With coffee, chocolate, and God (Not in that order)

humor in the Bible

2012-01-20T15:38:00.005-06:00

Talking with a friend about fave Bible stories brought one to mind. After the crucifixion, Jesus has risen, but not everyone knows it yet. In John 20, verse 19, the disciples are together in a house 'with the doors locked", as they were afraid of being arrested for being associated with Jesus. "Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”"

now, picture this. The disciples are in a locked house, and Jesus suddenly appears in their midst with no warning! I bet they just about jumped out of the their skin! Eyes big as saucers! I suspect inwardly Jesus had a chuckle at their reaction. And maybe they all started laughing with surprise and joy at seeing Jesus risen!

sometimes when we are happy and surprised, we begin to laugh and can hardly contain it! the Gospels never say that Jesus laughed, but some things he said could be said with a twinkle in the eye, and would give his listeners a laugh. ("It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle..." what an image! He also told Peter to find a coin to pay taxes, in the mouth of a fish! and 'why worry about the speck in your neighbor's eye when you have a plank in your own eye!"

I suspect Jesus had a great smile, and loved to laugh, and that folks around him often felt a sense of joy just being nearby. Faith doesn't always have to be serious!

Looking for SomeOne? Epiphany sermon, Jan 8 2012

2012-01-09T15:24:00.001-06:00

Isaiah 60

The Future Glory of Israel

1 Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.
2 For behold, darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
but the LORD will arise upon you,
and his glory will be seen upon you.
3 And nations shall come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your rising.

4 Lift up your eyes all around, and see;
they all gather together, they come to you;
your sons shall come from afar,
and your daughters shall be carried on the hip.
5 Then you shall see and be radiant;
your heart shall thrill and exult,[a]
because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you,
the wealth of the nations shall come to you.
6 A multitude of camels shall cover you,
the young camels of Midian and Ephah;
all those from Sheba shall come.
They shall bring gold and frankincense,
and shall bring good news, the praises of the LORD.

Matthew 2

The Visit of the Wise Men

1 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men[a] from the east came to Jerusalem, 2 saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose[b] and have come to worship him.” 3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. 5 They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:

