Life on Planet Earth on Forest

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A study in Berlin even found that the part of the brain that processes fear and stress (the amygdala) was healthier in people who lived within a kilometre of a forest. To help soothe your spirits and ...

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Sacred Space: Lessons from Ethiopia’s Church Forests

Author

William Rowley

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Too Busy for God? American work culture is all-pervasive. For many members of your congregation, it can be a real fight to get actual time off—and cell phones and the internet has made it possible to...

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Author

Wendell Berry

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If we are to have a culture as resilient and competent in the face of necessity as it needs to be, then it must somehow involve within itself a ceremonious generosity toward the wilderness of natural ...

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Author

Wayne Muller

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Like a path through the forest, Sabbath creates a marker for ourselves so, if we are lost, we can find our way back to our center.

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Missing the Trees in the Forest

Author

Mark D. Roberts

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Scripture

Genesis 2:9, Colossians 3:2, Matthew 13:1-17, Matthew 13:16-17

Years ago, my family and I visited Sequoia National Park in California. The highlight of this trip was seeing the Giant Sequoia redwoods, after which the park is named. These trees are awe-inspiring, ...

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Re-creating the Conditions of Earth

Author

K.J. Ramsey

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Scripture

Genesis 50:19-21 , Exodus 14:10-31, Isaiah 40:28-31, Matthew 7:24-27 , 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, Psalm 1:1-3

In the desert outside of Tucson, scientists dreamed up an experiment to re-create the conditions of earth for space, when and if the earth could not be made great again. The biosphere was a little wor...

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Author

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.

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Every Journey a Pilgrimage

Author

Jim Forest

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Unimpeded walking is one of life’s most ordinary, least expensive, and deeply rewarding pleasures. With little effort, putting one foot in front of the other and going forward can provide a foretaste ...

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What Trees Can Teach us About Good Neighborhoods

Author

Don Everts

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Scripture

Genesis 1:null

There is a paradigm shift going on in the realm of forestry. For years there had been a consensus among ecologists that all trees were independent operators, each tree an island unto itself, the fores...

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Author

Thomas Merton

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When your tongue is silent, you can rest in the silence of the forest. When your imagination is silent, the forest speaks to you. It tells you of its unreality and of the Reality of God. But when your...

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Author

D. H. Lawrence

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When we get out of the glass bottle of our ego and when we escape like the squirrels in the cage of our personality and get into the forest again, we shall shiver with cold and fright. But things will...

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I Once was Lost

Author

Travis Dickinson

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Scripture

Jonah 1:4, Genesis 3:8-19, Matthew 18:12-14, Luke 15:11-32, Psalm 23:

I once was significantly lost. When I was a college student in northern Wisconsin, my dad and I were hiking on a trail that was somewhat familiar to me. I had been on this trail just a few weeks befor...

liturgy

Lord Jesus–You’ve come, are coming and

Author

Richard Herman

Scripture

Revelation 22:12, Titus 2:13, John 8:12, Psalm 119:105, Proverbs 3:5-6, Psalm 34:18, Matthew 5:44

Lord Jesus–You’ve come, are coming and will come again. Whether we know it or not, we live on the edge of Your advent every moment of every day either with anticipation or with anxiety. As if stumblin...

liturgy

Lord Jesus – You’ve come, are coming

Author

Richard Herman

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Lord Jesus – You’ve come, are coming and will come again. Whether we know it or not, we live on the edge of Your coming every moment of every day either with anticipation or with anxiety. As if stumbl...

liturgy

Adapted from Psalm 29:1, 3-5, 7-9, Luke 2:14, Revelation 4:8,11

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Scripture

Psalm 29:1, Luke 2:14, Psalm 29:null

Leader: Then let us wait for the Lord, and in this season of Lent, let us wait by the cross. "Ascribe to the Lord, glory and strength." Glorify God's holy name. People: We worship the L...

