In the latest issue of The Christian Century, an article written by Chistian Smith, Michael Emerson, and Patricia Snell makes the following statement in bold type: “Most American Christians give either nothing or very little to church or charities.”  The article goes on to report that in 1998, the amount of money given by the […]
After the last time…
When I finally turned from flight
And from somewhere came the strength to go back…
I rummaged the ruins,
A refugee picking through bombed belongings
For what surely was destroyed
And began again.
I began my new life
Thick and rough
With an alarm system on the heart
And an escape hatch in the head.
It was as spontaneous as a military […]
From Frederick Buechner’s devotional book, Beyond Words:
To confess your sins to God is not to tell God anything God doesn’t already know. Until you confess them, however, they are an abyss between you. When you confess them, they become the Golden Gate Bridge. (p. 65).
For All Christians
The words of Padre Pio
On his feast day, September 23rd
“Keep yourself from continually converting your occupations into disturbances and anxieties of spirit. Even if you are being tossed around on the waves and blown about by the winds of many perplexities, look up constantly and say to our Lord: ‘O God, it is […]
From Frederick Buechner’s devotional book, Beyond Words:
The major difference between hating and loving is perhaps that, whereas to love somebody is to be fulfilled and enriched by the experience, to hate somebody is to be diminished and drained by it. Lovers, by losing themselves in their loving, find themselves, become themselves. Haters simply lose themselves. […]
Check out your knowledge of justice in the world and United States at this URL: (from my friend Tammy Ambrosio)
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 http://www.truthout.org/article/twenty-questions-social-justice-quiz-2008?print
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 “. . .what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6: 8
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 “If you want peace, work for justice.” (Henry Louis Mencken, 1880-1956, […]
I just received word this morning that the Rev. Jan Brittain, former pastor of New Salem UMC in our district, lost her son, Wade, in a car accident last night. This is, of course, every parent’s worst nightmare, so please remember Jan, her husband Cecil Donague (also a UM pastor), and their younger son, Rylie.Â
PRAYERS OF STEEL by Carl Sandburg
Lay me on an anvil, O God.
Beat me and hammer me into a crowbar.
Let me pry loose old walls.
Let me lift and loosen old foundations.
Lay me on an anvil, O God.
Beat me and hammer me into a steel spike.
Drive me into the girders that hold a skyscraper together.
Take red-hot rivets […]
One of my all-time favorite poems from British poet Geoffrey Studdert-Kennedy:
Well, there ain’t no thrones and there ain’t no books,
It’s him you’ve got to see.
It’s him, just him, that is the judge of blokes like you and me.
And boys, I’d sooner frizzle up in the flames of a burning hell
Than stand and look into his […]
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