A Virtual Church
Tending the Garden of the Soul
by Lib Campbell
Remembering the Queen
September 8, 2022
England may have lost a Queen, but a lot of us loved her too.
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Virtue and the building of character
September 8, 2022
As we consider the Cardinal virtues it’s easy to see some of what is going on or not going on in America.
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Please. Don't Ban Books
August 3, 2022
Thoughts and Prayer
February 28, 2022
Still Hopeful
November 24, 2021
At least the roads and bridges are going to get fixed. Living in pot hole world and hoping for something in government to work is getting more and more challenging, even for the optimistic; even for...
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Fruit Bearing
November 3, 2021
The little plum tree in our back yard outdid herself this year. Hundreds and hundreds of flowers in the early spring yielded thousands of little green plums. The birds and the squirrels loved them...
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For Jayden
July 27, 2021
July 2021
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Landslide
July 14, 2021
Today I was at a meeting of sojourners brainstorming about offerings we could make… in prayer… healing ministry… racial reconciliation… lectio life… and on and on to the point my head was...
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If I Could Put You in My Pocket
June 27, 2021
This is a poem I wrote for my brother after he had a stroke last year. He has never seen it before.
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Fruit Bearing
June 27, 2021
The little plum tree in our back yard outdid herself this year. Hundreds and hundreds of flowers in the early spring yielded thousands of little green plums. The birds and the squirrels loved them...
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Pondering the Paradox
January 14, 2021
What are we to make of the dynamic tensions of life? The either/ors? The gains/losses? Few, if any, of us are not thankful to turn the page on 2020. Stark dichotomies, paradoxes, winners and losers...
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Wanting. Waiting.
December 21, 2020
We say we want peace. Yet we stockpile weapons,Guns. bullets.We build walls and harbor hate. Suspicions and thirst for power rob peace.We say we want joy.Yet we resist forgivenessClose our...
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5 Days Out
October 29, 2020
As I checked out at the Food Lion today, a young Black woman checking out my order, said to me, “ I like your button.” I was wearing my "Women Vote" button. I have had 500 of them printed since...
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Finding 50 Righteous Men
October 13, 2020
“How great is the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah and how very grave is their sin. I must go down and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me; and if...
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When Rancor Enters the House
September 22, 2020
My husband, Tom, writes editorials that appear in newspapers across the state. Recently he wrote two columns dealing with racial reckoning. I read them before they were published. I give thanks for...
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September Silence: A time of prayer for the healing of the world.
September 21, 2020
September Silence: A Time of Prayer for the Healing of the World
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This.
August 31, 2020
“Let love be genuine. Hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the...
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Forgotten History
August 18, 2020
A Reflection on Exodus 1:8 – 2:10
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A Virtual Church
August 10, 2020
Stephen and the Mob
May 9, 2020
A Reflection on Acts 7: 55 – 60
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We Had Hoped
April 26, 2020
Doubt
April 18, 2020
Dear Thomas, what questions you leave us with! You come into
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Mary Went to the Phone
April 12, 2020
Perhaps it was that my mouth outran my brain, or the other
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Where Can We Go?
April 4, 2020
A Reflection in Psalm 139
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Watching for the Morning
April 1, 2020
A Reflection on Psalm 130
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Got Solace?
March 27, 2020
A Reflection on Psalm 91
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Comfort: A Reflection on Psalm 23
March 22, 2020
For a psalm that many of us learned as children, and a psalm that today we most often hear and speak responsively at funerals, Psalm 23 speaks to life today as we are living through what seems like...
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Lectio Divina at Home
March 22, 2020
For the Lenten Season 2020 a small group from various churches has met at Saint Mark's UMC in Raleigh for lectio divina in the Psalms of Lent 2020. It occurs to me that the Virtual Church might...
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Birdsong and evening prayer ‘gainst the setting sun. She sings in high tree top throat pulsing ...
March 20, 2020
Abba, Give Us a Word
March 18, 2020
By the 4th Century of the Common Era, monasticism
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Reflection on Psalm 95
March 15, 2020
Sunday’s psalm begins with a call to song: “Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.” As Italy is on lockdown to slow the spread of coronavirus, people have taken to opening...
