Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ, who was, who is, and who is to come!

After Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and before he gathered with his disciples for the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday, Jesus kept busy. He turned the tables at the temple, he cured the blind and the lame, he cursed a fruitless fig tree, and he challenged the authorities. And that’s just half of chapter 21! Then we get parables and questions and talk about the “end of the age”. We hear Jesus answer that “you will hear of wars and rumors of wars,” and “famines and earthquakes,” and we hear about “the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and glory… and a loud trumpet call…”

We live in a time with earthquakes and famines, wars and rumors of wars.
We live in a time when people anxiously and frequently wonder “are we in the end times?”

After Jesus says these things, and in the midst of Jesus saying these things, we have parables and sayings about watchfulness and about how you are to live in the now.

Not what you are to do about the future but how you are to live in the now.

In the generations since Jesus shared his teachings and his life with the disciples, many have supposed they were in the end days, many have even made predictions about the exact day God will effect a reckoning with the people. And one thing has not changed: Jesus tells us time and again how we are to live in the now.

Now is the time to live with humility and personal integrity.

Now is the time to live with compassion and grace.

Now is the time to reach out to others around you – friends and neighbors, strangers and enemies – with self-knowledge and with eyes and hearts trained by the Master, Jesus.

Jesus does indicate that our lives will be measured for fruitfulness – what have we done with the resources we’ve had, and who have we served?

And again we look to Jesus, who “loved us and gave himself up for us,” and who demonstrated time and again that the highest calling is to be servant to others.

And so I encourage you, good family and friends of Lakeview UMC, to live your now  in the manner of the Master, Jesus; to live in faith and walk in love. Let’s do just that, now.

Keep on keepin on, beloved! I am yours -- PK

 Praise Song for April 2023: We The Kingdom “Sing Wherever I Go” https://youtu.be/vmkVyBkDQME

Coming up: We need your presence and participation at the following events. What will you be bringing for the Easter Breakfast?

Sunday 4/2, Palm Sunday worship service with palms and communion
Monday 4/3, Bible Study, 2:30pm
Monday 4/3, Eagle Scout Court of Honor, Grant Hudson, 6:45pm
Tuesday 4/4, Administrative Board, 7:00pm
Thursday 4/6, Maundy Thursday, 7:00pm, LAKEVIEW
Friday 4/7, Good Friday, 7:00pm, HUMPHREYS
Sunday 4/9, Resurrection Sunday, 7:00am, Basketball Court Stone parking lot near Lakeview
Sunday 4/9, Resurrection Sunday, 7:45am, Easter Breakfast
Sunday 4/9, Resurrection Sunday, 10:00am worship celebration

 On Wednesday March 1, Pastor Kerry received a call from the District Superintendent, informing him that it was the Bishop's intention to appoint him to the Epworth UMC in Ripley WV, effective July 1, 2023. Pastor Ford Price is retiring, and as the Bishop and the Cabinet considered Epworth, they discerned that they'd like to send PK there. Kerry met with Epworth's PPRC, and with the PPRCs of Humphreys and Lakeview, and the announcement was made Sunday March 5. PK's last Sunday at Humphreys and Lakeview will be June 18.

On Sunday March 26, it was announced that effective July 1, 2023, it is the Bishop’s intention to appoint Pastor Brian Plum to serve the congregations of Lakeview UMC and St. Andrews UMC. Pastor Brian and his wife Zondra will live at the Lakeview parsonage. They come to us from his most recent appointment in Weston, WV.

As of this writing, we have not received word about who will be appointed to serve the Humphreys church.