Revitalize Your Church

Reflecting on the old Thanksgiving hymn, For the Beauty of the Earth   , I am truly grateful. . .  1) For the Beauty of the Earth Those of us living near the beautiful South Carolina mountains have a front row seat to the grandeur of God's creation.   2) For the Wonder of Each Hour Our days, hours and moments are precious.  I am grateful for each one. 3) For Thy Church  In worship (holy hands above) and service (pure sacrifice of love). . . I am grateful for my brothers and sisters in Christ. 4) For the Joy of Human Love    Brother, sister, parent, child --  I am thankful for each member of my beautiful family. 5) For Thyself – Best Gift Divine.  God has been my source of strength and comfort. I find that fellowship with Him is sweeter as the years go by. In my daily quiet time, He gives me the spiritual motivation and strength to face whatever comes throughout the day.

C. S. Lewis connected worship with wellbeing when he wrote: The obvious fact about praise—whether of God or anything—strangely escaped me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honour. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise unless …shyness or the fear of boring others is deliberately brought in to check it.  The world rings with praise—lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favourite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favourite game – praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians or scholars. I had not noticed how the humblest, and at the same time most balanced and capacious, minds, praised most, while the cranks, misfits, and malcontents praised least...Except where intolerably adverse circumstances interfere, praise almost seems to b...

To demonstrate chiastic structure in Hebrew poetry (ABCCBA) for my Old Testament Survey class, I created the following chiasmus: Social media ranting (A) Wastes time, (B) Makes enemies. (C) To make friends, (C) And redeem time, (B) Post social media blessings (A)

"Why does the Torah tell us to place the words upon your hearts?  Why doesn't it tell us to place them in our hearts?," a student asked the rabbi. The rabbi replied, "It is because our hearts are closed, and we cannot place the sacred words in our hearts.  So, we place them on top of our hearts.  And they stay there until, one day, our hearts are broken and the words fall in."

In his recent book about the aging process,  On the Brink of Everything , Parker Palmer, the poetic educator from University of Wisconsin, recounts the following challenge he gave to a group of young people half his age: "I feel like I am standing partway down the curvature of the earth, while you're close to the top of that curve looking at a horizon I can't see. I need to know what you're seeing, because whatever's on that horizon is coming at me as well.  Please let me know what it is -- and when you do, speak loudly and clearly so I can hear what you're saying!"

For all the saints who from their labors rest, who thee by faith before the world confessed, thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest. Alleluia! Alleluia! Thou wast their rock, their fortress, and their might; thou, Lord, their captain in the well-fought fight; thou, in the darkness drear, their one true light. Alleluia! Alleluia!  O may thy soldiers, faithful, true, and bold, fight as the saints who nobly fought of old, and win with them the victor's crown of gold. Alleluia! Alleluia!  O blest communion, fellowship divine, we feebly struggle, they in glory shine; yet all are one in thee, for all are thine. Alleluia! Alleluia!  And when the fight is fierce, the warfare long, steals on the ear the distant triumph song, and hearts are brave again, and arms are strong. Alleluia! Alleluia! The golden evening brightens in the west; soon, soon to faithful warrior cometh rest; sweet is the calm of paradise the blest. Alleluia! Alleluia! But lo! there b...