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SOS
March 7, 2020
SOS: A Lenten Devotional for
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People of the Creed
March 2, 2020
There may have been 70 of us gathered in worship today. We are not present in this church often, as we live in another town, but we feel part of this community. We share our lives before the...
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The Myth of Power Part 2: Curiosity for Truth
January 25, 2020
Dorothy, Tin Man, Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion needed a little power – power to get home, power to get a brain, power to get a heart and power to get courage. They walked a yellow brick road in...
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The Myth of Power
January 23, 2020
The Murphy house stood on the outskirts of Ayden, between
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Out of the Mud and Filth
January 19, 2020
The CEB translation of the Psalms does not mince words. In fact, the words read in worship this morning, words from Psalm 40, were quite shocking in the way they spoke into today’s acrimony and...
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Getting Through Death
January 13, 2020
We do not get over death; we get through it. There is no
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Ever O'er the Babel Sounds
January 8, 2020
Edmund Sears was a Unitarian Parish Priest in the early 19th
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Moorings
August 20, 2019
Keep us tethered to Your
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Target Practice at Pierson Point
August 11, 2019
Ordinarily the POW! POW! POW! of gunfire a few backyards
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Pondering Privilege
August 5, 2019
Nobody wants to talk about privilege; nobody wants to hear
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Moonstruck
July 23, 2019
Fifty years ago on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and the Apollo 11 team landed on the moon. I watched all day and night on a small black and white television holding an almost one-month old baby girl...
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Enough Mud
July 19, 2019
How much mud is there in the world? We seem to find deep pits of it everywhere and we continue slinging it at each other, one blob after another, until we are covered in it and baking it on in the...
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Slippery Slope Christianity
July 2, 2019
Over the past weekend, a highly elected North Carolina
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Lisa is 50
June 25, 2019
If either of us had died before today, I would not have been
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Bible Words
June 17, 2019
On Thursday night of Annual Conference, Rev. Greg Moore led
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June 6
June 5, 2019
June 6 is my son in law’s birthday. Bless you, Wayne. Happy Birthday! June 6 was also my Mother and Daddy’s wedding anniversary. Smilax and satin marked that day. Mother was young. Daddy was a...
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The Debatables
May 28, 2019
On the wall of the Visitor Center at Fort Frederica National Park hangs a replica map of the southeast coastline of the US circa 18c. To the north are the Carolinas, which are controlled by the...
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Where Have You Been?
May 25, 2019
Coming out of Night Prayer into the first Great Silence I had entered in over three years, I heard God’s voice clearly say, “Where have you been? I have missed you.” Holy One, I have been busy....
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73
May 17, 2019
Today is my 73rd birthday, which means that
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O For a Thousand Tongues
April 21, 2019
The gulls were back tonight. Singing at the top of their
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I Thought I Heard You Say
April 12, 2019
As I sat on a bench at the end of the pier, a huge flock of
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Dear Aaron Sorkin - Part 2
April 12, 2019
The other night we sat in the first row of the mezzanine for
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For Molly and All the Dogs We've Loved
April 3, 2019
This week we were supposed to keep Molly, Rich and Sandi's Big Brown Chocolate Lab, at our house while her “parents” were out of town. We had planned play dates, and a time at the river, which...
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Bask in the Stillness
March 20, 2019
These words of prayer from Psalm 4 were the foundation of a
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I Married a DJ
March 11, 2019
Okay, this is less Virtual Church and more real time realization. We are at our house at the river. Today it only sprinkled a little rain before the sun came out. The wind blew hard. Church this...
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Cleanup on Aisle Three
March 7, 2019
As the Lenten Season begins, I give thanks for several
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Living the Bible or The Living Bible?
March 4, 2019
In 2008, a young writer, an officially, though non-practicing Jew struck out to live the Bible. Literally. Every rule and admonition. Old and New Testaments. A.J. Jacob’s book, The Year of Living...
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Oh, Jesus.. You Knew It All Along
March 3, 2019
This weekend has been glorious and tomorrow is
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A Day That Will Live in Infamy
February 27, 2019
This title is not an original phrase. It was spoken by FDR in response to Pearl Harbor being bombed by the Japanese army in December of 1941. Yet on this day, February 26, 2019, something about this...
