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Pastor’s Note
What if tomorrow you woke up with only the things you thanked God for today? These were the words on the tear-off page of a daily thought calendar resting on the ledge at the bottom of the stairs. Not necessarily what I had anticipated, but a very worthwhile sentiment. And then it hit me…this was…
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Pastor’s Note
Sunday morning, September 20, 2020; a day of rejoicing…a time of reflecting. It seems that one of my most-treasured reference books had come up missing. Gone. If I had made one trip through my bookshelves, computer bags, and back seats of my cars, I had made twenty. How could I have been so careless with…
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Pastor’s Note
When was the last time you needed wise counsel, a warm hug, or even a swift kick in your good intentions? No doubt, there have been times these past several months where any one – or all three – of the actions would have been just what the doctor ordered (or needed to order). Of…
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From the Pastor
…and just when I thought I had heard everything about our present pandemic, I read an article about the cognitive dissonance that is happening within societies during COVID-19 (The Atlantic, 7/12/2020, online). What on earth is cognitive dissonance? Here is the best way I can explain it: if you immediately decided this article is not…
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Pastor’s Note
My last two newsletter articles have dealt with the ancient Hebrew words wait and hope, how those words are tied together, and the importance of where, or to Whom, we tie the words. Here we are…still in the process of finding some sense of normalcy but with additional dynamics — that of racial unrest, economic…
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Pastor’s Note
Last month, I wrote about how the words wait and hope are tied together in the ancient Hebrew language; and about asking ourselves, in what – or in Whom – our hoping and waiting is placed? Well, June will mark the re-start of in-person worship at St. Andrew’s. For many, the waiting and hoping will…
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From the Pastor
I recently purchased a book for no other reason than I felt it would be a book I needed to have as a resource. (This wasn’t required reading for my Course of Study, which I recently completed.) The book, 70 Hebrew Words Every Christian Should Know by Matthew Richard Schlimm, may prove to be one…
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Pastor’s Note
When was the last time you emptied your trash? We take out the garbage, delete an email, discard an old document, but how often do we empty the trash? Taking the garbage out of the house is good, but until the trash truck comes (or we take it to the burn pile or dump) that…
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Pastor’s Note
Embracing the pain of friendship…what does that even mean? Psychologists Henry Cloud and John Townsend speak of how people will change their behaviors only when the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain involved in change. How might that apply to friendships? Is it possible that we only seek out friendships when…
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Pastor’s Note
Space…the final frontier…climb aboard the Starship Enterprise where every episode is an adventure to new planets, new life forms, new alliances, new struggles, new victories, new insights…new…new… It may just be me, but how is it that something “new” is associated with that which is “final”? Would it not make more sense if “final” was…