Rossford United Methodist Church

09/09/2026

09/09/2026

September 9th, 2026

Psalm 63: 1-2

O God, you are my God; eagerly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you,
as in a barren and dry land where there is no water.
Therefore I have gazed upon you in your holy place,
that I might behold your power and your glory.

All my life, it seems, has been a never-ending journey from stability and peace, into brokenness, then back again. Perhaps for some, life has differed: No stress or struggle, no mountaintop, nor any deep valley. I’m pretty sure, though, we all suffer at times.

I don’t know if I want to imagine a life without challenge, struggle, or pain. What would endless peace be like to a mind accustomed to the joys and travails of the daily struggle.

I spoke at length once with a young father who recently changed jobs. He had worked at a plant that ran vast systems of boilers at or near their red-line performance 24 hours a day. Unfriendly workers had made him somewhat miserable, yet he persisted because the job provided an excellent income for his family.

Then a massive ethanol tank exploded.

He pulled two workers to safety, diverted drivers from coming near, followed the safety protocols, then went home to sit, shaking, behind the wheel of his car, reflecting on just how his company’s disregard of safety standards might affect his family.

A new job. New lessons to learn. A different and difficult schedule. And his new boss was proving to be very demanding. He had begun to wonder if he had made a terrible mistake.

We spoke quietly of his concerns and fears.

Life’s struggles remind us daily how impossible it is to rely on the world. The world competes, strives, challenges. These are good things, for they require us to grow. They make us stronger, smarter, mentally tougher. But life, like high-pressure boilers, can explode. In such a moment, we discern the deepest truth. We are not just flesh. We are also spirit. We need not just wise minds, strong bodies, and inner toughness. We need a whole spirit, else the explosions will destroy us.

The psalmist knew this. He thirsted for the presence of God, sought out God in holy places, and discovered there two incredible things. Power and glory.

God, he learned, was the ultimate provider. The path out of the valley.

So too for all of us. Every day.



Hymn of the day: As the Deer. Rossford UMC - Media





Rev. Lawrence Keeler

09/08/2026

Tuesday, September 8, 2026

Acts 13: 48-52

When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and praised the word of the Lord; and as many as had been destined for eternal life became believers. Thus, the word of the Lord spread throughout the region. But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, and stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their region. So, they shook the dust off their feet in protest against them, and went to Iconium. And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.



George Fox, the first Quaker, wrote powerfully about the many mistakes of organized religion and of the mistakenness which existed in many human interpretations of scripture.

He found himself focused intently on two states of being, a state of inwardness as against a state of outwardness. The mistake many make in reading scripture, he said, concerned their great willingness to apply the biblical lessons to others, but not themselves. So too the church.

A simple example: the law. The early Hebrews received the law from God, created an organization and a structure devoted to the law, and promptly began naming sinners. They pointed the law at others. For decades now, I have watched the church I love, the very church that saved me, arguing about sinners. We name sinners. We restrict the access of sinners to full participation in faith. We create rules to control and limit sinners. The whole thing is a perversion of the ministry of Jesus Christ. We see the lust which entraps the sinners we have named, but refuse to see the lust which has entrapped us. Our lust to dominate and to control. Our lust to turn the law of God into a false god.

We should look inward, Fox argued, not outward.

“Now, when the Lord God and His Son Jesus Christ sent me forth into the world to preach his everlasting Gospel and Kingdom, I was glad that I was commanded to turn people to that inward light, spirit, and grace by which all might know their salvation, and their way to God…” (Journal, 21.)

Fox pointed to the idea of tenderness, one of the most overwhelming traits Jesus exhibited in his own ministry. Tenderness to all. Jesus was willing to talk with anyone, at any time, in any place. Who is left to accuse you, he asked the sinful woman. (John 8) This was the heart of Jesus’s ministry.

Did this mean he failed to recognize sin? Certainly not!

His prescription for the woman: Go and sin no more.

Fox’s rejection of sinful human institutions was not a rejection of God. It was part of his immensely deep search for God within himself.

Hymn of the day: Forgive Me, Lord. Rossford UMC - Media


Rev. Lawrence Keeler

09/08/2026

Monday, September 7, 2026

Psalm 103: 19-22

The Lord has set his throne in heaven, and his kingship has dominion over all.
Bless the Lord, you angels of his, you mighty ones who do his bidding,
and hearken to the voice of his word.
Bless the Lord, all you his hosts, you ministers of his who do his will.
Bless the Lord, all you works of his, in all places of his dominion;
bless the Lord, O my soul.



I believe in God the father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

It’s an old, old sentence. No one knows, really, when the prayer was written. The first known reference to its title came from the late 4th Century, much like the lesser known, but more detailed, Nicene Creed.

One of the most ignored prescriptions of Christian faith is that each Christian should say on occasion what he or she believes. Unfortunately, perhaps, instead of truly saying what we believe, we grab onto prayers written by others, doctrines defined by others, prayers prayed by others. We memorize the formulae and recite what we have memorized. Do we really believe, or are we instead just mouthing the words of others?

