“A deaf man with a speech impediment was brought to him, and the people begged Jesus to lay his hands on the man to heal him. Jesus led him away from the crowd so they could be alone. He put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then, spitting on his own fingers, he touched the […]
I had a doorstep conversation this morning with a repeat visitor from a local church. She remembered my name, and she remembered that my work includes Christian education. She didn’t come empty handed today – she came bearing a gift in the form of a book dedicated to refuting the claims of evolution. She told […]
Have you ever noticed that most churches look an awful lot like a courtroom? You’ve got the “judge’s seat” in the middle, where the altar & the cross are (because God tells us that HE IS JUDGE and will return again to judge the living and the dead). We’ve even got a “witness stand,” complete […]
Life is HARD (can I get an ‘amen’?). Life TOGETHER can be harder. I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but today’s topic is DISCIPLINE. I know – we’re as crazy about discipline as a biting toddler or a teenager whose driver’s permit is burning a hole in the wallet. Spiritual discipline, as with […]
This has been a season of wrapping things up for me – more so than ever before. Every year the school year ends. Every year a class of Confirmation students is welcomed into Church membership. Every year we celebrate our graduates and applaud their achievements. But this year has been different for me. This year […]
My home church has a beautiful tradition of encouraging faith development in our youngsters. At baptism, each child is presented with a meticulously hand-made wooden chest. We call them Faith Chests, and when we give them to our children we explain that they are intended to house the items of faith that they will acquire […]
The WORD “I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:27 (New International Version) “I tell you the truth, some people standing here will see the kingdom of God before they die.” (New Century Version) “Some who have taken their stand […]
My husband and I had just finished loading up my little Nissan Cube with groceries the other day when a man passing by commented to his friend as my husband got into the driver’s seat, not so much under his breath, “he’s gay.” (Not the word he used.) A friend told me about a church […]
There are times in my life when I have been truly amazed at my own fearlessness while doing INCREDIBLY intimidating things. ME – afraid of heights and PETRIFIED of falls – in a harness, climbing a 50 foot tower, only to JUMP OFF of the top and be lowered to the ground by another person – […]
Every now and then, we miss the point. Every now and then, we get too focused on the shoes and we simply miss the point. After my first blog post, just over one week ago, I ran into a friend who had read “My Pink Shoes” and had left an amazingly encouraging comment in response. […]