Onalaska First United Methodist Church, 700 Highway 356 South, Onalaska, TX (2026)

09/06/2026

9/06/2026

09/02/2026

Midweek Meditation

Galatians 2:20 ...it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

There never really was any pain, thank goodness. But now my shoulder itches, part of the healing process, I suppose. The really weird part is that there is now an awareness, an actual felt presence, of something inside me that is not me. A foreign object that has changed the way I will live from now on. My heart, which had slowed to about 39 beats per minute while resting, is now banging away at a steady 60. The upside, as you might imagine, is that increase in blood and oxygen flow creates positive change for the body and mind. I will never be as I was again.

It is an experience not unlike finding new life with the Christ in us. There will be for us always an awareness of his presence. The Spirit will cause us to "itch," awakening us frequently to the power of grace working within to heal us, reform and remake us. Not a day will pass when the faithful are not reminded that there is "someone" within us who is not us, the Christ, who will make it impossible for us to live as we once did. No longer can we just go with the flow, no longer just plugging along lethargically as we always did. Now we can be truly alive; now we can truly see; now we can have deeper wisdom and timeless truth. Christ in us means a new heart, new mind, and a new spirit. All of this transformation is for those willing to receive, by grace, a new heart. The heart of Jesus and the life we once lived in this body will become His life.

"Gracious God, turn us back from fear that the Christ within might truly bring us to new life. Christ in us and through us for others. Amen."

08/30/2026

Celebration of Life
Jim Hill
Please join us to Remember and Celebrate

Onalaska First United Methodist Church
Saturday, September 19th, 2:00pm
700 FM 356, Onalaska, Texas, 77360

We kindly ask you to share your favorite memory/story of Jim in his digital guestbook
https://www.cochranfh.com/obituaries/jimmie-hill

08/30/2026

8/30/2026

08/26/2026

Midweek Meditation

Psalms 71:18 Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your mighty acts to all who are to come.

I am "only" 65, but there are some mornings when I feel older. Something always seems to be hurting. Sometimes I just want to sit in my chair and slowly drink a pot of coffee and never move. It would just be easier. But I push myself out the door and get to work. There I find a beautiful old church, older than me. She too is showing her age, so we’ve been doing some work. Restoration takes some time and thoughtful, persistent effort. There are times it sure feels like it would be easier to just shut the doors and walk away. It is a problem we all face in our lives. Circumstances and situations in which the "easy" answer is to just quit, stop showing up, walk away, close the doors. Easy, but is it faithful, and is it life-giving?

Our lives are not our own. In its fullest expression, it is connected to all who surround you, who share it with you. Your family, your church, your friends, and neighbors. Still more, we believe that this life is moved, motivated, and empowered by the grace of God. Christ within, working through us. We are all guided by the Holy Spirit. Even when we are old, older even than today, we will still have these gifts of God. Our inheritance of love, grace, hope, joy, wisdom, life, and light. All of which, every day, the faithful are compelled to carry forward into new relationships and next generations.

I know that, like so many of you, a day will arrive when vocationally I will retire. However, if we are faithful, the day never arrives when we can stop carrying forward the good news of Jesus Christ. How we accomplish that may look different year to year, but being faithful is truly a lifetime vocation. So, every day, we pick ourselves up, say, "Here I am, Lord," use me, and we step out into the world. We will repair and renew our old church because its presence declares the faithfulness of those who came before us, and it will affirm ours for those now here and for the generations to come. Our lives of faithfulness, woven together through the generations, are the Church within that church that declares the presence and power of God to all who know us. All this together gives me life and energy and passion to press on, as I pray it does also for you.

"Gracious God, we give you thanks for Sabbath rest, because Monday comes and we set our hands back upon the plow. Come, Holy Spirit, guide and empower our days to declare the presence and work of Jesus in and among us. Give to us energy and passion even into our old age. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, here, now, through us. In Jesus' name. Amen."

08/19/2026

Midweek Meditation

Ecclesiastes 4:6 Better one handful with tranquility
than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind.

I've been thinking a lot lately about the life I've lived, or more correctly maybe, the life I've missed. I got my first job at 14, sacking groceries for tips alone. I needed money for "stuff," and that was the only job I could get at my age. So began an unending working life and my pursuit of success and stuff. As the years passed, more success and stuff, newer stuff, bigger and better stuff. As I grew older, some of that stuff was not material; it was status and power and place that I felt I needed to validate my life and my legacy in the world. Regardless of where we are in life, there seems always to be a desire for more of something. In some way we feel compelled to prove our worth in this world. The question now is, what part of that was ever really life-giving? All of it that seemed so important at the time more likely took life from us.

The writer of Ecclesiastes points us to the deeper truth that I now find must be an intentional work. Life is found in a balance of tranquility and toil. We need to work; even those who are retired among us, there are always things to be done, and yes, having goals is fine. But all of that must be in balance with some equally as intentional tranquility. Don't miss that word, “intentional.” That means we have given it some thought, set aside some time, and know the proper place for our mind, body, and soul to be restored in tranquility. What and where that might be will look different for us all: a cup of coffee on the back porch every morning, lying in the hammock contemplating the trees and sky above, walking in the woods, hands in the soil of your garden, whatever works for you that gives your body and soul actual rest. Be intentional; find your balance. Work is fine, can be wonderful. But tranquility, Sabbath rest, is essential for the truest life you are gifted in God. A handful of work and a handful of tranquility, balance.

"Gracious and loving God, call us away from lives distracted by and consumed by busyness. Call us into the quiet of your presence to be restored and to know peace. Amen."

