We’re doing a short study of the book of James in our Wednesday night Life group right now. And this week is James chapter three, which is, in a large part, about taming the tongue. It happens to be a lesson, I think probably most of us could stand to here again now and then.…
A lot of people don’t know this, but the founders of the Christian Church, people like Alexander Campbell and Barton Stone, were wary of having ordained clergy in the church. They were afraid if the church hired paid ministers that everyone else might lose sight of the fact that the church is called to be…
I recently reached into the pocket of a coat I hadn’t worn since mid-December and discovered a surprise – a gift I had forgotten. The object was Mary, a piece from a nativity set. At the dinner I was attending when last wearing that coat, one of the hosts handed out pieces of the nativity…
Years ago, President Franklin Roosevelt suspected many of the people around him weren’t really listening. So, one evening he decided to find out. As each person came up to shake his hand, he flashed a grin and said, “I murdered my grandmother this morning.” People would automatically respond with comments like, “Keep up the good…
Offering envelopes are a very vital part of our financial office! When you place your envelope in the offering plate (or by mailing it to us) you can guarantee efficiency for financial record keeping. We provide offering envelopes for non-electronic giving in our church. These are usually found by our community bulletin board with Starting…
In the Gospels, Jesus says: “You must become like little children to enter into the Kingdom of heaven.” I once heard a preacher say that children were welcome into the kingdom because of their natural innocence. Whoever said that obviously never had any children of their own. The reason I think Jesus picked children as…
When I was in high school, I went out for the basketball team because after years of playing in my driveway, I could dribble and shoot like a pro. Or, at least, I thought so. What I quickly discovered is that raw talent is no substitute for hard work and years of being coached. While…
A couple of years ago, about a minute after midnight on New Year’s Eve, my brother laid claim to the New Year as “the Year of Brook.” Now, every year someone else makes the claim. My brother’s theory was that everything was going to go his way. Of course, he also has a theory that…
Everyone has a relationship in their life that needs an uplift. It could be with your spouse, kids-young or grown, parents, family, friends and/or co-workers. Denis Waitley quotes, “There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.” It doesn’t take two to tango when…
This past week I watched a video online of a Flash mob in the mall singing the Hallelujah Chorus. And it was, unexpectedly, a moving thing for me to hear and to watch. Shoppers, all milling about at the mall, doing their last minute Christmas shopping. And then over the hustle and bustle of the…