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A Gaggle of Girls
February 17, 2019
Warm February afternoons bring the neighborhood children out
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Lighting A Way
February 11, 2019
“Thy word in a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.”
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Old Enough to Die
February 7, 2019
Barbara Ehrenreich, in her new book Natural Causes, opens her chapters with this basic thesis: Each of
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One Small Child
February 7, 2019
There is a little boy whose name is Casey. He is barely
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Lead me Lord. Lead me in thy righteousness
January 8, 2019
Make thy way plain before my face. Your way, Lord. Jesus is your way. I have told you, O mortal, what is good…. And you didn’t get it. So I came down myself. In person. A small baby we might have...
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Dear Aaron Sorkin
January 2, 2019
Dear Aaron Sorkin,
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All About Eves
November 6, 2018
Eves are part of us. They have import in our faith and in our life. Eve....apple serving Eve. Who wouldn't want an apple? Sorry we have paid such price for that apple. All Hallows Eve... goblins...
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A Quiet Night and Peace at the Last
October 12, 2018
The howling wind has ceased. The breaking waves in the river have subsided. Stars are out. Tideland EMC has the power turned on. Lucky – my skittish dog who has sat in my lap all day as Michael...
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Proverbs
September 16, 2018
Tonight hurricane Florence is making her way through North Carolina. Her guile is becoming obvious. Not only has she destroyed a lot of the Carolina coast, but now her rain dump into tributaries and...
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She Who Bakes Bread
September 7, 2018
Her first call was to ask me to pray for a young man who had been her student many years ago. He was 31 now and just diagnosed with acute leukemia. I added him to my prayer list; she who bakes bread...
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Navigating the Shoals
September 3, 2018
North Carolina’s coastline had been known for years, longer than I have been alive, as the Graveyard of the Atlantic. Now, that does not have the same appeal as being known as the Garden State, or...
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A Time of Re-Becoming
August 30, 2018
A few weeks ago, I was at my home church in Ayden preaching the funeral of a dear childhood friend. As I mingled among the people there – other classmates and old friends - I thought about how in...
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Count Me a Heretic
July 20, 2017
Recent headlines in the news show a group of pastors praying and laying hands over President Donald Trump. I was not present and do not know their prayers; they were not praying to me. In a more...
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Woman in the Yellow Shirt
February 2, 2017
I saw you today in the Orlando Airport. You were holding back tears as you talked to someone to the phone. You had a yellow shirt and a yellow legal pad and you wept as you wrote. I thought about...
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I Did. I Do. I Will.
December 29, 2016
Today is December 29, 2016. It's a Thursday, our 51st Wedding Anniversary. Tom and I got married after Christmas, because I wanted to be at home for Christmas in Ayden with Mother and Daddy just one...
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Delight and Detachment
April 16, 2014
The necklace was an exquisite Mother-of Pearl cross, adorned with silver filigree decoration. It was a gift to me from Jeanne, a dear and cherished friend. I love her and I loved the necklace. I...
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And Richard
April 9, 2014
The way I signed the family mail at Christmas... Christmas Blessings to you and yours from Tom, Lib, Lisa, and Richard... It was the same with Easter cards, Birthday and Mother's and Father's Day...
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On Hunger Games and the Road to Dystopia
April 2, 2014
This blog was begun well over a year ago after reading the book The Hunger Games and viewing the movie on the big screen. Only now am I brave enough to finish it:
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Psalm and Solace
March 31, 2014
It's likely that no one on the planet has not seen the pictures and heard the reports of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Exploitive and heart-breaking scenes of anguish and anger have flooded the...
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The Drumbeat of Peace
March 12, 2014
China is “boosting its defense budget by 12.2 percent” in the coming year. So says the budget report released at the annual meeting of the People’s Congress last week. Scott Pelley of CBS News...
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Rethinking Church: A Lesson from Disney
March 4, 2014
Our recent week away ended with three days cruising on the Disney Dream with our children and grandchildren. During those three days, I gave a lot of thought to the ways of the Disney operation....
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Next, The Fiddles
February 21, 2014
On the table beside my bed is a book by Elizabeth Kolbert titled: “The Sixth Extinction.” It is not a religious book, not theological, not Spiritual Formation. Rather it more education bordering...
