Ocala First Connection

Pastor Anne gave a wonderful introduction and explanation of spiritual gifts on Sunday! Below you can watch her sermon from the 9:00 am service. Her slides are also posted below. We invite you all to take our Spiritual Gifts Assessment and share your results with us.    Go to the   Greater Gifts page   on our website. There you will find two links.  The first link is to a   Spiritual Gifts Assessment .   The second link is to an  online survey  where you can share your results.

As we moved into the New Year and a new worship series, we decided it was time to resurrect the blog after a year's break. Our Greater Gifts Series is all about the ways God has gifted you to love and to serve.  So we invite you to go to the Greater Gifts page on our website. There you will find two links.  The first link is to a   Spiritual Gifts Assessment .   The second link is to an online survey where you can share your results. Sunday's Message: This past Sunday, we talked a lot about gifts and the three-fold pattern of gift-giving:  Expecting, Receiving and Sharing .   And then we ask the critical question: What do you expect from God?  We can expect God to be faithful to all God has promised! And what has God promised?  The gifts we received in our baptism - the  gifts of forgiveness, grace, love, salvation and new birth in Jesus Christ.   All this is God’s gift offered to us wit...

Below is Pastor Rwth's sermon from this past Sunday (01-07-2018) including the slides she used during the 9:00 am Contemporary Service.  You can view the video from the 11:00 am service on our website:  http://fumcocala.org/sermons/ +++++ We’re not even two week past Christmas, and the Christian calendar already has us at Jesus’ Baptism. Maybe because Christmas remained fresh in my heart, I sat with the story of Jesus’ baptism with his birth still on my mind.    Maybe I had birth on my mind because I want God’s grace to birth some new things in my life and in the life of our church in 2018.    That said, connecting birth and baptism makes sense for us. There’s this conversation Jesus and Nicodemus were having in another scripture reading, John, chapter 3. Jesus says, “I assure you, unless someone is born anew, it’s not possible to see God’s kingdom. Nicodemus asked, “How is it possible for an adult to be born? It’s impossible to enter the moth...

For the past 18 months, Karlie Harper has been the Director of our Tuesday Morning Outreach Ministries.  And her family has been an active and vital part of Ocala First United Methodist Church for several years. This week Karlie, her husband, Jon, and their children are moving to Oklahoma.   Below is Karlie's last devotional message from Tuesday Morning Outreach. As always, her words are challenging and uplifting, convicting and hopeful.  May you be blessed by her words!  And join us in prayer for traveling mercies and blessings for Karlie and her family as they start life anew in Oklahoma!  We love you, Karlie! +++++ Today is my last day as the outreach coordinator. I have loved serving with you and for you all. I want to thank you for walking along with me while I lived in Ocala and served this ministry. It has been easily one of the best experiences in my life. Please know that as I go to my next place, I will hold all of my special moments ...

Below is Pastor David's sermon from this past Sunday (12-17-2017) including the slides he used during the 9:00 am Contemporary Service. You can view the video from the 11:00 am service on our website: http://fumcocala.org/sermons/ +++++ Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 We are down to the last week.  Christmas is just around the corner.  We have our trees up, our house decorated, our presents purchased online and out for delivery, our cookies baked, our parties attended, our Christmas parade watched, our travel plans made, and our annual reminder that we think eggnog is really just okay as long as we don’t have to drink too much of it. So here is my question: Are you happy?     We are in the season where the greatest virtues of the Christian life are celebrated: faith, hope, love, joy, and peace. But this is also a time of the year that is not quite so jolly for many people.  December with its short days, long nights, colder weather, busy-ne...

Below is Pastor Rwth's sermon from this past Sunday (12-10-2017) including the slides she used during the 9:00 am Contemporary Service.  You can view the video from the 11:00 am service on our website:  http://fumcocala.org/sermons/ +++++ There’s a story that my Mom tells a lot.  She and my Dad had brought me home from the hospital after my birth.  That first night, I cried and cried and cried—unable to be comforted—despite their around the clock efforts to soothe me. Finally, as morning arrived, I fell peacefully asleep.  My parents were bleary-eyed and hunched over cups of coffee.  My Mom looked at my Dad and said, “Bob, we’ve been had.” The next night, I cried and cried and cried.  And Mom and Dad didn’t stay up with me during the night.  Though we would likely disagree with that parenting approach today, apparently I slept more and more on my own during the night, until a night would pass without my crying at all. ...