Category: Calvary
Everything Is Planted Somewhere
With my wife, I’ve recently been watching a bunch of DVDs of an older science fiction television show called Babylon 5 created circa the early 1990s. As a writer, I’m a big fan of big stories, stories that dare to paint a large canvas and tell their stories intelligently and coherently. I especially enjoy stories where characters grow and change over time because, well, that’s how life works. No one’s ever static. Everyone’s always changing because of some external or internal force. → Read more...
My Faith, Your Faith, Whatever, It’s All Good?
A couple of weeks ago I read with great interest an article about a Pew Forum survey on America and religion. In this survey of 35,000 people, “57 percent of evangelical church attenders said they believe many religions can lead to eternal life, in conflict with traditional evangelical teaching.” Additionally, “in all, 70 percent of Americans with religious affiliation shared that view, and 68 percent said there is more than one true way to interpret the teachings of their own religion.” → Read more...
The Joyful Children of God
If you haven’t come to church during the day in the week, you wouldn’t know how quiet and serene it usually is. There have been days when I only see or hear people when they walk by the water fountain. Working in a church is usually a nice place, especially if you want to concentrate on something. This week was an exception. It’s an annual ritual. Once a year, instead of the normal quiet, a cloud of cacophony descends upon Calvary Church. → Read more...
What Are We Giving?
Today’s word of the day: “giver.” n. One that gives: a giver of gifts. A donor or contributor. Often used in combination: almsgivers. Earlier today, I was included in a conversation that talked about what the bible verse of Matthew 10:8b means when it says, “Freely you have received, freely give.” The easy answer is the one that says in this verse, Jesus is saying whatever blessings God gives us, we ought to give out to others. → Read more...
Musings of a ’80s Child
So… stuff has been crazy lately, yeah? Tornadoes and massive flooding in Illinois, Iowa and Michigan; heat waves out East; and fires out west. Lest we think America’s being targeted by Mother Nature, there’s typhoons and earthquakes in Asia. Countless lives and property lost. All this in addition to the housing market declining and unemployment climbing along with oil and gasoline. Foreclosures are up, stocks are down. Corn and food prices have soared in the midst of all of this. → Read more...
Do As I Say, Not As I Do… Right?
Relativism. I’m sure most of you know that word. A quick and dirty definition of the word can be said as thus, “A theory, especially in ethics or aesthetics, that conceptions of truth and moral values are not absolute but are relative to the persons or groups holding them.” I borrowed that definition from Answers.com. The unfolding story of the Eliot Spitzer scandal (Google it if you have been living under a rock lately) is interesting not because it has shades of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, but rather because Spitzer, the governor of New York, was exposed as a client of a prostitution ring despite being publicly well-known as a man who had serious morals and ethics. → Read more...
A Quality of Mercy, Part II
Part I can be found here. Last week I talked about struggling with the uncomfortable fact that my brother-in-law’s accused killer and I both were sinners and we both equally needed God’s grace and mercy. As I sat through the trial throughout the week, I kept thinking about three different people: Moses, David and Spider-Man. Moses is one of the most important figures in the history of Judaism and Christianity who is known for, among other things, helping free Israel from the oppressive force that was Egypt. → Read more...
A Quality of Mercy, Part I
This week and next week I’m going to talk about something very difficult and something that I hope none of you have to experience in your lifetime. Two weeks ago, my wife and I flew to Seattle along with her mother and younger brother. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a trip for leisure. We were there to attend the trial for the killer of my wife’s twin brother, Tim. Let me back up a little bit and give you some history. → Read more...
In Memoriam of Innocence
September 11, 2008
Calvary
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Matt
Seven years ago, on this day, which happened to be a Tuesday then, the world watched in horror as two planes crashed into each of the two World Trade Center buildings. Then it was whispered, there was another attack at the Pentagon. And then there was a plane crash in a field in Pennsylvania, could this have been related? I remember that day as clearly as I remember yesterday. I’ve been told from people who were born and old enough on Friday, November 22, 1963, that they remember exactly where they were when they had heard that President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated. → Read more...
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