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To Be One of the Great Ones Is Not What It Seems

Author

C. S. Lewis

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Scripture

1 Samuel 16:7, Isaiah 53:2, Micah 6:8

For those of us who live in the shadow of self-doubt, who may wonder what meaning a life of relative anonymity may have in a society filled with the cult of celebrity in which likes, reposts, and digi...

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Author

Peggy Noonan

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The life of people on earth is obviously better now than it has ever been—certainly much better than it was 500 years ago when people beat each other with cats. This may sound silly but now and then w...

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Western Culture: American Prosperity and Consumption

Author

Jonathan Walton

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Consumerism

In his thought-provoking book, Twelve Lies That Hold America Captive, Jonathan Walton uncovers some of the hard truths about American culture. In this excerpt, he describes the consumption associa...

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Author

Susan Allport

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Brain

Most of us have spent some time wondering how our brain works. Brain scientists spend their entire lives pondering it, looking for a way to begin asking the question, How does the brain generate mind?...

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A Different Perspective on the Narcissus Myth

Author

Chuck DeGroat

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In his important book When Narcissism Comes to Church, professor and therapist Chuck DeGroat makes an important connection between shame, narcissism and addiction by looking at the myth of Narcissus. ...

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Covering the Bald Spots

Author

Sharon Hodde Miller

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Scripture

Jeremiah 17:7-8, John 15:4-5, Matthew 23:27-28, Isaiah 58:11, Ezekiel 36:26-27

Every year at the end of November, my husband, Ike, and I load the kids in the car and drive to the nearest Christmas tree lot. We are committed “real tree” people—not to be confused with “fake tree” ...

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Wrong About the Future

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Source Unknown

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“Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.” “Popular Mechanics,” forecasting the relentless march ofscience, 1949 “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” Thomas Wat...

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Sticks & Stones in Your Bed

Author

Timothy Keller

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Scripture

Hebrews 12:6-7, James 1:2-4, Psalm 94:12-13, Proverbs 3:11-12, Romans 5:3-5

Years ago, I read an old fairy tale about a wicked witch who lived in a remote cottage in the deep forest. When travelers came through looking for lodging, she offered them a meal and a bed. It was th...

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Journeying: Finding the True Value of Life

Author

Brad E. Kelle

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“Follow the yellow brick road.” In L. Frank Baum’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (later made famous by the 1939 film adaptation, The Wizard of Oz ), these words provide the directions given to Doro...

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The Benefits of Fire

Author

William Rowley

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The devastating power of wildfires has never been more apparent as their intensity, size, and frequency has increased dramatically over the last few years in the United States (and elsewhere), causing...

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“Thank You for This Food Which I am About to Receive”

Author

Source Unknown

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Gratitude

An atheist was walking through the woods, admiring all the “accidents” that evolution had created. “What majestic trees! What powerful rivers! What beautiful animals!” he said. Suddenly he heard a ru...

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The Ten Most Dramatic Sounds in Life

Author

James S. Flora

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A group of motion-picture engineers classified the following as the ten most dramatic sounds in the movies: a baby’s first cry; the blast of a siren; the thunder of breakers on rocks; the roar of a fo...

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Giving Away What Wasn’t His

Author

The Chicago Tribune

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Scripture

1 John 3:17-18, Malachi 3:10, Proverbs 22:9, James 2:15-17, Matthew 6:21, Acts 20:35

When 67-year-old carpenter Russell Herman died in 1994, his will included a staggering set of bequests. Included in his plan for distribution was more than two billion dollars for the City of East St....

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The Monster's Friend

Author

Timothy Keller

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Scripture

Proverbs 17:17, 1 Samuel 18:1-3, 2 Corinthians 1:4, Job 2:11-13, Ruth 1:16-17

I was listening to a lecture on friendship to prepare this sermon and the speaker used the movie The Bride of Frankenstein as an illustration. Now, for this to work, you have to put the movie Young...

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Author

John Calvin

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Heart

Each of us ought to endeavor to tear the thorns out of his heart, if we do not choose that the word of God should be choked; for there is not one of us whose heart is not filled with a vast quanti...

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