Do you seek peace? Do you contribute to peace? Or do you leave the hard work of peace to someone else? Isaiah 26:1-12 suggests a mind stayed on the Lord finds perfect peace. What is your center? What is your North Star? Your light in the midnight sky? Where is the Prince of Peace calling you to live in grace?

Edition 34 of "Transformed by Faith TODAY" podcast by Rev. Jennifer Fenner of Epworth United Methodist Church of Gaithersburg MD. 30 Days of Reflections on Advent and Christmas Songs, focused today on the song It Came upon a Midnight Clear

Edition 33 of "Transformed by Faith TODAY" podcast by Rev. Jennifer Fenner of Epworth United Methodist Church of Gaithersburg MD. 30 Days of Reflections on Advent and Christmas Songs. This edition focuses on the British carol, Once in David's Royal City. Written as a poem in 1848 by Cecil Frances Alexander, this poem was set to music 60 years later. The poem and later song were used as a tool to help children memorize the important parts of  Christian faith in Christmas. The song describes that Jesus knew tears and smiles. And because of God's incarnate experience in Jesus, God feels our sadness and shares in our rejoicing. The Christmas Season, especially in the midst of a pandemic, can bring great swings in emotion. It is powerful to believe that God not only experiences our pain and joy but ultimately leads us, through the redeeming love of Jesus, to a place where there is no mourning or sadness or injustice. 

Edition 32 of "Transformed by Faith TODAY" podcast by Rev. Jennifer Fenner of Epworth United Methodist Church of Gaithersburg MD. 30 Days of Reflections on Advent and Christmas Songs. This Edition focuses on the hymn O Little Town of Bethlehem. When was the last time someone counted you out as not able, or not worth it, or unimportant? 

Bethlehem was a little town and according to the gospel of Matthew, least among the clan of Judah. Yet God often does powerful things using what the world determines to be obscure or insignificant. And as we hear in the prophet Micah 5:2 it was from Bethlehem that God brought a king, foretold from ancient times and for everlasting. God does great things through unassuming people and circumstances, and often brings big blessings from the littles of things!

Edition 31 of "Transformed by Faith TODAY" podcast by Rev. Jennifer Fenner of Epworth United Methodist Church of Gaithersburg MD. This edition focuses on the West Indies Carol - The Virgin Mary had a Baby Boy based off the Luke 2:26-48 scripture.  Luke 2 tells us that Mary was overcome by the glory of God - overshadowed in some translations. I've heard God's glory described as EVERYTHING that is GOD. Have you ever felt God TUG on your life? Perhaps you've felt the pull like the string of a kite held taut by the wind high above it. Have you ever felt so overshadowed by God's presence and EVERYTHING THAT GOD IS, that you just felt overwhelmed? Mary was....but eventually she responded in perhaps one of the boldest statements of faith ever, May it be with me according to God's Word! May it be in your life as well!

Edition 30 of "Transformed by Faith TODAY" podcast by Rev. Jennifer Fenner of Epworth United Methodist Church of Gaithersburg MD. Based off of the hymn Star Child by Shirley Elena Murray, this podcast helps us look at the child within. Does the child in you need God's presence? Can you be the Hope - for - Peace Child, the Star Child, the Love Child for the street child, the used child, the hurt child, the grown child? Perhaps God knew we were much more prone to welcome a child God into our places of deepest need and greatest joy. 

Edition 29 of "Transformed by Faith TODAY" podcast by Rev. Jennifer Fenner of Epworth United Methodist Church of Gaithersburg MD. 30 days of Reflection on Advent and Christmas Songs. This episode focuses on The Carol of the Epiphany. Written by John Bell of the Iona Community in Scotland, this carol tells the story of Jesus who shows up not in wealth but poverty; not in prestige but humility; not in spotlight but obscurity.  Explore how God always defies expectation and perhaps most radically in taking flesh in the tiny human hand of a baby born in Bethlehem. 

Edition 28 of "Transformed by Faith TODAY" podcast by Rev. Jennifer Fenner.  30 day of Advent and Christmas Songs and Reflections. Focused on the hymn Lo How a Rose Ere Blooming, this reflection invites us to consider the beauty that flourishes in the depth of winter, the flowers that bloom in the middle of our deserts. Isaiah 35:1 ...the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as a rose. 

Have you ever seen beauty bloom in your desert, found belonging in wilderness spaces, or felt help in solitary spaces? Sometimes God gifts us the simplest beauty in the hardest times. 

Edition 27 of "Transformed by Faith TODAY" podcast by Rev. Jennifer Fenner. 30 days of Advent and Christmas Songs and Reflections. Today's song is O Come O Come Emmanuel. It is beautiful to consider that God moves towards us, better said, comes to us, instead of waiting for us to approach God. Where do you need God to come and be with you today. 

Edition 26 of "Transformed by Faith TODAY" podcast by Rev. Jennifer Fenner. 30 Days of Advent and Christmas Songs and Reflections. This edition focuses on the song Come Thou Long Expected Jesus. The song was written by Charles Wesley, brother to the founder of Methodism, John Wesley. Charles Wesley was overwhelmed by the homelessness, poverty and need in  18th century England. Both Wesleys called the church back to God's heart. Psalm 34:11 says the Lord is close to the broken hearted. Listen to how we can be the people of faith that hear the need in this world, find release from our fears and sins, and claim rest, even in hard times, in the One who sets us free!

Edition 25 of "Transformed by Faith TODAY" podcast by Rev. Jennifer Fenner.This episode focuses on the last lines of the prayer that Jesus taught us - FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM, AND THE POWER, AND THE GLORY, FOR EVER AND EVER. AMEN