I don’t mean to diminish the value of the ancient prayers. They are, indeed, powerful. But perhaps God wants us to use them as starting points, not ending points.

If one states what one truly believes, it opens that person to vulnerability. What if others don’t agree? What if they believe something different? What will they think of me? How can I go forward in relationship with others if I don’t believe the same things they believe? What if I’m wrong in my own personal belief? After all, belief in something does not make it true. Elvis really is dead. The military did, in fact, test new aircraft around Area 51. What does that say about me? Am I just a kook?

The amount of thought in that single ancient prayerful sentence is almost immeasurable.

First of all, the early church treasured the idea of belief. It thought the things we believe were important. If that’s true – and I think it is – then we ought to exercise some care in what we believe.

George Fox, the Quaker, believed Christians should trust the instructional power of the Holy Spirit.

John Wesley, the first Methodist, believed Christianity demanded a disciplined approach to faith – prayer, study, service, sacrament, accountable relationship, the power of small-group relationship.

Martin Luther believed the church shouldn’t sell forgiveness for money.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer believed people of faith should oppose evil.

Mother Teresa gave away her life to people radically different from herself. People of a different race, of a different faith, of a different station in life.

Yes, what we believe is important.

Do we believe in an almighty, creative, commanding God? If so, how should that belief shape our lives?

Help me, O God, to be made ever-new this day, more and more in the shape you would have me take.



Hymn of the day: Spirit Song. Rossford UMC - Media



Rev. Lawrence Keeler

09/06/2026

Good Morning Welcome To Our Service

09/04/2026

Friday, September 4, 2026

Psalm 31: 6-9

I hate those who cling to worthless idols, and I put my trust in the Lord.
I will rejoice and be glad because of your mercy;
for you have seen my affliction; you know my distress.

You have not shut me up in the power of the enemy; you have set my feet in an open place.
Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am in trouble;
my eye is consumed with sorrow, and also my throat and my belly.



George Fox’s journals begin with entries describing his formative years. Raised as a small child in a very religious home, he came as a young man to desire true religious wisdom. He sought to obey all heavenly commands, traveled widely in search of wise and deeply committed spiritual leaders, and found himself shocked by several things.

He saw human sin on every side, in every form, both that sin which harmed him personally and social sin which pervaded every aspect of human life.

He found human spiritual directors fickle and inadequate in many ways. Some even sought to do him harm.

He experienced spiritual revelations, even as young as 19 or 20, and began to realize that advanced university degrees did not qualify ministers to preach the Word of God and also that human buildings and institutions were not necessarily holy ground, that the Lord God existed not in buildings but rather in human hearts.

“… I fasted much and walked abroad in solitary places many days and often took my Bible and went and sat in hollow trees and lonesome places until night came on; and frequently, in the night, walked mournfully about by myself; for I was a man of sorrows in the times of the first workings of the Lord in me.” (Journal, [New York: E.P. Dutton & Co.], 8.)

Very often, real spiritual journeys begin with some experience of the love of God, but then retreat into a dismal state of despair when the traveler looks about and sees what humankind has done to the world. Many find refuge in adherence to rules and law and in participation in bureaucratic religious structures, with their own additional rules and expectations. George Fox traveled mostly alone in these formative years, fighting off temptation, listening closely to the word of God as presented in the Bible, and listening alone for the voice of God.

Every real spiritual journey arrives at such a point if one persists.

The word of man offers safety in numbers; the Word of God offers eternal safety, yet requires some form of journey of despair. Those who persist find themselves clinging for dear life to God, and God’s light begins to shine through their faces. George Fox got it right.



Hymn of the day: Let There Be Peace on Earth. Rossford UMC - Media.



Rev. Lawrence Keeler

09/03/2026

Thursday, September 3, 2026

Psalm 34: 3-7

Put your trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and feed on its riches.
Take delight in the Lord, and he shall give you your heart's desire.
Commit your way to the Lord and put your trust in him, and he will bring it to pass.
He will make your righteousness as clear as the light and your just dealing as the noonday.

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.





Sometime in the midst of the 17th Century, religion in England faced a real crisis. Odd sects and denominations began to appear, some of them later becoming widely accepted denominations and others remaining as fringe movements. The Anabaptist movement was gaining strength, eventually becoming the various Baptist strains we now see, and another group, the “Seekers,” comprised a thin but widespread school of serious thinkers who rejected the idea of any one true church and the performance of sacraments. Wild religious enthusiasts known as “Ranters” began to gather for unregulated and Spirit-driven services, and “Fifth-monarchy men” predicted all existing world monarchies would fall in the near future to be replaced by Christ’s kingdom. Puritans began their efforts purify religion.

Two British religious geniuses created, without meaning to do so, entirely new denominations, the Methodists led by John Wesley and the Quakers, whose founding father was George Fox.

