Wonewoc United Methodist Church

Wonewoc United Methodist Church We are a community of Christians who love God and neighbors with joyful and grateful hearts. Our worship service begins at 9:00am on Sunday. Come join us!

Welcome to Wonewoc United Methodist Church, where our doors are open wide to everyone, and our hearts shut to no one seeking to find a safe place for spiritual life, growth and fellowship. If you are transferring into our area, visiting friends or family, or just looking for a place to worship, please let us take this opportunity to invite you to visit our Church. What vistors usually notice first

in our Church is the tender presence of God in our worship gatherings. These times are marked with sincere worship, warm fellowship and relevant preaching from God's Word – a combination that touches the heart and lifts the soul. A closer look will prove that you are surrounded by people just like you – people that are filled with hopes and fears, joys and sorrows, strengths and weaknesses. The common thread being that we all are committed to growing in Christ. Our goal is to provide an atmosphere of loving acceptance, where people can grow spiritually through earnest worship, honest friendships, a caring fellowship and compassionate concern for the world. So whether you are a spiritual seeker just beginning your walk toward God, or a committed believer continuing your journey with Him, you can find a home at Wonewoc United Methodist Church. Please join us as we commit our lives in prayer, lift our hearts in worship, and extend our hands to serve in God's Holy Name. O tree of Calvary send your roots deep into our hearts,

Rev. Dr. Wesley Jacob


Reaching Up to Worship God
Reaching In to Grow Together
Reaching Out to Serve Others

08/17/2021

God never allows pain without a purpose. Don't waste your pain; use it to help others. Your greatest ministry will most likely come out of your greatest hurt.

06/02/2021

While only one day of the year is dedicated solely to honoring our veterans, we must never forget the sacrifices that many of our fellow countrymen have made to defend our country and protect our freedoms.

04/10/2021

If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that He said; if He didn't rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what He said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like His teaching but whether or not He rose from the dead.
The resurrection of Jesus changes the face of death for all His people. Death is no longer a prison, but a passage into God’s presence. Easter says you can put truth in a grave, but it won’t stay there.
We live and die; Christ died and lived. It is the resurrection that makes Good Friday good. Life replaced logic.

02/25/2021

Why did you abandon Me?
1 Peter 2:23- 25

Just suppose you were to stand on a stage while a film of every secret and selfish second of your life was projected on the screen behind you? Wouldn’t you shout to the heavens to have mercy?

Imagine what Jesus felt on the Cross! Scripture says, “He personally carried all our sins in His body. . .” (1 Peter 2:24). See Jesus on the Cross! That’s a Sexual Pervert hanging there. See Jesus? A Fraudster. A Hypocrite. See the crucified carpenter? He’s an Insurrectionist. A Murderer.

Hold it, Pastor Wesley. Don’t recruit Jesus with those evildoers. I didn’t. HE did.

What did Jesus feel on the Cross? The icy anger of a sin-hating God. Why? Because Jesus carried our sins in His body.

More than place His Name in the same sentence, He placed Himself in the same place. With hands nailed open, He invited God, “Treat me as you would treat them!” And God did.

Jesus lifts his heavy head toward the heavens crying out, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani” (Matthew 27:46). —that is, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” (Mark 15:34). We would ask the same. But why Jesus? Why forsake Your Son? Forsake the murderers. Desert the evildoers. Turn Your back on the perverts and peddlers of pain. Abandon them, not Him. Why did Jesus scream those words? So you’ll never have to.

In an act that broke the heart of the Father yet honored the holiness of heaven. The sin-purging judgment flowed over the sinless Son of the ages.

Jesus is Near Enough to Touch.
Jesus is Strong Enough to Trust

12/09/2020

SEEING THROUGH THE EYES OF ONE WHO KNOWS

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14

One of my favorite authors, F.W. Boreham, tells a fascinating story, told to him by his mother while they sat around the fireplace one evening. As a young woman of seventeen, she had set up an appointment to meet her cousin in Canterbury, near the Cathedral. She went as planned but her cousin was not there. Somewhat “dejected and disgusted” about this broken appointment, she was not in the happiest disposition. A man with a very intellectual countenance but a gentle presence who had seen her walk up and down offered to show her around while she waited and explain some of the Cathedral’s features and its history. He had a wealth of information with incredible insights. As they parted, he gave her his card and without looking at it, she slipped it into her purse. In the end, it turned out that her cousin had become ill and hence, never showed.

