love

It is about time for a disclaimer. Most of my family’s story is oral history. I have tried to get at least two accounts of incidents. Things I could not confirm by a second witness I regard as lore and have not included it. Besides, could you make some of this stuff up?

My Grandfather, Hiram, is the only Grandparent I met. I saw him twice. The first time he didn’t acknowledge me; the second time he looked at me and said, “Who the h*ll are you?” Daddy proudly claimed me as his son. To which Hiram said, “Just so long as he isn’t mine.” Hiram died in 1965.

If you find yourself trudging through the Christian Life out of a sense of duty or morality, without love and joy, something's wrong. It's not just a simple matter of "something might be missing," this should be a matter of alarm for you. If Christianity is rules and duty and morals and obligations for you, you may very well have missed the boat from the beginning. The Christian Life is Life More Abundant, overflowing, a joyous celebration. It might be time to check your pulse.

Five times, I've almost skipped over this short discussion, and just made #42 out of the next. Five times I've been brought back to the fact that a disciple needs to hear this... needs to know this can happen. Sometimes, some people are going to just stop loving you. Sometimes it's going to be because you've become unlovely, and we have to face that fact, but sometimes it's because they can't accept that you're right and they're wrong. Always, it hurts.

We seem to get a lot of feedback condemning the Church or condemning the people that go to church, or condemning the reasons people go to church, or just condemning people because "those people" [blah, blah, blah].

Well, I'm tired of it! Listen up, people! "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." If you've got a problem with that.... you've got a problem

It stinks to be wrong. We were planning on publishing our Christmas edition this week, but we felt like it was more important to correct our errors from last week. (We'll publish the Christmas edition next Tuesday, instead. Maybe the lingering effects of Christmas will help you enjoy it.)