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Midnight Clear
December 24, 2013
There are seasons of words and seasons of silence. For me, since October of this year, words have been hard to come by. My words got buried in busy-ness and grief over the loss of a beloved dog,...
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The Way
October 12, 2013
The great Egret sat in the pine tree next to the front porch. All at once his catch was in sight. He dove with great intention into the river water with one purpose on his mind. One purpose that is...
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Ardie
August 31, 2013
Henry Arden Stroud was my first cousin. He was what we in Eastern North Carolina would call “a mess.” He was never without a smile and a good word, a story true or false. Who knew? Ardie was born...
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Damascus
August 27, 2013
O God, your people have not changed. Persecution and pain rule and human arrogance abounds. Your people “have committed two evils: they have forsaken God, the fountain of living water, and dug...
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The Book Club
August 12, 2013
Several years ago I was part of a book club of clergy women and other women from various churches in the District, and the Conference Staff. From the beginning it was decided that we would read...
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Seeing Through the Eyes of a Child
August 7, 2013
Jesus says, “Let the children come to me, for to such as these belongs the Kingdom of Heaven.” I have figured out why he said it. It only took a few hours to see imagination and wonder, delight...
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The Labyrinth Journey
July 22, 2013
The Labyrinth Journey
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Happy Birthday, Lisa
June 26, 2013
Today is your 44th birthday. I probably should not announce that to the world; it could damage your game. Plus, after all, I still feel like I should be 44. But alas, I am not. The day you were born...
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Jenny
June 19, 2013
“Train up a child in the way the child should go…” so goes Wisdom from the Ancient Scripture. I saw witness of this proverb today. Truthfully, I was only an observer. Likely allowed in only...
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Goodnight and Happy Birthday, Dear Barb
June 15, 2013
Word came on Tuesday that a Healing Prayer Service would be offered for Barb Garlock, a long time member of Saint Francis United Methodist Church, and a former parishioner of mine. The note said that...
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A Psalm, Moral Monday, and the Rest of the Week
June 11, 2013
North Carolina Senator Thom Goolsby certainly got the attention of some of us in his rant about “Moron Monday” and a “Circus coming to town.” I read his words and the words of Larry, Moe, and...
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A Piano Lesson
May 31, 2013
For years I have known that although I am no Liberace, I love the piano. I have two of them. One was a gift on my fiftieth birthday. It sits in my home in Raleigh. The other is a piano that was in my...
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Harold Gay, I Remember You
May 28, 2013
Sun sets on the day that is Memorial Day, 2013. On Memorial Days past, I remember selling poppies for the VFW in Ayden at a card table in front of Edwards Pharmacy. Daddy was a veteran of WWII. He...
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O God, Never Let a Soul Be Lost to You...
May 3, 2013
The news of the day is disheartening. Mistrust, fear, and acrimony fill the air… putrid smells not borne of the goodness of You, O God, and the blessing of creation and a realization that life on...
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Enough
April 16, 2013
The psalmist cries out, “How long, O Lord?” When the news of the day is tragedy, once again our hearts are broken, and our questions rise in the night. My prayer tonight has altitude… I keep...
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The Mother-In-Law: Tribute and Triumph
April 3, 2013
Happy Birthday, Grandma, you’re 91 today. April Fool’s! Really, April Fool’s Day. April 1st. Your birthday. Kind of an unfortunate trick. But you have handled it well for 91 years. Good for...
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Rise and Shine
April 2, 2013
The road to Camp Don Lee from our house is part dirt, part pavement just wide enough for one car most of the way. It takes maybe five minutes, depending on traffic, to reach camp where our Easter...
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11:16
March 31, 2013
Holy Saturday. Jesus has been hastily buried, thanks to Joseph of Arimatheia. The disciples are holed up. Everyone is distraught. Another sad day. Easter Eve is not celebrated in the same way as...
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Tenebrae 2013
March 30, 2013
Tenebrae, A Service of Darkness, is a Holy Friday worship from the early Roman Church in which a series of candles is snuffed out following a reading from Scripture. The light goes dimmer and dimmer...
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'Tis Midnight
March 29, 2013
Maundy Thursday 2013 is finished. The table was filled with simple food. Rice, beans, skewered meat. Wine and a quick remembrance of the supper Jesus was having with his friends around another table...