6 “‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

7 Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. 8 And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.” 9 After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. 11 And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. 12 And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

~~~~

There's a story about a family who were talking with their children about the morning's Sunday School lesson. They talked about the Magi bringing gifts to the baby Jesus: gold, frankincense and myrrh. There was a long pause and one child asked, “How come nobody brought diapers?!”

this is the story of the Epiphany. The 12^th day of Christmas. Though in reality it likely took much longer than 12 days for the Magi to come find Jesus. Indeed the text tells us they came to a house, so Joseph and Mary had found a place to stay other than a stable!

The Magi were kings, possibly from Persia, or even further away. The Bible lesson doesn't really tell us the specifics, does it? It doesn't even say how many there were, we presume there were 3, because of the mention of the 3 gifts.

There would have been more than just the kings, traveling into Jerusalem. after all, important powerful people never travel alone. Nowadays if you are important you travel with your publicists, personal assistants, security. 2000 years ago, the Kings' travel group would have had security and personal aides, but instead of media publicists, there would be heralds to announce their coming, and people to care for the animals on which they rode. So a troupe like this coming into the city would have caused a commotion that got people's attention. Herod may have been threatened by their mere presence, and then they asked about a newborn KING of the Jews! This would have certainly frightened Herod. Herod the Great, who was renowned for tremendous building projects in Jerusalem, including the Temple, was also terribly paranoid, so much so that he killed anyone he deemed a threat, including his wife and two of his sons.
No wonder he was “troubled, and all of the city with him” So he summoned the Magi. Lying to them that he wanted to worship this newborn king, he found out for himself what they knew. Fortunately, the Magi were warned in a dream to NOT go back to Herod and found another route out of the region.

So the Magi, however many of them and their travel companions, found their way to Jesus by a “star” that guided them to Bethlehem. Bethlehem is due south of Jerusalem and there has been much speculation over time about just what this star was. A comet, or a conjunction of the moon and several planets? We don't really know. It's one of those things that scholars like to argue about. I think spending too much time on details like was it a comet or how many magi there were, can take us away from the real reason this story is in scripture.

This is the first time that Jesus is recognized as divine by non-Jewish people!
Remember, last week, Doug told us about Simeon, who had been told he would not die before seeing the Messiah. And Simeon said over the baby Jesus, that he was a light to the Gentiles as well as to Israel. The Magi were not Jewish. But they knew that this Jewish baby was someone very special. That is why they went looking for this SomeOne. And why they brought gifts of great value to show their recognition that this was indeed Someone Special.

The gifts showed Jesus' Kingship-the Gold- and religious significance-the Frankincense. They-KINGS from other regions, brought expensive gifts to honor the baby Jesus!

The tradition of gift giving at Christmas probably began here. And ironically in our day and age, we may be very tired of Christmas by the 12^thday! Be honest, some of you groaned inside when you saw we were singing one more Christmas song this morning! We get worn out by the commercial aspects of the holiday season. There is so much pressure to get the right gifts, make the right dinner, have or attend the right parties. And over the last several decades Retail companies ramp up their marketing to get more and more of our Christma$ money! The marketing wears us out...seeing Christmas displays out in the stores well before Thanksgiving, and the endless commercials braying “X number of shopping days left”, well, it can take us right out of any thought of worshiping a newborn King!

You see, I'm afraid we have started to confuse the birth of Christ with the hoopla of the holiday. The commercialism and the media are so overwhelming that we just want to be DONE with Christmas! So by New Years we may have put away the decorations with a huge sigh of relief! But we may feel something missing. We are still looking for something, for SomeOne, down deep inside.

All humans have a deep desire for Something, because we are created for more than just work, eat and sleep. We are created to be together with others. We are created with desire for someone who knows us intimately, who can still love us! God created us with a deep yearning for relationship with God and with one another. That is what all of us seek. That is what Christmas and Epiphany are all about. Not the shopping, baking, decorating, but the LOVING, the caring, the giving a gift of LOVE because you care about the other person and recognize they care for you.

And we find true completeness in the SomeOne born on Christmas day. Jesus is the SomeOne we all seek, whether we realize it or not. And we, like the Magi can bring gifts to honor and revere and acknowledge his Lordship in our Lives.

We can bring Gold...our time, talent and treasure. Yes we bring our weekly offering. We contribute to missions and other charities. We also give our time! Spending some time helping at the church, serving as an usher or greeter, helping at coffee hour, Sunday School, choir, offering a ride to others, serving on a board or committee, visiting folks. There are endless chances to give our time and talent to our Lord.

We can bring another gift to Jesus....frankincense! What?! Frankincense was a special incense used in the Temple, when it was burned it was believed that the prayers of the people went up to heaven on the smoke! We can pray for our friends and family, for our church and her leaders -lay leaders and pastors! We can pray for our Nation, for missionaries, for Christians in other parts of the world, where it is not safe to proclaim the name of Jesus! We can read our bibles outside of church! Yes the bible is often hard to understand. Altho as Mark Twain was quoted as saying, “It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.”

the Bible can be challenging for pastors too, especially the parts we do understand...but we are here for you. We have Bible study groups, weekly Wednesday prayer gathering. We even have a website on which there are devotions and links to websites with Bible study information. Our gift of frankincense is our commitment to spiritual growth.

And our third gift...Myrrh. Myrrh is resin or gum from a specific type of tree that grows in the Middle East. It was used to prepare a body for burial. Not a 'normal' gift to bring to a baby, was it? But of course, this was not just any baby. Myrrh tells reminds us that Jesus, the One for whom we are all looking, came for one reason. Jesus was born to die. To die on the Cross. Because that was the ONLY way to make us right so that we could be in complete relationship with God. We can bring all the things we do wrong, all the stuff that separates us from the love of God and of others, we can bring them to Jesus right now and say “Lord, I am sorry. I lay all my imperfections and and self centeredness and all the ways I look for someone other than You-i lay all these things at the cross right now. Lord Jesus, will You forgive me?”

When we pray this, Jesus' answer is “Yes, my child. I forgive you. Because I love you. I was born for you, I died on that cross for you, I rose again for you, all because I love you. Look no further, I am the SomeOne that you seek.”

today and every day, we can look for that SomeOne and bring our gifts to Jesus. To the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the One who was born to die for each of us. How can we do anything but worship and adore Him!

the cross over the manger

2011-12-09T03:32:00.001-06:00

Some time ago, I was “multi-tasking” in the Bible. I was planning Advent Bible studies, reading through the birth stories and making notes. And later that same day, hoping to write a devotion for the Lenten season, I read the Good Friday texts. Reading both the birth and death stories, something really struck me.

Luke 2:12 ESV

“and you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger”

Luke 23: 52-53 {Joseph of Arimathea} went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down {from the Cross} and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid him in a tomb cut in stone, where no one had ever yet been laid.”

the baby wrapped well is a sign that he was well cared for. Newborns like to be wrapped up, it helps them to feel secure.

That Jesus' body was wrapped in linen after his death was also a sign that he was being cared for, even though there was no time for the women to prepare the body with the oils and spices.

But there is obviously something more to these details! The parallels in both stories are there for a purpose. They remind us that the shadow of the cross lies over the manger. We love the Christmas story, we feel all warm and fuzzy when the children sing Away In A Manger. But Jesus didn't come just for us to feel warm and fuzzy! Jesus came-- God with us. And came as an infant! (The God of all creation!) just from love, from desire for complete relationship with us, His creation! And the only way to that complete relationship was the cross.

Jesus' mission was the cross. The One who would never sin was wrapped in swaddling clothes, laid in a manger, would grow up to take ALL our sin, all the things that distract us from God for even an instant....upon Himself on the cross.

Can we remember this as we go through Advent and Christmas, can we remember to honor our Lord and do better caring for others, now and always? As we watch the children's programs, wrap the gifts, sing the songs, bake the cookies—remember, the Cross over the manger.

Thomas-From Doubt to Devotion

2011-06-06T18:38:00.004-05:00

sermon i gave when guest-preaching at Rochester, WI

Thomas: From Doubt to Devotion

John 20
19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
21 Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of anyone, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."
24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!"
But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe."
26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" 27 Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe."
28 Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"
29 Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

Some Questions
Why do we press harder on a remote control when we know the batteries are going dead?

When the French swear do they say pardon my English?

Why doesn’t glue stick to the bottle?

Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?

We do check the wet paint don't we? I know I do! And isn't that almost what Thomas wanted to do? He just wanted tangible proof. Sure he had been with the disciples for 3 years, sure he knew they were reliable..or well maybe knowing them for 3 years is precisely why Thomas wanted tangible proof for himself!

Can you imagine this scene? The disciples were locked in the house. They had seen Jesus arrested, knew he had been beaten and killed, they were convinced they were next! They were terrified of the authorities. And suddenly Jesus appears in their midst, saying Peace be with you!

