<font color='black' size='4' face='Times New Roman, Times, serif'><font color="black" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">
<div style="font-family:arial,helvetica;font-size:10pt;color:black">
<div id="AOLMsgPart_1_d1b397b7-c0e5-4272-a212-72cde40a1b1b">
<font color="black" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="600"><tbody><tr><td style="background-color:#E6E6E6;" rowspan="1" colspan="1" bgcolor="#E6E6E6" valign="bottom" width="100%"><table style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff; MARGIN: 0px" id="content_LETTER.BLOCK1" bgcolor="#ffffff" border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td style="TEXT-ALIGN: left; FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman, Times, serif; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt" rowspan="1" colspan="1" align="left">
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; COLOR: #000000"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman, Times, serif"><strong>Ash Wednesday </strong></span></div>
</td></tr></tbody></table>
<table style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" id="content_LETTER.BLOCK2" bgcolor="#ffffff" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" height="66" width="600"><tbody><tr><td valign="top"><br>
</td></tr><tr><td style="TEXT-ALIGN: left" rowspan="1" colspan="1" align="left"><br>
</td></tr></tbody></table>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td rowspan="1" colspan="1" width="100%">
<table style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff; MARGIN: 5.5px 0px" id="content_LETTER.BLOCK3" bgcolor="#ffffff" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td style="TEXT-ALIGN: left; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman, Times, serif; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; TEXT-DECORATION: none" rowspan="1" colspan="1" align="left" width="380">February 13, 2012</td><td style="color:#FFFFFF;font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif;text-decoration:none;font-size:12pt;TEXT-ALIGN: right; PADDING-RIGHT: 5px" rowspan="1" colspan="1" align="right" width="180"><br>
</td></tr></tbody></table>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background-color:#E6E6E6;" rowspan="1" colspan="1" bgcolor="#E6E6E6" width="100%">
<br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background-color:#E6E6E6;" rowspan="1" colspan="1" align="center" bgcolor="#E6E6E6" width="100%">
<table border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
<tbody><tr>
<td rowspan="1" colspan="1"><hr size="1"></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<table style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff; DISPLAY: table" id="content_LETTER.BLOCK5" bgcolor="#ffffff" border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td style="TEXT-ALIGN: left; FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman, Times; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt" rowspan="1" colspan="1" align="left"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><strong>Sermon Resources for Ash Wednesday and Lent </strong></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"> </div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 - <strong>'There's Still Time' </strong></span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"> </div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Matthew 6<font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">,</font></font> the sermon title "There's Still Time" or the series
entitled 'You Are Here!' in the list of Lent Sermon Series<font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">. </font></font></span><br>
<span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span>The full text of the following sermon is available at <a shape="rect" target="_blank" href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001O1GlxGfOtULHOE4aFw-Hy6Ggs3edSxO_I7bg1XAvPjXepqFQ5bITwV7D3YyI83h9G9NzjJlfJRNznGainWE7heizyy31JkjCcBzkJJLoYE8=">www.Sermons.com</a>. </span></span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span> </div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Nowadays the cost
of a dinner and a movie keeps going up, and a vacation can be especially
expensive, but if I really want to go somewhere I just take the change
out of my pocket and lay it on the desk. It's like a time machine. Each
coin has a year stamped on it, and just thinking about the year helps me
travel back in my memory. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"> </div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>1979 is the year my
first son was born and the year I started in ministry. 1981 and 1983
are the years my daughter and second son were born. 1988 is the last
time the Dodgers won the pennant. 1990 was when I moved to Indiana from
Los Angeles. 1994 and 2004 were the years I turned forty and fifty. 2002
was when I moved to Pennsylvania. And it's getting harder to find, but
any coin with 1954 is my birth year. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"> </div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>I enjoy laying out
the change in my pocket and just glancing at the dates. It's nice to
carry these little reminders of important events, good and bad. But
they're just one kind of reminder. We carry all sorts of reminders
around. One of the most obvious is our date book, which we use to remind
us of important events that are not in the past but in the future. We
especially need a reminder for Ash Wednesday. It comes in the middle of
nowhere. It's not like Christmas or Independence Day that fall on the
same dates every year. Ash Wednesday is all over the map, from early
February to sometime in March. What usually happens is that we notice
someone with a smudge on their forehead and suddenly realize: was that
today? Really, it's not very convenient. The least Ash Wednesday could
do is fall on a Sunday. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"> </div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>It is an
interruption. And it's an unwelcome reminder of an unpleasant fact. Dust
we are and to dust we shall return. The grass withers and the flower
fades.... </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"> </div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>** For the rest of
this sermon, please see the sermon series by Frank Ramirez for Lent and
Easter. The Series is entitled 'You Are Here!' You can find all of the
Lenten Series by clicking on the link to 'Lent Sermon Series' found on
the This Week page. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"> </div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>__________________________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The Lord's Prayer: A Walking Prayer</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Every evening I
