Someone asked me what I think makes our church culture different.
The following are my views and only my views. They are not representative of everyone’s beliefs or experiences. Simply mine. Our core values and thinking can be viewed here.
The fast answer is honor of one another, the love for one another and the fact that we are family.
Continue reading My Family Church, The Village Church
I woke up this morning and thought, “I will use the beginnings of what I sketched out for today” but for some reason the task of that thought process is daunting. I looked at it and felt my “energy” level too low to accomplish. Not sure why. Did not stay up very late. My dreams were “rough” but not abnormal. My dreams are still in “ponder” mode.
I thought maybe I would table the thoughts of the last week or so where I have posed some questions I felt needed to be asked of myself as well as perhaps by others, but reading a friend’s post brought a topic near and dear to my heart. So, I will jump off her thoughts. Continue reading Live For 1,000 Years?
The Family
Today is a pretty typical weekend in my life. Grandchildren laying around various floors on sleeping bags and bags of clothes and such piled high in corners. Before the weekend is over I will see other grandchildren, some of their friends and many of my children. The weekend with grandkids will include swimming, walking, games, some B&W TV and of course food! There will be the “normal” weekend things as well of getting to our church fellowship on time, where a whole ‘nother set of family is. Continue reading Family-Not Always Easy But Always Worth It!
As a prophetic voice, I find that I am often calling out the destiny, the calling and the purpose in people’s lives. I am looking for the gold in the middle of their life. So often that “gold” is buried under the dirt of not understanding the value of their life. “Why would God want me” is a question I often walk into. “How could God use me?”
Often the dirt that needs to be removed has to do with circumstances and people who have left them broken on the “trash pile” of life. Continue reading Look Out For The Destiny Breakers
A few days the Lord revealed a phrase. I thought I was going to share it some place specific. But so far not yet. I even thought I would write about it before now, but that was not the case either. Up early this morn and thinking so we shall see what happens.
Originally I heard “go up, grow up and sow up” I thought and I guess it is important not to blow up or throw up! As I meditated on it and said it out loud I heard different things. In the beginning I thought the “sow up” was to give something tangible “upward” but the more I contemplated it the more I realized it was likely to mean complete something to result in being “all sown up”. Continue reading Show Up, Go Up, Grow Up And Sow Up
You used to have to work hard to be a hermit.
When I was young I might be in the Adirondacks or the Green Mountains hiking and I would come across a “hermit” from time to time. Living in Vermont, I developed friendship with one. He lived off an old dirt path on a road called “Joy Brook Basin”. (Is your alone time making you more joyful?) He did not come into town but a few times a year. He preferred his mountain top living over people. Over the years I have run into a few. Continue reading Being A Hermit Takes Work
They Are On Their Way
The Skittish Are Coming! The Skittish Are Coming!
As Paul Revere rode on the Midnight Ride to warn people of the coming British, despite popular folklore, he did not say the “The British Are Coming! The British Are Coming!” but in fact actually said, “The regulars are coming!” (Or perhaps the skittish.”) Continue reading The Skittish Are Coming! The Skittish Are Coming!
One of the hardest things about being a believer is watching people, friends and family go through difficult times. Particularly those that are within their grasp to control. Too often the choices that one makes determine the quality of the answer.
What about choices? As one of my dear friends Roger stated at a funeral not too long ago in his own inimitable way. “Get a job. Be a good person. Do not be a bum. Do not marry a bum. Do not let your kids be bums.” Over the years he has said similar things like, “if you do drugs the handwriting is on the wall.” Now both he and I believe God can help restore and bring those people into better circumstances. But so often it is choices…then and now. Continue reading Unraveling The Raveled – Pulling Light Out Of Darkness
I was just finishing up the dishes. I had experienced a tiredness earlier and had just awakened. As I watched water swirling down the drain, I saw an older white church building. It was very much New England in its appearance. Continue reading The Return To Tradition – Don’t Do It!
Pretty much each and every morning I come to the table with nothing but a blank page. I sit at my computer and I look at white, empty space. Life is like that on a daily basis. Each day we have the option of filling that page with the most creative, positive thoughts and ideas or we can allow it to be filled with our disappointments and discouragements. We can even hand the “pen” to another and let them write our story. We can allow others to control us. To deride us and to distract us.
I often think of my life and my day as that blank page. Stark white and empty, it can either hold promise or fear. If this is the only page of my life, would my children know that I love them? Would my wife? My friends? Who will read it? Continue reading A Blank Page – Are You The Ready Writer?
