Can we extend the Advent season another week or two?  I just seems to go too fast.  I know that we are actually entering the Christmas season (December 25 – January 6) which is really the period sung about in the 12 Days Of Christmas, but it seems like Christmas ends on December 25th.  For me, everything […]

This week the text I am preaching from is Matthew 2:1-12.  It is the story of the Magi, or Wise Men. (They were not kings).  The theme of Advent this year is “Mystery and Surprise.”  The following story by O. Henry is one of my favorite short stories to read at Christmas time: The Gift […]

There are a lot of sayings that people like to attribute to God but actually are not in the Bible.  They may have Biblical truths and some have their roots in a Biblicial text but are not actually in the Bible.  We have all heard these phrases: “God helps those who help themselves.” “Spare the […]

Advent is a time of waiting, watching and expecting.  We are almost through the first week of Advent and it seems to have flown by!  What are the next three weeks going to feel like?  Instead of feeling like our heads are being squeezed in a vice we are to embrace the season.  Advent is […]

Susan is baking some cookies for James because she is going  to send him a care package for Thanksgiving as he will be in Texas for the fourth year in a row.  I went to the local Foodtown today looking for some of the ingredients she needed to bake.  One of the ingredients was vanilla […]

The presidential election is over…Hallelujah! Seriously, I am so glad I don’t have to listen to all the hatred and negativity and the country can try to move on.  Whether you voted for president elect Donal Trump (it feels really weird to write that) or not, the vote has been cast and as is our […]

 I can’t remember an election year with so much hatred, anger, accusation, vile, repulsive mud slinging, condemning, fear, ugliness and blind allegiance than this one.  And I am not even talking about the candidates, I am talking about Christians!  Somehow Christians on both sides of the political aisle have become more like the candidates than […]

Some people view the coming election as a matter of life and death for our country.  People voting for the Democratic candidate believe that  if the Republican candidate gets voted in it will set our country back 50 years.  People who are supporting the Republican candidate fear that if “that woman” gets in our country […]

As I write this Hurricane Matthew is pounding Florida, having already taken over 300 lives in Haiti.  It is causing extensive damage on land as large areas of coastal Florida, Georgia and South Carolina are evacuating.  Remembering Hurricane Sandy and witnessed the devastation that wreaked the Jersey Shore including the damage on our own home […]

When I was a  a young Christian in the early 1970’s there was a bumper sticker that stated: “God Said It I Believe It That Settles It”      I guess the intention of the message was to state that God’s Word is to be believed and trusted simply because it is God’s Word.  No […]