walk three miles as part of my losing campaign against high blood
pressure and my imperialistic waist line. I generally don't wear an
iPod, because I prefer to take my exercise without anesthesia. (I enjoy
the sounds of nature, and I want to be able to hear the cars honk before
they run me over.) Sometimes I devote the time to prayer, and I have
found that the Lord's Prayer makes a good outline. Here's how I do it:</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>I address God as my Father by adoption through the grace of Jesus Christ and give thanks for His salvation.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>I pledge to keep
His name holy in all my conduct. I remind Him of ways I have done this
in the past, and ask Him forgiveness for all the ways I have failed to
do so as well.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>I ask that His will
be done, here on earth through me, as efficiently as it is done by His
angels in heaven. I give examples of how I think I could do that; I ask
His guidance and pledge my obedience.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>I ask for my
material needs for the day, itemizing and discussing them. I give thanks
for specific instances of His providence in the past.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>I ask forgiveness, but only to the degree I am willing to forgive others. If I have a problem, I discuss it in detail.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>If I am facing any
particular temptations, I discuss them and ask God to help me resist
them. If I have recently survived any tough tests, I discuss them and
thank God that He gave me the power to overcome them.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>I tell God about the evil things that frighten me, and ask Him to deliver me from them. I also give thanks for past rescues.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>You get the idea. When you pray like this, it's amazing how time flies!</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Kenneth W. Collins, Praying</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>________________________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span><br>
I'm Sorry, Father</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>A Catholic priest
working in an inner city was walking down an alley one evening on his
way home when a young man came down the alley behind him and poked a
knife against his back. "Give me your money," the young man said.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The priest opened
his jacket and reached into an inner pocket to remove his wallet,
exposing his clerical collar. "Oh, I'm sorry, Father," said the young
man, "I didn't see your collar. I don't want YOUR money."</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Trembling from the
scare, the priest removed a cigar from his shirt pocket and offered it
to the young man. "Here," he said. "Have a cigar."</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>"Oh, no, I can't do that," the young man replied, "I gave them up for Lent."</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Staff, <a shape="rect"><span>www.eSermons.com</span></a></span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>______________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Let Us Play</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>My dear friends,
let us play. Yes, you heard me correctly. Now is a time for play. In
fact, today the church begins that time of the year when we do our most
serious playing.<br>
<br>
And playing is a serious business, you know. Ask
any teacher of children. Better still, watch children at play. No
wonder they are tired at the end of the day. They work hard at playing.
They take it seriously.<br>
<br>
Play is the child's laboratory for
learning about life. Children who have never played at being grown-up
tend to be handicapped in some way when they have to confront the actual
experience. Boys who have never been allowed to play with dolls can
hardly be expected to hold their own infants with ease and loving
confidence. It has to be a later learning if it is ever learned at all.
Play may be a more valuable tool for learning than all the educational
resources manufactured by the professionals.<br>
<br>
That is why, on this
Ash Wednesday, the church summons us to a season of play. Our Lord has
told us, if we are to enter the kingdom of heaven, we must become as
little children. And one of childhood's most important occupations is
play.<br>
<br>
Am I wrong in my impression, however, that most of us do
not come to church to play, that play is the furthest thing from our
minds? Play seems foreign to our understanding of religion, and if it is
to be found in church at all, it is best restricted to the nursery and
the carefully supervised activities of the youth groups. H.L. Mencken
defined a puritan as a person with the haunting fear that someone,
somewhere, might be happy. I know the puritan still comes to church with
me from time to time. What about you?</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Kendall K. McCabe and Michael L. Sherer, CSS Publishing Company</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>__________________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Recharging Your Batteries</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>An Italian
newspaper recently carried a story about a young couple in Milan who
seemed particularly devoted in their worship. The priest at a cathedral
there reported that the pair spent an hour or more on a regular basis
sitting before a statue of the Virgin Mary. Naturally, he assumed they
were praying.<br>
<br>
Turns out, this young couple was recharging their
cell phone. They had noticed a stray electric cable sticking out of the
wall behind the statue of the Virgin Mary. Whenever their phone's power
supply dwindled, the young couple came to the church and re-charged it
from the cable behind the Virgin Mary. The priest states that the young
couple is welcome to use his church for this purpose. <br>
<br>
We talk
about coming to church to "re-charge our batteries," but this is
ridiculous. What looked to the unobservant eye like an act of piety was
actually a self-serving ploy to save money. This young couple was using
the church for their own needs. And we're shocked, shocked, I tell
you--until we realize that we may be guilty of the same mistake.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>King Duncan, Collected Sermons, <a shape="rect"><span>www.Sermons.com</span></a></span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>__________________________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span><br>
</span></div>
</span></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></font>
</div>
<!-- end of AOLMsgPart_1_d1b397b7-c0e5-4272-a212-72cde40a1b1b -->
</div>
</font></font>