On her way home in the train, she finally took out the card. It simply said, “Charles Dickens.” She gasped at the thought that she had been face to face with one of the greatest story tellers of all time and regretted her lost opportunity of knowing through whose eyes she was seeing the great Cathedral...one who was so in tune with the stones and personages that intersected where they had met. But preoccupation had preempted that inspiration.

Seeing through the eyes of one who knows the stories behind an edifice is a privileged glimpse for anyone. Imagine how it must have felt to the disciples on the Emmaus Road when they realized who it was that had just explained to them not a building or a song, but all of history as it pointed to the Messiah. When they met him, He asked why they were so despondent and not knowing who He was, they answered, “Are you the only one in Israel who doesn’t know what has happened in the last few days?” He must have smiled on the inside because the irony was that He was the only one in Israel who actually did know what had happened. Even as they listened to Him open history before them they had no idea who it was that was doing the explaining, except that their hearts burned within them as they saw a panorama of redemption. When it dawned on them that He was the risen Christ, they must have dug deep inside to wonder how they had missed it.

But at least they listened. Poor Pontius Pilate asked the greatest question he could have asked- “What is truth?”- of the only one who perfectly embodied it, but he did not even have the presence of mind to wait for the answer. He also missed the moment. History repeats itself and regrets of that nature have a long reach.

Reflect

On that quiet night so long ago, lying in the manger was the answer to all of life’s successes, struggles, disappointments, and regrets. The hopes and fears of all the years had met in Him that night in a makeshift crib in the little town of Bethlehem. A carpenter, a humble maid, a band of shepherds, and ordinary folks responded in awe at the blessing of his arrival. As always, there were those who were busy about their business and had no time to pause and ask, “Who is He in yonder stall?” What a loss! They missed a divine appointment with mankind.

Then there were those in power that felt threatened by Him and wished to silence Him permanently. Malcolm Muggeridge said it well: All new news is old news happening to new people. Just as the Garden of Eden is lived out every day in somebody’s life, the Christmas message is lived out every day in all of our lives. Today in our schools and even businesses and government in America the message of Jesus is silenced or mocked, and should anyone speak up, someone somewhere with the power of Caesar will wreak havoc in their lives. This is not new. There are still Caesars who think they are gods. There are still those who elevate the mundane to the exalted and miss the marvel of the ultimate. This has ever been so, as truth and grace are traded away for the artificial and the momentary. Intellectual hubris silences the bells of heaven and they cannot hear for whom the bell now tolls as a nation self-destructs. How self-indicting it is, that we can be so close and yet so distant from having our eyes opened.

But there was another one that first Christmas, the one who was the closest of all to the story but didn’t quite know what the journey was all about for a completely different reason. When she was told that a sword would pierce through her heart Mary must have shuddered under the weight of the unknown. She had no idea of the horror she would one day experience, seeing her son go to the cross. What a horrific pronouncement! Yet, the prophecy brought enough of a jolt to one day bring those words to mind, though she could not anticipate the specifics. Uncertainty once again, with hope but fear. It is understandable.

We have the unique privilege of being able to look back and read the whole story. There was a Cross that loomed in a fearful symmetry with the manger. Emmanuel, God was with us. Born to be lifted up, “to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth.” Bethlehem portended the magnitude of the need and the supremacy of God’s answer.

Our world is broken. Many a family will have a vacant chair this Christmas because a life has been snatched from their circle. Humankind is wounded and hollow speeches bereft of wisdom are the landmarks along the way. We look into the future a little bit like Mary, knowing we have the Savior but not knowing what swords will pierce through our hearts. Hopes and fears intersect as we journey.