Thomas was not with the disciples at this first appearance. We are not told why. We are told that Thomas was also called the Twin. But whose twin?! We do not know. He could have been a twin or a look-alike sibling of one of the other disciples or someone else close to Jesus. There is some belief that Thomas may have been one of Jesus' brothers, or rather half brother. We just do not know.

Thomas was not present at the first appearance of Jesus. We are not told where he was, why he was not there. But we do know that a week later when Thomas was with the others, Jesus again appeared! And again just turned up in their midst in the locked house! Saying “peace be with you” and Jesus said specifically to Thomas, put your finger here..see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side.” Jesus is not condemning Thomas, he is saying go ahead, touch the scars, see for yourself! Maybe Jesus recognized that needing hard proof was just the way Thomas was. Only after that did He say, “stop doubting and believe”

the words used here for doubt and belief have more than one meaning. Or perhaps I should say there are layers of meaning here. Remember that the languages of the Bible, Primarily Hebrew for the Old Testament and Greek for the New, have many fewer words than English does. So one word in these languages may have more than one meaning, or shades of meaning. These shades of meaning would be more apparent in context, with vocal inflection. So we lose a little bit in translation. What strikes me about the word for “Believe” is that the meanings of it include faith and belief, having confidence in, and trust. Trust is a key component of faith. And yet that can be one of the hardest things we manage. Perhaps Thomas believed in Jesus, but did not quite trust the words of the others. Could Jesus be saying, just have trust!!!

Author Brennan Manning writes in “The Ragamuffin Gospel” In earlier times it did not take faith to believe that God existed--almost everybody took that for granted. Rather, faith had to do with one's relationship to God--whether one trusted in God. The difference between faith as "belief in something that may or may not exist" and faith as "trusting in God" is enormous. The first is a matter of the head, the second a matter of the heart. The first can leave us unchanged, the second intrinsically brings change.”

we live in a time and a society in which we tend to have to 'See it to believe it” and to have proof. We want documentation, facts and figures. We may find it hard to believe—to trust, without hard proof. So faith can be a real challenge for us. When we want proof & documentation of everything else, why should we believe in a resurrected Jesus! I must admit, if I had been in that room, I might have had to touch the nail-scars myself.

Actually when I was much younger, I had been “born again”,and yet I did not act on my belief. In fact most of the time, I did not act like a Christian at all. I knew someone with a profound faith, my Aunt, and I envied her faith. Her faith and trust in the Lord saw her thru some hard times and illness, and gave her hope, no matter what. I never thought that I was capable of that depth of belief and trust in an invisible Saviour. One of my 'issues' is that i am a person who needs to see feel, touch, to experience something in order to believe. So I see a bit of myself in Thomas...doubting Thomas. But fortunately, faith is not something static, it can change. Our faith life is a progression..that is why we refer to our “walk of faith' we may not always “walk” in faith....some of us stumble, and maybe even crawl rather than walk. I finally understood that I can pray for more faith. That is a prayer that I believe God LOVES to answer!

At some point in our journey thru life, we need to experience the Living Christ for ourselves, just as Thomas and the other disciples did. Maybe that is a scar that we all bear...needing proof. And we all do have our own issues or scars, do we not!? Some of them big, some not so big. We may have issues in a relationship, with a temper, addictions or illness. Maybe we obsess over appearances, or maybe we just don't care! These are our scars, the invisible scars that we carry every day. Scars that may keep us from realizing the truth of Jesus, as Thomas' lack of faith and trust did until he saw and felt and heard for himself.

The scars of anger and bitterness can keep us from forgiving one another. This is what Jesus told the disciples; “If you forgive the sins of anyone, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven." Jesus first breathed the Holy Spirit on the disciples, then spoke to them of forgiveness. It is through the Spirit that we can comprehend the love of Jesus, and begin the process of forgiveness. If we begin to understand ourselves as the Lord understands, we will learn.

Author Brennan Manning again;”Faith is a code to accept that Jesus knows my whole life story, every skeleton in my closet, every moment of sin, shame, dishonesty, degradedness darkening my past. Right now he knows my shallow faith, my feeble prayer life, my inconsistent discipleship, and he comes beside me and he says, I dare you to trust. I dare you to trust that I love you, just as you are and not as you should be, because you're never going to be as you should be.”

Through this trust and love, we realize that each of us has acted out of the pain of our own scars and wounded others, and through the Spirit we learn that those who hurt us acted out of their own pain. When we recognize our own flaws, issues, wounded-ness, then we realize that others are acting out of theirs. Again through prayer, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, we learn compassion and thru compassion, we learn to forgive. This is a part of our faith journey- We are forgiven as we forgive. When we forgive another, we are more fully accepting the Lord's forgiveness of us!

So while we, like Thomas, may wish we had tangible proof of Christ, if not for ourselves but for those near us who have doubts, we can accept on faith that Jesus is real, that Jesus did rise, even tho we can not touch the scars on his hands and his side.

The end of our Gospel lesson today is this:
Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.--that we may have life...today in Jesus and for eternity with him in Heaven.

...the other day I was reading an article that says that the vast majority of people do not believe in heaven. But there are those who have seen heaven and come bck to tell us about it! There is a book that is on the best seller lists right now about a little boy who saw heaven when he was 3 years old.. and told his parents about it as he got older and was able to talk about it.

there is a book titled 90 minutes in Heaven, by Don Piper.

He was in a horrible car accident-pronounced dead at the scene, and revived 90 min. later, by a man praying for him.

Don told about being at the gates of heaven. And the incredible, beautiful music there,...and seeing diseased loved ones. He said he was met by his great grandmother. And that as he knew her through his life, she had wrinkles and trouble with her teeth. When she met him at the gates of heaven, she had no lines at all in her face, and when she smiled at him her teeth sparkled!

Heaven is real...the bible says so! And we will have a renewed, perfect body, with no wrinkles, sparkly teeth, and no aches and pains..Hallelujah! We will not have any of that, because Jesus has the scars in his hands and his side. He, who was perfect, without sin, and became sin for us....for each of us, has the scars so we won't have to!!

The scriptures, all the Word of God are given that we may believe! We may want more-we have deep questions borne of life struggles. Jesus validated Thomas' struggle to believe by showing him the scars, and you deserve to have your struggles validated as well. If you are struggling with doubts, unforgiveness or just struggling with faith, it is ok. It has happened to me, and to most believers. Even Mother Teresa had struggles. Jesus Loves YOU without reservation. Let's celebrate this love together.

Let us pray, Our Lord and God, you know our doubts, our questions and struggles and still you love us. Today we pray for each of us who has a doubt, and we pray for compassion to help us forgive. thank you for the love and forgiveness shown through Jesus Christ.

sermon from Ecumenical Lenten service Mar 16, 2011

2011-04-20T18:58:00.003-05:00

Texts: First Reading Deuteronomy 9:13-21

¹³Furthermore the LORD said to me, “I have seen that this people is indeed a stubborn people. ¹⁴Let me alone that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and more numerous than they.”

¹⁵So I turned and went down from the mountain, while the mountain was ablaze; the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. ¹⁶Then I saw that you had indeed sinned against the LORD your God, by casting for yourselves an image of a calf; you had been quick to turn from the way that the LORD had commanded you. ¹⁷So I took hold of the two tablets and flung them from my two hands, smashing them before your eyes. ¹⁸Then I lay prostrate before the LORD as before, forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin you had committed, provoking the LORD by doing what was evil in his sight. ¹⁹For I was afraid that the anger that the LORD bore against you was so fierce that he would destroy you. But the LORD listened to me that time also. ²⁰The LORD was so angry with Aaron that he was ready to destroy him, but I interceded also on behalf of Aaron at that same time. ²¹Then I took the sinful thing you had made, the calf, and burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it thoroughly, until it was reduced to dust; and I threw the dust of it into the stream that runs down the mountain.

Second Reading Hebrews 3:12-19

¹²Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. ¹³But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. ¹⁴For we have become partners of Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end. ¹⁵As it is said,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
¹⁶Now who were they who heard and yet were rebellious? Was it not all those who left Egypt under the leadership of Moses? ¹⁷But with whom was he angry forty years? Was it not those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? ¹⁸And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, if not to those who were disobedient? ¹⁹So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

Lent, a time of preparation for Easter, 40 days, to commemorate the 40 days that Jesus spent in the wilderness.

Giving up something for Lent, is about giving up something that obstructs, interferes, deters, blocks our relationship with God. Last week, Pastor Ian spoke about the word “repent” meaning “to turn around”-making a U-turn. Both of our texts talk about turning away from God, ideally what we give up for Lent is something that turns us away from a full relationship with God.

“taking up” something for Lent of course is about helping to promote our relationship with God.

Richard Foster Life With God

Pay attention to the recurring themes of the stories of the Bible: God loves human beings; human beings always seem to want what they can’t have; God is grieved and angered when human beings rebel but pursues them and forgives them anyway; God is involved not just in the lives of the chosen people, but in the lives of all peoples, and in the concerns of every living thing in creation.

Hebrews text Unbelief ==faith + trust.

Both texts refer to 'turning away' from God. Remember last week, Ian talked about the word Repent meaning to turn around. Once we have repented, turned around, to face God, we need to remember to stay aligned or turned in with God. If we turn away, we will stray.

Moses—40 years in the desert...on the mountain with God for 40 days, then when he came down...the people had strayed, they turned toward other beliefs.

