Naturally Grown Faith, Family, Farming
Posts regarding our faith and our journey in that faith.
Caveat: This message was written to deliver to the candidates and deans at the closing vesper service for the 2017 Local Pastor Licensing School of the Holston Conference of the United Methodist Church. The first time you preach to a room full of preachers is …
This message was delivered at Mountain View UMC on Sunday, Oct. 1, 2017. My message this morning is inspired by a few brief passages of scripture, and a personal need. These are very short passages, so don’t feel obligated to keep up in your own …
Open Letter to: Sen. Bob Corker, Sen. Lamar Alexander, Rep. John Duncan, Jr., Rep. Phil Roe, Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, Rep. Scott DesJarlais, Rep. Jim Cooper, Rep. Diane Black, Rep. Marsha Blackburn, Rep. David Kustoff, Rep. Steve Cohen, all members of the Tennessee State Senate, all …
se·man·tics səˈman(t)iks noun the branch of linguistics and logic concerned with meaning. There are a number of branches and subbranches of semantics, including formal semantics, which studies the logical aspects of meaning, such as sense, reference, implication, and logical form, lexical semantics, which studies word …
The weekend of August 11-13, I was attending the first session of licensing school for local pastors. The group I was with – thirteen students and two deans – was diverse in age, gender, race, church- and non-church-related experience, and (near as I could tell) political ideology. …
prayer (prer) noun: prayer; plural noun: prayers a solemn request for help or expression of thanks addressed to God or an object of worship. “I’ll say a prayer for him” synonyms: invocation, intercession, devotion; archaicorison “the priest’s murmured prayers” a religious service, especially a regular one, at …
The church calendar breaks down into seasons: Advent (the four Sundays before Christmas) Christmastide (December 25 through January 5) Christmas Day Baptism of the Lord Sunday Epiphany (January 6 through the day before Ash Wednesday) Epiphany Sunday (closest Sunday to January 6) Transfiguration Sunday (Sunday …
Written version of the sermon delivered to Walland UMC on Sunday, June 25, 2017: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing to you, oh Lord, our Rock and Redeemer. Last week, I talked to you about Seeing Red; …
On February 19, 2017, I delivered a message called “Seeing Red” to Vestal UMC. On June 18, 2017, I delivered that message again, this time to Walland UMC and, somewhere along the way, the message changed; not in its basic point, but in tone and …
The world is wonkers, and it’s filled us with doubt, frustration, suspicion, fear, anger, judgment, assumption, and self. Yes … self. We’re looking at the world from a position as center of the worldly universe. What’s in it for me? What’s it going to cost …
The first Sunday of January, my church offers up a “bible reading plan” designed to take you through the bible in one year, then graciously includes the week’s readings in the Sunday bulletins. This year, they even added a chronological reading plan. For a couple years …
Message for Sunday, May 14 (Mother’s Day), 2017 at Vestal UMC Today’s passage from John 14 takes place the night before the crucifixion, the evening of the Last Supper. They’re gathered around the table, Judas has already left the party, it’s night time, and we find …
Delivered Sunday, April 23, at Walland UMC. Worship Greeting: L: This is the day that the Lord has made. C: Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Good morning! I want to thank David for letting me twist your Order of Worship up a …
In my lifetime, I have broken every one of the original ten commandments as well as Christ’s second commandment, some more than once, and a few of them daily. I would hazard that you could include most of the other 609 Old Testament laws, too. …
Oh, yay, another homeschooling, homesteading, long dresses and hair in a bun blogger! Ummm, nope. Not at all. We are a fairly stereotypical American family living in a metropolitan statistical area of approximately 1,000,000 people. We have, by farming standards, a tiny acreage zoned agricultural in …
This is the written version of a message I delivered on February 19, 2017 to the congregation of Vestal United Methodist Church, Knoxville, TN. I so very much appreciate Pastor Kevin Blue for giving me the opportunity to not only speak in front of his …
They asked me back! Walland UMC Pastor, David Fugatt, asked me to come back again. God is good all the time, and all the time, God is GOOD! This, my second sermon, was delivered on January 3, 2016, the First Sunday of Epiphany and the …
I was asked by my former pastor, David Fugatt, to substitute for him at his new assignment, Walland United Methodist Church, Walland, Tennessee, on October 11, 2015. I want you to know, I was bowled over. Floored. David was the first person I approached about wanting to …
Some days you’re just tired. Some days your mind just won’t process one more iota of the world. Some days you just whisper “tomorrow” and go to bed. My friend herein called GtG had one of those the other night when she tried to read …
If you’re new to Bible Study, trying to live the Word, or Christianity in general, choosing a life verse can be rather daunting. After all, there are 31,102 to choose from! Here are some link that might help you get started down the right path …
I have been agitated for some time now, and recently it grew worse. I couldn’t sit still when problem solving. I had to pace. I couldn’t think clearly unless I was completely alone. I was frustrated, worried, and vexed. So many things were careening …
If you’ve ever read Matthew 1, you know that it contains a long list of names. Some of which will twist your tongue in an untangleable knot. Most of us skip over it. Yeah, okay. Jesus is related to Abraham. Got it. Some of us …
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