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Dose of the Ghost – Spiritwalking, Pursuing Peace, part 7 of 9 [episode]


 
This is part seven in a nine part series on praying to the Holy Spirit. To access the entire series click the link below.

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE ENTIRE SERIES
 

Verse:

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. Romans 8:5-6.
 

Meditation:

How you live is a by-product of what you think. We are reminded of this truth in today’s scripture and I

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Fleeting life and the unseen church

Volunteers serving at St. Paul's Chapel following 911 attacks

 
Ecclesiastes makes us mindful of the rapid passage of life.  I was tangibly reminded of this yesterday when I visited ground zero where the World Trade Center once stood.  Even now nearly 8 years later, the sound of bulldozers and dust fill the air as the ground is prepared for a memorial site.  Visitors continue to flock by the dozens.  There is hushed grief as people relive the memory of that day and viscerally feel the loss of life in the many quotes captured on picture boards lining the inside of St. Paul’s Chapel, an episcopal church immediately

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A Patience Story

I visited someone’s blog whom I met recently. Unfortunately, I met them because I was officiating their mother’s funeral. While it was a sad way to make someone’s acquaintance; nevertheless, I feel blessed to have met this person and their family. I feel blessed for a moment to have vicariously met her mother.

Moments, like these, moments of remembering loved one’s with a family, give pastors an opportunity to regularly reflect on the fragile and fleeting nature of life. It is a mixed blessing, but undoubtably a blessing. This blessing that comes with watching life pass

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Adopt a Shut-In

Ash Wednesday is just two weeks away now. Tonight, our church launched a new discipline for people to adopt during Lent that I am very excited about.  We have 17 members who are homebound or in nursing homes.  Our Evangelism Committee asked people to consider adopting one or more of these members during the six weeks of Lent.  We have a very distinct mission for our adopters.

At the beginning of Lent we are giving each family in the church a decorative handmade wooden table cross that is about 12 inches tall with a devotional guide.  Each week during Lent we will give out a symbol to add to the cross.

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Being Prodigal

Most of us know the story of the prodigal son.  A young man, probably full of late adolescent angst or early twenty know-it-all syndrome, tells his daddy.  “I can’t wait until your dead to get my money.  Give it to me now.”  Forgive me for the tremendous paraphrasing but you  get the idea.  Dad gives him the money.  The young man then heads out on his own.  He squanders his money and finds himself yearning to go home.  He realizes that even life as a servant at home would be better than the life he has made for himself.  When he comes home his dad is exuberantly overjoyed.  Dad kills the

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Oh brother, WHO art thou?

oldskates

“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope, to Timothy my loyal child in the faith: grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.”

So begins the first letter of Paul to Timothy.  The words “my loyal child in the faith” leap out at me.  Paul had adopted Timothy spiritually.  He had taken upon himself a commitment to Timothy as if he were Paul’s own child.  He felt a commitment to pray for him, instruct him and hold him accountable.  How many Timothy’s do you have in your life?  I am asking myself the same question.

Many churches are

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