“The master commended the dishonest manager because he acted shrewdly” Luke 16:8 I don’t like to think God approves of us cheating one another. This scripture is a whole parable about a rich man who had heard that his business manager was embezzling his earnings (“wasting his estate;” same “wasting” as the younger brother who […]
May the people in these pages be blessed. And any others, who, following You, enter into this Holy Place; May they be blessed, too. May all our families know Your unconditional love, endless joy, and eternal hope, Always and everywhere. Grant to us Your unfailing courage and fathomless peace in times of trial or peril. […]
April, 2019 “From now on, brothers and sisters, if anything is excellent and if anything is admirable, focus your thoughts on these things: all that is true, all that is holy, all that is just, all that is pure, all that is lovely, and all that is worthy of praise…The God of peace will be […]
“I lift my eyes to the hills; from whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth…” Luke 3:” My first pondering, two years ago, was on this scripture. Much has happened here, for us, for Bardsdale UMC, and for me, since then. Yet, every time I look at […]
The Methodist Church has an “Open Table,” which means anyone can receive the elements: in this case, flat bread and grape juice, which in our ritual/liturgy we pray to become the Body and Blood of Jesus, which I translate to mean the “Strength and Spirit” of Christ, in order to remember that we can always […]
April, 2019 “…today and tomorrow I cast out demons and heal people, and on the third day, I reach my goal.” (Luke 13:32) A few weeks ago, the above scripture was within the scripture which was the basis of my sermon One More Time. The sermon was about repentance and how Christ always works […]
Through the Advent side of Christmas, I pray you each and all received Hope and Peace and Love and Joy, even as you received Christ. Because Jesus did His work while on the earth; He inaugurated the Family of God…the vision The Most High has for earth and all its creatures, including us. So, when […]
While in high school I learned these words from Handel's Messiah, and the words there were “he/him” instead of “me/I.” I always thought they were from the Biblical book of the prophet Isaiah, and that Jesus was repeating these words of scripture when he spoke them personally in Matthew. The actual words in Isaiah (Isa. […]
I remember reading about a little girl whose family grew peaches. They would go out in the early spring, and take off some of the blossoms; later they went out and took off some of the peach starts. That way the peaches that Did grow were so full of the nectar of the tree, that […]
When I was four years old, I went to my first choir rehearsal. It was 1954, and the little Sunday school room in the basement of Community Presbyterian church was Full of other 4 year olds. Our teacher, whose name I don’t recall, set us up on some small risers, so that we were three […]