Category: Devotions

  • The Blessing of Spiders

    The Blessing of Spiders

    EMAIL DEVOTIONAL Pentecost 16 All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his decrees.            (Psalm 25:10) The Spider‘s Web The spider dropping down from a twig Unfolds a plan of her devising A thin premeditated rig To use in rising.…

  • Yet Another Guest at Our Table

    EMAIL DEVOTIONAL Pentecost 13 (Our thanks to our guest devotionerr, Mary Ann Frontz) When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. (Luke 24:30) Two weekend’s ago in the email devotion, Pastor Ross shared a poem “Perhaps the World Ends Here” written by Joy Harjo.  This…

  • Reflections on Labor … and Labor Day

    EMAIL DEVOTIONAL Pentecost 12 Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:58) In his second anthology, It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It, Robert Fulghum shares these words as he…

  • Ordinary Discipleship

    EMAIL DEVOTIONAL Pentecost 12 In a large house there are utensils not only of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for special use, some for ordinary. (2 Timothy 2:20) I share this poem as a part of yesterday’s sermon that ended up being left on the cutting room floor — an editorial…

  • Let There Be Light

    EMAIL DEVOTIONAL Pentecost 11 God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. (Genesis 1:3-4a) [My sincere thanks to Brendan Armitage, who offered these thoughts in an email correspondence with me, and who allowed me to share them with you as a devotion, at my prompting.  When…

  • A Mug With Your Name On It

    EMAIL DEVOTIONAL PEntecost 10 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. (1 Corinthians 2:12) So tell me, do you need a coffee cup to know that you are alive?  No, of course not. …

  • Tangled Roots

    Tangled Roots

    EMAIL DEVOTIONAL PEntecost 7 A shoot shall come out from the stock of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.  (Isaiah 11:1) I could not tell where one root started and another finished.  It just looked like a convoluted mess of intertwining branches.  We were hiking in Swallow Falls State Park on vacation,…

  • In Your Own Backyard

    In Your Own Backyard

    Email Devotional Pentecost 6 But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields. –Matthew 13:23 Upon encountering need in the world, sometimes we are prepared to be a good disciple. Sometimes God asks us to be an agent…

  • Going Public with a Private Faith Life

    EMAIL DEVOTIONAL PEntecost 4 It shall serve for you as a sign on your hand and as a reminder on your forehead, so that the teaching of the Lord may be on your lips; for with a strong hand the Lord brought you out of Egypt.  (Exodus 13:9) They were just two adolescent boys entering the boarding area for our…

  • Looking for Crosses

    EMAIL DEVOTIONAL PEntecost 3 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  (1 Corinthians 1:18) I spoke about the image of the “cross” with our kiddos today  in this morning’s children’s sermons.  We looked for crosses in the sanctuary,…