Then Moses went back and fasted before the Lord, for 40 days and 40 nights! That struck me when reading this. Jesus' fasting in the wilderness was an echo to Moses 40 years and 40 days.

The number 40 appears a lot in the Bible and generally refers to a time of testing and cleansing. Like rain for 40 days and 40 nights. And at the end of the 40 days or 40 years, there is a reminder of the Lord's presence. A rainbow, a covenant, the Word of God turning away Satan!

So Moses lay prostrate before the Lord, fasting for 40 days and 40 nights, to repent not for himself, but for the sins of the people!

Jesus' time in the wilderness was not for himself, but for His people. Jesus had no sin, he was God incarnate, therefore incapable of sin. So his fasting was not for a time of testing and trial for Himself, but for us, since we are so very capable of sin.

OK now we don't like to think of ourselves as “sinners”. We keep the 10 Commandments, honor our father and mother (well we mostly did, there was a time or two in our teens...) We give to our churches and to charity, we live good lives. But are we FOCUSED on God? Do we really TRUST in God?!

You see trust is a big aspect of faith. The word in the bible that is translated faith, also means trust. It seems that the people lost trust in God pretty fast while Moses was up on the mountain! And this was after being fed by manna every day, by finding water in a rock, by having God with them in a cloud by day....for protection, and a pillar of fire by night. For light and protection. After 40 years of God's faithfulness, the people failed to trust for only 40 days!

I guess that is why our Hebrews text tells us to “exhort one another every day.” we need reminders of God's faithfulness every day, don't we. Well maybe you don't. But someone does! That is why we have daily devotions, special readings during Lent, daily bible reading plans....If faith were a one shot deal and we are done, well we wouldn't need a Bible or church at all would we!?

as we go through this Lenten season, we are deepening our relationship with God. And when our relationship with God is healthier,

And we crave that health for others. As we crave this, we crave it for our community and our world. So as we work toward being right with God, as individuals, we crave, and work toward, and pray for, a world that is right with God. That is turned toward God, focused on God.

That can be hard in today's' world. It was hard in Moses time and they didn't have TV, internet, to distract them from a focus on God. Today we have so many distractions! endless advertising telling us we need more money, fancier car, smaller electronics, better insurance, tastier snacks, softer pillows and harder exercise. We have 24 hours news that focuses not on Godly things, but on personalities! whiny celebrities, brutish opinions, the scariest depictions of news stories....how do we stay focused on God with all of this?!

Well we are here, aren't we. We are here this evening to worship. To spend time with God's word, to sing a few hymns, pray, give a donation to local groups who help people in need. To spend time together. That together time is such a blessing. We are exhorting, encouraging one another to be here this evening and to attend the other lenten services. To experience other worship styles, to hear music and speakers besides the ones we hear every Sunday. What a beautiful way to put aside the distractions and temptations of the rest of the world. What a beautiful way to 'Exhort' one another to stay focused on God.

The Hebrews text says we are to exhort one another. What exactly does that mean? To exhort means literally to walk alongside. The word used in the original Greek means to call to one's side. It is related to the word Paraklete, the word for the Holy Spirit. So to 'exhort” one another, in Christ, we can call upon the holy spirit for guidance. So we can say a prayer for help from the Spirit, to help us to walk alongside one another, to help us all stay turned toward God.

There is a difference between Godly 'exhorting” which is encouragement --walking alongside...and condemnation! Sometimes people get caught up in wanting to convey a message and they come on too strong, and come across in a condemning way, or a way that does not encourage, but lays blame.

We tend to want an explanation when bad stuff happens. And that explanation may come across in a way that unintentionally hurts. For example, one pastor who wrote a book on prayer said that one of his parishioners survived a disaster because she prayed so hard. That implies that the people who died in that disaster did not pray as hard, or their loved ones did not....we have to be careful that what we say bring encouragement, not hurt. Jesus never blamed victims for their troubles. But he did say we must repent...turn around. We must maintain our focus on God. Not just in Lent but always.

Author Eric Kolbell in What Jesus Meant, the Beatitudes and a Meaningful Life...I do not believe it is God's benevolence when we escape suffering any more than it is his malevolence when we don't. God does not spook a horse, inflict one man with AIDS and spare another, is no more responsible for famines in Saharan Africa than for overflowing wheat silos in central Kansas, and did not lead some people into and others out of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Life is arbitrary but God is not; God is not in the business of loading guns, breaking hearts, bankrupting families, dissolving once loving relationships, or destroying homes with a clap of thunder or a rush of rain. No, God does not engineer suffering and loss but rather calls us to redeem it.

We live in hard times. The news is terribly discouraging. Unrest so many places, divisiveness in governing bodies, the disaster of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, with incomprehensible destruction. I have to admit, I have been glued to the coverage. I imagine some of you are too. And I know we are praying too. Praying for the people affected, that they would know that God had not forsaken them! That even those who have lost everything, that God is with them, that there is hope!

You see that is the message of the Bible, that God is with us no matter what! And so we are never to give up hope!

You may wonder why should we worry about disasters overseas when we have problems here. The Bible says God created the heavens and the earth. The WHOLE earth. Not just Beloit, not just Wisconsin, not just the USA, not just North America...but the whole world. God also created Japan, and Afghanistan, Bahrain and Libya. And all people everywhere are God's Children, even if they do not know Christ. if we turn away from any of Gods creation or God’s children, even those who have not come to Christ, we are turning away from God. taking care of one another is one of the things that is stated over and over in the Bible, OT and NT. and of course we are the Body, and if one part of the body suffers, all suffer. So until all parts of the Body are cared for, no part of the Body will be well.

If we turn away from others, we turn away from God.

In Lent we turn away from some of the habits that may keep us from God. We take up another to help us keep turned towards God.

Bible, prayer, devotional time, church,....these things help us to stay in The Word, to keep God first.

Richard Foster in Life With God The Bible does not simply tell us of the presence of God; it shows us the active presence of God deeply and permanently embedded in all the smells, tastes, touches, sights, and sounds of human life. Over and over, this reality is played out in stories, poems, carefully preserved histories, records of cultural systems, details of prophetic revelations, speeches, letters, songs, and prayers. The Scripture weaves the involvement of God through the intimacies of birth and death, lovemaking and betrayal, weddings and funerals, labor and rest, warring and peacemaking, wealth and poverty, hunger and thirst, tears and laughter. Across thousands of years, with wave upon wave of names and faces and recurring events, the Bible threads God’s patient words of love and faithfulness: I am with you.

God with us give us hope. We recognize that Love and faithfulness when we turn toward God and we keep it close when we stay turned toward God. If we turn away, we lose hope. God created the heavens and the earth. And God created humans to be in relationship, God promises to be with us, always, even to the end of time.

The Love of God gives us hope. The Love of God WITH US was lived out in the life and ministry, teaching, preaching and healing of Jesus Christ. As Jesus journeyed to the Cross, and we journey along through this Lenten season, let us turn more completely to that divine Love. And let us never stray! The love of God was shown to us in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Turn toward the Love of God-- turn toward Christ. Turn toward Him and You will be guided to hope, love and trust.

Sermon given @ Second Congregational Nov. 28

2010-11-29T11:48:00.001-06:00

First Sunday of Advent, Light the candle of Hope.

Isaiah 60:1-5 ; 18-22

1 “Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.
2 See, darkness covers the earth
and thick darkness is over the peoples,
but the LORD rises upon you
and his glory appears over you.
3 Nations will come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

4 “Lift up your eyes and look about you:
All assemble and come to you;
your sons come from afar,
and your daughters are carried on the hip.
5 Then you will look and be radiant,
your heart will throb and swell with joy;
the wealth on the seas will be brought to you,
to you the riches of the nations will come.

18 No longer will violence be heard in your land,
nor ruin or destruction within your borders,
but you will call your walls Salvation
and your gates Praise.
19 The sun will no more be your light by day,
nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you,
for the LORD will be your everlasting light,
and your God will be your glory.
20 Your sun will never set again,
and your moon will wane no more;
the LORD will be your everlasting light,
and your days of sorrow will end.
21 Then all your people will be righteous
and they will possess the land forever.
They are the shoot I have planted,
the work of my hands,
for the display of my splendor.
22 The least of you will become a thousand,
the smallest a mighty nation.
I am the LORD;
in its time I will do this swiftly.”

Our Advent series is all about The Light. The Promise of the Light, the Coming of the Light, and on Christmas, the Embrace of the Light. The Light of course is the Light of the World, Jesus Christ. The Advent season is traditionally a time of anticipation, expectancy as we wait for the birth of Jesus. The 4 Sundays of Advent, we light candles symbolizing Hope, Love, Joy and Peace.

Now in our time the catch words of this season seem to be shopping, wrapping, decorating, cooking, cleaning, -not much peace there! Maybe that's why we come to church!!

Prophet Isaiah..began to prophecy about 740 years before the time of Jesus.

His writings are very poetic, with beautiful imagery, showing how all of creation, all of nature, will be in harmony when God's kingdom reigns supreme. The early parts of Isaiah predict of the fall of various kingdoms, but from chapter 40 on are words of comfort, and predictions of the messiah and the beauty and peace-shalom, that will accompany the reign of God. Isaiah's message is all about the Grace of God, salvation coming through God, not because of anything we people have done or can do!

Let's look at the imagery in this passage...light, glory, radiance, splendor...

