We are practicing Easter because following Jesus takes practice. we will focus on a practice a week, and this week's practice is prayer.

Christ is risen - Christ is risen indeed!  Here's the good news of Easter we focused on at OUMC - that the resurrection of Jesus means fear, and death have been defeated. That's HAVE BEEN defeated! We can now, NOW, live without fear of death!

Jesus wasn't the king the people expected and wanted him to be, but he didn't correct them.

Yes: we are all following Jesus, but we are not all starting from the same place, so our paths will look different. 

Following Jesus is a Journey, and one that we want to live as Pilgrims rather than Tourists. 

Last week we talked about what Jesus requires disciples to carry on the Journey - nothing. This week we focus on what we ought to leave behind - the past.  Don't let your past rule your present and your future.

Following Jesus is a journey. Our destination is Jesus. In Mark 6, Jesus tells us what to take on our journey. Nothing. How do we do this?  Listen and find out!

Sometimes a Christian might mistakenly say that the destination of our journey is heaven. Heaven may be considered a final landing place, but our destination is Jesus, not heaven. When we focus on heaven, we will likely find times when we have missed Jesus. If we focus on Jesus, we will never miss heaven.

Our Lent series is called "The Journey," because our lives of following Jesus ARE journeys. We start the series with Ash Wednesday, taking the day as a reminder not only that we are human "From dust we have come, and to dust we shall return," but also that human is exactly what God created us to be.

The final Sunday before Lent is Transfiguration Sunday. This message invites you to consider what it might have felt like for Peter, James, and John to go up that mountain with Jesus.