Verdigris United Methodist Church

06/02/2026

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As I returned home from the 2026 Oklahoma Annual Conference, I am filled with gratitude for our shared ministry and renewed hope for the future of the Church.

06/02/2026

TUESDAY, JUNE 2
~
Read Genesis 12:1-9
Stepping into the unknown requires a great deal of faith; just ask Abraham! He is an elderly man with a barren wife, and God is asking him to leave his extended family and all that he has ever known to venture into the unknown.

How many times do we actually step into the unknown? I am of the generation that grew up with smart phones. There is truly not much information that I cannot access. Every place I plan to visit, I search for information about it online before I even step foot there, looking at where to park, menus for restaurants in the area, coffee shops, etc. We have gotten out of the practice of stepping into unknown situations because the unknown is an uncomfortable feeling. The unknown places us at risk. We respond to this feeling by trying to collect all the information available. Yet that is not always possible, as it certainly was not for Abraham.

God calls us into the unknown to take a risk. It might look like volunteering with the youth program at church for the first time, starting a new job, moving to a new area, or joining a new church. In these situations we cannot search the internet for how things will work out, whether we will like the new church or area, or whether we will succeed at the new job or in the youth program. We might be tempted to think that Abraham’s faith is the belief that everything will go perfectly. But, as one reads more and more of Abraham’s story with God, we realize that is not the case at all. Rather, let us look at Abraham’s faith as a reminder that when we enter the unknown, God is with us every step of the way.

Holy God, grant me courage as I seek to enter the unknown. May I feel your presence surrounding me on this journey. Amen.

Courtesy of The Upper Room Disciplines 2026

05/31/2026

Good Morning Church! We are so glad you are here with us this glorious morning! This series is all about purpose.... What our purpose is, what even a purpose is.... keep coming here for this series. It will be worth it! God Bless you all!

05/28/2026

THURSDAY, MAY 28~ Read Psalm 8:3-9

“3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;
4 what are humans that you are mindful of them,
mortals[a] that you care for them?
5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God[b]
and crowned them with glory and honor.
6 You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under their feet,
7 all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9 O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!”

God is big God is powerful. God can do things we cannot.
That can bring us comfort, knowing that God is able to do far more than we can imagine. But it can also be intimidating.
In the presence of God's majesty and glory, we can feel small, powerless, inadequate.
The psalmist writes, "When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and stars that you have established; what are humans that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?" In comparison to God's grandeur, how significant
are we?
"Yet," the psalmist writes in the next line. That word is the fulcrum on which the psalm shifts. The poetry goes on to say that we matter in God's eyes. God has given us great honor and great responsibility. God created all that is, but God doesn't manage all of it alone. We are not passive observers or mere beneficiaries of life. God elevates our status, drawing us close. But God also expects us to watch over everything else: the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, the fish of the sea. To put it another way, every life is our responsibility—not ours to do with as we please, but ours to care for and ensure its survival.
Why would God do that? Doesn't God know how selfish we can be, how distracted we are, how often we fail? Of course God does! Yet... that word provides tremendous grace, as well as wonder, awe, and gratitude.
In the face of such generosity, what can we do other than sing our praise as we work to fulfill God's purposes for us?

Prayer:
O Lord, how majestic is your name! Why you choose me to carry such honor and responsibility is a mystery. But choose me, you do. Help me to live up to your hope for me today, to care for your creation, and to honor the gift you so generously offer. Amen.

Upper Room Devotions 2026

05/27/2026

Annual Conference is this week! Let us be prayer as our conference celebrates as one body and makes decisions to further God’s kingdom.

05/27/2026

WEDNESDAY, MAY 21 ~ Read Psalm 8

“Psalm 8[a]

For the director of music. According to gittith.[b] A psalm of David.

1 Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory
in the heavens.
2 Through the praise of children and infants
you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
4 what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?[c]
5 You have made them[d] a little lower than the angels[e]
and crowned them[f] with glory and honor.
6 You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
you put everything under their[g] feet:
7 all flocks and herds,
and the animals of the wild,
8 the birds in the sky,
and the fish in the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
9 Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!”

I spent the first half of my vocational life in music initially as a music teacher, but mostly as a music minister. Because I spent so much time immersed in the music of the church, certain passages of scripture always evoke memories of particular songs, from choral music to hymns to modern worship music.
Sometimes that can be distracting. I'll find myself reading the same few verses over and over again because my consciousness has been following the rabbit trail of some melody. But other times, the music makes the words come to life, and I descend to a deeper level of consciousness that tunes my soul to the frequency of the Holy Spirit's song.
Psalm 8 is one of those passages for me. Michael W. Smith's
"How Majestic Is Your Name" rings in the opening verse, and I find myself almost dancing to that playful melody. But as I read on, the music that captures my attention next is Tom Fettke's
"The Majesty and Glory of Your Name." "When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers... what are humans that you are mindful of them?" I pause my reading and indulge in a momentary musical detour.
As the music floods my memory and my consciousness, am immersed in sound. Though I may be alone, I can hear the voices of others singing alongside me, and in those few moments the music takes hold. I become aware of God's transcendence. I soon find myself so in awe that I can only respond with a simple
"Alleluia."

Prayer:

God of all our senses, thank you for the gift of music and poetry, of the connections through the arts that make our imagination come alive. Help us to find you in creative expressions that join our hearts with yours. Amen.

Upper Room Devotions 2026

05/26/2026

TUESDAY, MAY 26 ~ Read Genesis 1:31-2:4a

“31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

2 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.

2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

Adam and Eve

4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.”

The first time someone told me that there was not one Creation story in Genesis but two, l was incredulous. How could that be? The Bible is the story of God and Gods people. I had always believed that the Bible was "true," that every word in it was hust as God intended it to be. If there were two ditterent versions of Creation, now could both be true? But as I read and reread the first two chapters, it was unmistakable. Genesis 2:4 marks the end of one story and the beginning of another. And they are markedly different.

That discovery was part of an important journey for me, one that changed the way I view scripture and God's revelation to us.
What if the Bible isn't without error, whatever we understand that to mean? What if it wasn't meant simply to be received, but wrestled with? Could there be more to discover in these texts than I thought?

Discovering the multiple Creation narratives in Genesis 1-2 led me to a period of my faith development when I began to engage more deeply with scripture-the various threads of material in the "law" and "history" books, the uniquely different perspectives of the Gospel writers, the authorship and perspective of the Epistles. I began to rely less on certainty and more on curiosity as I engaged in reading and learning from the Bible.

Letting go of the need to defend the literal meaning of every passage of the Bible frees us to discover the deeper truth of scripture. Scriptural witness does not have to be factual in order to be true. Approaching scripture this way can seem scary, but in the discomfort is the movement of the Holy Spirit.

Prayer:

Revealing God, help us to approach your word with reverence, but also with curiosity. As we explore the mysteries of scripture, impart to us what you want us to discover about you and about ourselves amen.

The Upper Room devotionals 2026

05/24/2026

Welcome

05/24/2026

We’re kicking off our summer sermon series, On Purpose, this morning.

Have you ever asked, “Why am I here?” Together we’ll explore life’s big questions: who we are, what we’re called to, and what it means to live with purpose...while discovering what God is already doing in the story of our lives right now.

We’d love for you to join us as we begin this journey together! Worship starts at 10:45a.

Wear your red as we celebrate Pentecost this morning!