December 2013
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Devotion: Extravagant Generosity
Vacation is not a luxury, but a necessity. Many of us keep such busy schedules that it’s hard to keep track of everything and hard to keep up. Rest and doing things that feed our souls can be pushed aside in favor of those more pressing things. As you may know, my family and I…
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Devotion : Advent – Horizontal Relationships with Neighbors
Is our faith just about getting myself to heaven at the end of my life? Is it just about being “good enough” or being a “good person”? In the Adult Forum on Sunday, we were reviewing chapters 7-11 of The Story and got talking about heaven and salvation. We said that, in Lutheran theology, we…
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Devotion: Advent – Vertical Relationship with God – part 2
I find images such as this one helpful not only for teaching about our relationship with God, but also as a way to remind me and direct my own relationship with God and the world. Last week, I wrote about the downward facing arrows – that they remind us that God has made the first…
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Council Devotions – December 11, 2013
Council devotions for Wednesday, December 11, 2013 Chapter 51 1 “Listen to me, all who hope for deliverance— all who seek the Lord! Consider the rock from which you were cut, the quarry from which you were mined. 2 Yes, think about Abraham, your ancestor, and Sarah, who gave birth to your nation. Abraham was only one…
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Blessing Bags and Other Ways to Serve
We have within us the desire to serve. Sometimes we don’t act on that desire because our schedules are so full of other things that we don’t leave room for chance encounters. Sometimes we don’t act because we don’t know what we can do. Here are “16 ways to serve in a snowstorm.” Back in…
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Devotion: Advent – Vertical Relationship with God – part 1
We tend to do a lot of waiting this time of year. Waiting often seems to be a waste of our valuable time. Whether it is standing behind a line of people at the checkout lane, being stuck in traffic or anticipating test results, waiting is not a very appealing activity, and certainly not productive. I…
Epicurious Lutheran 