The Connection

Yesterday during our Kids For Christ Ministry 3 of these amazing young people made the decision on their own to say yes to Christ.

God is STILL saving and answering so keep praying.

This SUNDAY

June 25, 2023 @ 10am
Worship at Mt. Zion AME followed by fun in the ☀️ at Whale Bay

See you Friday, June 16

Dinner will be served

Register here
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Join us for our Girls Weekend 2022

Sept 9 & 11

It’s going to be life changing

THE CONNECTION IS BACK!!

We will be meeting this evening in Hayward Hall at Mt. Zion AME Church Southampton.

7:00pm-8:30pm - 5 (born in 2017)-10years old
7:30pm - 9:30pm - ages 11 and up

We can't wait to see all the young people this evening.

It’s not just a Good Friday, it’s THE Friday!!

Times of Trial

Right after his baptism, Jesus enters the wilderness. In fact, the Spirit leads him there—to be tested. We often regard temptation and testing as bad things to “get through,” nothing more. But the Spirit’s leading here suggests otherwise. Unique to Luke’s version of this story, the Holy Spirit appears twice at the start and immediately afterward. However lonely Jesus may feel, he is never alone. In fact, the Spirit is nearer at hand here than anywhere else in Luke’s narrative. At some level, this test prepares Jesus for public ministry. It also solidifies the identity God declared at his baptism. At a critical juncture, this experience of testing clarifies who Jesus is. Without it, his ministry would never have been the same. Times of trial and testing are neither punishments nor signs of God’s disfavor. Nor are they pass/fail exams. They help us realize our identity, our purpose, and our support network—even if it feels like we fail. Our trials are seasons for relearning who we are, where we are going, and whose we are.

📕: Grace Abounded Devotions for Lent 2022






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Beloved
Jesus’ baptism is an extraordinary experience: heaven opens, the Spirit descends, and God speaks clearly and directly. Many of us would welcome so direct an encounter with the divine today. Maybe we need not look far. Only in Luke’s gospel is this event associated with prayer. Jesus is praying when something extraordinary happens. We often focus on the extraordinary events, but maybe we should ponder more what precedes them (baptism and prayer). After all, the story suggests that acts of worship and prayer enable us to welcome the Spirit’s presence and to hear God speak. Whether or not we have so extraordinary an encounter, by affirming our baptisms and spending time in prayer we open ourselves to God’s words of promise. You are beloved. You have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever. With you, God is profoundly pleased. We do not need heaven to open in dramatic fashion to hear God speak today: You are my beloved child.
📕: Grace Abounded Devotions for Lent 2022





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Changing Course

Repentance readies us to welcome Jesus. That’s why John proclaimed a “baptism of repentance.” Many of us have baggage with “repentance” language. We associate it with feeling bad—about our choices, our shortcomings, and ourselves. We tend to think repentance means getting down on ourselves, in self-centered ways, even though that accomplishes absolutely nothing. Is this really what God wants? In the New Testament, repentance does not require negative feelings. The word (metanoia in Greek) simply means “change of mind/thinking.” After all, a change of thinking can change the entire course of our lives. Repentance is what my phone navigational app helps me do after I take a wrong turn (which happens often): it recalculates a better path. Repentance isn’t a pity party. It’s what happens when I realize I’m going the wrong way. And if I keep going, someone may get hurt. To prepare for Jesus, John calls us to repentance. To repent is simply to recalibrate or recalculate our life’s course to better embrace Jesus and the reign of God.
📕: Grace Abounded Devotions for Lent 2022





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