Thursday, February 26, 2009

Sermon Series

This weekend at church I'm starting a series of sermons called "Amazing Grace, Amazing Graciousness." We'll be reminding ourselves from the Bible how gracious God has been us...and hearing his call to be gracious to those around us.

Featured in the series are the lyrics to "There's a wideness in God's Mercy"...one of my favorite hymn texts.

I like these especially

For the love of God is broader
Than the measure of man’s mind;
And the heart of the Eternal
Is most wonderfully kind.

But we make his love too narrow
By false limits of our own;
And we magnify his strictness
With a zeal he will not own.

So let's get acquainted with the Real God from the Bible
The God and Father of us all...the God of Grace.

I hope these messages will be a blessing.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Fingernails

I read a story and saw this picture of a woman in Utah. She obviously has been working on her nails for a long time.



But this month, they were broken off in a car accident. She's going to be O.K. but she'll have to start over on her manicure.

Reflecting on this, I realize that it must have been hard for her to do much over the years. My guess is she is NOT a court recorder or a massage therapist or a heart surgeon or a dentist. She likely is not ballerina or a traffic cop or a dog groomer.

It does beg the question. What does she do? Perhaps the answer is "not too much." Perhaps she is a professional fingernail grower.

My prayer today is that we will keep our hands ready to do meaningful work, and not let them become show pieces, good for nothing

Eunice Widmer: The Umbrella

  Eunice Mae Olson Widmer is dead. Long live (the memory) of Eunice M. Widmer   My mother, Eunice Mae Olson Widmer, has come back as an umbr...