Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church

09/07/2026

Psalm 32:6-8

My wife, Sue, and I had just finished walking five miles across the Mackinac Bridge, which links Michigan’s two peninsulas. This annual Labor Day event in the United States is a tradition in our state dating back to 1958. We grabbed a seat on a park bench to rest. A man sat down next to us to catch his breath as well. Soon his wife and adult daughter joined him, and we learned that their family—also believers in Jesus—had suffered through the death of a teenage girl just as we did many years ago.

Together we were able to share how God has sustained us and given us strength and faith through the years. It was amazing to think that among the 33,000 walkers that day, we found a family that understood our hearts.

Two families with similar stories ending up together in a sea of people. It sounds a little like something that can happen only because of what God told King David in Psalm 32. After David expressed his appreciation to God for protection and deliverance, he got this encouraging word from Him: “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye” (v. 8 nkjv).

God watches over His children, and He brings them together because they need each other. It’s another indication that “the Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the one who trusts in him” (v. 10).

When have you experienced something that reminded you that God has His loving eye on you? What does His unfailing love mean to you?

Dear God, thank You that You’re real and that You’re always watching over me.

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09/06/2026

https://youtu.be/OXUmg7hKPhE

Pleasant Grove UMC Sunday Service 9/06/2026, follow us on Facebook ...

09/04/2026

Hebrews 12:1-7, 10, 14

My smartphone occasionally reminds me I’m not good at digital housekeeping. “Junk files are taking up space,” the message reads. “Delete 675MB of junk files.” Now, I dislike being nagged by my phone. But if I clean out those files, I’ve got more space for things that really matter. Then, when I’m at my daughter’s swim meet, for instance, I’ll have enough digital storage to actually shoot a video of her winning a race instead of unexpectedly realizing that those pesky “junk files” have sabotaged my ability to capture the moment.

Junk files on our phones are easy to delete. But what about the “junk files” in our souls? Like our phones, our souls can be clogged with stuff that keeps us from flourishing spiritually. The author of Hebrews understood this reality, encouraging us to pay close attention to anything that trips us up in our walk with God. “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles,” he writes, followed by this challenge: “And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (Hebrews 12:1).

What weighs you down? What trips you up? Hebrews encourages us to fix “our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith” (v. 2), who alone can help us identify and delete the “junk files” that hinder our abundant life in Him.

What most trips you up in your relationship with God? How does your faith help you identify and throw off sinful influences?

Dear Father, please give me the wisdom and courage to “throw off . . . the sin that so easily entangles” me.

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09/03/2026

Deuteronomy 10:12-15

“I killed people in the past,” Tanitan said, “but ever since I chose to believe in Jesus Christ, He will not allow me to commit such practices anymore.” Tanitan, a member of the Ilongot tribe from the Sierra Madre mountains in the Philippines, came from a culture of head-hunting—the practice of hunting humans and severing their heads. In comparing his life before he knew God to his life now, Tanitan said, “Before, I was afraid to die but not afraid to kill. Now, I am afraid to kill but not afraid to die.”

As I read Tanitan’s story in the book To the Headhunters of Sierra Madre by Florentino Santos, I thought of how his newfound fear of or reverence toward God developed his desire to obey Him. I remembered Moses’ words to the Israelites before they entered the land God promised them: “What does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 10:2). Reverence toward God was to be reflected in obedience to Him. God’s people were to “walk in obedience to Him, to love Him . . . and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees” (vv. 12-13).

As believers in Jesus, our deep respect for God’s holiness compels us to hate evil and do what pleases Him (Proverbs 8:13). Let’s ask Him to help us make reverence toward God a way of life.

From today’s Scripture, how would you describe the “fear [of] the Lord”? Where do you find obeying God difficult, and how can the command to fear Him help you?

Holy God, please help me to experience reverent fear in Your presence.

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09/03/2026

2 Corinthians 4:7-18

Before our trip to Switzerland, my mental snapshot was of snowy Alps, goats grazing, and mountain farmers blowing alpine horns. However, as we drove south from Zurich, the landscape was the same drab tangle of highways we saw in any city. When we got close to our lodging, we had to drive up a precarious one-lane dirt road. At our rental place, we hauled our suitcases up steep stone stairways. Exhausted and disappointed, we finally made our way onto the patio. And there, opening up before us, stretched an extraordinary vista: the Alps rising up majestically over the blue expanse of Lake Lucerne, with small towns glittering like fireflies below us. The ordeal was worth it.

I recalled the verse, “Therefore we do not lose heart” (2 Corinthians 4:16). The apostle Paul writes of his own struggles: “We are hard pressed on every side, but . . . not in despair” (v. 8). He reveals his positive outlook: “Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (v. 17). He advises us to “fix our eyes . . . on what is unseen” (v. 18), to hope for that eternal landscape.

Sometimes our journey is drab and difficult. But in Christ, we’re assured that we’ll witness the ultimate snapshot. The ordeal will be worth it: His eternal glory far surpasses anything we can imagine.

What are the difficult roads in your life these days? What does “eternal glory” mean to you?

Loving God, I need encouragement through this tough journey. I pray for assurance of Your eternal glory.

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09/01/2026

Acts 2:1-6, 36-37

In Monterey Bay, California, a boat captain saw fifteen Pacific white-sided dolphins join a super pod of more than two thousand dolphins. Various types and ages of dolphins gather in pods to fend off predators, feed, and socialize. Still, the size and diversity of this super pod was a rare sight to behold.

