Dear First Methodist Family,

We’ve now completed three weekends in the season of the church year called Lent.  It’s a season when we focus on the steps of Jesus Christ that take Him to the cross and beyond to the resurrection on Easter.  Our observance of Lent began on the weekend of February 20th and 21st with the first of our message series, "Who Is This Man?" On that Service of the Cross Sunday, individual pocket crosses were distributed to all those who attended worship as we concentrated on “Our Savior – The Sacrifice.”  I hope you’re carrying yours with you as a reminder of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.  The 10-foot “old rugged cross” will remain in the sanctuary until it is transformed on Easter Sunday to a symbol of hope by the individual flowers we bring to worship that day.  I hope you already have one picked out.  It’s an amazing transformation and it reminds us that Easter is about life.

Last weekend the “Who Is This Man?” message was about a challenge that Jesus brings to us to become fishers of people.  This weekend we’ll speak about Jesus as our healer.  You won’t want to miss a weekend in this important season in the church year. One of the lessons we learn as we travel toward Easter is the great promise of the Bible: God will always be with us, in every circumstance of life, and indeed, even beyond this life.  Come what may, the one thing we can

always count on is that God will be with us, giving us the strength we need; and when we feel God’s presence with us in those dark and difficult moments, we discover we can make it through.

One beautiful spring morning, a man took his son for a walk down a busy city street.  The streets were so crowded the little boy started holding on to his father’s finger.  However, after being pushed and jostled and bumped by the crowd, the little boy grew tired and he said, “Please, Dad, take hold of my hand now; I can’t hold on much longer.” Sometimes that’s what we have to do. We trust God, as Jesus did, and ask him to hold us up and get us through.

Jesus is God’s way of telling us he will hold us up and see us through.