does v. 19 seem familiar? It is used in the Revelation..the description, of heaven, the new Jerusalem...Rev 21: 23And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

Light and dark are images used all through the Bible...1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.

Light and dark....scientific defintion of darkness is absence of light...light has physical properties, it is made up of photons, travels at 186,000 miles per second...darkness does not have properties of its own, it is purely an absence, doing without, emptiness...of light.

Through this advent series, as we talk about Light, the Promise of the Light, the coming of the Light, and embracing the light, we are talking about Jesus, the Light of the World. In an epistle of John, “God is Light, in him there is no darkness whatsoever.” so when the Bible talks of light, it means God, and darkness is being without God, separation from God.

our world seems to have an awful lot of darkness, doesn't it?!

NT lesson John 1:9-13

John 1: 9-13

9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

John is of course writing about Jesus Christ. The True light...that gives light, meaning, to bring understanding, to everyone.

Jesus was not received, or accepted, by everyone in His own time, or even now 2000 years later!

And yet, God promises that we who do receive Christ, who believe, become children of God. What a lovely promise that is!!

The Bible is full of promises of God, promises of Light, that we shall be children of God, Faithful promises of everlasting life, forgiveness, comfort, of Love, Joy, Peace and Hope!

The Hope of Advent comes from the promises of God. As author Richard Foster writes:

The Bible does not simply tell us of the presence of God; it shows us the active presence of God deeply and permanently embedded in all the smells, tastes, touches, sights, and sounds of human life. Over and over, this reality is played out in stories, poems, carefully preserved histories, records of cultural systems, details of prophetic revelations, speeches, letters, songs and prayers. The Scripture weaves the involvement of God through the intimacies of birth and death, lovemaking and betrayal, weddings and funerals, warring and peacemaking, wealth and poverty, hunger and thirst, tears and laughter. Across thousands of years with wave upon wave of names and faces and recurring events, the Bible threads God's patient words of love and faithfulness: I am with you.

–Richard Foster, Life With God

God created the heavens and the earth, and then created humans, God promised to be with us. God is so interested in a personal relationship, that God sent a son...to be born to a woman, a virgin as promised in Scripture, raised in an ordinary family, to live with ordinary people, and to die an extraordinary death...just because God so loved the world. 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

The ultimate promise is the Light of the World, our Lord and Savior. Let the Light of Jesus shine in you as you go through this Advent season.

a new sermon

2010-06-29T20:45:00.002-05:00

Sermon given June 27 at 2nd Cong.

Psalm 16
1 Protect me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
2 I say to the LORD, "You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you."
3 As for the holy ones in the land, they are the noble, in whom is all my delight.
4 Those who choose another god multiply their sorrows; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names upon my lips.
5 The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.
6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; I have a goodly heritage. 7 I bless the LORD who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. 8 I keep the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. 9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; my body also rests secure. 10 For you do not give me up to Sheol, or let your faithful one see the Pit. 11 You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Obligatory joke to open the sermon....A Short Prayer…
Dear Lord,
So far today, I’ve done all right. I haven’t gossiped, haven’t lost my temper, haven’t been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish, or over indulgent. I’m very thankful for that.
But, in a few minutes, God, I’m going to get out of bed. And from then on, I’m probably going to need a lot more help. Amen!

Psalm 16- of David

talking about redemption, through not his own actions but by choosing to follow God,. Seeking guidance, avoiding the choices that others make by following other gods and their own actions. Choosing to listen through his prayers to the guidance of God. Recognizing the eternal qualities of God, the Presence that is always there, recognizing his own freedom to choose to recognize that Presence in his daily life.

Galatians 5:1, 13-25
5:1 For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Life by the Spirit

13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." 15 If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

Ah the Fruits of the Spirit...a famous lesson. The gifts of the Holy Spirit of God. These are the qualities of God! The very qualities embodied by Christ in his time on earth, and the qualities to which we followers of Christ all aspire.

Quite a contrast with the list preceeding isn't it? “the acts of the sinful nature'”
these are actions that go against God,. That separate us from God.
They are qualities that we see a lot of, and may, occasionally exhibit ourselves, from time to time.. AND no, we are not here to say well this one does that and that one does this....No, today, let's look at the mirror, not at the neighbor!

There is a paradox at the heart of the Christian faith -- that we are most free when we are tied to Christ and surrendered to the Spirit. This is the essence of Congregationalism! “The Congregational Way is a way of following Christ. People of a Congregational Church do not seek to be led by a creed, but by the Spirit. Ours is the tradition of a free church, gathered under the headship of Christ and bound to others by love, not law.” this is very much like the early church that we read about in our Bibles, to whom Paul is writing in this and his other epistles.

We convenant together, we choose to be together, rather than being bound together by a set of prescribed statements of belief. This is VERY biblical! And yet, This can be challenging! Sometimes it is easier to have that set of 'rules” --a guidebook-- isn't it?

It is like the freedom we have here in the US. We are free to worship or not, free to work or not, free to live in ways that promote health and well being or not.
We as Christians are free to act in Godly ways, or not.
But we can and if we are true to our faith, we ought to! Our role is to be more like Christ, is it not? So how do we, like the person in the early morning prayer, once we are getting out of bed, refrain from the things that keep us separate from God? And let's be clear, this list of “No-no's” is more than just God saying, “I would like to see you do better...” the Scripture is very clear...that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. ...If we are living in these ways..we are NOT part of God!
Well, someone may say, why are we like that then? God must have made us this way...it is just human nature!! No, technically it is not. We were created in God's image. Whether you believe that the Garden of Eden story is the absolute literal way we were created, or if you believe it is a beautiful word picture of creation, we were created in the image of God! We were created to have all these gifts of the Spirit. But we blew it. We blow it every day. What we want to call “human nature' is actually the sinful nature. And as one character says in the movie the African Queen, “Nature, Mr Allnut, is what we were put on this earth to rise above”
We can, rise above, we can be closer to what God created us to be...we can have a Godly nature....By the power of the holy spirit. The power, that Paul wrote in ephesians is at work in us...a power that is accessed, by acts of faith....the word of God, prayer, time with other people of faith! Paying attention to those nudges of conscience that guide us during the day.
Stop and listen.. when you are stressed, can you stop and listen, say a quick prayer for guidance? Even God Help me! Is a great prayer! As david wrote in the psalm, keep the Lord ever before you,, reminding ourselves of the Presence of the Lord throughout the day can help keep us on task. Do you have a sense of God;s presence? Sure, here, when we have good worship, wondeful music. When else do you find a real sense of God? A lot of say out in nature, at the shore, in the northwoods, the mountains. There are other ways, you may have a sense of God.... Ask God to help you keep him in mind through your day. Keeping God in mind, thinking about those fruits of the spirit, the qualities of God, can help keep us on task.
Jesus, God's son, Chose to live on earth, chose to live as a human, to show us how God truly is and how to live in a Godly way. Jesus chose this! He ate, slept, prayed, wept, never sinned, but neither did He condemn sinners. He came to love and to show us to love God and love one another. Jesus lived by faith, freely given US the freedom to choose to do likewise. And he chose, out of his tremendous love, to go to the Cross, for you and for me. And then gave His Holy spirit to us to help guide and teach us how to be more like Him.
When describing the early Christians to the Emperor Hadrian, Greek writer Aristides wrote: "They love one another. They never fail to help widows; they save orphans from those who hurt them. If they have something, they give freely to the person who has nothing; if they see a stranger, they take him home as a brother or sister in the spirit, the Spirit of God."

Dallas Willard....The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988). Its thesis is very simple:

“There is a way of life that, if generally adopted, would eliminate all of the social and political problems from which we suffer. This way of life comes to whole-hearted disciples of Christ who live in the disciplines of the spiritual life and allow grace to bring their {actions} into alignment with their redeemed spirits”

Willard points out that the word disciple is used 269 times in the New Testament. The word Christian is found only three times - and the first time introduces the disciples (Acts 11:26). The New Testament is a book about disciples, by disciples and for disciples of Jesus Christ (258).

Here comes the clincher paragraph:

“For at least several decades the churches of the Western world have not made discipleship a condition of being a Christian. One is not required to be, or to intend to be, a disciple in order to become a Christian, and one may remain a Christian without any signs of progress toward or in discipleship. Contemporary American churches in particular do not require following Christ in his example, spirit and teachings as a condition of membership...discipleship clearly is optional.” (258)

Conclusion?: Most problems in contemporary churches can be explained by the fact that members have not yet decided to follow Christ. If we do not follow Christ, we do not have the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We are therefore not able to keep God with us, in our minds and in our hearts. We are unable to rise above,...to be true followers of The Lord Jesus.

Will you choose to make this commitment today- to truly follow our Loving Lord? Will you renew your life in Christ? Will you embrace the gifts of the spirit, turning your back on those things that keep us separate from God? Will you choose to help make this world a bit better place, one hour, one day at a time, right here, right now?

If so, Please pray with me...
You oh LORD are my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; my body also rests secure.