But let us draw strength this Christmas. Prophecy is unfolding before our eyes in giant strides, just as He said it would. The scriptures are full of it. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

Missing Dickens and being fearful of who is offering you a ride back home are legitimate regrets or fears in a world of unknowns. But finding the Savior and having Him explain all and take you to your destination is what Christmas is all about: hope within and hope for the future. He is the One and only Prince of Peace.

As the world debates who should be armed to wage war and who shouldn’t be, the message of Christmas is that God Incarnate came to this same world as a babe to ultimately carry us in His everlasting arms. This world would be a different place if we understood what that meant.

Pray

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for always showing up on time, for fulfilling every promise You’ve ever made, and for having every detail of my life in Your loving hands. Help me to trust Your perfect timing through this season and into the new year. Amen.

07/17/2020

THE SECOND PETITION

“The kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” - Romans 14:17

Following the request for God’s Name to be hallowed, we are told in the Lord’s Prayer to pray for His kingdom to come (Luke 11:2). Question and answer 123 of the Heidelberg Catechism take up this petition, exploring what we mean when we say in prayer: “Your kingdom come.” The first thing we should note about the catechism’s exposition of this petition is that it does not say we are still waiting for God to become King. In other words, the catechism does not put off the Lord’s sovereign rule to some future day. This is entirely appropriate, for Scripture is clear that God is King and reigns over all (Ps. 97:1; Isa. 52:7; Rev. 19:6). So, in the sense that the Lord is sovereign over the affairs of the universe, we do not need to pray that some things presently outside of His control will now come under His authority. To pray for such a thing would be ridiculous, for God is in control over everything that happens—no exceptions (Eph. 1:11). Defined as the outworking of His foreordination of all things, His kingdom is already here.

On the other hand, Scripture also uses the designation kingdom of God or kingdom of heaven to refer to that special place of blessing where people willingly and eagerly submit themselves to His rule (Matt. 8:11; 20:1–16; Mark 10:13–16; John 3:1–15). In God’s kingdom of all creation, the demons, men and women in Adam, and the Devil resist His righteousness and rise up in protest at every turn. In the kingdom of heaven, men and women in Christ, as well as angels, bend the knee to their Lord and Creator. This kingdom is present in part today, but it will be here in its fullness only at the return of our Savior.
Therefore, the Heidelberg Catechism tells us that to pray for the kingdom of God to come is to pray for our submission to God’s Spirit through His Word (Q&A 123). This must be so, for if the kingdom of God is a matter of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, as today’s passage indicates (Rom. 14:17), that kingdom can come only as we follow His Word. In praying for the kingdom to come, we are asking the Lord to make our hearts ever more submissive to His will and to transform His church so that she would submit to the authority of her Lord. AMEN

07/17/2020

YOUR WILL BE DONE

When you pray, do so earnestly and believe that the Father does listen and move in response to prayer. Know that when you pray for another to do His will, He may use that prayer to save their soul - Matthew 6:10.

The Father’s ultimate, decretive will is always done. However, this should not stop us from coming before Him in prayer and asking Him to move in a certain way. God truly responds to His people, and He uses our requests to accomplish His purposes. Our study of the Lord’s Prayer has looked mainly at the version recorded in Luke 11. However, today we will turn to Matthew 6:10 in order to examine the third petition of this prayer, since Luke does not include it in his account. Jesus instructs us to pray for God’s will to “be done on earth as it is in heaven.” But why should our Savior make this request? Is not the Lord’s will always done? Can His purposes not be accomplished?

We alluded to Deuteronomy 29:29 a few days ago, and this verse sheds light on these questions, because it distinguishes between those things God has disclosed and those things He has concealed. There are two aspects of God’s will — one hidden and one revealed. The Lord’s hidden, or decretive will, contains His secret decrees and foreordains all things. It is this will that results in the final manifestation of His mercy and justice, and thus brings Him His sovereign glory. This will can never be thwarted. This does not mean God is pleased with every single event that occurs, for He hates sin. But the Lord is utterly transcendent, and from His perspective, His decrees paint a wonderful, God-glorifying picture even if we cannot yet see the entire, beautiful tapestry weaved by His hidden will. Mysteriously, God’s sovereignty over evil will further exalt and glorify Him on that final day.

