JANUARY 2010 - It's a brand NEW YEAR !
Happy 2010
As you read this, we have ushered in a new year.
A new year should be a time of looking back and being thankful for all our blessings
and looking forward to the new year to come.
As I started to write these words, the song Joyful, Joyful came on.
I was listening to a CD I received for Christmas.
Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee.
God of glory, Lord of love;
Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee,
Opening to the sun above.
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness,
Drive the dark of doubt away;
Giver of immortal gladness,
Fill us with the light of day.
I am so thankful for all of the blessings I have received this last year. It has truly been an incredible year. The most obvious is finding myself the pastor of FCC here in Ashland. It isn’t so much being a Pastor at FCC in and of itself, but I am surrounded by an incredible church family.
Walking with you in our faith journey.
You see, our God is an inviting God.
“All you who are thirsty, come and drink.”
“Come follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
“Come to me all, all who are tired and have heavy loads, and I will give you rest.”
Yes, he is an inviting God, he invited Mary to birth his son, and the Disciples to fish for men. God is the King who prepares the palace, sets the table, and invites his subjects to come in.
As a matter of fact, “come” seems to be his favorite word.
God is a God who invites, who calls, who opens the door and waves his hand,,,,,, come. Come to the feast, The tables are laden to near breaking. But this invitation isn’t just for a meal, but for life.
The awesome things, is to know him, to know God, is to receive his invitation.
And when we receive it, we open ourselves to the God that is praised in that hymn I mentioned.
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness, Drive the dark of doubt away;
Giver of immortal gladness, Fill us with the light of day.
In Christ, we have so much to look forward to this next year.
Blessings!
Pastor Mike
DECEMBER 2009 MESSAGES
Messages from the desk of Pastor Mike: 
As I write this I am excited. I can’t help but get excited about Christmas. My mom always said that the first snow,,, and then the preparation leading up to Christmas was a big time for me.
It’s no wonder that the Christmas story was my favorite bible reading.
When we had to choose a bible verse as “our verse”, it was Luke 2: 1-20.
Not exactly a short verse you could have engraved on a keepsake.
I have always marveled, that God would send us his son, in human form, John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us……. God had the whole thing planned. He sent his son to a dark world, to lead us. Luke 2:9 And the glory of the Lord shone around them…..
It’s difficult once we grow up. We have all the “adult” responsibilities. If we aren’t careful Christmas loses some of its wonder. It becomes a little more of a chore. We have so many other everyday things to worry about,,,,, and then we add on the extra stuff. More grocery shopping, gift shopping, where does the money come from,,,, programs at school, I really need to send cards, and a note is nice,, not just signed.
One of the great things about having kids, is you get to relive some of that childhood wonder through them. And in a way its better, to get to see and experience that wonder through their eyes. The sparkle of the tree lights in their eyes, the anticipation and excitement of the unknown.
I want to invite all of you, to at some point in our Christmas season, to find a quiet place, and briefly think about the wonder of Christmas. Reflect back to the Christmas Wonder that you experienced when you where young. The Christmas Wonder you experience through the youngsters in your life. God sent his son, so be a light in our world, for us to follow. It was an awesome wonder, 2000 years ago. I hope you can find that same wonder again.
Grant me, O God, ears to hear and eyes to see the wonder of your presence this Christmas season, in the ordinary places of my life. Amen
Pastor Mike
Pastor Mike's message in the Ashland Gazette - December 17th:This week (December 17th ) at our service we lit the 3rd candle in the Advent wreath. The candle of Love.
The first thing that jumped to my mind was “Love is a Many-Splendored Thing”.
You do a search of that on the computer. It brings up the movie from 1955 staring William Holden & Jennifer Jones. If you search on, you find versions of the song recorded by The 4 Aces or by Frank Sinatra.
I’m sure there are a number of you going for a stroll down memory lane now.
Well the love I’m talking about is a “Many-Splendored Thing”, but it’s much better than anything we see here . . . even though they are great classic’s.
I would like to focus in on the tremendous Love of God.
How much do you love other people? Would you be willing to die for somebody else? If it actually came down to it, there are very few people who would ever be willing to die for someone else. We do occasionally see someone in battle willing to die for another, but they are few and far between.
Jesus was one of those people. He died for you and me.
And we should remember that he was willing to so that we might live.
John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave his only Son, so that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life”.
That verse is but one sentence long, yet in it, we see the entire structure of Christianity. And we see that the entire structure of Christianity is wrapped in one word: Love.