You show me the path of life. In your presence there is joy; in your hand are pleasures forevermore. Help me, Lord God to use my freedom to not indulge the sinful nature; rather, to serve one another humbly in love. Help me to live the fruits of Your Spirit, and live out your love in all I do each day. We pray in the Name and Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen.

2010-06-29T20:36:00.003-05:00

not keeping up here very well am I?!
We have adopted a kitten. She is adorable, tiny. She is a lovely smokey grey color. So she is named Ashley Shadow Squeakerton. She is now 9 weeks old and is up to 2 whole pounds! Our sons especially adore her. She seems to have helped older son out of the slump he has been in since his gf died in December. Nothing like a little purring ball of fluff to take your mind off your troubles!

Not reading as much as I should, I have trouble focusing for any length of time.
I have never been diagnosed with ADD, and I am certainly not hyperactive. But if i am short on sleep or anything, i can not concentrate for more than a few minutes on anything! Mayb a few brain circuits got fried during all those years of multi-tasking in a busy retail pharmacy!

Where did it go?

2010-04-29T22:55:00.003-05:00

"Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most"
-- today I was making a few phone calls to gals about Women's Circle. along about the 4th phone call, the person's phone rang 2 or 3 times and a man answered. My mind went utterly blank. NO idea whatsoever of who I had just dialed. In front of me is the whole church phone listing, so that's no immediate help. I said "Hi!" and stammered a bit, then said, "This Carol from church..." and the man burst out laughing and said, "You forgot who you are calling didn't you!" and he enlightened me as to whose home I had reached. Thank God I remembered HIS name before he went and got his wife for me. He was still laughing.

2010-04-29T04:42:00.004-05:00

This is a "Wordle" of this blog. Fun web application. Check it out at www.wordle.net

Images created by the Wordle.net web application are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

April 1 2010 Maundy Thursday Sermon

2010-04-29T03:45:00.005-05:00

Intro- it is Passover, Jewish holiday celebrated every year...going on now! To commemorate the Exodus, the escape of the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt.

Luke 22 verses 14-20

14 When the hour came, {for the Passover meal} Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. 15 And he said to them, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God."

17 After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, "Take this and divide it among you. 18 For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes."

19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me."

20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

Our passage from the Gospel of Luke is of course the moment when Jesus instituted the sacrament of Communion.

This passage is a brief glimpse, just a few moments in this final evening of Jesus' life. We have heard the story....Jesus is about to tell his disciples that one of them will betray Him, that they will all desert Him. He woill then go into the Garden and pray in total anguish, ultimately praying to His Father in Heaven...”Not my will, but yours” He would be betrayed, arrested, deserted by His friends, endure beatings, a 'trial' on trumped up charges and be flogged and put to death. But this passage, this moment in the life of Jesus and the Twelve is a moment of joy. It is a moment that commemorates Jesus' whole purpose. It is a moment “he eagerly desired!”

Jewish-ness of Jesus and followers..and first Christians...Jesus raised in a Jewish family He would have been taught the traditions of prayer and sacrifice. Traditions that He would of course grow up to live out!

the Passover meal contains the observance of many rituals including: Eating bitter herbs to remember the bitterness of enslavement, eating unleavened bread-which commemorates the haste with which the Hebrew people had to leave Egypt, drinking of wine, relating the story of the exodus to the children.

The Exodus passage tells us of that first passover. The Hebrew people were to sacrifice a perfect lamb to feed their family, and the blood of that sacrifice, sprinkled on the doorposts, was a sign to keep them safe from the angel of death as the firstborn of Egypt were all slain. as the Israelites ate their quickly prepared meal, God's presence at the “table”, was their protection, and a judgment upon their enemies.

(From Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus by Ann Spangler & Lois Tverberg)

The idea of communing with God at his table was a key part of the sacrificial system of the temple. Certain offerings, like sin and guilt sacrifices, were completely consecrated to God. But others like the fellowship or peace offering, were different. In these kinds of offerings, the worshiper and his family, along with the priests, would consume a portion of the sacrifice. When they ate from the altar, it was as though God was sharing some of his food with them. By doing so, they were affirming that they were dining at God's table. Through their peace offering they celebrated their Shalom with God and with each other. The Israelites understood this as a true covenantal communion—that they could sit down to a meal with God.

The Passover meal is a time to celebrate that one is at peace with God, and with those around the table. No wonder Jesus “Eagerly desired” this moment!

He then renewed that covenant, and instituted a new covenant! The covenant with God through Jesus himself.

Bread is used so often in scripture as a symbol. Bread is a staple of the diet of every society. Yet Scripture says, “ people do not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” During the 40 years in the wilderness the Israelites lived on manna, referred to as Bread from heaven.

in the New Testament, Jesus multiples bread and a few fish to feed thousands of people! after his resurrection, in the Road to Emmaus story, Jesus is with the two travelers for quite a while, yet they only recognize him when he takes bread, giving thanks and breaking it! In the Gospel of John, Jesus calls himself the Bread of Life.

The bread that Jesus took at this meal and gave to his disciples was unleavened bread, Matzoh. It is broken into 3 pieces, and the piece that Jesus took was the middle piece, with symbolizes the priest or mediator between God and the people. So Jesus used this piece of bread, to tell his disciples and us, how He himself, his body, broken, would become the perfect mediator between us and God.

The Four Cups of wine used in the Seder primarily symbolize the four distinct redemptions promised by God to the Hebrews as told in Exodus 6:6-7. (1) "I will take you out of Egypt", (2) "I will deliver you from slavery", (3) "I will redeem you with a demonstration of my power", and (4) "I will acquire you as a nation".

The cup of wine Jesus took and gave to his disciples is the cup of redemption. God redeemed the Hebrew people from Egypt by a display of his power...the parting of the Red Sea. Jesus took the cup of redemption, and called it the New Covenant in his blood. We would be redeemed, by this act of sacrifice that Jesus was about to make on our behalf.

Jesus came to give us –each of US-the complete peace, the Shalom, the peace, and wholeness of God. This is from which comes this bit of joy and serenity that we sense in this brief passage. This shalom is present even in the midst of the anguish and suffering that Jesus would shortly endure.

There are people who display that sense of shalom, that knowledge that whatever is happening, God is in control! We all know folks like that. We have been blessed to have some right in this church. These are people whose faith enables them to sail pretty smoothly through life. I try...but I am not quite there yet. Years ago, when my family was going through some serious challenges, we had 2 deaths in one week. We were reeling, I tell you! But at the second visitation, for my grampa, was a rosary service. And I was watching my aunts, who were so calmed by the prayer service. I envied and admired their faith. I also doubted if I were capable of that deep a faith. Some time later, I shared that doubt with a friend, who wisely, quietly, said, “you can pray for more faith.” I am sure my prayer was very hesitant, something along the lines of “um, God, it's Carol, um,..i know you are busy, and have important stuff to tend to...but if you have a minute...i was wondering...” Well, if you need proof that God does NOT need us to be articulate in our prayers, I am here to tell ya, that hesitant prayer was answered. Gradually, my faith has increased. I am not all the way there yet, but with continued prayer, I'm getting closer! And God provided me with some models of faith and prayer to help me to pray with less hesitation! To learn to as scripture says, to boldly approach the throne of grace!

The Jewish faith has a profound tradition of prayer. To help the people to remind themselves of God's continual presence, they have short prayers of blessing to say throughout the day, from waking until going to sleep. These prayers are prayers of praise, recognizing that all gifts are from God. So these short prayers are to follow the commandment to Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. The apostle Paul alludes to this tradition of prayer in his epistles...

just one example is 1 Thessalonians 5--16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

Can we embrace this tradition? can we strive to make our every act a prayer? just as Jesus was taught and as he taught. As we pray “Give us this day our Daily bread...” can we remember that we are asking for the necessities of life, and asking Jesus,the Bread of Life, to be lord of our lives more today than yesterday!

In just a few moments, to prepare for Communion we will sing part of a Psalm, another Jewish tradition, praying “Oh Lord you are my God, I trust in you.” Let us make that more than a song, but a prayer. As we take the Bread of Life and the Cup of Redemption, Let us pray to make our lives, more of a prayer, to our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen!

quote

2010-01-22T17:16:00.001-06:00

quote i just found:
"Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good."
— Maya Angelou (Celebrations: Rituals of Peace and Prayer)

Friends

2010-01-12T19:32:00.001-06:00

Wrote this today for our church national association Lenten devotions publication

"I no longer call you servants, because servants do not know their master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you." John 15:15 TNIV

My friend and I ate our dessert in silence. With some folks, it is awkward when neither has anything to say. This friend and I are comfortable in silence together. We have been friends since grade school. We were not in touch for a time, as we both went through considerable life changes. But we are back together, and it is just as if we were never apart. What a gift it is to have a such a close friend!

Jesus said to the disciples, "I called you friends". What a gift! He called them friends, because He made known what He knew from God. This is intimacy, when one shares with another. Sharing requires that we are open to one another. The disciples were open to Jesus' teachings. It was a process that did not happen overnight! Real intimacy does not happen instantaneously. It comes over time.

How can we allow ourselves to be more open to the teachings of Jesus? Can we spend more time with Him, in our Bible time, small groups, in worship, and in service? Shall we accept the gift of friendship from our Lord?

Prayer: Loving Lord, thank you for the gift of friendship. Help us to grow in our friendship with You and with other Christians. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

