“Today, here in America, we call today, Veteran’s Day. We must never forget this as a day of peace honoring first that one who had the strength to lay down his weapons and take up the shield of faith, clothing himself in a spirit of service to others.”
We are stewards of more than our own welfare. From the beginning, our call is not to selfishness but to abundance; not to exploitation but to awe at the providence of our Creator.
“So as I begin a new day, I’m entering it with eyes open to seeing beauty and hope. I’m eager to watch God show up in the canvas of my days: in artwork from my children, a friend reaching out, a hot cup of coffee, a homemade meal, the morning sun.”
“Discernment can lead to many paths, and ordination should not be seen as a better or higher path to serving God. In some cases, ordination restricts a person to a role that limits what God might be calling the person to – perhaps to something more expansive than the parameters of serving the church.”
“It’s a vision meant to be lived-out while we are alive. It’s supposed to give us the courage to embody the Way of Love, growing ever more discerning and wise as we go on. It’s supposed to show us the upside down reality of things — how the first are last and the last are first.”
“It is one thing to read the Bible straight through and think we’ve covered it. We read strange stories with people doing things we can’t understand and can’t figure out how such things got into the word of God. But through study, consultation with commentaries, pastors, theologians, and the like, we begin to understand that there is more here than just a simple reading will provide.”
“To this day I can’t tell you how it happened.
All I can tell you
is that I saw that bag
with the five loaves and two fish
get swallowed up into the night and the crowd,
and I never saw it again,
and twelve baskets of bread came back to us.”
“He doesn’t say it’s about believing certain things- especially ones that Christians nowadays often argue about.He doesn’t say it’s about who will get into heaven or ‘personal salvation.'”
“She explained that she writes a check every month for a set amount, but every Sunday, she adds whatever is left over from her wallet. It was my first introduction to pledging and giving weekly beyond one’s pledge.”
“With his words, I wonder when I last created simply because. When did my heart take joy and pride in putting pen to paper with no end goal? When did I bring forth beauty just because?”