On the other hand, the Lord’s revealed, or preceptive will, is clearly found in Scripture and contains those things in which He delights or hates insofar as they conform to His standards. This will can be violated and can therefore incur God’s displeasure. Men routinely and flagrantly violate this will, and even though all actions are permitted in the decretive will, God truly hates each transgression. But in the end, the judgment He will pronounce on the flagrant sinner will bring Him greater glory than if sin had never been ordained. When Jesus prays for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, He is asking for men to follow God’s preceptive will, by the Spirit’s grace, like the angels and saints in heaven. Praying for God’s will to be done is to ask for people everywhere to love His law. AMEN

07/12/2020

YOUR KINGDOM COME

“Your kingdom come” - Luke 11:2b.

Even with all the freedoms and comforts the United States enjoys, we might say her citizens sense that something is amiss. The real question we must all ask is: Which king merits our ultimate allegiance?

Jesus now speaks of the One to whom all honor, glory, and service is due (Luke 11:2b). A monarchy is characterized by the supreme will of its sovereign. Thus, in God’s kingdom, His justice is preeminent. Part and parcel of hallowing the Lord’s Name (v. 2a) is submission to His kingly rule. Therefore, Jesus asks that His kingdom would come. Our prayers are not to be focused primarily on our own needs. Instead, we are to be kingdom-focused when we come before the Father. His concerns must be first and foremost in our minds when we approach Him. Effective prayers will be those that call for the kingdom to grow through the work of His people, by the power of His Spirit (Matt. 6:33).

Whenever we go before God in prayer, we have to remember to whom we are speaking as well as the identity of the one who is doing the speaking. In other words, we have to remember that we are addressing the Lord. We are not His equal. We do not give Him advice, since He knows our needs before we ask (v. 😎. Still, He gives us the unspeakable privilege of coming into the heavenly throne room and offering petitions that He uses to bring His will to pass. May we therefore eagerly and reverently come before Him. AMEN

07/09/2020

GLORY TO THE NAME OF THE LORD

“Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to Your Name give glory, for the sake of Your steadfast love and Your faithfulness!” - Psalm 115:1

Biblical teaching never gives us information for information’s sake, rather, God’s goal in revealing Himself to us in His Word is to inspire us to action. In the Lord’s Prayer, we have an example of an implicit call to action in the first petition of the prayer. We do not pray for the Name of God to be hallowed (Luke 11:2) simply to call others to magnify Him or to have our minds renewed with the understanding that our Creator is holy. Both of those things are certainly a part of the prayer. Yet they do not exhaust its significance. In praying for the Lord’s Name to be hallowed, we are actually praying for ourselves, that we would be transformed to make God’s priorities our priorities. By praying, we motivate ourselves to pursue the holiness of the Lord and to make Him the center of everything that we say, think, and do.

When we, as the people of God, regularly pray for the Lord’s Name to be hallowed, we cannot help but have the holiness of God impressed upon our minds and hearts. As the Spirit works, in turn, we become more focused on our own regard for our holy Creator, and prayer begins to change us. We realize that the Name of the blessed Trinity will not be hallowed if those around us are the only ones to declare and adore His holiness; rather, we see more and more that God’s Name will not be hallowed fully until we hallow it ourselves.

Consequently, praying for God’s Name to be hallowed involves praying that we would never blaspheme the Lord in our thoughts, words, and deeds (Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 122). It means praying that we would not give others an occasion to stumble (Luke 17:1–2). It involves praying for the Lord to give glory not to us but to His own Name—and really meaning it (Ps. 115:1). Beseeching our Creator to hallow His Name is not an exercise in abstraction but a concrete way to pray for ourselves, that we might bring God nothing but glory and honor. AMEN

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208 N East Street
Wonewoc, WI
53968

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+16084643942

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