be still

2010-01-04T12:33:00.006-06:00

Devotion that i gave this morning at church staff meeting: The senior minister is beginning a sermon series on spiritual discernment, How do we discern (learn, interpret, comprehend) the direction God is leading us? So the first step is : Psalm 46:10, "Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."

We need to have quiet time in order to hear from God. in 1 Kings 19, the voice of the Lord is referred to as "still, small voice". in our time, the word "small" seems to mean "insignificant". And of course God's voice is significant! Author Henri Nouwen refers to the voice of God as "an intimate voice". It is not loud, or pushy like a tv sales pitch! In fact I think we are so used to "hey hey Have I got a deal for you" in our daily lives, that we do not remember to take time to be still and know that God is. We pray for the ability to better listen to the intimate voice of God.

Godly Goals

2010-01-03T08:10:00.003-06:00

On Jan. 1, as I sat down to do my Bible reading, I was thinking/praying about my New Year's resolutions. Resolutions are goals. To effectively set goals, whether personal or for a group or business, there need to be parameters. Good goals need to be specific, realistic, & measurable. And as I was pondering this, I realized that as a Christian, as one called to serve, my goals also need to be Godly! And what better way to have Godly Goals, than to use Scripture!?
So my goal of reading thru the Bible this year (which has a side benefit of being more knowledgeable about it!) is "Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." So I can pray, "Lord, help me spend more time reading and pondering your word, and help it grow in me and guide me in all I do"

2010

2010-01-01T08:56:00.005-06:00

a new year! so is it pronounced twenty-ten or two thousand ten?

Last night's New Year's Eve service and supper at church went well. and broke up earlier than usual which was good! we were home by 8:30. I went to sleep early but woke up before midnight. and the neighborhood was quieter than usual at midnight, a few firecracker volleys but that was it. I read Revelation 21 & 22, the description of the heaven..the New Jerusalem. "Behold I am coming soon!"

at the service we sang a couple songs, then i read Gen 1:1-5 and John 1:1-5 and 1:14. Talked about language, words. God merely spoke and everything was created. and His word-promises, law and covenants came to Abraham and Moses. The prophets spoke of God; then Jesus the Word, is God and is the promise of God's word. We can have The Word within us, Jesus as savior and the word of God as we read and meditate and pray on it.

and I am going to go do just that. I have a new Bible reading plan and devotions for the new year. knowing that there will be days I do not manage the 'daily readings' I am going to allot days like today, downtime, to read chunks. bliss.

May the Grace and Peace of our Lord Jesus be with us more each day in this new year! Shalom, Carol

The Word

2009-12-28T12:06:00.005-06:00

for New Year's Eve service, I believe we will discuss The Word. Jesus, and the Bible. In the New Testament Greek the word used is Logos, which means "word", but also in Greek philosophy meant the core of one's being. Logos is used both for Word, used for Jesus in John chapter 1, and for "word of God" or "word of Christ" in Paul's epistles. "Let the word of Christ dwell in your richly..." I want us to think about concepts of language, and that words have power. Being in the Word, being in Christ, and spending time with our Bibles, has power!

2009-12-27T13:30:00.003-06:00

It is amazing to me, that no matter how unready I am for Christmas, it comes anyway, and i am reminded again of the birth of our Savior. And i pray that it was the same for you! We had a nice quiet, nuclear family Christmas. Our 2 sons came to the 10pm worship service with us. Hubby did not have to usher, there was plenty of help, so the 3 guys sat together, as I helped lead worship. The music was wonderful and really spoke to me. I think it moved a lot of folks, from the expressions i could see.

this AM i preached on Colossians 3:12-17 Clothe yourselves with kindness, compassion, forgiveness, etc.. and Psalm 148. Praise as the root of worship. Worship as the root of our faith life, and recommitting to Christ. Choir had the day off, so we did a hymn sing in the place of the anthem and folks kept calling out requests! I think we did one verse each of 5 hymns. the final request was for Amazing Grace and i requested that we sing the last verse too..."When we've been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise, than when we've first begun."

2009-12-23T16:52:00.002-06:00

Christmas, bah humbug. Ok, that is a decidedly un-Christian attitude! but i am feeling awfully humbug today. I have a cold, the weather is terrible, i am not done with any of our preparations, and this has just been a bad year in many ways. so there it is. Come Lord Jesus, fill my heart with the right stuff, please?

2009-12-17T22:50:00.002-06:00

oh this year has been something else. 2009 just needs to be GONE.
i was so sick with pneumonia in May, a car accident in October and my car, almost paid for, was wrecked. and now, the very worst, our son's girlfriend died very suddenly. He is just heartbroken. and not being a believer, he does not have the hope that Jesus brings us. if i 'preach' to him, i am afraid he will turn away from me. i am praying. hard. i do pray hard for my sons, but now..well. I am so very concerned for him.

clutter.....

2009-11-21T09:41:00.007-06:00

I've been reading Unclutterer blog (http://unclutterer.com) for a while now. It is interesting topic and I hate to admit how much I need help with this! and in their forums, i see lots of folks posting good ideas. But some of them seem to be "here is what I do...and it mostly works. But sometimes it doesn't..." We seem to be adding stuff to the process of dealing with our stuff, and not addressing the underlying issues.

This week hubby & I have done some serious "uncluttering" ourselves. (since i was sick in the spring, did not do spring cleaning...oy vey!) And it feels so good to have got rid of stuff and organized some of it. Yet i know unless we develop new habits and work thru the reasons that we got to this point, nothing has really changed. I have read lots on this topic. In fact in sorting junk this week, I came across books-- "Simplify Your Life" and "Clutter Free, Finally and Forever."--in piles of stuff. Oh the irony!

I had read both books--and a variety of others! So they didn't help ME much, did they? I have to think thru and deal with the issues that got us here. Neither his Mom nor my folks were good at dealing with stuff. Both had definite 'hoarder' tendencies. They contained most of the clutter, for a long time. But by the last few years, things were piling up. I think with our parents' generation, it goes back to the Depression/WW2 era growing up. They had so little, then were part of the post war boom economy. And the advent of TV and its advertising!

So we (baby boomer generation) grew up with parents who had grown up feeling deprived, and who did not want their children to know that deprivation. AND we had the growing onslaught of mass media and all the advertising that says to get more stuff!

A friend shared a quote from a book she is reading/preaching on. "Physical deprivation causes spiritual hunger." (from Compelled by Love by Heidi Baker) and we so often mistake spiritual hunger for physical, material, other kinds of hunger.

and Gerald May in Addiction and Grace talks about how basically EVERYTHING can become an addiction; as well as the "usual suspects" of drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, etc.... So having/acquiring stuff is a profound addiction!

oh-- good stuff...gonna go read and make some notes...

(To be continued...)

2009-09-13T23:23:00.004-05:00

wow I am bad at this blogging thing! I did more of it when i was sick than now that i am 'well'. and yes, i have had some after effects of the dag-nabbed pneumonia. chiefly fatigue, much much better now, but i have absolutely NO tolerance for humidity. never have had much, but it is worse this summer. and of course the ragweed is bad now too. we have been running the AC for several days straight now. it cools off outside at night, but the pollen and humidity never let up. i was sleeping so badly for so long, soon as we had the house closed up and AC on, i slept!

Friends

2009-07-28T08:46:00.003-05:00

I have been lazy about keeping up my blog. There are things on my mind to say here, but i am challenged at sitting down and actually DOING something about it! it may be that i am mostly focusing on my work. I have a preaching gig out of town Aug 2, preaching at our church Aug 16 and a wedding in between!

Preaching this Sunday on friendship. the text is Mark 2:1-5: ¹ A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. ² They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. ³ Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. ⁴ Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. ⁵ When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, "Son, your sins are forgiven."

I adore this story. The friends are SO very determined to get their pal to Jesus that they dig thru the roof! (Probably a flat thatched roof) My sermon will focus on true friendship, especially caring for one another, having compassion...all that good stuff that church is SUPPOSED to be....

2009-07-07T11:14:00.002-05:00

Well HUMPH!! The news keeps saying the recession is better. Well I just stopped at my fave coffee shop, It is locally owned, not a franchise. the shop will be closing next week. And going thru my mail, one of the magazines I subscribe to is ceasing operations. I don't know whether to throw something or start crying.

book

2009-06-21T19:29:00.003-05:00

Got a new book that I am loving with a Capital L. Prayers That Avail Much, the 25th anniversary edition. there are prayers for any occasion. For pastors, lay people, anyone who wants to pray better (and who doesn't?!) Every prayer is based on Scripture, with the Bible references listed at the end of the page for you to look up. I highly recommend! and no, i am not related to nor do I work for the publisher, the author, amazon.com or anyone else connected to this book.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1577949242/ref=ox_ya_oh_product

Favorite

2009-06-05T03:10:00.005-05:00

A friend, Pastor Karen, and I do weekly worship services at a nursing home. So many times as we are about to read the Bible passage for the day, one of us says, "Oh this is my favorite Scripture!" We have MANY favorites! I have finally come to the realization that my favorite Bible passage is whichever one I am reading right now!
So here is my current fave:

Isaiah 55:1-2 and 8-13
¹ "Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.

² Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.

...

⁸ "For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,"
declares the LORD.

⁹ "As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

¹⁰ As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

¹¹ so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

¹² You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.

¹³ Instead of the thornbush will grow the pine tree,
and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.
This will be for the LORD's renown,
for an everlasting sign,
which will not be destroyed."

This passage is so beautiful and says so much. God speaks to each of us individually, and to all of creation! God speaks thru the Word, the Bible. And also thru the Word, Jesus Christ. (John chapter 1)