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500 Beds
March 26, 2013
Today is Monday of Holy Week 2013, a day when thoughts gather toward the coming events of the week. Two thousand years ago, plus, Jesus was in Jerusalem. He had angered the religious authorities of...
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When Death Comes
March 24, 2013
Whether death comes as waves crashing on the shore, or earthquake shaking the foundations, or like fog, creeping in on cat feet, when death comes, things change forever. There is forever an empty...
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On to Jericho...Again: A Reflection on Psalm 31:11b
March 22, 2013
"Those who see me in the street flee from me."
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To Infinity and Beyond
March 4, 2013
"You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Acts 1:8
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Lectio Divina and Psalm 27
February 19, 2013
The great blessing of time in lectio divina today... besides the time spent with the Living Word in Scripture... was being in the company of saints in communion and song and silence. The Spirit was...
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Wilderness, Evil, and the Opportune Time
February 17, 2013
Icy road conditions have closed many a church in Raleigh this morning, including the one I was to preach in today. This is the sermon they would have heard. Welcome to the Virtual Church this first...
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February 11 - Evening Prayer
February 12, 2013
O Lord, dusk settles and my eyes look up to You. Tall pines sway in a February breeze and gray clouds scurry across the sky as if drawing a blanket up on the coming night. Thank you for this...
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Writing a Love Chapter
February 5, 2013
Dear Virtual Church, The following post is a sermon I preached at Elizabeth UMC last Sunday. The Scripture reference for the message is I Corinthians 13: 1 - 13. Paul's Love Chapter is almost...
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Breaking Dawn
December 28, 2012
Little children all across town were awakening to gifts and surprises galore. The young woman in my car was not. Instead we were driving to the Camel Club where she would spend Christmas day in AA...
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A World in Need of a Savior
November 27, 2012
Thanksgiving Day is come and gone. Fellowship, over-eating, laughter and family togetherness have been great blessing. In the insulation of the family unit, in the comfort of a warm home, in the...
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My One Vote
November 6, 2012
It is 6:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, November 6, 2012. Polls on the East Coast will open at 6:30 and remain open until 7:30 this evening. Lines will likely be long at polling places and Americans...
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For All the Saints
November 4, 2012
The little church we attended this morning is our summer church. We have attended on Sundays we were away from home for a lot of years, enough so that we know people and they remember us. This...
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A Promise in the Clouds
August 28, 2012
"I have set my bow in the clouds and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth..... I will remember my covenant that is between me an you.... I will not destroy you." Genesis 9...
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The Journey of Red Hutch
August 27, 2012
She stood in the kitchen of our first home on Ninth Street in Greenville, North Carolina. By the time we met her, she had already had her oaken boards and oval trim painted white for kitchen use. We...
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A Night Prayer
August 9, 2012
Almighty God, night falls on a day filled with so much emotion that all I can do is turn to You. You who calms the storm, You who waters the land and brings forth life. So much works against the joy...
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A Lectionary Thought
July 31, 2012
The Old Testament lesson for Sunday was 2 Samuel 11: 1 - 15. My professor of Old Testament at Duke encouraged her students to preach from the Hebrew Scriptures. She urged us to remind parishioners...
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A Thirst Quenched
July 29, 2012
For as many times as I have read the Psalmist's words about being in a "dry, waterless land," and for as often I have read the lament "my soul thirsts for You," my experience in worship today is the...
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Higgs and God
July 18, 2012
The ancient story begins...."In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving...
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The Freedom Bit
July 3, 2012
On the eve of another July 4th, thoughts turn to freedom proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence of these United States as "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Always turning an ear...
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The Prophet's Bus
June 22, 2012
The prophetic voice is often found outside the church. Witness Jesus. His radical call to justice and unity was a threat to the religious authority of his day. Status quo faith is too comfortable....
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My Brother's Keeper
May 14, 2012
Bipolar Disorder like other serious mental illnesses takes a toll on life. Besides being a thief of a person's potential, it comes into a family as a great hungry beast. It eats away resources of...
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The Sarai Covenant
April 24, 2012
“Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. So Sarah laughed to herself saying, 'After I have grown old and my husband is old, shall...
