the tune rings in the core of my being

and my life resonates with your good news.

 

-Alive Now

Nov./Dec. 2000

 

Easter Message

This is the Easter message,

that awakening is possible,

to the goodness of God,

the sacredness of human life,

the sisterhood and brotherhood of all. 

 

-Anne Lamott

Traveling Mercies

 

LENTEN GREETINGS

Merciful God, grant me the heart of Christ, 
who walks with those who suffer.

Grant me the spirit of Christ, 
who goes among his enemies with love.

Grant me the courage of Christ, 
who stands by the afflicted and cries out.

Grant me the hope of Christ, 
who confronts injustice without despair.

Grant me the trust of Christ, 
who allows your Spirit to lead him.

Grant me the peace of Christ, 
who faces his end with clear eyes.

Grant me the life and death of Christ,

whom you give to the world and raise from the dead.

Merciful God, grant me the presence of Christ, 
that it may be not I, but Christ

 who lives in me with your perfect love. Amen.

-Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light

Make the Ordinary Come Alive

Make the ordinary Come alive

 Do not ask your children

 To strive for extraordinary lives.

Such striving may seem admirable,

But it is a way of foolishness.

Help them instead to find the wonder

and the marvel of an ordinary life.

Show then the joy of tasting

 tomatoes, apples and pears.  

Show then how to cry

when pets and people die.

Show then the infinite pleasure

 in the touch of a hand.

And make the ordinary come alive for them.

 The extraordinary will take care of itself.

William Martin

Oso Disaster

As we consider the households who have been impacted

by this tragedy in our home state, as well as the people

who are risking themselves in service to those very same

households and their families, may we find comfort and

guidance through the poetry of the Psalms,

particularly Psalm 46:

God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in

 trouble. 
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth

should change,
though the mountains shake in the heart

of the sea; 
though its waters roar and foam,

though the mountains tremble with its tumult.

God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved;

God will help it when the morning dawns. 

The LORD of hosts is with us;
 the God of Jacob is our refuge.

Lenten Journey

Beloved, come to me, I pray.

I do not care how or when,

in what form, what shape,

in what spirit you come to me,

but come.  I long for you.

I am not whole without you.

See, the place here in my heart 

for you alone  I hold and wait.

Oh, come, do come, and stay.
So the Holy One
cries out to you:
Beleoved, come.

Steve Garaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

www.unfoldinglight.net

Lent

I may not say

everything perfectly.

I may not do

everything perfectly.

But if my heart is in

the right place,

and I try my best,

then I am OK

with that.

No-one is perfect.

Anna Pereira 

          

Ash Wednesday begins Lent

               Lent serves as our annual invitation to come closer to God. 

It provides a time to look at our lives and ourselves, 

not so we may criticize ourselves more harshly 

but so we can identify the obstructions that keep us from God.

What keeps us from feeling the presence of the divine in our every day? 

 How do we hide from God, and why?

Lent gives us a chance to look at such obstructions 

and to move them gently away 

so that we can come closer to the Love that gives us life, 

the Love whose triumph we will celebrate on Easter morning.

- Sarah Parsons
A Clearing Season: Reflections for Lent

God, in our journeying together

may we be aware

that some walk slowly.

For those who find the going easy

there is freedom on the road,...

but some who struggle with the pace

and others, hampered by their load

need to stop and rest awhile.

God, in our journeying together

may we be aware

that some walk slowly.

©John Birch (adapted)

Every experience God gives us.

 every person He puts in our lives,

Is the perfect preparation for the future

that only He can see.

Carrie tan Boon

Love

Today I choose

to live with gratitude

for the LOVE that fills

my heart, the PEACE

that rests within my spirit,

and the voice of HOPE that says…

all things are

possible.

LOVE

LOVE  ONE  ANOTHER

“Love one another as I have loved you.”

May seem so very impossible to do

But if you will try to trust and believe,

There are many great joys that you will receive,

For love makes us patient, understanding and kind,

And we judge with our hearts and not with our mind.

For as soon as love enters the heart’s  open door,

The faults we once saw are not there anymore.

And the things that seemed wrong begin to look right,

When viewed in the softness of love’s gentle light.

For love works in ways that are wondrous and strange,

And there is nothing in life that love cannot change.

And all that God promised will someday come true,

When you love one another, the way  He loves you.

MAY GOD ....

May the beauty of God

be reflected in your eyes,

the love of God

be reflected in your hands,

the wisdom of God...

be reflected in your words,

and the knowledge of God

flow from your heart.

.

©John Birch

www.faithandworship.com

Grounding ourselves in God through prayer holds us accountable for our actions and keeps us connected to God’s promise for the world and to God’s desire for our role in creating that world.  Our intimate relationship with God reminds us to pray with courageous spirits, clear minds, and merciful hearts.

Jane E. Vennard,  Embracing the World, Praying for Justice and Peace

HAPPY NEW YEAR

God of tomorrows, we thank you for the gift of a new year. Morning by morning new mercies we see. We bring our joy and anticipation. We also bring our still-fresh pain as we remember the ones we lost in the past year. We bring the sting of disappointment as we ponder over the relationships that have been broken in the year past. We bring the burden of sadness as we struggle to recover from losing jobs. And we bring our hope that you will help us. Free us, right now, from being identified only by the events of our life. May the God Event in our life mark our life, so that we might worship you this day in the beauty of your holiness. Amen.

–B. Kevin Smalls,