“Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.” 1 Corinthians 12:7Having been around the hospital to visit parishioners, I’ve seen the highs and lows. I’ve also grown aware and appreciative of the intertwined complexities of the human body. People truly are beautifully and wonderfully made!As Paul writes to the Corinthians, he describes the body of believers in term...  Read More

“He (Paul is talking about leaders) must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap.”People look up to Christian leaders, expecting that the loving grace of God will shine through them. The apostle Paul considered it vital for Christian witness that overseers (elders and pastors) and deacons have a good reputation with those who don...  Read More

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit, we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. - 1 Corinthians 12:12-13The church. An institution? A building? Or a body of believers? When you think about the church, what is the first th...  Read More

“I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.” - Psalm 3:5How many of you ever have trouble falling asleep at night? Perhaps that’s not your problem, but instead more along the lines of staying asleep? Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night mulling over things?Maybe you don’t have difficulty falling asleep; but do you ever have trouble staying asleep? Sometimes I jo...  Read More

As a boy, Charles Dickens knew poverty from bitter experience. He never forgot what he had learned. Many of his novels deal with the huge gap between wealth and poverty.Perhaps the most unforgettable is A Christmas Carol. Its main character, Ebenezer Scrooge, is a “grasping, clutching, covetous old sinner” who can squeeze blood out of a stone. Bob Cratchit, his underpaid bookkeeper, shivers in his...  Read More

“25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.”Have you ever waited so long for something that it caused you to lose hope? How did that time of waiting ma...  Read More