February 27th — 9th Email The same strategy for claiming freedom that I described in my last email in relation to feeling depressed can also be used with the oppression of anxiety and fear. In my own life, I’ve become aware of a tendency to live with a low level anxiety lurking just beyond the […]
February 26th — 8th Email It is very important to note the difference between “thoughts” and “feelings” and the relationship they have to one another. To a large extent we can’t control our feelings. Both happy and challenging emotions arise spontaneously in the course of our day. We have thoughts in relation to these feelings […]
February 25th — 7th Email I have a friend who, although not clinically depressed has suffered as many of us do from an inclination towards a feeling state of depression. One year I asked her how she planned on keeping Lent and we shared a little laugh when she said she was giving up depression.* […]
A Sermon preached on February 24th, 2019 based upon Luke 6:27-38. Let’s remind ourselves of what proceeds what we just heard: Jesus once more goes apart to pray, this time to a mountaintop where he spends an entire night in prayer. He calls the “twelve” from among the dozens of disciples and then proceeds to […]
February 24th — 6th Email One of the reasons that throughout history going into the wilderness has been used as a spiritual practice is that it brings to consciousness our “addictions.” Beyond the essentials of life, what are the things we feel like we can’t live without – the things we automatically reach for in […]
February 23rd — 5th Email Often people add practices to their daily routines during Lent. I am hoping that you will make reading my daily emails such a routine. By reading and reflecting on scripture we provide some space for God’s Spirit to lead us into a deeper freedom. Traditionally during Lent people give up […]
February 22nd — 4th Email In the story of creation in Genesis 1 it declares that of all God’s creatures we alone are made in the image of God. Scientists may one day discover that creatures such as dolphins, whales and elephants have a grandeur to them that humbles us. But as a general rule […]
February 21st — 3rd Email I’ve been suggesting that one way to understand Lent is as an opportunity to broaden our personal sense of freedom as God’s beloved children. The season of Lent is patterned on the story of the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness. One common theme in the devil’s three temptations […]
February 20th — 2nd Email – Getting Free One way to think of Lent is as a time to broaden our personal sense of freedom as beloved children of God. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus begins his ministry in his hometown synagogue reading a passage from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah which essentially becomes the […]
February 19th — 1st Email Lent is coming; it begins with Ash Wednesday (March 6th) with our service at 7 p.m. Throughout Lent, I will be sending out daily emails and postings on Facebook that I hope you will consider reading as a part of a daily time of devotion. During the next two weeks […]