08/12/2026

Midweek Meditation

Genesis 1:31 31 God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Last week I was having one of my regular conversations over the back fence with my neighbor. We talked about our dogs, our yards, and the biggest deer we have seen lately. During this conversation, though, he shared that he had found, in his storage building, a rather large snakeskin. He added that discovery prompted his wife to announce that she would no longer be entering the building. Our conversation brought to mind a video I’d recently seen of a woman using a hoe to destroy an unidentified, though rather large, snake in her yard. I must admit there was a time in my life when I was of the mind that the only good snake is a dead snake. I, like so many, understood snakes, all snakes, as a threat. Even the nonvenomous still have teeth and will surely bite, I thought. Besides all that, they are just creepy, and there is the whole voice of the devil thing in the Garden of Eden.

So, to summarize, because of ignorance, fear and foreboding was my response. As I give that some thought, it does not take much effort to find the “snake effect” in other parts of life. Most obviously, it appears in our world in our rejection of people who are different than us. Some, we are told, we don’t know ourselves, but are told are very dangerous. Others may be less so, but why take the chance? They are still different. Just remove them all from my life, so I don’t have to think about it. Ignorance can be a choice we make. Or we can choose to get close enough to learn and overcome ignorance.

Living in rural places, being an avid hiker has offered me the opportunity to learn a great deal about the natural world. As it turns out, snakes, in all forms, are integral to the balance of systems of nature that I so much enjoy. I’ve also noted in their variety a great deal of beauty. The little green snake in this picture was found along a trail in Pennsylvania, hunting bugs. We didn’t bother it, just watched it do its thing, living, being. Can you imagine being hunted, killed, simply because of an undeserved reputation perpetuated by ignorance? No one is willing to learn the truth about you, to see your beauty and understand you. Unwilling to recognize your life, as all lives, is an essential part of what God is doing. He said everything was good. It seems to me we should take God at God’s word and seek understanding.

“Gracious God, forgive our willingness to live in fear sustained my ignorance. Give us eyes to see and a heart to understand the expanse of your creative love. Amen.”

08/05/2026

Midweek Meditation

Mark 10:51 “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.”

Me too! Rabbi, I also want to see. The truth is, in as much as it is simply a biological, physiological function, with glasses I see pretty well. However, the capacity of any of us to truly see turns out to be much harder than we may have been led to believe. Our trouble is that we all see only in part. [FYI: hearing works the same way] We all know it; we've experienced it. We shared an experience with someone and then later, when discussing it, we find that they saw something different than you. This world, our reality, as we experience it, perceive it, is ours alone. All of us take in and interpret our world through filters that are as unique as we are. All formed by very different lives. Therefore, wisdom demands that we account for blindness.

This all struck me one day as I was looking at some pictures of the Cypress trees I took on a boat trip in the Atchafalaya. I think at first glance they are just beautiful trees. But when I look at them again, this time noticing the reflection in the water, the picture is completely changed. Something even more beautiful that I missed even when the photo was taken. I expect that God intends that I see the trees in both ways, as both are a reflection of who God is and what God does. Both tell me something about myself, and myself in creation.

We live in a very polarized culture. Made more difficult in a political season. From all quarters you hear voices that assure you there is only one way to see, understand, and respond to our current circumstances. That is unequivocally a lie. No one you know can see, hear, or understand all things. No one you know possesses perfect wisdom. If we are to “see” well enough to respond to the problems of our world, we MUST be able to sit with others. To create conversation around different perspectives in the hope that a better picture will emerge in the conversation. We can not be Christ for the world if we are unable or unwilling to see the world and what we are doing in it and to it. If you want to more truly see, enter into conversation, in Christ, with different others.

"Gracious God, by your Spirit prod us into conversation. Move us away from our narrow view into the expansive panorama of your glorious, diverse, ever-changing creation. Amen,"

07/29/2026

Midweek Meditation

Jeremiah 31:25 I will satisfy the weary, and all who are faint I will replenish.

Summer is absolutely here. The hours of darkness overnight provide a little relief, but not as much as I would like. Those cooler temperatures are the primary reason I get up so early to exercise each day. Along the route I walk, then run, the terrain varies. In some places, the trees and brush hug the roadway on both sides. In other places, closer to the lake, there are fewer trees and the houses are further apart. What all of this means is that there are points along my way where the air does not move; it's heavy, humid, and hard to breathe. There are other places where the air moves; I know that when I get there, I will get a deep breath of cooler air. Maybe a good breeze off the lake. I am refreshed, to press on to the next opportunity to breathe deeply.

I find I need the same thing in all of life. Days when the news of the world, the pressures of life, all that comes with living, make it hard to be at ease, to breathe. We struggle to find the energy to get up and go do it all again. We all need to know where we can go to get a deep breath, to feel a cool breeze, to be refreshed. God says to us always, come to me. I pray that for all of you, Sunday morning is helpful, even if that is just in gathering with fellow soujourners. But where else? Sitting quietly or walking slowly and quietly anywhere in the creation does it for me. Reading scripture. Reading great literature, working in the garden, artistic endeavor.

My point is this: to be refreshed, we have to know where to go. We must be thoughtful, intentional, to move ourselves, maybe physically, certainly spiritually, into a place we can breathe. A place where our spirit has time and space to reconnect with the Holy Spirit. A place where the promises of our relationship with God in Christ are not lost in the noise of this world. We find instead the peace and replenishment God has promised. We can at any time recline into God and breathe deeply.

"Gracious God make us wise to rest in you, to breathe deeply of your Spirit, that we might be fortified for another day. Amen."

07/23/2026

Plan to remain after worship to share a meal and fellowship.

Onalaska First United Methodist Church

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