My wish for you this Christmas season, is that you experience the “Many-Splendored Love of God”. Christmas Blessings,
Pastor Michael Njus
First Christian Church
NOVEMBER 2009 MESSAGE
A message from the desk of Pastor Mike:
This week as many of you know, we finished moving out of our house in Ralston. Monday afternoon we closed. It was memory filled, walking through the house the final time. Making sure we hadn’t left any treasures in a cubby hole or back corner. Many of the first things that we moved, were the special items. The good stuff, the wedding gifts we save for special occasions. They were moved first and safely tucked in a new “safe spot” so they wouldn’t get damaged in the chaos of moving.
Diane and I have been married for almost 12 years. We moved a crystal platter that has never been used. We have a cake stand that has been used once. We carefully and painstakingly wrapped each one of these items to make sure they made the trip safely.
In Numbers 18:29 it says, “You must present as the LORD's portion the best and holiest part of everything given to you.” Fall is a time of harvest and giving thanks for our abundant gifts. As we go through our stewardship program this fall, we are asked to consider our many gifts and then pledge our support to our church.
Just as our wedding gifts were meant to be used and enjoyed,,,, weren’t Gods gifts meant to be used and enjoyed? Grandma’s Blue Willow china looks beautiful in the china hutch, but wouldn’t it look beautiful on the table? Maybe you have a beautiful voice, a gift from God. It sounds great in the congregation singing,,, but wouldn’t that make a beautiful voice in the choir,,,,,,, sharing the gift from God.
I encourage each of you to look in your storage, the cubby holes and back corners. Please consider your special gifts. Dust them off and see which ones can be shared.
I ask you to join me in a prayer; Father, give me one more gift: the courage to use all you’ve given me for your glory.
In His service
Pastor Mike
OCTOBER's MESSAGE
A message from the desk of Pastor Mike:
Last Friday, I was in the office trying to wrap up loose ends and straighten out my desk a little.
I decided it was a good time to clean the office. I’d polish my sermon for Sunday a little later. Looking back now, I can see that God wanted me available for some reason.
The phone rang, which lead to me spending my afternoon working with a family in need.
Upon reflection, the faces and names might be different, but sadly we see this situation more
and more. Empty gas tank, hungry family, and no money.
It’s a sign of the current economic situation.
One of the purposes of the Ashland Ministerial Association is to help such people in need.
I was thankful to have such a resource available to help this family.
We were able to put gas in their tank, pay for lodging, and visit the
Ashland Food bank for some badly needed items.
The purpose of this story is two fold.
First is to reinforce the importance of our continued support of both the
Ashland Ministerial Association and the Ashland Food Bank.
Second, I have to admit that I struggled a little with this situation.
First: The Ashland food bank plays a vital role in being front line help for people
that find themselves needing help. Some things we can let slide for a while,
but everyone needs to eat. I know I could probably miss a few meals
and not get in trouble. It might even help my waist line, but food is a basic necessity.
In addition, the Ashland Ministerial Association has resources available
to help those in need that no single church could put together by itself.
Second: My struggle. It’s easy to sit back in the office, get in a reliable car,
drive home to a comfortable home, grab a cold pop out of the refrigerator
and think that people like these folks are in a bad way because of poor choices.
It’s easy to think that they could have had enough money
for food each month if they spent the money they had more wisely.
It is a sad fact that there are many families out there
that are one bill or one pay check away from this situation.
I came to find out that the closing of a single factory can have a devastating effect on a family.
God is always teaching us, through everyday situations,
and he brought this situation directly to me.
The family we helped were in Ashland because where they had lived the factory closed.
The area they lived in was hit hard. They have family in the Omaha area
they were going to see and try to improve their situation.
It was suggested that they could possibly find more affordable housing
in a small town and still be close enough to both Omaha and Lincoln to find a job.
On top of not being employed, the young wife is pregnant with twins
and they hope to be settled in a new home in time for the babies arrival.
God calls us to help those that are less fortunate.
He doesn’t ask us to judge if someone had spent their time or money wisely.
God has richly blessed all of us and he put our church,
the Ashland Ministerial Association and the Ashland Food Bank
in place where all needed to be to help this family,
as well as many other families in their time of need over the years.
May God continue to bless us and allow us the resources for this important ministry
In His service, Pastor Mike
We invite you to visit First Christian Church (DOC) in Ashland
You will learn quickly that our congregation & church family are known as
"The friendly church in the heart of Historic Ashland NE,
. . . . where you're only a "visitor" ONCE !"