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Showing posts from March 13, 2011

Eugene Peterson: A Pastor's Journey | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction

Sounds like a book I need to get a hold of. Eugene Peterson: A Pastor's Journey | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction

A Place for Prayer: Thursday Prayer

A Place for Prayer: Thursday Prayer

10W

Here's a shout out to Pr. Dan Bollerud and his new audio website. I highly recommend it. 10W

Metanoia: Supporting Silence

What do you think? Is this possible? Metanoia: Supporting Silence

Such a Shady Character

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Since September of last year, I have been informally involved with Grant Memorial Hospice. I did the orientation, took the necessary tests, and we just had to wait for the background check to come back. That should have taken just a very short time...and we waited...and they called...and they faxed and refaxed...and called...every few days. The hold up was with the PA Dept. of Motor Vehicles. Hospice kept requesting my driving history and the DMV would say they never received the request. So the running joke was about what a shady character I must be. Finally, last week, I was officially able to be a volunteer!!!!! Many of Pr. Cantu's interns have worked with hospice, but they never had this much trouble getting all the background information on one. Hmmm.... Friday, I was able to join Joyce, the hospice social worker as a volunteer for the very first time. The people we visited were Lutheran, so I was able to bring communion to them from our service at Grace. They were a deligh

The Alban Institute - 2011-03-14 What is the Substance of Our Hope?

A wonderful excerpt from the book "Reframing Hope." The Alban Institute - 2011-03-14 What is the Substance of Our Hope?

From the Mountain to the Desert

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This is the sermon I preached this morning at Grace Lutheran Church, Petersburg, WV. The gospel text is Matthew 4:1-11 .             Chronologically, things are a bit out of order in our lectionary. In January we celebrated the Baptism of Our Lord. Last week it was the Transfiguration of Our Lord. This week we go back before the transfiguration to a time immediately following Jesus’ baptism. Last week we were on the mountaintop and this week we are with Jesus in the wilderness of temptation.              Into that desolate place, “Jesus was led by the Spirit … to be tempted by the devil” (v. 1). If we want to know what today’s gospel is about, it’s all summed up in the first verse, then fleshed out in the following verses.  Do any of you remember the comedian Flip Wilson? His character, Geraldine Jones had an excuse for everything she did wrong. She would say, “The devil made me do it.” In this encounter between Jesus and the devil, the devil’s even quoting scripture. Certainly tha