First United Methodist Church Poteau

06/03/2026

DAILY MEDITATION | June 3, 2026 - by Fr Henri Nouwen

Letting God Define Our Life

From: Finding My Way Home: Pathways to Life and the Spirit

To wait with openness and trust is an enormously radical attitude toward life.

It is choosing to hope that something is happening for us that is far beyond our own imaginings. It is giving up control over our future and letting God define our life. It is living with the conviction that God molds us in love, holds us in tenderness, and moves us away from the sources of our fear.

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Reflection Question: What aspect of your life are you most trying to control and what invitation does this meditation offer?

“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”
- Luke 22:42

06/02/2026

DAILY MEDITATION | June 2, 2026 - by Fr Henri Nouwen

You Are Accepted

From: Finding Our Way Home in an Age of Anxiety

The first love says, “I loved you before you could love anyone or before you could receive love from anyone.

I have accepted you. You are accepted. You are loved no matter what mother, father, brother, sister, school, church, society does. You are born out of my love. I have breathed you out of my love. I have spoken you out of my love.

You are the incarnation of my love and in me there is no hatred, there is no revenge, there is no resentment. There is nothing that wants to reject you. I love you. Can you trust that love?"

The original love is the original blessing.
The original love is the original acceptance.

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Reflection Question: What difference would it make if you fully accepted that there is nothing in God that wants to reject you?

“If God is for us, who can be against us?”
- Romans 8:31

06/01/2026

05/31/2026

Facebook must have listened to my sermon today! This t-shirt ad came across my page today. 😁

05/24/2026

DAILY MEDITATION | May 24, 2026 by Fr Henri Nouwen

Our True Vocation

From: In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership

Too often I looked at being relevant, popular, and powerful as ingredients of an effective ministry.

The truth, however, is that these are not vocations but temptations. Jesus asks, “Do you love me?” Jesus sends us out to be shepherds, and Jesus promises a life in which we increasingly have to stretch out our hands and be led to places where we would rather not go.

He asks us to move from a concern for relevance to a life of prayer, from worries about popularity to communal and mutual ministry, and from a leadership built on power to a leadership in which we critically discern where God is leading us.

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Reflection Question: How do you experience the temptation to be relevant, popular, or powerful - and how might you move away from them?

“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”
- Mark 1: 35

05/23/2026

DAILY MEDITATION | May 23, 2026 by Fr Henri Nouwen

A Place To Dwell

From: Heart Speaks to Heart: Three Gospel Meditations on Jesus

Your heart, Jesus, is so full of the desire to love me, so aflame with a fire to warm me. You so much want to give me a home, a sense of belonging, a place to dwell, a shelter where I feel protected and a refuge in which I feel safe.

You stand at so many squares and corners of my life and say with so much tenderness, “Come and see, come and stay with me. When you are thirsty, come to me…. you who put your trust in me, come and drink.

Come, you who are tired, exhausted, depressed, discouraged and dispirited. Come, you who feel pain in your body, fatigue in your anxious mind and doubt and anguish in the depth of your heart."

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Reflection Question: Where do you sense Jesus tenderly calling you?

“I long to dwell in your tent forever and take refuge in the shelter of your wings.”
- Psalm 61:4

05/21/2026

Thank you to the youth for cleaning out the attic and cleaning the buses. The rest of youth week was spent having fun.

05/18/2026

Be sure and welcome our newest members, Abby Donathan, Amy Donathan and Barbara Dooty. Olivia Donathan will be added as a Preparatory Member. This 3 generation family has been been attending for about a year. They joined by transferring their membership from another denomination. All 3 have already gotten involved in various ways, and Olivia loves to help with the greeter duties on Sunday.