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Yellow Corvettes
April 19, 2012
Frequently in the Scriptures there is reference to "signs." Noah is given the sign of God's covenant in the rainbow that follows the flood. Abraham is given a sign. Jesus's birth is told in the words...
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Mike's Death
April 12, 2012
Is sympathy a synonym for compassion? Does it mean that a sympathetic person is a compassionate person? Do we know what it is like to walk in each other’s shoes? Really?
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Grief from the Other Side
April 11, 2012
"I lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth..." These words from Psalm 121 came to my mind and heart on Tuesday morning...
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Sparrow Song
April 9, 2012
Easter is heralded by all sorts of sounds. Lyre and timbrel sound. Brass trumpet and organ, voice and clapping. But no sound is a glorious this Easter morning as that of the sparrow singing from the...
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Skin in the Game
April 6, 2012
Good Friday at the river. Rain is pouring. Even heaven cries. Scripture tells the awful, amazing tale. John 18:1 through John 19:42 takes us across the Kidron Vally to the garden where the fray...
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Ah, Holy Jesus
March 29, 2012
Dr. Russell Richey was the professor at the Duke Divinity School who taught me Methodist History and Polity, but also something more. Dr. Richey would open every class reading the words of the Wesley...
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A First Sunday Hope
February 27, 2012
Sunday, February 26, was the first Sunday of Lent 2012. The gospel readings for this year are from Mark. Mark, the first written of the gospels is a little like the Reader's Digest of the New...
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The Shining
February 19, 2012
"Jesus led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them....." Mark 9: 2 - 9
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7th Grade Lesson
February 8, 2012
"Train children in the right way, and when old, they will not stray."
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A Remembering and A Reminding
January 29, 2012
The line at the Farmer Funeral Home in Ayden snaked around every room in the building and out into the January night through the parking lot. Many of them were teenagers there on a Saturday night to...
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Tabula Rasa
December 31, 2011
The first time I heard the phrase, Tabula Rasa, I was blown away by the idea of a blank slate and how new beginnings offer a blank slate on which to write a life - a day, a year, a moment at a time....
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The Christmas Card
December 22, 2011
For many years I sent Christmas Cards. Sometimes they were hand drawn... figures from the story of Christmas in line drawing with Scripture as the border. There was Mary..."my soul magnifies the...
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Hopes and Fears
December 20, 2011
"The hopes and fears of all the years are met in Thee tonight..." So says the hymn that sings the good news in Bethlehem long ago, hopes and fears that are met in the Christ born anew among us at...
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No Room for a Bed
November 28, 2011
For all the years of our marriage, Tom and I have decorated our home for Christmas on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Up and down the stairs come the "treasures" of a lifetime's collecting. It usually...
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In It All..... Thanks
November 23, 2011
Folded newspaper Pilgrim hats and fringed felt Indian vests are long gone from my house. Gone are the times of going to Aggie's house or the Silo Restaurant for Thanksgiving Dinner. I remember being...
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Those Who Seek
November 1, 2011
These words in Psalm 34:10 speak to me this All Saint's Day. The lectio divina group met at my house today. On this beautiful, cool November day, God spoke through the Scripture, and a faithful group...
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746-6432
October 24, 2011
Grandmother Harris referred to the autumn of the year as "the season of melancholy." She found the closing down of plants and flowers a portend of cold weather to come. She was not a fan of the cold....
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The Placemaker
October 18, 2011
"If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you . . . that where I am, you shall be also."
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The Old Soul
October 16, 2011
From where does wisdom come? Is it born in the depths of suffering? Does it rise up out of imagination and possibility? Who has it and who does not? Does wisdom have value for the world today, or are...
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A Prayer for Grady
October 5, 2011
At the dawn of creation God spoke forth light and dark and creatures from the seas and woods and God called it all good.... every living thing... good. In the dawn of this day I sit with blanket...
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A Quiet Night and Peace at the Last
October 2, 2011
The blessing of evening prayer is found in the reading of the Nunc Dimittis, the Canticle of Simeon. In the Gospel of Luke, Simeon is found in the Temple in Jerusalem. Luke tells us that Simeon is a...
