Relationship
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Community: Our Need to Connect with One Another
For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. ~ 1 Corinthians 13:12-13 Humans…
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“This I declare about the LORD: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him.” Psalms 91:2
Sometimes I read the Psalms and almost gloss over them, but this one got me this morning from bible.com and it took me in some interesting places. First, the simple word “declare” was used – not “I think about” or “I consider” or anything like that, but declare. It’s active. It’s on-going. It’s personal. Whatever…
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The Year Ahead
From January 2016 Bethel Bell Tower newsletter 11[God] has made everything suitable for its time; moreover he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. 12I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy…
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God’s Gospel Through the Small
I got to know my good friend, Sarah Cordray, through the doctor of ministry program at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, MN. Through her, I saw a wonderful picture of small church ministry that I had, frankly, never considered. As I listened to her and read her work, I began to pay closer attention to what…
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More Mass Shootings: We’re better than this
I was sitting in my office at church this afternoon when our secretary asked if I’d seen the news. Today, it was the news of the mass shooting at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, CA. What I find especially heinous about this attack is that Inland works with developmentally disabled people from infants to the elderly.…
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Building Bethel: We Do Stuff Here You Just Don’t Do Anywhere Else
From December 2015 Bethel Bell Tower newsletter And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs…
Epicurious Lutheran 