James 3:13 - Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom.

Why do we do the things we do? Do we do them with a gentleness born of wisdom? Something to think about...

Thanks for the many birthday wishes sent my way! Dinner at Chili's to celebrate. I am still a burger and fries kind of guy. Tonight we are blessed with Chicken Pot Pie for our Wednesday NIght Supper. There is a marriage enrichment class in the library and we will be discussing a Christian response to the President giving a speech to school children in room 208. Have a great day! We are halfway through the week!

Therefore, be attentive to time and the way you spend it. Nothing is more precious. This is evident when you recall that in one tiny moment heaven may be gained or lost. God, the master of time, never gives the future. He gives only the present, moment by moment, for this is the law of the created order, and God will not contradict himself in his creation. - From The Cloud of Unknowing

Are we able to sit down and really recognize that which is important and that which is merely in front of us?

Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible. - From Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis


Everything we say and everything we do does in fact matter greatly in the long run.

See you on Sunday!

When one gives up self, his past sins will no longer oppress him. It is enough for the good life that God lives, that the All-perfect exists, and that we can behold him. - From Creation in Christ by George MacDonald.

Why let the past bring us down when we have already been set free for the future?

Fried chicken tonight in the Fellowship Hall at 5:00!

See you there!

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light, and where there is sadness, joy.

It is in dying that we are born to eternal life. - St. Francis of Assisi

Being in a community isn't an option and God calls us to always be in reconciliation with our neighbor. After all, we will be them forever......

Fried chicken for dinner tomorrow night at Wednesday Night Supper!

Wow! This from Henri J. M. Nouwen..

Here we have come back to the compassion that must be formed in one's heart, a compassion that comes out of a deep experiencem of solidarity, in which one recognizes that the evil, sin and violence which one sees in the world and in the other, are deeply rooted in one's own heart. Only when you want to confess this and want to rely on the merciful God who can bring good out of evil are you in a position to receive forgiveness and also to give it to other men and women who threaten you with violence. Precisely because Merton had discovered this nonviolent compassion in his solitude could he in a real sense be a monk, that is to say, one who unmasks through his criticism the illusions of a violent society and who wants to change the world in spirit and truth. - From Thomas Merton: Contemplative Critic by Henri J. M. Nouwen

See you on Sunday!

Only by a stronger passion can evil passions be expelled, and...a soul unoccupied by a positive devotion is sure to be occupied by spiritual demons. From The Manhood of the Master by Harry Emerson Fosdick

We've had this lesson before.... if we don't fill ourselves as much as possible with the Will of our Lord, we allow other temptations and priorities and desires and interests.... to lead us away from an eternity in paradise.

Read the Bible daily! Pray continuously!

Meatloaf for dinner on Wednesday night and a beginning of classes including a look at the Christian response to the life and death of Ted Kennedy and a five week look at how to enrich our marriages.