I found myself reflecting on this today as I decided to read George Fox’s journals in their entirety for the first time. It struck me that many similarities exist between that time and this. It should have become clear to many members of the various main-line denominations that organized religion in America is in crisis. Participation in worship and church membership have fallen off a cliff, and very many churches now find themselves filled with elderly members who remember better days. Many non-denominational churches have appeared and grown, many of them committed – as were those strange English movements – to personalized understandings of religion. Some are personality driven, shaped and formed by charismatic leadership, and others have become committed to some form of Christian nationalism.

These movements can’t be measured in moments, only in decades and centuries. No one can truly see in the immediate moment what will rise out of such turmoil.

I’m convinced many, perhaps most, people realize they still need God, but they have become disillusioned with the failures of organized religion. They see the sin present in the many and various churches and flail helplessly in a search for a reasonable substitute.

All of this is far more ancient than the 17th Century. It reaches all the way back into the dim distance of pre-history.

The ancient psalmist lived, much like Wesley and Fox in the 17th Century and us in the 21st, in a time of turmoil. He looked around the world and saw chaotic disorder, human sin, systems of domination, and social injustice. He also saw the answers offered by the biblical wisdom traditions and urged those who wished to be faithful to embrace that tradition: obedience, trust, patience, meekness, generosity.

All human failure is meaningless, he said. All one needs to do is to wait for God and to delight in that goodness which already exists. Trust God. Do good.

Help me, O Lord, to take comfort today in this teaching. Help me to do good.



Hymn of the day: In His Time. Rossford UMC - Media.



Rev. Lawrence Keeler

09/02/2026

Wednesday, September 2, 2026

Psalm 145: 8-9

The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and of great kindness.
The Lord is loving to everyone and his compassion is over all his works.



I find myself drawn again and again to the slim collection of English-language translations of journals, hymns, and meditations of Hildegard of Bingen, an 11th Century nun who wrote hymns, practiced medicine, led a convent, and who wrote powerful creation-centered meditations. Her work, virtually unheard of among most Western Christians, revealed God and God’s creative work in every aspect of the creation. She was an ecologist before the word ecology even existed, a wonderful counterbalance to prevailing dualistic theologies of sin and redemption.

She saw beauty in every part of the creation.

“There is nothing in creation,” she wrote, “which does not have some radiance, either greenness or seeds or flowers or beauty – otherwise it would not be part of creation.” (The Wisdom of Hildegard of Bingen, compiled by Fiona Bowie, [Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1997], 4.)

Her work offers the most wonderful alternative to a sin/redemption theology. This does not mean she fails to recognize sin, but rather that she perceives it in a different and most reasonable light. In her view, everything on earth is interconnected and interdependent, each part on the other, and the most terrible sin involves any rupturing of these God-created relationships. She saw beauty everywhere she looked in the natural world, and I find myself wondering what she might say were she to view the earth as we are leaving it to our children, torn asunder, plundered, and damaged, species after species long-disappeared, oceans heated beyond their natural state, skies covered over by the smoke created by a million money-making marauders.

Her writing blows through me like a cool yet fiery breeze, alight with the power of the Holy Spirit, suggesting a saving alternative.

How, I wonder, could an 11th-Century mystic have seen so clearly the sinfulness which might happen in some millennial future? How powerful are her words, which reveal God’s intention in creation.



Hymn of the day: We Are the World. Rossford UMC - Media.



Rev. Lawrence Keeler

09/01/2026

Tuesday, September 1, 2026

Isaiah 6: 1-8

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. 2Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” 4The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke.

5And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” 6Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. 7The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” 8Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!”



When the young boy Isaiah experienced his vision of the heavenly court and described it in his prophecies, he provided us an almost perfect description of the three stages in any real spiritual journey.

One sees the grandeur of God, so awesome he is attended by angels.
The person also perceives his or her uncleanness, so awful it must be burned away.
Finally, the one who was cleansed hears God’s call “Whom shall I send?” and responds, “Here I am. Send me.”
Evelyn Underhill, a famous 20th Century Christian mystic, understood clearly what this meant.

“To say day by day “Thy kingdom come” – if these tremendous words really stand for a conviction and desire – does not mean ‘I quite hope that some day the Kingdom of God will be established, and peace and goodwill prevail. But at present I don’t see how it is to be managed or what I can do about it.’ On the contrary, it means or should mean, ‘Here am I! Send me!' Active, costly collaboration with the Spirit in whom we believe.” (The Spiritual Life, 66-67.)

Thus, response to that simple statement – Thy kingdom come – must, of necessity, affect every aspect of our lives. It will govern our actions, frame our politics, shape all decision-making, and change our lives. Its cost will be measured in surrender. Will we lie down our personal desires, spend our private capital, and do whatever we hear God calling us to do?

Grace is freely offered, but expensively lived out. Its price is immeasurable.

The cross shows us that.



Hymn of the day: Here I Am, Lord. Rossford UMC - Media.



Rev. Lawrence Keeler

08/30/2026

Welcome To Our Service