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A Slow Rain
September 24, 2011
Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the watercourses in the Negeb. May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy. Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with...
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Re-Membering
September 11, 2011
Harmon Smith, who was one of my professors at Duke, is the one who taught me to hyphenate prefixes to gain better understanding of a word. In the case of re-membering, as in re-membering Christ, or...
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In Harm's Way
September 6, 2011
Because God inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish. Then I...
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At the End of Lament
September 4, 2011
"Be merciful to me, O God, for in thee my soul takes refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by...." So begins the lament of Psalm 57. The voice of lament is heard often in the Hebrew Psalms....
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The Survival Kit
September 2, 2011
The woman in the checkout line at WalMart had two items in her cart. A loaf of bread and a large bottle of wine. I asked her if this was her survival kit and she replied, "It's amazing how much of...
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Home Again
August 31, 2011
This is surely how Dorothy felt after a wild time in OZ. The last two days in Pamlico County, North Carolina have been a wild ride indeed. We had seen the pictures that the two brave souls had sent...
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The Eye of the Storm
August 29, 2011
"When the storms of life are raging, stand by me....."
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Making It Work
August 24, 2011
"And a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let...
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A Prayer for Nana
August 21, 2011
When I first met Nana, her granddaughter was soon to become my Daughter-in Law. She and Papa were retired and still living outside Baltimore in a home they had shared for fifty or more years. She...
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The Help: A Truth Revealed
August 14, 2011
I need to begin this blog with a truth of my own. I am white. I am American of English descent. I am a privileged person. As such I realize that my reflections on the Jim Crow South are likely...
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"I Love Humanity..."
August 11, 2011
"It's people I have trouble with." These words were spoken by a pastor who was near and dear to my heart, my Father-In-Law. He was a graduate of Yale Divinity School, ordained and called to a Baptist...
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Trapeze Living
August 9, 2011
If you have ever been to the circus, you will see the trapeze artists who fly from swing to swing with great ease. The work of the trapeze artist is to let go of one swing while at the same time...
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Trapeze Living
August 9, 2011
Annual Conference this year was my last as a pastor under appointment in the North Carolina Conference. It might have been a little bittersweet, except that I had such a profound realization in the...
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Rethinking Relevance
August 7, 2011
Recently in the newspaper, in the comic section which I normally read immediately after reading the obituaries, was a strip "Lio," which I cut out and put in my Bible along with other cartoon strips...
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Pool of Blessing
August 1, 2011
In the company of friends and fellow travelers, Jesus was always renewed and refreshed for the work and the journey ahead. He would go to the home of Mary and Martha and Lazarus, break bread and...
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Picking Up Knitting
August 1, 2011
The July gathering of the Ayden Strouds was the first time there has been a reunion of the family that was not at the occasion of someone’s death. Rather it was the time we all long for when we...
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The Garden of Eden
July 31, 2011
“Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And God saw everything that he had made and behold it was very good.”
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Hart of my Heart
July 19, 2011
Your 17th birthday is on my mind and in my heart today. You were born on a hot, hot day that July 19th. We went to the hospital in both joy and anxiety for the day your mother and dad were going to...
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Securities and Exchange
July 14, 2011
The discussion at breakfast this morning centered on investment portfolios and such. Moody's indicators and current fiscal climates are increasingly scary. The brink of financial ruin is not a...
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This Day I Will Not Worry
July 13, 2011
"Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink or about your body or what you will wear....look at the birds of the air, they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and...
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Boat Encounters of the Best Kind
July 11, 2011
The saying among boat people goes..."The best day in a person's life is the day someone buys a boat. The second best day in a person's life is the day when the boat is sold." Boats are a good...
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Let Freedom Ring
July 3, 2011
We are usually not early for worship. So imagine our surprise when we arrived at 8:30 for a worship that began at 10:30! At one point I confess that we talked about leaving; Thankfully we did not....
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Mr. Bo Jangles
July 1, 2011
Tom came back to the car visibly shaken. He had just gone in to order a chicken sandwich for his mother who was sitting with me in the car. That's all. But that's not all he got. Here is the rest of...
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The Martha Mary Life
June 29, 2011
Read Luke 10: 38 - 42. This is the story of Martha and Mary, one the cleaner-cook, the other, the adoring listener. Read it and see who you are in the story. Most of us will choose either one or the...
