I’ve been noticing more lately as my kids are growing, how fast time goes… It was almost 4 years ago already we moved to the Keokuk area! I’ve had a son since, who’s already running around. And my daughter has grown, learned to walk, and talk, and starting kindergarten soon! Somehow before my eyes, time…
Numbers are important in the Bible. For instance, the number “7” represents completeness and divine power. It was on the 7th day of creation God rested – the Sabbath. Seven series of sevens equals 49, so the number “50” is kind of like a Sabbath of Sabbaths. In Jewish tradition, every 50th year was a…
Recently I completed a quilt comprised of embroidered hand-print squares. Arranging the quilt took placing all the pieces on the floor, standing back to see how they “fit”, then rearranging. Once completed the quilt looked better than I imagined. I thanked God for the time and the ability to complete this project. As I thought…
I remember reading somewhere that one of the unexpected outcomes of the Korean and Vietnam Wars was a new understanding of the importance of physical therapy. When field hospitals were overrun by wounded soldiers, doctors weren’t able to allow those who had already undergone surgery to lay in bed. Going against the common practices of…
This is always the time of year I like to spotlight our wonderful Newsletter Ladies! If you’re not sure what our Newsletter Ladies do, let me help out. They are very dedicated, they show up week after week (unless I give them a week off due to holidays, etc.), they insert, fold, apply wafer seals,…
We live in an amazing time. Knowledge and information are readily available to just about everyone. For instance, I’ve learned to do some pretty complicated things simply by watching someone else do it on YouTube. With the age of the Internet, we have vast amounts of stored knowledge at our fingertips. But where do we…
A while back, I received an email from a church leader that said, “I Love You!” in the subject line. By the time I saw it, she had followed it with another email saying, “Do NOT Open my last email!” It was a computer virus. I have to admit, however, I was a little disappointed.…
Have you ever found yourself focused on the same unproductive thoughts over and over like a hamster running his heart out but not getting anywhere? Joseph did in the Old Testament when he had to deal with the mental pain of being tossed into a pit by his brothers and sold into slavery in a…
For disciples of Jesus, living faithfully is something we do both alone and together. In other words, we each need to take time to go into our closet and pray privately, but we also need to take our place in the community of faith. One supports the other! I read a story recently about some…
I love worship here at First Christian Church. Each of our services is unique and spiritually nourishing in its own way. But today I want to highlight our Saturday night worship that meets in the sanctuary at 5:35pm, because I think it is, in many ways, a hidden treasure. So often I hear people say,…