One of the most beautiful flowers that God has created is the rose. Such as is our lives; the beautiful flower of our life is like the rose: having thorns. Paul, David and Peter all had thorns in their lives - something with sharpness and pain. The lesson is that there is no rose without thorns.   The thorns in our lives are there to help us - to teach us, humble us and keep us dependent on Christ. As we see from the examples of the patriarchs in Scripture that we can harness the thorns to learn lessons and grow spiritually, turning them into a positive aspect of our life.

Andy Diemer

Associate Pastor, United Church of God

Andy Diemer is the associate pastor serving the congregations in Ft. Lauderdale and Vero Beach, Florida, and in Freeport, Bahamas. He served as the pastor of the churches in New England from 2014 to 2021. He was baptized into the Church in 1981 and ordained as an elder in 2011. He holds a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering and an MBA from Cleveland State University. He had a thirty-year career in manufacturing before being hired by the UCG in 2014.