To receive God’s grace we need to die. And we don’t want to die. The story/joke/cartoon at the beginning was about a little girl with a cat, who complains to the cat, “Grownups are always asking me what I will be when I grow up. I will just be me, only taller!! Why do they […]
Pearls before Swine had a cartoon this past week, where the Rat is pounding a sledgehammer against the wall, and the Pig walks in and says, “What are you doing, Rat?” And the Rat, pounding on the wall, says, “I CAN’T STAND BEING AT HOME ANY LONGER SO I’M SLEDGEHAMMERING MY WAYS OUT!!” And […]
“They were terrified and afraid. They thought they were seeing a ghost.” (Luke 24.37) The cartoon is about gramma and grampa in Pickles… Gramma is working at something in the kitchen… Grampa is beside her, saying, “Yuck!” She says, “What’s wrong?” He says “I made this meatloaf sandwich with mustard and catsup and it […]
Been binge reading Louis L’Amour books… I really like them. The bad guys always LOOSE. They always get their cumupence. They always end up being little men scared of their own shadows. I like that. The abusers in my life died alone, with second wives that wanted them to be way more than they […]
“Amen, Amen, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, an those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” (John 12:24-25) To […]
In advance of the fourth Sunday in Lent, Allyssa McNeal shares theological and personal reflections on the correlating Lectionary texts. Seeking a way out Numbers 21:4-9 The Israelites were grumpy and growing impatient like many of us during this Lenten season in the midst of a global pandemic. Moses was tasked with keeping them encouraged […]
My childhood is tainted with violence and abuse instigated by my own father. I was in my first year of high school when a tragedy happened, my father was killed by his own father. I was confused at that time about what to feel. Should I be happy for there’s no father to harm us? […]
Expectations: “Those who have ears to hear, let them hear…” (Mk. 4:9 Mt. 11:15; Lk. 8:8, etc.) “And [God] said, “Go and say to this people: ‘Keep listening, but do not comprehend; keep looking, but do not understand.’ Make the mind of this people dull, and stop their ears, and shut their eyes, so that […]
4 Rejoice[c] in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.[d] 5 Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. 6 Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds […]
July 1, 2020 “Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me [Jesus said], and whoever welcomes me, welcomes the One who sent me.” (Mt. 10:40) Last Sunday the joke was from “Pickles” in the VC Star…it was a grampa and grandson… the grampa says, “Nelson, show me that hole in your sock”…and he does; it’s a black sock, […]