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The Light Shines!
June 26, 2011
Walking down the hill from the Wild Goose Festival, I remarked to Tom and others that I knew how Peter must have felt as he walked down the Mount of Transfiguration. It was sad to leave. We had...
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Open My Eyes, Lord....
June 23, 2011
I want to see Jesus. Just like Zacchaeus who climbed a tree. Just like Moses who climbed a mountain. Just like shepherds who left field and flock... and the Magi who traveled from afar, so we have...
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The Arts of Living
June 19, 2011
Under the trees in front of the Toucan Grill, with the smell of the fish house wafting in the warm breeze, we set up the tent. For Lisa, my daughter, this was her first outing as an artist. Both of...
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All in the Game
June 13, 2011
" Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter will pass from the law...
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Record in my memory.....
June 12, 2011
and in my heart, O Lord, a time of rejoicing in the good gifts of family and friends and the blessing of celebrating music and giftedness this night. We who are made in your image sometimes bring a...
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Nibblers and Gobblers
June 8, 2011
"Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?" Matthew 6: 26
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One of the Hungry
June 5, 2011
"Come to me you who are burdened and heavy laden......"
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The Honor of Age
June 2, 2011
"Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you." Exodus 20:12
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Today
May 29, 2011
Today has been a day in which I have known you, Lord. Not in the silence that calls me so often, nor the solitude when I know you up close and real. Today, I have known you in both blue sky and...
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Memorial Day Thoughts
May 29, 2011
Just before Memorial Day when I was a child, Mother would take us downtown, set up a card table in front of the drugstore where we would sell VFW poppies all morning. Daddy was a veteran and the...
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Going Home
May 27, 2011
Today was a day that I have come away from thinking that Thomas Wolfe may not have known exactly what he was talking about. I spent this day in my hometown of Ayden, North Carolina, at a benefit golf...
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Henry
May 23, 2011
Truthfully, we did not know what kind of guest Henry would be. We know that he has separation anxiety problems. When we have seen him and been around him, he has actually appeared quite neurotic....
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Wednesday's Gift
May 20, 2011
Bite Size Bible Study is the name I gave the evening lectionary class this year. It seemed catchy and non-threatening. It was a drop - in kind of class, no real accountability. That said, it did not...
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Light of the Moon
May 18, 2011
"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor does one light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so...
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65
May 16, 2011
In the world where days are numbered and time is measured to the nano-second, in this day which is my 65th birthday, in this hour of reflection and prayer, I realize that the gift of years is wisdom....
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Tuesday's Gift
May 14, 2011
"...Their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on God's law they meditate day and night. They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do...
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Being Saved
May 12, 2011
"Day by day, as they spent much time in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and hearts, praising God and having the good will of all the people. And day by day, the Lord...
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Learning Joy
May 9, 2011
The group is small. Mostly they are early middle aged men living with their house mother in a group home. Elsie brings them to church when she can. They sing songs in the Joy Class and hear the...
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The Last Days
May 7, 2011
This week is my last week under appointment in the United Methodist Church. I begin these last days with reflection and prayer about what has been and what will be.
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Mothers and Grandmothers
May 6, 2011
"I am grateful to God when I remember you..... I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you." ...
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You Have Heard It Said.....
May 3, 2011
When Jesus sees the crowds that are following him, he goes up a mountain, sits down, and begins to teach them. He is a good Jewish Rabbi who sees that the ways of the world and the ways within the...
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A Royal Gift
April 29, 2011
"Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife... and they become one flesh." Genesis 2: 24
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In The Shelter of Your Wings, O LORD
April 28, 2011
Storm clouds and high winds march across the flatland of the southeast. Trees sway and fears rise as we watch doppler radar. We can almost see fate on the horizon. Where can we go but to God?
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Of Gods and Men
April 27, 2011
For anyone who has ever said, "Yes, Lord. I will follow you," this movie is a great call to self-examination. The cinematography is sweepingly beautiful, capturing the majesty and mystique of place...
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Healing in a Name
April 25, 2011
"Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed...." John 20:1
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Lectio Divina for April 21st
April 21, 2011
Psalm 118: 18
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