The Bible records a rare gathering of diverse people that’s foundational in our faith history. As the disciples celebrated Pentecost in Jerusalem, “a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting” (Acts 2:2). They were “filled with the Holy Spirit,” who enabled them to speak in different languages (v. 4). People God created “from every nation under heaven” had also gathered for Pentecost (v. 5). When they investigated the loud noise, each person “heard their own language being spoken” by the disciples (v. 6). Then Peter proclaimed Jesus as “both Lord and Messiah” (v. 36). About three thousand believed and were baptized (v. 41). As God’s people lived in community like never before, He “added to their number daily those who were being saved” (v. 47).

By the power of the Holy Spirit, God’s people around the world still gather to grow in community and proclaim Jesus as Lord. Through us, He will continue expanding His kingdom.

How are you gathering to grow with God’s diverse people? How has He used people who are different from you to grow your faith and His church?

Dear God, please grow Your church as I gather to grow with others.

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08/31/2026

Galatians 2:19-21

Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer became famous for his talent at age twenty. The art critics of his day called him “the greatest mind that ever expressed itself in line.” As his fame spread, influential people tried to hire him with promises of luxury and ease. Even other acclaimed artists such as Giovanni Bellini and Raphael revered his work.

In what experts consider to be his best self-portrait, Dürer mingled his physical characteristics with what he thought Jesus might have looked like. He painted himself with long, wavy hair, a beard, and eyes that seemed to convey a sense of divine purpose. While many assumed this was the artist’s prideful opinion of himself, others who knew him believed Dürer wanted to live a life that would allow people to see Jesus in him.

If we truly know Christ, this is our desire as well. Believing in Him and accepting His death and resurrection as the basis for our relationship with God means we should now live for Jesus—not for ourselves (Galatians 2:19). We live for Him, and He lives in us and works through us. The apostle Paul said this about his spiritual transformation: “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (v. 20). May the glory of Christ shine through our lives today so that the world sees Him in us.

How do you feel when you sense Jesus working through you to make Himself known? What challenges prevent this from happening at times?

Father in heaven, please help me to stop living to satisfy my desires. Help me to surrender to Your Spirit so others will see Christ in me.

“Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed,” Jesus said. “But if it dies, it produces many seeds” (John 12:24). Christ spoke these words during the week He was killed. It’s a lesson Paul had learned as he wrote to people in danger of relying on keeping the law to earn salvation. In Romans 3:10-20, he outlines why law-keeping will never save us. He then explains that it’s “apart from the law [that] the righteousness of God has been made known” (v. 21). “This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe” (v. 22). He goes on: “Our old self was crucified with him . . . that we should no longer be slaves to sin” (6:6). Because “Christ [lived]” in him (Galatians 2:20), the apostle could live a life honoring to God that would draw others to Christ. Today, God can help us surrender to the Spirit so others will see Christ in us.

Jesus never called the church to be a country club. In fact, He commissioned His disciples to go into all the world and bring people in. Rather than keeping outside people out, Jesus sent inside people out to bring outside people in.

08/30/2026

https://youtu.be/_5BInwoKEXY

Pleasant Grove UMC Sunday Service 8/30/2026, follow us on Facebook ...

08/28/2026

2 Samuel 23:11-12

The CEO was hurting employees with his sharp tongue. No one dared confront him. Everyone was afraid of him, including Gene. But one day the CEO berated a new employee, reducing her to tears. When Gene saw how everyone in the room stayed silent, he spoke up.

“I told him the way he was treating people was wrong,” Gene recalls. “He was astonished; it was the first time someone stood up to him. He didn’t change, but I’m glad I spoke up.”

Scripture tells us of another man who stood up to a challenge many were afraid of. Shammah, a military warrior of David, came to the future king from difficult circumstances (see 2 Samuel 23:11-12), but God used him to defeat the Philistines. “When the Philistines banded together at . . . a field full of lentils, Israel’s troops fled from them” (v. 11). Only Shammah had the courage to defend Israel’s food supply. Being the lone man against the Philistine army meant death, but Shammah “took his stand in the middle of the field. He defended it” (v. 12).

God helped Shammah defeat the Philistines (v. 12). He may have been the only Israelite in the field, but he wasn’t alone—God was with him, giving him great victory that day. There may be times when we’re called to stand up to a challenge that everyone else is avoiding. Like Shammah, let’s take our stand, relying on God’s presence and help.

What challenge is God calling you to stand up to? How can you rely on Him for help?

Dear Father, please give me the courage to take a stand for You.

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08/27/2026

James 4:1-10

In 2018, a man checked into a room at New York hotel for a one-night stay. Remarkably, he used the room for five years without paying another cent—exploiting obscure rent laws to hold on to it. His refusal to leave, however, eventually led to potential prison time for him.

Like an unwelcome tenant who overstays, James warns us that the devil lingers in our lives when left unchecked. “Resist the devil,” James writes, “and he will flee from you” (4:7). The apostle emphasizes that our struggles often come from impure “desires” and “wrong motives” (vv. 1, 3)—things like pride, divided loyalties, and impure thoughts residing in our hearts. To counter such temptation, James offers two commands: “submit . . . to God” and “resist the devil” (v. 7). To submit means surrendering every part of our lives to God. Resisting the devil is equally active, requiring prayer, vigilance, and the wisdom of Scripture.

Like a landlord evicting an unlawful tenant, in God’s strength we can refuse to let the temptation of the devil overtake us. As we resist him, God promises victory as James asserts, “He will flee from you” (v. 7).

When we evict sin and the devil’s influence and “come near to God” (v. 8), we allow His peace, joy, and purpose to dwell more fully in us. The enemy can’t stay where God reigns!

What can you do to remove “unwelcome tenants” from your life? How does submitting to God help?

Sovereign God, please help me surrender every part of my life to You so I can stand firm against the enemy's schemes.

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