First Congregational UCC- Neligh

04/11/2026

See you tomorrow!

10:15 Sunday school
10:30 Fellowship
11:00 Service with Mrs. Emily Heithoff

04/10/2026

God’s Unfailing Love Never Lets Go…
Before the mountains had their names,

before the rivers found the sea,
before the stars were set like flames
across the dark of eternity

You loved me.
Not because I earned it,
not because I came to You clean,
not because my hands were worthy
or my heart was in between

You loved me still.
“I have loved you with an everlasting love,”
You whispered into Jeremiah’s pen,
and every word fell down like light
and it is true today as it was then.

Everlasting.

Not for a season.
Not until I failed You one too many times.
Not a love that checks the ledger,
counts the cost,
or draws its lines.

A love that chased me into the wilderness
and found me in the dark.
A love that knew my every fracture
and still chose to call me Yours

not despite the broken places,
but right there,
in the middle of the scars.

I have wandered far from mercy.
I have doubted in the night.
I have stood inside the storm and screamed
that nothing would be right.

And still
You were there.
Not at a distance.
Not with folded arms and silence.

But close.

Closer than my breathing.
Closer than my fear.
With gentle hands that never let me go
no matter how I tried to disappear.

This is not a love like human love
fragile, tired, keeping score.
This is the love that split the darkness,
that walked out of the grave,

that says I love you
and then loves you
even more.

Everlasting means it has no end.
But here is what undoes me
it has no beginning either.

You did not start to love me
when I turned and came back home.
You loved me in my wandering.
You loved me in my shame.
You loved me when I couldn’t
even whisper out Your name.

Oh, what a love this is
too wide for me to measure,
too deep for me to find the floor,
too high to see the ceiling,
and it runs right to my core.

Draw me close with lovingkindness,
as You promised long ago.
Let me rest inside the truth of it
that I am loved
by a love
that will never,
never let me go. 🕊️

“I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.”
— Jeremiah 31:3 💛

04/07/2026

04/05/2026

Easter Sunday

Christ is risen!
Death has been defeated!
Hope is alive!

The stone was rolled away and the world was forever changed.
What was lost is found.
What was broken is made new.

Today we celebrate the greatest love story ever told: a Savior who gave everything so we could live in victory in this life and then forever with Him.

Rejoice with all your heart.

He is Risen indeed!

04/04/2026

Holy Week Saturday

A day of waiting.
A day of silence.

The tomb is sealed. Hope seems lost. Grief and fear fill the hearts of those who loved Him.

Holy Saturday reminds us that sometimes God’s work is hidden. Sometimes faith waits in the quiet, trusting what we cannot yet see.

Even in the stillness, He is at work.
Even in the darkness, the dawn is coming.

Lord, help us to wait with hope, even when we do not understand.

04/03/2026

Good Friday

The sky darkened.
The earth trembled.
The precious Son of God hung on a cross.

He carried our sins, our shame, our brokenness.

Mine.
Yours.

The suffering was real.
The sacrifice complete.
The love unimaginable.

Today we pause.
We kneel.
We praise our Holy God for the blood that ran red so our sin would be washed white.

We're in awe of You.

Tetelestai.
Tetelestai.

It is finished.

04/02/2026

Holy Week Thursday

Around the table, Jesus gave them bread and called it His body. He lifted the cup and called it His blood. There was a new covenant, sealed in love.

Then He did the unthinkable.
He knelt and washed their feet.
Even the one who would betray Him.

This is what love looks like.
It's humble, sacrificial, undeserved.

And in the garden, under the weight of what was to come, He surrendered when he said, “Not my will, but Yours.”

Today we remember--
Love is sacrificial.
Love is service.
Love is surrender.

Let us love like you, Lord Jesus.