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Advent Blog Day 13 Opening the Envelope
On Wednesday I woke up at what my brother-in-law calls “0 dark thirty” for a business trip to Seattle. I had plugged my computer in to make sure I had a good charge for the five hour flight, a great time for writing blogs and sermons. I tossed the charging cords into...
Advent Blog Day 12 – All God’s Creatures
Remember the “moon on the breast of the new fallen snow” from Monday night? A couple of hours into the snowfall my dogs start going crazy and my daughter told me to look out of the windrow. Prancing down the middle of the street in the “lustre of midday” was a...
Advent Blog Day 10 – Reflecting the Light
Remember this Christmas line? “The moon on the breast of the new fallen snow, Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below.” It is of course from The Night Before Christmas and it captures the scene here in Michigan last night. It was our first real snow fall and when...
Advent Blog Day 9 – Shepherding
Luke 2:8 “And there were shepherds watching their flocks by night.” Who were the shepherds and why would they be the first on earth to hear the news about Jesus? We know that the job of shepherd was not a one of status, but I tend to forget that many of the great...
Advent Blog Day 8 – Jesus is born
I found this quote while google surfing and it blew me away. “So God throws open the door of this world—and enters as a baby. As the most vulnerable imaginable. Because He wants unimaginable intimacy with you. What religion ever had a god that wanted such intimacy...
Advent Blog Day 7 – No Room in the Inn
And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.6 And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.7 Luke 2: 6-7...
Advent Blog Day 6 – Life is a Journey
“Life is a journey, not a destination,” is a quote often attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson. Great sentiment, but there seems to be some debate about whether or not he said those exact words. A more accurate quote from Emerson is, “…to find the journey’s end in every...
Advent Blog Day 5 Coming Home
I post this blog literally minutes before getting on a plane headed for Nashville. Although I moved away in 1975, Nashville will always be my home. I was born there, grew up there, went to college and had my first job there. And that is only the beginning. My roots in...
Advent Blog Day 4 Finding Peace at Christmas
Advent Blog Day 4 Finding Peace at Christmas How do we find Peace at Christmas? What do we want; what do we expect? The real question is, what is the peace that Jesus brings? We think of peace in the classic definitions: absence of conflict, harmony, tranquility...
Advent Blog Day 3 Amazed at Advent
Many years ago, (in a galaxy far away…) I was at my Thanksgiving dinner table when the phone rang. It was a woman from church who wanted to tell me that no one ate very much of her beautifully prepared Thanksgiving dinner. She just knew there was someone in need who...
Advent Blog Day 2 Surprise!
Dec 4 Luke 1:30 “But the angel assured her, “Mary, you have nothing to fear. God has a surprise for you.” It was the Friday after Thanksgiving and I headed to the church to meet George Mark,( one of our worship leaders) to practice a couple of songs. Ok, it was the...
Advent Blog The first Sunday in Advent
A Paper Chain Christmas At my church this Advent we are making Paper Chains. Each day has a Bible verse and some ideas of how to share Christmas. I am thinking today that sometimes my life feels like that paper chain. Each day is fragile, held together with glue and I...