Dear friends … Today begins “Love Month.” It will reach its climax on the 14th, whereupon at the end of the day card writers and flower vendors will smile all the way to the bank for their services rendered and rewarded. Please do not interpret the previous sentence as cynicism.
First Day Blog
FIRST DAY
First Day – December 2017
Dear friends … At age 11, I was in my final appearance in a children’s Christmas “program.” Our southwestern Pennsylvania church was heated by a coal furnace. It was economical … the coal was donated by a local mine. There was no thermostat or means to regulate the heat. Sometimes
First Day – November 2017
Dear friend … Five hundred years ago on Oct. 31, 1517, a German monk wrote a paper and posted it on a church door. Largely, it was a challenge to the leaders of the Catholic Church who had sanctioned the selling of “indulgences” as proof a person’s sins had been
First Day – September 2017
When Mona and I moved into the district parsonage, we were told the good news was there had never been water in that basement. Well, we had not lived there long when one week it rained quite heavily, and the next thing we knew there were several inches of water
First Day – July 2017
ONE OF THE PRAYERS in the Bible is, “Teach us to number our days that we might attain to a heart of wisdom.” I think the northern Ohio paraphrase of that might be, “Teach us to number the days of summer … because winter will surely come.” So, I hope
First Day – June 2017
Dear friend … More people get married in June than any other month. Mona and I were married in June, three weeks after college graduation. I just read the statistics on what a wedding costs today. It’s a good thing we got married back then. This is one of those ends-in
First Day – May 2017
Dear friends … In only 50 days from today, The Gathering will kick off at our beautiful Lighthouse Camp and Retreat Center in St. Marys. From June 11-18 there will be worship services, recreational activities, business sessions, children’s activities and enjoyable interaction with friends from across our fine NWO District.
First Day – March 2017
March 1, 2017 – Today is the first day of Lent, typically known as Ash Wednesday. It is the 40-day period preceding Easter. Lent is not an observance mentioned in the New Testament. However, the observance of Lent developed fairly early in Christian tradition. Some think it is a reference to
First Day – February 2017
GROUNDHOG DAY . . . This blog is supposed to be made public on the first day of each month. Hence, the heading “FIRST DAY.” However, this one got by me, and as I write it is Feb. 2 – Groundhog Day. I probably have a little more interest in
First Day – January 2017
THE BLESSING AND BANE OF ROUTINE …
When I was a young pastor, I asked our Wednesday evening congregants to name a “resolution” for the coming year. A woman stood and announced that she “did not believe in resolutions.” She did not say why, and I decided not to ask, but I did think it might not hurt her to try. Maybe you “believe” in resolutions, maybe you do not.