We are a New Testament people. That means that Jesus is the center.
Category: District Executive Minister
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I was just thinking…
For about two years now, a person has been coming to our church who will remain unnamed. However, this person is an alcoholic, and knows it. Very often, this person will remark that other people seem able to stop their drinking, but he cannot seem to do so. Yet, when questioned, this person will always blame someone else. (more…)
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I was just thinking…
I WAS JUST THINKING . . .
Just recently, I wrote an article extolling the loveliness of nature. I remarked on how we go through our lives, at least some of us and some of the time, without taking time to let the sense of the presence of God come as we make connection with the natural world. And yet, now it is becoming winter. Soon the temperatures will be even colder. Soon the blankets of snow will visit. Already the frost has come upon us, and the plants are shriveled and nearly gone. The trees have let go of their leaves. And the birds have made their V’s of flight as they head south. One could look at the world as barren and lifeless. (more…)
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I was just thinking…
I WAS JUST THINKING . . .
The statistics are in. There are now more people living in cities than people living in rural areas, parks, by rivers and lakes, and generally in remote, natural settings. And when we people do try to go to secluded areas for rest and relaxation, we may well find ourselves in little cities of campers and tents and the like! When have you lately just been at a place where you were totally alone? (more…)
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I WAS JUST THINKING…
From 3:00 p.m. on I was, as my mother loved to say, “busier than a one-armed paper hanger with the itch.” Of course, this little saying may not make much sense now because so few people paper the rooms of their home anymore! I set the table with my woven placemats, my most fun and funky dishes, my lovely gold silverware, the glasses with wheat etching on them, and the carefully folded white napkins. I made the soup—a brand new recipe for something called “curried corn bisque,” which I found in a brand new cookbook given to me at Christmas. Then I added triple berry muffins, watermelon and strawberry salad, and for dessert ice cream with lemon cookies. Not a bad meal, I surmised! (more…)
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I WAS JUST THINKING…
January is here. Another year past. And the memories crowd back. All the things done. All the things undone. All the times I wish I had done something. All the times I wish I had not done something. And among the things I was thinking was a program I recently heard on “gratitude.” (more…)
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I WAS JUST THINKING…
The stirring strains of Modest Mussorgsky’s great “Pictures from an Exhibition” caused me to sit bolt upright! (more…)
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I WAS JUST THINKING…
Witness the grandeur of the mountains! They soar and sing their song of magnificence! Stand under a waterfall! It splashes the wonder of God onto your waiting skin! Listen to the quiet or the crashing tones of a symphony orchestra! Somehow, some way, the music takes one to places of new joy, new insight, new comfort, new challenge! (more…)
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I WAS JUST THINKING…
Wendell Berry is a Kentucky farmer. He has been on the same land for 40 years, give or take a few, and he has strong opinions about how farming should be done. (more…)
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I WAS JUST THINKING…
I was just thinking about shaving cream bottles, toothpaste tubes, and Cheez Whiz containers! (more…)