God's Word, (both the scriptures and Christ) will accomplish everything that has been promised. The Bible will speak to people. Prophecies will be fulfilled, the children of God will all turn towards God and worship. (Every knee will bow --Isaiah 45:23 and Romans 14:11)

When all of God's children have come home, have come to Christ, then ALL of creation will celebrate and worship! The trees will applaud, the mountains will sing, evergreen plants will replace thorny bushes. What an image! All of creation celebrating, all of creation being in the perfect harmony that we were designed for.

pneumonia continued

2009-05-18T15:03:00.008-05:00

I am (hopefully) over the pneumonia, the active infection anyway. but i have NO energy. and, yes, I am grumpy about it! Been reading a LOT. lots of sudoku puzzles. have made a few notes on topics, but not done any real writing. Watching an awful lot of tv. Cable reruns of WKRP and other oldies, and i adore watching Cash Cab on Discovery. and a few Seinfeld episodes. And movies, the Natural and a League of Their Own, 2 of my faves.

I was VERY sick. Probably a whisker away from being hospitalized, and actually, maybe should have been. the next day after diagnosis, i was awfully short of breath. But now, 2 weeks later, i am rarely short of breath, even yesterday at church, singing. but i am soooooooooo tired! (whine)

(2 1/2 weeks later, I still tire more easily than I think I should, but I am definitely better! Patience...with myself. not in my skill set!)

pneumonia

2009-05-03T10:01:00.004-05:00

well the cold/cough thing just kept getting worse, went to urgent care Sat AM. I have pneumonia in both lungs! and a sinus infection. got antibiotics and cough RX. i am weak as a newborn kitten. will not be doing much for a while, that is for sure. Decided i need to read some nice fiction for a change, so am reading Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. a bit 'dark' for my usual taste (that's sci fi for ya) I SO adore really good writing.

it is spring, the trees are blooming. It is a lovely weekend. I am going to have Martin take me for rides once in a while, till i am back on my feet. there is one block downtown that has a whole row of about 8 crabapple trees that are just breathtaking in the spring.

2009-04-28T11:26:00.004-05:00

grumble.....woke up with a sore throat and laryngitis. very bad for a pastor to not have a voice. very bad for a gal who loves to laugh to not have a voice! So I am taking it easy today. With any luck I can take it easy for a few days. Got another full weekend, including preaching on Sunday. So I NEED to get better! years ago i worked thru a couple bouts of this and ever since then, my voice gets raspy at the slightest provocation. i'm afraid i may have slightly damaged my vocal cords. So now i baby myself when this happens.

This past weekend we renewed our wedding vows. Several couples did, as part of our church anniversary celebration. It was lovely. We gals were pretty glamorous! A couple of us were wishing we could duplicate the look, including professionally styled hair, on Sunday too! Then Martin and I went out for dinner and had a great meal. (i had filet mignon and triple chocolate cake for dessert, thank you very much) It was a bit pricey, but hey we only do this every 32 years!

Mercy

2009-04-23T21:48:00.005-05:00

Bible study on mercy went great. wonderful discussion on forgiveness -need to add to next draft-does the bible say we must forgive, do other religions say to forgive, (yes and yes)
Jesus said "Father forgive them" (we can ask God to forgive if we can not right at that moment)

also ideas about mercy in every day life. being kind, do unto others etc. and not using sarcastic, mean spirited humor, (GIGO Garbage in, garbage out)

2009-04-21T08:39:00.002-05:00

i am working on a Bible study for Thursday evening, on "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." Matthew 5:7
a year and a half ago or so, I gave a pretty good sermon on forgiveness. but, it is one of the things that i lost when my old desktop computer died. :( I am just sick about it. i spent a lot of time on that sermon, and i hate to have to reinvent the wheel so to speak for this Bible study. I also have to put together my piece for the monthly newsletter. Guess i need to suck it up and get on with the writing!
P.S. I did get that sermon eventually-my genius sons got the hard drive out of the old computer and found it!

yummy

2009-04-21T08:37:00.002-05:00

I am sipping my second mugful of coffee this morning. I added a splash of chocolate milk, and some hazelnut flavoring. mmmmmmm. Chocolate and hazelnut make the most extraordinary coffee.

Affirming one another

2009-04-19T08:10:00.006-05:00

Yesterday, I presented a session at our WCA annual meeting on Congregational Care. The main point was that everyone...let me repeat that, EVERYONE, needs someone to listen and to affirm our feelings. People in a church setting, pastors and not, can always help out another by listening to what they have to say, without making a judgment. And by honoring their feelings. "you sound really (insert feeling here)" is all you have to say. "Thank you for sharing" As i told folks, there will be times when you want to scream "WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?" but if we are practicing good care of one another we will not. much later, maybe, if asked for advice, we may say 'perhaps you want to consider the consequences..." or some such. but the crux of the matter is we need to listen and affirm. And each of us needs someone to listen and affirm as well. Especially if we are in a position of being the listener for many others.

thank you for listening to me today :)

Bible reading

2009-04-14T09:02:00.004-05:00

This morning's Bible reading
Psalm 62:5-8 (NRSV)

For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. On God rests my deliverance and my honor; my mighty rock, my refuge is in God. Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. [Selah]

what a beautiful passage! and how true. people sooner or later WILL let us down. we will let someone else down. only God is ever present, ever loving, ever faithful.

materialism "hunger"

2009-04-11T09:59:00.011-05:00

So one night i am watching tv, and here come the commercials. and there is an ad for a sweet cell phone. And i think oooooh i want that! Now, I have a PERFECTLY fine cell phone! It does all i need it to do, and then some. great battery life. And it is very reasonable. but i see these ads and I absolutely start drooling for a new phone! I like to think of myself as fairly resistant to Madison Avenue and their ploys! after all, I have taken psych, read about advertisers' techniques, and i am smaarrrter than the average bear (as Yogi says). But geez louise, those cell phone ads nail me every time. what's UP with that!?

I think it has to do with the whole upwardly mobile thing we boomers grew up with. Our parents came out of depression/WW2 era and they had a lot of deprivation when they were kids. they grew up to want to give their kids more and better than they had! and they certainly seem to have instilled that in us! But in part because of the tough times our parents grew up in, they had some emotional issues. They gave us material things, but may not have expressed feelings well. They grew up in an atmosphere of 'we are all in this together, don't whine, get over yourself" So there was no room (in their minds) for lots of emotion. We boomers got stuff that our folks never had. but we craved more. So as we have grown up, we have tried to fill these cravings with experiences or substances. We tried more material things! That worked for Mom & Dad, didn't it? So we have tried travel, jack daniels, loud music, designer shoes, marijuana, bigger cars, fancy electronics, cocaine, bigger houses, prozac, louder music, smaller phones, xanax, big screen tvs.....and on and on.

So how do we "feed" these cravings that consume us? with something that will truly satisfy?

the Gospel of John chapter 6
³⁵Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. ³⁶But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. ³⁷All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. ³⁸For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. ³⁹And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. ⁴⁰For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."

Mythology

2009-04-11T09:00:00.008-05:00

Years ago I spent a lot of time reading about Greek and Roman gods. It was fascinating. These gods and goddesses were supposed to be so powerful, yet they had so many personality flaws! Jealousy, seeking revenge, and a lot of just plain pettiness. (just like us mere mortals!) and I wondered why would people worship such mean-spirited 'gods'? It just never made sense to me. Remember, I grew up un-churched, so I was not comparing the mythology with Jesus! It was just something I could not grasp. I knew ancient peoples needed to have 'explanations' for natural phenomena, but it was beyond me that they would have these deeply flawed beings to honor and worship.

Now, this was before I was in a church and reading the Bible. I was pretty clueless, but i sure knew that it was preposterous to 'worship' such nasty beings as we read about in mythology.

People have misconceptions about God. Sadly, the people teaching about God are, well, mere people. Imperfect who can not comprehend the vast, loving, perfection that is God (expressed thru Jesus Christ) So we may have heard that God is spiteful, punishing, angry God. And it may have come from people who come across as spiteful, angry, mean-spirited. So we presume that God is no better than the small-minded, angry people. God can be angry, but first and foremost, God is love. and God's anger is never mean or abusive. God does not MAKE bad things to happen to people. Bad things happen and God is with us always.

Baseball

2009-04-10T21:58:00.005-05:00

well it is baseball season- I guess that means it is truly spring! my favorite, the Chicago Cubs, were in Milwaukee today. it was opening day @ Miller Park. The Brewers won in the 9th. Martin is happy. I guess I am happy they won their opener, as long as the Cubbies win the rest of the series!

2009-04-10T21:37:00.004-05:00

okay I'm not sure what this whole blogging thing is supposed to be about. I guess I'm not sure what I have to say is so important to take up space on the web with it! Yet there are so many people with so much less to say, or who seem to say it less sensibly, yet they have plenty of space on the web; so I guess it's okay if I'm entering the blogging world now too. LOL

one of the things on my mind lately is the many names of God and Jesus are in the Bible. you see God is infinite and our minds are finite so we are not truly able to grasp the entirety of God or his son Jesus Christ. (Jesus said "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.") So there are many many names in the Bible. Each name is a single facet of the character of the Lord. or perhaps I should say each name expreses a facet of the character. so our finite minds are able to comprehend some of these assets, the qualities. this is why there are so many names in the Bible; so that he can understand the nature of God that we need at the moment for our example today I might be needing comfort so the idea of comfort and the name comforter, (one of the names of the Holy Spirit) appeals to me today.

2009-04-10T17:21:00.003-05:00

Today is Good Friday. I do not know why it is called Good Friday. Jesus was crucified on this day, so it should be called Bad Friday, shouldn't it? or as my pastor says, yes it is Friday, but Sunday's coming!

We had a lovely, moving service at church last night to commemorate the Last Supper. lots of Scripture, with time to meditate on each passage. the service began and ended with low lighting, with passages about Light and darkness.