I’ve often found it a bit difficult to preach on the subject of the New Year. Yes, of course there are themes of newness of life and the new creation, and these seem appropriate connection points to a time when we say goodbye to one year and hello to to a new...
I have a friend who teaches in the upper peninsula in Michigan. He has one of those schools that run from kindergarten all the way up through eighth grade, including special ed. One of his students was intellectually slow, couldn’t do very well in classes. And when...
By Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia, www.revlisad.com A Blue Christmas Service is offered especially for those hurting during the holidays. It’s often offered December 21, the longest night of the year. Some come because they are mourning the death of a loved one. Some are far...
It’s an isolating feeling to be on the outside looking in. We’ve all felt it. Some of us especially feel this way at Christmastime. We might relate to Frank Abagnale in the movie “Catch Me If You Can.” As a teenager and an only child his parent’s divorced. He goes...
Just yesterday, while filming our Advent Sermon Series video, it struck me just how important hope is as a Christian virtue. And not just the kind of starry-eyed hope of childhood, but rather something different, something that exists between the poles of naïveté and...