Church Life
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And Their Voices Prevailed
If you have a copy of God’s Word handy, you may want to read the twenty-third chapter of Luke before you read the rest of this post. In that chapter, we can read Luke’s inspired account of some of the events concerning the arrest, interrogation, condemnation, and crucifixion of Jesus. Other details are in the other gospels, but we will focus our comments to those recorded by Luke – along with a few details gleaned from the other gospel accounts. I find the words that are used as the title of this post to be extremely interesting and informative. They play a major role in the narrative that follows. A…
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After the Declaration
This post is being released after Independence Day passed earlier in the week. That date is very important for America and it is always encouraging to see people celebrate it by hanging a flag or posting something patriotic on social media. However, July 4 was not the end of the Revolutionary War. While it is a very important date, the battles in that war continued to be fought for quite some time. It would not be for a long while until the British finally surrendered and America truly had her freedom. They could not just declare that they were independent, they had to fight for it. It is also true…
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It’s Important to Keep Your Filter Clean
I just finished cleaning both of my vacuum cleaners. I know, they are supposed to be used for cleaning, but it became very apparent recently that the machine itself needed to be cleaned. Today was the day. I realized quickly that I didn’t know much about the inside of my vacuums (one large and one small). I do empty the container where the dirt goes, but I had thought little about cleaning or changing filters. Those filters are hard to find!! Each vacuum had multiple filters made of foam rubber. The condition of those filters, when I finally found them, was less than stellar. (Sorry, if this makes you clean…
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Jeopardy
Since the television game show, Jeopardy, is basically a televised trivia game, I thought that I would begin this with a little trivia. I’m old enough to remember that there was a host on the show before Alex Trebek. Art Fleming was the man’s name. I remember seeing him on my parents’ old black and white television. I also listened to him occasionally toward the end of his career as a broadcaster on KMOX radio in St. Louis. About the only time I see the program now is when it is on in some waiting room, restaurant, hospital room in which I am visiting, etc. Since I’m not a regular viewer,…
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From the Inside Out
On a recent road trip, I decided to listen to worship songs for most of the drive. Some I hadn’t heard in a while and I love hearing the meaningful words paired with beautiful harmonies. One thought that crossed my mind was the picture from the movie Inside Out where our emotions have control of the switchboard in our mind. While I think Joy is in control a lot in my brain, sometimes that little red guy gets his hand on the level and amps it up! However, the words in our title song struck a different chord with me based on a recent ladies class lesson where we talked…
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An Update on the Feather Analogy
Many of us have heard a feather pillow used in connection with sermons/lessons/advice about gossip. It usually goes something like this: In an attempt to demonstrate how seriously we need to avoid things like gossiping, lying, defaming others, etc, we are asked to imagine going into a house and bringing a feather pillow out to the porch – maybe especially on a windy day. We are then asked to imagine opening the pillowcase and let all of the feathers in that pillow flutter away. The point is then made that getting all of those feathers back is equivalent to (or could be easier than) “taking back” all of the words we…
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Sometimes It’s Tough
Now, there’s a wide open topic for you! Let me narrow it down just a bit by saying it is sometimes tough to be an elder’s wife. I’m aware that it is sometimes tough just being a wife, even if your husband doesn’t serve in this capacity. I also am aware that it is sometimes tough being married to a preacher. I’ve lived that life for a long time. However, being the wife of an elder has its own challenges and I would like to share some of those with you. He can’t share everything with me. Before he became an elder one of the greatest qualities of our marriage was that…
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What I Learned from “Margin Notes”
Three years ago, as a way to have some type of class on Wednesday nights during covid, I borrowed an idea from Steve Higginbotham. For about 20-25 minutes, I shared some random notes from the margin of my Bible and an explanation of each one. Several said they appreciated these videos, which was a great encouragement. So, when we started having our regular classes again, I decided to continue “Margin Notes” as a series. However, instead of random notes (one from here and one from there), I decided to work through books of the Bible. For three years now, we have released a video every two weeks (with only a…
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3 Motivations from VBS
As this is being published, we are nearing the end of VBS 2023. Months of preparation pays off in a week that always seems to fly by. The amount of prayer, planning, and work that it takes to make a Vacation Bible School a success is tremendous. For many churches, though, VBS is just a “thing” they do because they have always done it. While it takes a lot of effort, it just kind of happens and then is forgotten until a few weeks or so before that usual time slot on the calendar starts drawing near the next year. But even then, there can be excitement that comes when…
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Worshiping or Hanging Out
I was doing a little research recently about various religious groups. To be totally honest, it was not an in-depth or scholarly process, but I did learn a few things that were of interest to me. Maybe one of those things will be of interest to you. When I was looking at some information about one particular religious group, I learned that one of the expectations for their members is that they are not to cross their legs during a worship service. That practice is seen as a sign of disrespect. As I continued to read about this, I learned that, like many things in today’s world, that rule is…
